Reading & Writing Success: Starters, Movers and Flyers

Philo and Sophia guide the youngest learners through the Cambridge English Young Learners (YLE) Reading and Writing paper.

Philo

Sophia, before we built guides for the grown-up exams, I wondered — what comes before A2 Key? Some of our students are far too young for essays and gapped texts.

Sophia

That's exactly what the Young Learners English tests are for, Philo. There are three of them — Starters, Movers, and Flyers — and they carry a child gently from their very first words in English up to the doorstep of A2 Key. Nobody passes or fails. Instead, each part of the test is awarded up to five little shields, like this: ★★★★★

Philo

Shields instead of marks — that already sounds friendlier. Where does each one sit?

Sophia

Starters is Pre-A1 — a child's very first certificate. Movers is A1. And Flyers is A2, right at the border of A2 Key itself. All three share the same shape: a Listening paper, a Reading and Writing paper, and a Speaking test. Choose your tab below and let's look at Reading and Writing for each one.

StartersPre-A1 MoversA1 FlyersA2

Reading and Writing: about 20 minutes 5 parts · 25 questions Scored out of 5 shields, not pass/fail

Part 1Look at a picture and its labels — tick the true sentences, cross the false ones

Part 2Look at a picture and answer Yes or No to short sentences about it

Part 3Unscramble the jumbled letters of a word, matched to a picture

Part 4Choose the right word from a box to complete a short text

Part 5Look at a three-picture story and write one word to answer each question

1 True or False Sentences

A picture is shown with several objects or people labelled by name. Underneath, five sentences describe the picture — some correctly, some not. The child ticks the box for a true sentence and puts a cross for a false one.

Example

Picture shows a cat labelled "Sam" sitting under a table labelled "the table."
Sentence: "Sam is on the table." → Cross (Sam is under it, not on it).

Tip for grown-ups helping at home: Practise the little words that change meaning completely — on/under, in/next to, big/small. These prepositions and opposites are exactly what Part 1 tests.

2 Yes or No

A single, busier picture is shown once, and five short sentences follow. The child decides whether each sentence is true of the picture and writes Yes or No.

Strategy: Encourage the child to find the exact object or person named in the sentence in the picture first, then check the detail (colour, number, action) before deciding.

3 Jumbled Letters

Five small pictures are shown, each with its word spelled incorrectly — the letters are jumbled up. The child writes the word correctly, using the picture as the clue to what the word should be.

Example

Picture of an apple, letters shown as: p p l a e → the child writes apple.

Tip: This part rewards children who already recognise a word's shape by sight, so regular flashcard practice with simple, high-frequency nouns pays off directly here.

4 Choose and Complete

A short, simple factual text has five gaps. A box above the text offers a small set of words, and the child chooses the correct one for each gap and copies it in.

Strategy: Read the whole sentence around the gap first, not just up to it — the word that comes after the gap often gives the clue needed to choose correctly.

5 Picture Story

Three pictures tell a simple story in sequence. Five questions ask about what is happening, and the child answers each with a single word.

Tip: Look at all three pictures together before answering any question — later pictures often explain what an earlier one only hints at.

Reading and Writing: 30 minutes 6 parts · 35 questions Scored out of 5 shields, not pass/fail

Part 1Match short definitions to the correct word from a list of pictures

Part 2Complete a short conversation by choosing the correct reply

Part 3Fill gaps in a text using picture and word clues

Part 4Choose the correct answer and copy the word into a gap

Part 5Complete sentences about a story, using the picture for clues

Part 6Write full sentences describing a picture

1 Match the Definition

A set of labelled pictures is given alongside short definitions ("This is an animal that says moo"). The child matches each definition to the correct picture and writes the word.

Tip: Definitions describe by category and detail together (an animal that..., a place where..., a thing you use to...) — practising these sentence patterns helps children recognise the pattern quickly in the test.

2 Complete the Conversation

A short dialogue between two people has some lines missing. The child chooses the best reply for each gap from a set of options, so that the conversation makes sense from start to finish.

