You have 60 minutes to complete the IELTS Reading Test. There are 40 questions to do, so it’s logical that you have to work quickly to complete all the questions. The passages become trickier as you go through and some types of question take a little longer than others so balancing all these things, it is not surprising that you have just 1 minute on average to complete each question.
What happens if you take longer?
- You may not finish the test
- If you don’t finish the test its very difficult to get a high band
- You may get into a panic and make lots of mistakes - lots of changes to answers make them hard to read
- You may get in a muddle and mix up your answers on the answer sheet
- You may start taking more notice of other students in the room and get distracted looking at what they are doing
- You’ll find it hard to focus on finding the right answers
All of these things have been reported to me by students who got into a state because they were worried about the time.
In actual fact if you are really ready for the exam and you are able to reach a Band score of 7 or 8 you will have plenty of time. The exam would not be 60 minutes if it were impossible to do it in this time.
Why it might be difficult to take just one minute per question:
- Your English level is not yet good enough to reach the band you want
- Your IELTS techniques are not good enough to do the reading quickly
- You haven’t done enough practice
- You are unable to control your nerves (this is linked to practice)
All of these issues can be solved through practice and common sense. Don’t take the exam until you know you are ready – a deadline which is given to you won’t help you to pass the exam if you are not ready to do this yet. The more you practice both your English and the exam techniques for IELTS writing the more confident you will become an the higher the chance you have of getting the band that you want.
Keep moving on. One minute per question.
What happens when you do this?
- You complete the test and have time to check any questions that you have doubts about
- You will feel more relaxed and less likely to panic
- You will be more systematic
- You’ll feel more confident
However, this is something you MUST practice – it won’t work unless you do.
Here are the type of questions that might slow you down.
- Headings
- Matching information to paragraphs
- Matching beginnings and endings of a sentence
- Classification questions
The key with all these is not to agonise over a single question. If you can’t find the first move on to the second and so on until you can find a match. As you start to match them the number left will decrease making them much easier to allocate.
The problem with spending too much time on the first or second question is that not only do you waste time, you also get panicky and the chances of picking the wrong one are higher. If the first two are wrong then the others are more likely to be wrong also. Consider everything until you have a sure match then the others will fall into place.