Academic Word List tests

Here are four tests of the words in the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000). The authors of the tests have kindly agreed to make them freely available for teachers, students and researchers to use. There is no need to seek permission to use the tests for non-commercial purposes.

Meaning recognition tests

These two tests were designed and trialled by Andrea Flavel and revised by Paul Nation to assess your ability to recognise the meaning of words in the AWL.

• Test A (PDF, 82KB)
• Test B (PDF, 91KB)
• Answers (PDF, 84KB)

Tests of deeper knowledge

John Read created two tests to assess how well you know words from the AWL when you see them with related words and in a reading passage.

• Word association test (Word, 39KB)
• Answers to word association test (Word, 37KB)
• Context test (Word, 42KB)
• Answers to context test (Word, 45KB)