Top Ten Tips for IELTS Reading

Everyone knows the IELTS reading exam is tough. You a very short amount of time to answer a large
number of questions on very comlicated texts. You need to develo very good reading skills to get a
!.". #and Score or higher and have a range of strategies reared in order to tackle it. $ere are some
tis%
Read Academic Texts% &ead in your free time' The IELTS texts are (general academic texts). This
means they are taken from sources such as textbooks and secialist maga*ines and +ournals. If you are
not familiar with reading these kinds of texts in English it is essential that you start reading them in your
free time so that you are used to the tyes of language and structure used when you meet them in the
exam. Three tyical sources for IELTS texts are ,in order of difficulty - easiest first. the /ational
0eograhic1 the /ew Scientist and the Economist. You can get these maga*ines in most newsagents.
Focus: 2ocus on the text first1 the questions second' 3 good understanding of the text hels you answer
the questions more efficiently and effectively.
Categorise: IELTS exam writers select a range of secific tyes of texts. Learning to recognise the tye
of text you are reading can hel you redict its structure and therefore understand it more quickly. There
are four tyes of IELTS texts
a. 3nalytic texts1 which discuss the reasons why something haened or make recommendations or
exlain a concet
b. 4escritive texts1 which describe a situation1 exlain how something is done or categorise something
c. 4iscursive texts1 in which different oinions are exressed about an issue
d. /arrative texts1 which exlain a chronological sequence of events.
Skim: 4evelo your ability to skim. Skimming is reading quickly by skiing over unimortant words like
reositions and ignoring difficult words that you don5t need to understand. 4o this to get a general idea
about a text or a aragrah or to intensively search for the answer to a question.
Scan: Learn to scan. Scanning is what you do when you look for a rice in an advertising text or a name
in a telehone book. 6hen you scan you do not actually need to read the text but move your eyes
quickly over it. You can scan from left to right or right to left1 from to to bottom or bottom to to. 4o this
to find the location of answers in the texts looking out for easy to sot words like numbers1 dates and
words beginning with caital letters such as lace names.
Structure: Learn to recognise aragrah structure. This often involves sotting the relationshi between
the main ideas and suorting ideas in a aragrah. 7aragrahs are most frequently descending1 i.e.
they begin with the main idea somewhere near the start and develo from there1 although some1
frequently the first and last aragrahs of a text1 are ascending - the main idea is located towards the
end. This can be articularly helful when matching headings to aragrahs.
Overview: 0et an overview of a text before dealing with the questions. 4o this by reading the title and
subtitle as well as focusing on the beginnings and ends ,but not 89ST the first and last sentences. of
aragrahs. This hels you rocess the information in a text ,and thereby answer the questions. more
quickly.
ara!!e! "rases: Learn to sot arallel hrases. These are different ways of exressing the same
thing1 such as1 (I like to ski) and (skiing is en+oyable). :any questions1 e.g. YES /; /;T 0I<E/
questions and ga fills1 test your ability to match u a similar hrase in the task with its equivalent in the
text.
#on$t anic: 4on5t anic when you encounter an unknown or difficult word. IELTS texts are acked with
highly secialised vocabulary. Ski over difficult words which are not essential for your understanding of
the text. 2or words you do need to understand1 ractise trying to guess their meaning using the overall
context of the text and sentence as well as the form of the word - e.g. is it a noun or verb.
%anage &our Time: Time manage in the exam. :ost IELTS candidates run out of time in the third
reading section. Each text should take you roughly => minutes ,the examiners will tell you after =>
minutes have assed.. /ever send too long on a single question - guess the answer or leave it to
return to later. 3lso if you feel you are running out of time1 tackle questions like ga?fills before doing
(easy to guess) tasks like YES /; /;T 0I<E/ questions. 4on5t forget you also have to have all your
answers on your mark sheet by the end of the test. 3 good ti is to write them on the mark sheet in
encil as you go1 correcting where necessary at the end.