Book excerpt: The Functional Reading Test is a standardised multiple-choice group test of reading comprehension. It assesses students' understanding of a wide cross-section of texts and genres, ranging from material and contexts which will be familiar to students, to less familiar, but potentially significant, texts reflecting the world of work and early adulthood. Trialled and standardised on almost 4000 secondary school students, the test provides norms as standardised scores, National Curriculum levels and Functional Skills Standards, from Entry 2 to above Level 2. It is especially useful for screening students who, at 13 years of age, have made only limited progress in reading, as it differentiates very precisely amongst below-average readers in the 13-16+ age range. The parallel forms A and B allow the progress of such students to be monitored and evaluated very accurately. The Functional Reading Test is matched to the QCA's Functional Skills Standards for reading, but is equally suitable for use as a free-standing measure of reading attainment, providing a robust global measure of reading comprehension of an essentially functional nature.