CEnT-S exam syllabus

Covered: numbers and percentages; algebra, including linear and quadratic equations and inequalities; analytic geometry, covering the line, the circle, distance and midpoint; functions and the transformations of their graphs; exponentials and logarithms; combinatorics and probability; and descriptive statistics, meaning mean, median, mode and frequency distributions.

Not covered: trigonometry, differentiation and integration. Sample papers from the predecessor English TOLC-I did include trigonometry, so material written for that test overshoots here.

This is not reading comprehension. It has three strands: logic, covering conditionals, necessary and sufficient conditions, negation of quantifiers and counterexamples; data interpretation from tables, bar charts, line graphs, pie charts and histograms; and problem solving, meaning ratio, proportion, percentage and translating a written statement into an equation.

Most of the questions in this section carry a chart or a table, so the skill being tested is reading a figure accurately under time pressure as much as reasoning about it.

Covered: biological macromolecules; the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells; organelles and their functions; the features specific to plant cells; the cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis; Mendelian inheritance; photosynthesis and the flow of energy through an ecosystem; food chains and trophic levels; biotic interactions such as parasitism, mutualism and predation; and tissues and the major organ systems.

The section leans on recognition and on matching structure to function. Calculation appears rarely, mostly in Mendelian ratios and energy transfer.

The broadest section, and the one candidates find hardest. Covered: stoichiometry and the limiting reagent; units of concentration and dilution; pH, strong and weak acids, buffers and the hydrolysis of salts; balancing redox equations; VSEPR and hybridisation; periodic trends; the ideal gas equation and partial pressures; enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy; and organic nomenclature.

The syllabus also carries an applied strand that is easy to overlook: reading product labels, acid rain, the greenhouse effect, photochemical smog and laboratory safety.

No periodic table is supplied, so any relative atomic mass a question needs is printed in the question.

Five questions across five areas, which in practice means roughly one from each: measurement and vectors; kinematics; dynamics, work and energy; fluids and thermodynamics; and electromagnetism.

With two minutes a question and no formula sheet, these are single-step applications rather than multi-stage problems. The formulas have to be memorised.