IELTS Reading Success Strategies

There are four modules in IELTS Exam. The duration of IELTS reading modules is one hour long. The reading section includes passages taken from different magazines, books, newspapers and journals. No prior knowledge is required for any subject for preparation of IELTS reading test. The passage itself contains all the required answer of the question you need to give at the end. 

The reading section has range of question you need to be answer. These questions include sentence completion, multiple type choice, diagram label and flowchart completion, table completion and short answer types etc. The reading section for Academic type module is quite difficult than general type module and in this type of module the test taker may be require to identify the information and writers views or claims.

Reading Test Tips

Generally first paragraph contain the idea of the writer. So you will get the idea of the paragraph after reading the first paragraph. You will also find out the information structure and idea of the passage.

Preparing for the Reading Test

Prepare yourself for reading test and practice more and more by reading both general and academic IELTS materials. Underline and note unfamiliar words while reading text and find out the meaning in the dictionary. You can use Cambridge IELTS Grammar books to improve your vocabulary and try to learn these difficult words.

Read the paragraph carefully and try to recognize the meaning of words. You should be able to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word using the words and phrases around that word.

Practice each type of questions of reading section to familiarize yourself before the actual IELTS exam. The main technique of reading section is skim and scan. Skim and Scan are very important for retrieving required information quickly.

During the Test

First of all read the tile and heading of the passage to understand the general idea about the passage topic. The heading of the passage is very important to provide you information about structure of the passage.

Don’t waste your time by reading whole paragraph, look at the questions quickly and find out the required information of the questions in the passage through skim and scan skill.

Read the passage carefully and don’t read rapidly. Don’t waste your time on particular section, if you face difficulty to understand any part than simply skip that part. It is not necessary to memorize each and every detail of the passage because you just need the information which is important to answer the questions.

Try to answer the simplest questions at first while going to answer the questions, answer the easiest ones first. If you are not sure about any question and than simply skip that question and move on to the next. You can return back to those skip question once you answers other questions.

Read the passage within 20 minutes and don’t waste more time.