IELTS Preparatory Tips: Reading Section

Table of Contents

The reading section of IELTS consists of three or sometimes four reading passages of increasing difficulty, and there is a total of 40 questions to answer. The IELTS Reading section 2021 is designed to assess the reading skills of the candidates. It is designed in such a way that it tests whether a candidate understands the main idea, recognizes the author’s opinion, and can analyze the same. In this article, we will give you IELTS Reading tips that will ensure high scores and help in improvising reading skills and techniques like scanning and skimming.

A variety of question types is used in order to test a wide range of reading skills. These include reading for gist, reading for main ideas, reading for detail, skimming, understanding logical argument, recognizing writers’ opinions, attitudes, and purpose.

Time Allotted: 60 minutes

Is the Reading section of both IELTS Academic and General are the same?

The Reading skills (to find specific information and identify opinions) required are the same for both the tests. The styles of questions like sentence completion and multiple-choice are also the same. However, the text will be different. In the Reading section of the IELTS Academic test, there will be three long academic texts.

Question Types – IELTS Reading Section

Question Types	Answer Strategies
Matching Information	Candidates are required to locate specific information within the sections.
Matching Headings	Candidates are required to recognise the main idea or theme of the text
Matching features	Here, you have to recognize opinions and the connections between the facts within the text
Matching Sentences	Here, you need to complete the sentence within a specified number of words. Look for the best conclusion from the passage.
Multiple Choice Questions	Here, one MCQ can be a Reading Comprehension and an answer based on the given question and one involves sentence completion with the best option to choose from
Identify the author’s views	Here, you have to confirm whether a set of statements agree with the information within the passage. Find the answer from the given passage. You have to select between true/false/not given or yes/no/not given
Diagram-Label Completion	The description will be there in the text. You will need to label the given diagrams
Flow-chart Completion, Tables	Here, you have to pay attention to the details provided. You also have to recognize the main ideas of the text
Short Answer Questions	Find information in the passage. Paraphrase vocabulary in questions and give an answer within the given word limit

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IELTS Reading Tips

These IELTS Reading Tips and Tricks for Band 9 will help you in preparing better for the IELTS Reading section.

Do not try to read each word in the IELTS Reading passages

Every time looking at a dictionary is not possible, so, you can look at the words and sentences around and try to get the meaning. It is not important to understand the meaning of every word, you can just have the gist of the sentence and go with it. No one is familiar with each and every word specially tough words.

Go through the questions first

This can be very helpful when it comes to scoring a good band score in the IELTS reading section. With a time constraint of 60 minutes, you have to solve 40 questions and solve 3 passages. Here, time is of great importance and you cannot have the bandwidth to read each and every line of the text. When you read the questions first, then you will have an idea of what to look for in the passage and this will ultimately save your time.

Skimming and scanning

One should be able to skim and scan passages to get a good score in the reading section of IELTS. Reading a passage and getting a general idea is skimming. You should be able to get the main idea of the passage and understand the key points. This will give you an edge to score more in the reading section.

Work on your vocabulary

This is a significant factor in improving your scores in the IELTS reading section. Learning a new word doesn’t mean that you have learned it, learning the usage of the word will be key here. Read articles from different genres, this will help you in learning new words and enhance your knowledge.

Answer all the questions

At last, a very important point to remember is that IELTS does not have negative marking, so, attempt as many questions as you can. Apart from the IELTS reading tips you also, need to go through the IELTS reading preparation tips and IELTS reading practice papers to get a fair idea about the actual questions you are going to face in the test. Also, you can go through the IELTS reading practice books to develop a deeper understanding and improve your reading skills.

Things to keep in mind

Pay attention to the grammar structure. You may see various types of grammar structures, but try to understand them all, they will be helpful for your writing. Most of us have limited vocabulary, but if you are weak at grammar, you don’t know what the text refers to. So because of this, you lose the main idea.
You must have known that skimming and scanning are two essential tools in reading. Both rely on an understanding of the main ideas. Therefore, if you can’t grasp the main ideas in a short time, you will lose time. This can be learned by reading various articles.
Another way to practice reading is speed reading. However, reading as quickly as possible is NOT the key. If you read so fast that you have to read again, there are no benefits gained from this practice. The key here is picking out the main ideas, and the next details. Besides understanding all the main points, you should try to remember as many details as you can.

Reading intensively is also important in the IELTS test, especially to understand tough questions. With some questions or particular sentences, you need to read and try to understand every single word. Especially with true/false/not given (or yes/no/not given) questions, a single word can change the whole meaning.

After finishing the reading practice test, you must check all the wrong answers, try to explain why you were wrong, and think of another way to answer those questions faster. You will gain the necessary experience by doing this before the real test.
In the IELTS exam, though you can mark and write on the question paper, you must enter your answers on the Reading Answer Sheet, and be aware that no extra time is given for transferring your answers from the test booklet to the Reading Answer Sheet.

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