Schonell Reading Test


The child should read the words left to right. When a word that gets a little difficult, ask the child to sound it out. If the child can't say what the word is, then go on to the next one.

The person supervising the test will give one mark for each word correctly pronounced - even if the reader self corrects. The supervisor will not suggest corrections. No prompting. No hurrying. If the reader mis-pronounces slightly as in postage with a short 'o', the first time, then ask for the word again, marking it correct if the reader has self corrected. Otherwise, do not ask for a word to be re-read.

If you do not give away the pronunciation of words that the reader does not know, then this same test may be used again at a later date to assess progress as a result of a teaching programme.

 
tree            little         milk           egg
book            school         sit            frog
playing         bun            flower         road
 
clock           train          light          picture
think           summer         people         something
dream           downstairs     biscuit        shepherd
 
thirsty         crowd          sandwich       beginning
postage         island         saucer         angel
ceiling         appeared       gnome          canary
 
attractive      imagine        nephew         gradually
smolder         applaud        disposal       nourished
diseased        university     orchestra      knowledge
 
audience        situated       physics        campaign
choir           intercede      fascinate      forfeit
siege           recent         plausible      prophecy
 
colonel         soloist        systematic     slovenly
classification  genuine        institution    pivot
conscience      heroic         pneumonia      preliminary
 
antique         susceptible    enigma         oblivion
scintillate     satirical      sabre          beguile
terrestrial     belligerent    adamant        sepulchre
 
statistics      miscellaneous  procrastinate  tyrannical
evangelical     grotesque      ineradicable   judicature
preferential    homonym        fictitious     rescind
 
metamorphosis   somnambulist   bibliography   idiosyncrasy

 

Reading age = ( (Number of words correct) / 10 ) + 5