Day 5 — Module 1: Complete the Words (the Routing Module)
Phase I · Reading · Day 5 (Reading Day 2 of 3) · ⏱ ~2 hours
📍 You are here: Day 4 – Reading Orientation → Day 5 – Module 1 (Complete the Words) → Day 6 – Module 2 (Daily Life + Academic Passage)
Today is the highest-leverage day of the whole Reading unit. Complete the Words is the routing task — do well and you unlock the hard Module 2 and a Band 5–6 ceiling.
⚠️ Why this day matters most: about 8 mistakes total across Module 1 + Module 2 caps your Reading band at 4. This skill is where you protect your score. Drill it hard.
🎯 Today's goal: Know your Reading weak points, learn the word-family skill, and drill Complete the Words to 90%+ accuracy.
✅ You're done when: you've completed 3 C-Test paragraphs at 90%+, classified your misses, and logged 10 new words.
⏰ Step 1 — Daily Warm-Up: Complete the Words
The routing module rewards knowing exact word forms. Type the rest of each word.
👉 Open the Warm-Up Exercise
10 missing words · auto-graded · aim for under 90 seconds․ Auto-graded.
🎥 Step 2 — Learn the strategy & spot your weak points
Watch each video, then read the PDF it introduces. Pick one weak area to focus on — working on two or more at once is too hard and less effective.
- 🎥 Reading Challenges & Tips — video
- 📄 Reading — Challenges & Tips PDF
- 🎥 Progress Checklist — video
- 📄 Reading — Practice Checklist PDF (use after every drill, today and tomorrow)
🎯 Step 3 — Intensive C-Test drill · ~45 min
Target: 3 paragraphs · 90%+ accuracy · ~90 seconds each
- 🎮 C-Test Set 1 — multiple paragraphs (free, no signup)
- 🎮 Duolingo-style C-Test items (free)
💡 After each paragraph, classify your misses: grammar (singular/plural, tense), context (didn't read enough around the blank), or morphology (unfamiliar suffix). That tells you exactly what to drill next.
📒 Step 4 — Build your vocabulary · ~10 min
Add 10 new academic words to your notebook — and review yesterday's 10 first.
📄 Academic Word List (570 words)
➕ Extra (optional): for each new word, note its forms with Cambridge Dictionary — that's exactly what Complete the Words tests.
💡 Pro Tips
- Build word families daily. See "develop—" → instantly think development, developer, developing, undeveloped, redevelopment.
- Context first. Read the whole paragraph before typing a single letter — the sentence after a blank often hides the clue.
- Know the meaning but not the form? That's the #1 trap (writing "analysis" when context needs "analytical"). Drill forms, not just meanings.
📁 Portfolio Entry — log Day 5
- 📅 Date
- ✅ Steps completed (Y/N for each)
- ⏱️ Total time spent today
- 📊 Warm-up score: ___ / 12
- 🎯 Complete the Words avg accuracy across 3 paragraphs: ___
- 🎯 My most common miss type (grammar / context / morphology): ___
- 🎯 Confidence today (1.0–6.0)
- 🏆 One Win + 🤔 One Challenge
➡️ Next: Day 6 — Module 2: Read in Daily Life + Academic Passage