How to approach the IELTS reading test

Visit http://www.ieltsforfree.com to take a free IELTS practice test! This is one of the 350+ videos that are used in our online course. Each video is followed by practice questions and examples, building your skills in all the areas needed for IELTS.

Go to http://www.ieltstestonline.com/3/index.html for more information and to try the free IELTS practice test.

NARRATION:

To improve the speed at which you can complete an IELTS reading test, it is important that you have a clear plan about how you are going to approach the test. The skills you need to effectively answer the questions have just been mentioned - skimming, scanning and reading for detail. However, how you use these skills will determine how effective they are. When the test begins, you should first look at the title of the reading passage if it has one, and any illustrations that may be given. These may give you an indication of what the passage is about. Next, skim the question types - you are not aiming for a 100% understanding of everything, just enough to know what type of questions you will need to answer. Third, skim the reading passage. Again, you are not looking to understand the entire passage - just enough to answer the question 'what is it about?'. Then you go back to the questions, use the skills we will present in this course for each particular question type and then scan for the answers using keywords, synonyms or rephrases. Once you have found the relevant section of the passage, you then need to read for detail to confirm your answer. The only exception to this rule is headings questions, where you should skim each paragraph a second time. This will be explained in more detail in the Headings lesson. It is very important that between now and your test, you practice using this approach so that it becomes natural. You will find that with practice, you will be able to complete the reading test in less time.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ielts
• reading
• test
• approach

[ilsnz]

Hi Joey15545,

Best of luck on the 29th!

Patrick

[BECKSPARANOID]

I have a question, how much time should be used for the 3rd step, skimming the reading passage.

I usually spend about 5 mins.

[ilsnz]

@BECKSPARANOID

That depends on the text itself, but 5 minutes is perhaps a little too long for skimming. Try to reduce that to about three minutes if possible. We have a speed reading lesson on our website that may help.

All the best,

Patrick

[FreeEnglishOnline]

@CathyNicer4 'Skimming' means to quickly look over a piece of writing trying to get the main idea, not focusing so much on the specfic details.

Hope that helps!

Patrick

[FreeEnglishOnline]

@mrqayoomi Great - glad you found it useful!

[mrqayoomi]

good helpful



[CathyNicer4]

What is the meaning of "skim"?

[zain4444]

@ilsnz

???

[d117dacesaria]

in my humble opinion the hardest step in ielts test is reading, because sometime there are a lot of word that i don't understand about its meaning , and sometime i felt borring because too long and able make me borring... hihihi.i wish i am able obatain a good score in ielts test this saturday (on 15 may'10) . fiuhhhhhh