TEN TIPS FOR 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 complicated texts. You need to develop very
good reading skills to get a 6.5. Band Score or higher and have a range of strategies
prepared in order to tackle it. Here are some tips:

Read Academic Texts

Read in your free time! The IELTS texts are “general academic texts”. This means they are taken
from sources such as textbooks and specialist magazines and journals. 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 types of language and structure used when you meet them in the exam.
Three typical sources for IELTS texts are (in order of difficulty – easiest first) the National
Geographic, the New Scientist and the Economist. You can get these magazines in most newsagents.

Focus

Focus on the text first, the questions second! A good understanding of the text helps you answer the
questions more efficiently and effectively.

Categorise

IELTS exam writers select a range of specific types of texts. Learning to recognise the type of text
you are reading can help you predict its structure and therefore understand it more quickly. There
are four types of IELTS texts a) analytic texts, which discuss the reasons why something happened
or make recommendations or explain a concept b) descriptive texts, which describe a situation,
explain how something is done or categorise something c) discursive texts, in which different
opinions are expressed about an issue and d) narrative texts, which explain a chronological
sequence of events.

Skim

Develop your ability to skim. Skimming is reading quickly by skipping over unimportant words like
prepositions and ignoring difficult words that you don’t need to understand. Do this to get a general
idea about a text or a paragraph or to intensively search for the answer to a question.

Scan

Learn to scan. Scanning is what you do when you look for a price in an advertising text or a name in
a telephone book. When 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 left, from top to bottom or bottom to top.
Do this to find the location of answers in the texts looking out for easy to spot words like numbers,
dates and words beginning with capital letters such as place names.

Structure

Learn to recognise paragraph structure. This often involves spotting the relationship between the
main ideas and supporting ideas in a paragraph. Paragraphs are most frequently descending, i.e.
they begin with the main idea somewhere near the start and develop from there, although some,
frequently the first and last paragraphs of a text, are ascending – the main idea is located towards
the end. This can be particularly helpful when matching headings to paragraphs.

Overview

Get an overview of a text before dealing with the questions. Do this by reading the title and subtitle
as well as focusing on the beginnings and ends (but not JUST the first and last sentences) of
paragraphs. This helps you process the information in a text (and thereby answer the questions)
more quickly.

Parallel Phrases

Learn to spot parallel phrases. These are different ways of expressing the same thing, such as, “I
like to ski” and “skiing is enjoyable”. Many questions, e.g. YES NO NOT GIVEN questions and gap
fills, test your ability to match up a similar phrase in the task with its equivalent in the text.

Don't Panic

Don’t panic when you encounter an unknown or difficult word. IELTS texts are packed with highly
specialised vocabulary. Skip over difficult words which are not essential for your understanding of
the text. For words you do need to understand, practise 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.

Manage Your Time

Time manage in the exam. Most IELTS candidates run out of time in the third reading section. Each
text should take you roughly 20 minutes (the examiners will tell you after 20 minutes have passed).
Never spend too long on a single question – guess the answer or leave it to return to later. Also if
you feel you are running out of time, tackle questions like gap-fills before doing “easy to guess”
tasks like YES NO NOT GIVEN questions. Don’t forget you also have to have all your answers on your
mark sheet by the end of the test. A good tip is to write them on the mark sheet in pencil as you go,
correcting where necessary at the end.
5 steps to improve your IELTS Reading skills
Before you start, you’ll need:

 an IELTS reading passage (with answer key!)

 a pen or pencil
 a timer or stopwatch
 a highlighter
 a dictionary (for later)
 5 – 10 notecards or pieces of paper (about 7×12 cm)

Step 1: Find an IELTS reading passage for practice

Step 2: Time yourself for 20 minutes while you answer the questions

Step 3: Check your answers

Step 4: Make word cards for important new words

The high level of vocabulary is what makes reading so difficult for most people.
So it’s important that you add new words to your vocabulary every time you
practice reading for the IELTS. This is the best way to improve your ability
in every section of the exam, including Reading.

Go back to the passage. Highlight the words that you don’t know.

Write each word on a notecard. These are your word cards. On the back of each
word card, write a definition, translation, or sentence using the word. If you’ve
never done this before, check out this great link on how to make a word card.

Step 5: Repeat!

Altogether, this should take you about 1 hour per passage. The key to success in
anything is consistency. Spend one hour practicing like this every day. After one
week, you’ll have practiced nearly 90 – 100 questions and learned at least 35
new words! Continue to do this until you feel ready for the IELTS exam.
Academic writing task 1

a. Understanding the task

b. Understanding charts, tables, and graphs
c. Identifying relevant information
d. Improving your task achievement score

Comparing and contrasting graphs and tables

a. Avoiding repetition
b. Comparing and contrasting data
c. Describing changes in numbers
d. Grammatical range and accuracy
e. Describing numbers abd figures accurately

Describing diagrams

a. Understanding a diagram
b. Describing a process
c. Improving coherence and cohesion
d. Understanding lexical resources
e. Being accurate

Describing maps

a. Describing a map
b. Describing changes in a place
c. Being accurate

General writing letter

a. Understanding the task

b. Organizing your response
c. Improving your score
d. Checking and correcting
Task 2- Getting ready to write-

a. Understanding the task

b. Planning and organizing your ideas
c. Improving your task response score
d. Writing an introduction

Expressing your ideas clearly

a. Linking your ideas

b. Being accurate with vocabulary
c. Avoiding repetition
d. Using the correct style
e. Expressing a personal view
f. Reaching a conclusion

Checking and correcting

a. Developing your ideas clearly

b. Grammatical accuracy
c. Assessing your language level
d. Checking and correcting
e. Using correct punctuation

f.