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Top 5 Tips For IELTS Reading

The document provides tips and strategies for the IELTS Reading test. It explains that the test requires answering 40 questions in 60 minutes across 3 sections of increasing difficulty. It emphasizes timing is key, reading instructions carefully, not panicking if stuck on hard questions, and not needing to understand every word to answer questions correctly. Finally, it lists the different types of reading questions that may be asked and importance of practicing to improve reading skills.

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84 views5 pages

Top 5 Tips For IELTS Reading

The document provides tips and strategies for the IELTS Reading test. It explains that the test requires answering 40 questions in 60 minutes across 3 sections of increasing difficulty. It emphasizes timing is key, reading instructions carefully, not panicking if stuck on hard questions, and not needing to understand every word to answer questions correctly. Finally, it lists the different types of reading questions that may be asked and importance of practicing to improve reading skills.

Uploaded by

malexsastry
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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IELTS Reading

The IELTS Reading test requires you to answer 40 questions in 60 minutes, so you must be fully
prepared before you book your exam. In this video, I’ll show you exactly how to get the score
you need in IELTS Reading.

Top 5 Tips for IELTS Reading


1. Timing is key.

You will have just 1 hour to complete 40 questions, so you must use your time wisely. I advise
my students to try and get each section finished in 20 minutes. This will give you 16-17 minutes
to read and answer the questions and 3-4 minutes to transfer and check your answers. You’ll find
more help with time management here.

2. Read the instructions carefully.

Many strong candidates lose marks in IELTS Reading because they don’t read the instructions
properly. Pay close attention to the instructions you’re given to avoid losing easy marks.

3. Don’t panic.

Some of the questions will be easy and some will be extremely difficult. (I knew many IELTS
teachers who had to check the answers to some questions because they are so challenging!)

The wrong thing to do is spend a large amount of time on a hard question. If the answer does not
present itself, move on to the next one. You can always come back to the difficult questions later.

It’s important that you stay calm and keep your nerves under control. Accepting that you are
probably not going to get all of the questions correct might help you to control your nerves and
timing on test day!

4. It’s really a vocabulary test.

In many ways, IELTS Reading is more of a vocabulary test than a reading test. The reason is that
you need a wide range of vocabulary to understand the passages of text given to you. You must
also have an awareness of synonyms and paraphrasing if you wish to identify the information
required to answer the questions correctly.
5. Don’t expect to understand every word.

If you don’t understand a word in the test, you should look at the words and sentences around it
for clues as to its meaning. Alternatively, you can move on and forget about it.

Focus on the words that are related to the question and don’t worry about the words you don’t
understand.

For more help with improving your reading skills, click the image below to join my free
IELTS Reading challenge:

IELTS Reading Question Types


Click on any of the links below for a full step-by-step guide to answering each IELTS
Reading question type:

 Short Answer Questions

This post will help you answer short answer questions more effectively by looking at a sample
question, identifying common problems and giving you a strategy to use on exam day.

 Multiple Choice 

This article will help you answer multiple-choice questions more effectively. We look at
common problems and how to fix them.

 Summary Completion

In these kinds of questions, you will be given a summary of information from the text and there
will be some gaps in that summary.

 Matching Sentence Endings 

In this IELTS Reading question, you will be given a list of incomplete sentences with no endings
and another list with possible endings. Your job is to match the incomplete sentences with the
correct ending based on the reading text.

 Sentence Completion 
In this question type, you will be given a number of sentences with gaps in them and asked to
complete the sentences with words from the reading text. Check out this article to learn how to
do so strategically.

 True, False, Not Given 

‘True, False, Not Given’ questions requires you to identify if the information in a text is true or
not. You will be given a number of factual statements and you have to check in the text if they
are true or not. This is probably the most difficult question in the reading paper.

 Matching Headings Tips and Strategy

In the IELTS Reading test, you may be asked to match headings to sections of text. This type of
question tests your ability to understand the main idea of each paragraph.

 Labelling a Diagram 

In the IELTS Reading test, you might get a question that asks you to label a diagram. This post
will show you examples, look at common problems and provide you with a strategy for
answering these questions effectively.

 Matching Information to Paragraphs

In this kind of question, you are asked to match statements to paragraphs in the reading text. This
post will look at example question types and show you my step-by-step strategy for matching
information to paragraphs.

IELTS Reading Essential Information


In the IELTS Reading exam, you must answer 40 questions in 60 minutes. The test is also
divided into three sections of increasing difficulty.

There are two types of exam: Academic or General Training. Before you begin preparing, you
need to find out:

1. What score you need; and


2. Whether you need to take the General Training IELTS or Academic IELTS exam.

You can get this information by contacting the institute that requires your IELTS certificate.
What’s the Difference Between the Academic and General
Training Reading Test?
The types of question that you receive in the Academic exam are exactly the same as the
question types that you get in the General Training exam. However, the passages of text that you
must read are different.

General Training students will have to read a combination of long and short texts of both a
general and work-specific nature. In comparison, Academic students must interact with three
long texts of an academic nature.

IELTS Reading Time Management 


One of the most challenging parts of IELTS Reading is completing it within the time that you are
allocated.

Learn how to complete IELTS Reading in less than an hour by reading our blog post here, or
watch my video lesson here.

Reading Practice
It’s important that you use reliable materials when you practice IELTS Reading – this is the only
way of getting an accurate idea of your current ability. The post below will show you how to find
reading practice materials and improve your practice sessions from home:

IELTS Reading Practice

The links below will direct you to multiple reliable sources of IELTS Reading practice papers:

Cambridge Past Papers books

British Council

IELTS Essentials

IDP

IELTS Reading Lessons 


 The Secret to Getting a 9 on Your Reading Test 
 Top 10 Reading Tips 
 How to Improve Your Reading Skills
 How Jaswanth went from a Band 6.5 – 9 in IELTS Reading

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