Strategy: Read the whole conversation once before choosing any answer — a reply often only makes sense once you know what is said afterwards, not just before.

3 Gap Fill with Picture Clues

A short text has gaps, supported by pictures or a small word list, and the child fills each gap with the correct word.

Tip: Encourage sounding out unfamiliar words rather than guessing purely from the picture — Movers texts often need a specific word form, not just any related word.

4 Choose and Copy

Similar to Starters Part 4 but a little harder: for each gap in a short text, the child decides which of the given options is correct and copies that exact word into the gap.

Strategy: Careful copying matters here — a right answer chosen but miscopied (wrong spelling) will not be marked correct, so slow, careful handwriting is worth the extra few seconds.

5 Story Sentences

A story is told through a picture (or short picture sequence), and the child completes sentences about it, filling in missing words based on what they can see and infer.

Tip: These sentences often use time words (first, then, after that) — practising simple sequencing language at home builds the vocabulary this part expects.

6 Write About the Picture

The child looks at a picture and writes full, simple sentences describing what they see — people, objects, actions, and their relationships to one another.

Strategy: Encourage short, correct sentences over long, ambitious ones. "The boy is running" scores more reliably than an over-complicated sentence with a grammar slip.

Reading and Writing: 40 minutes 7 parts · 44 questions Scored out of 5 shields, not pass/fail

Part 1Match ten definitions to words from a list of fifteen

Part 2Complete a conversation, choosing replies from options A–H

Part 3Fill gaps in a text and choose its best title

Part 4Choose the correct word from three options to complete gaps

Part 5Complete sentences about a story using one to four words

Part 6Fill five gaps in a letter or diary entry with no word list given

Part 7Write a short story based on three pictures

1 Match the Definition

Fifteen words are listed, and ten short definitions are given. The child matches each definition to its word — five words in the list are not used at all, adding a genuine element of choice and elimination.

Strategy: Match the confident ones first, crossing words off the list as they're used — this narrows the remaining choices for the trickier definitions.

2 Complete the Conversation

A longer conversation has gaps, and the child chooses the best reply for each from eight lettered options (A–H) — again, with extra options that are never used.

Tip: Watch for question-and-answer pairing — a gap that follows a question almost always needs an answer that responds directly to it, not a general statement.

3 Gap Fill and Title

A short text has six gaps, and after filling them, the child also chooses the best title for the whole text from three options — a small step up in requiring overall comprehension, not just sentence-level understanding.

Strategy: Choose the title last, only once every gap is filled and the text reads coherently as a whole.

4 Multiple-Choice Cloze

A text has ten gaps, each with three word options provided directly beneath. The child selects the one that correctly completes the sentence grammatically and in meaning.

Tip: All three options are often the same part of speech (three verbs, three nouns), so the choice usually rests on meaning and grammar together, not just word type.

5 Story Completion

A short story or set of facts is given, and the child completes seven sentences about it using one to four words each, drawing directly on details from the text.

Strategy: Answers should be copied exactly as they appear in the source text wherever possible, rather than paraphrased, since spelling and exact wording are checked.

6 Open Gap Fill

A letter or diary entry has five gaps, and — unlike earlier parts — no word list or options are given at all. The child must supply an appropriate word purely from context and their own vocabulary.

Tip: This is the first genuinely open writing task in the paper. Any grammatically correct word that fits the meaning is accepted, so encourage confidence over hesitation.

7 Picture Story Writing

Three pictures tell a story without any words. The child writes their own short story describing what happens across all three pictures, in their own words and sentences.

The biggest step up in the whole YLE suite.

This is the first fully free writing task a child meets in the Cambridge exams — no gaps, no word bank, no sentence starters. A simple, correct story of a few clear sentences using words like "first," "then," and "after that" scores well; it does not need to be long or elaborate.

This task is also the most direct rehearsal for the short story and note writing a child will meet two levels later in A2 Key.