IELTS Reading Tips

 IELTS: Reading. Some Pointers.

International English Language Testing System or IELTS is currently one of the most relevant English language proficiency tests in the world. Especially in Asian countries an IELTS certification is required whenever someone chooses to study abroad. On the scale of different proficiency tests, IELTS is on basic difficulty but still sometimes the questions might be a bit tricky. For IELTS you will be marked on four areas: writing, reading, listening and speaking. From personal experience, the reading part is definitely where things can get a bit tough. For example, the questions might ask something that’s not in the text at all! But you have to get it from the context. There are several other ways to impede an examinee but fear not! Here are some things you can keep in mind while preparing for the test:

The reading part is the second part of IELTS. There’s one hour of completion time and three(sometimes four) sections with a total of forty questions. The questions will be of these types: multiple choice, true or false, matching, completion or summary, questions with short answers. It is advised to take no more than 20 minutes on each part. Once you,ve got the question, write down the answers directly onto the answer sheet. Here are some tips to help you prepare for the test:

Improve Your Vocabulary: You will need to enrich your vocabulary in order to have control over your understanding in the reading test. It’s okay to start small. Try learning at least 10 words per day, every day upto your test date. Try incorporating these words into your daily life so they become part of your regular vocabulary. Try writing the words down again and again so you don’t mess up the spelling.

Read more: Read through every text, newspaper, magazine, textbook you can get your hands on. This not only improves your reading speed but also allows you to see use of new words in different ways. 

Time Your Reading: Set a timer every time you read a text so you can measure how long it takes you to read something then try to improve on that time. Fast reading and comprehension are needed to get good grades on your reading test.

Take Quizzes: Take quizzes on general knowledge and other current events to check how much you know about what’s going on in the world at present. Chances are the questions or the passages might be on one of these current occurrences.

Take Practice Tests: Practice tests will let you see how much you’ve improved and what your projected score is. Many apps found on playstore under British Council contain practice tests that will grade you.

Now here are some things you might want to keep in mind during the test:

Skimming Through All the Questions: When you receive the question paper be sure to quickly read through the entire paper so you can mentally prepare yourself for the test.

Double check the passages: Read through the passage at least twice to make sure you’ve got the right idea of what the question is asking for and what is given in the passage.

Check for Spelling Mistakes:  Always make sure your answer is free of any errors.

Read In Between the Lines: The passages or graphs given might not directly contain the answers you’re looking for but they will indicate to the right answer. Just be very attentive so you can catch the meaning behind what you’re reading.

Read Your Answers Out Loud: Hey not too loud! You could get in trouble for that. What I mean is: read the answers to yourself. Just loud enough for you to hear. This will let you connect between the passage given and your answers.

Be confident: Be sure of yourself! You spent so long preparing for this, are you just going to let some last moment panic mess this up for you? No! Stay focused and calm and just try your best.

At the end of the day, language proficiency tests are just to show you your competence in a certain language. You can always improve and try again. Practice as much as possible and take many tests. The IELTS score merely lets you know which areas you need to improve in. Well that’s pretty much it when it comes to advice. Now the rest is up to you.

 Good luck!