Dear all,
I attended the 24th Feb initial test, I thought the numerical test was difficult too.
As a British-born Hong Kong Chinese, I had no problems in the Grammar test nor in both listening tests. It was a lot easier than I had anticipated.
I read the previous comments, I think the 10 seconds reading time has been removed now due to the fact the test would have been too easy with the questions known. They must noticed it from the previous groups results.
Anyway, following on what holdmetight was saying. I disagree because I think English is far more important than Maths (at this stage anyway). Mathematical problems are always based on being able to identify the problem, implementing a quick method to solve the problem and make intelligent guesses to neglect wrong answers. It is a non-verbal based language, everyone can learn it fairly quickly.
On the other hand, English is not something we can learn instantly. It takes time to widen our range of vocabularies, to structure sentences with good use of grammar, to build up the confidence to communicate fluently.
May be I'm saying that because I have not done as well as I would have liked in the numerical test. But hopefully, you can see where my argument is coming from. What do you think caffy,flyer09,hmt,yvonne?