Ielts Reading essentials

1. To improve your performance in the Reading test you need to practise reading a variety of English texts. This will help you develop the ability to read quickly as is required under test conditions.

2. The texts included in the Reading test always contain the information you need to answer the question. You won’t have to use your own knowledge of a topic.

Every reading test has this type of task.

How do you “attack” this question type? First learn the rule:

 If the statement clearly appears in the text – it is True

 If the text clearly says the opposite of the statement – it is False

 If you didn’t find the statement to be either True or False – it is Not Given

For example:
“Smoking is dangerous and can lead to cancer” – T, F, NG

1) If the text clearly says that “smoking is dangerous and leads to cancer” then the answer is T.

2) If the text says that “No research showed evidence that smoking is dangerous and leads to cancer” then the answer is F.

3) If the text says “The research included smokers of both genders of ages 30 to 45″ and nothing else about smoking – your answer is NG.

Don’t make these mistakes:

 Don’t assume anything based on your knowledge and experience, read the text! It is the oldest trick in the book and they use it a lot in IELTS exams.

 Don’t “overthink” your answer – you could start building long logical sequences that will lead you to the wrong answer

How to make the most of your Reading test:

· Look out for the title, headings and any special features such as capital letters, underlining, italics, figures, graphs and tables

· Make sure that you understand the questions and follow instructions carefully

· Pay attention to timing; do not spend too long on one passage or question

· Do not try and read every word; remember, you are reading for a purpose

· If you do not know the answer to a question, attempt it but do not waste time; move quickly onto the next one

· Do not panic if you do not know anything about the subject of the text; all the answers can be found in the text

· The word(s) you use must be taken from the Reading text; you must not change the form of the word(s) in the text

· Do not worry if there is a word that you do not understand – you may not need to use it

· Check your spelling

· Be careful to use singular and plural correctly

· Focus precisely on what you are asked to do in ‘completion’ type questions

· If the question asks you to complete the note ‘in the…’ and the correct answer is ‘evening’, just use ‘evening’ as your answer; note that ‘in the evening’ would be incorrect

· Pay attention to the word limit; for example, if you are asked to complete a sentence using no more than two words, if the correct answer is ‘silk shirt’, the answer ‘shirt made of silk’ would be incorrect

· Attempt all questions; there are no penalties for incorrect answers, so you have nothing to lose

· Check your answers

Videos for more advice

https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-your-test/tips-candidates#selectedVideo=4

https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=4PDgVEhfKso