If you find IELTS reading a challenge or have any issues around IELTS reading, then this post will definitely help you to overcome these.
I love IELTS reading. I find the passages interesting. I love the kind of ‘forensic’ work that you have to do to find the answers. I enjoy skimming, scanning, looking for keywords, matching synonyms. All of those things are things that I really enjoy doing and have always, since I was a child.
It's no surprise, therefore, that reading is probably my favourite part of IELTS. Having said that, I know that for a lot of you, it can be the bit that you dread.
Over the years I have worked with many many students who told me that they avoid practising the reading because it puts them in a panic. But, if you can actually get to grips with the reading and the five things that I mention in this post, then I think you'll suddenly find that the reading is a lot more interesting and a lot less stressful than you're currently experiencing.
The biggest problem to my mind is that a lot of people put the cart before the horse.
If you look at my five tips here, tip number five, right down at the bottom, is about timing and making sure you manage the time. What many, and in my experience, the majority of students do, is they worry about the time right from the beginning, and they put that as their number one priority. That's what I mean when I say they put the cart before the horse - if you know that expression – they start with the ONE thing that will NOT help their reading. Maybe you are doing this too?
If you do the other things, 1, 2, 3 and 4, and you really work on those things first, then 5, timing, is not going to be a problem.
A few years ago, I posted a video on my YouTube channel called “How to Complete the Reading in 50 Minutes” and it's been my most popular post! I’m not surprised but I can confidently say that all the students I tutor in reading can complete the reading in 50 to 55 minutes, which gives them five or ten minutes to check one or two questions that they are maybe not 100% sure of. I can also say that I have had several students who have achieved Band 9 in reading.
So, these things do work. Here are the 5 things.
1.Keywords
These are keywords in the question, not the text. Sometimes I see students underline keywords in the text. I think that is a waste of time because how do you know what is going to come up in the questions? How do you know what to look for? Perhaps names and dates can be helpful but the key part of reading is focusing on the questions and exactly what they are asking. Also, the more you underline in the text, the harder it is to be able to find things because it becomes too messy.
Keywords are the words that are going to unlock the answer. I use the word unlock deliberately because I feel that the keywords are a key. You will find if you are using them correctly and you have found the right place in the text, the answer will ‘pop out’ at you. It is essentially unlocked for you.
What are the keywords? Obvious ones are names, dates, numbers etc. They are all quite easy to find. However, there are other keywords which you may overlook. Or words like most or only or many - little or few. Don't overlook those words. If you have ever watched me go through a reading test, you will know that I always underline those words because for me they could be the difference between the correct answer and an incorrect one.
When you choose your keywords in the question, you should be looking for three, even four words because it is at the point where those words come together in the text that you will find your answer.
2.Grammar
In the question you need to take note of whether things are in the past tense, in the present tense, whether they are singular or plural. Articles too, if the question has ‘a’ in it then your answer will probably be a singular noun and that grammar knowledge all helps you.
Another thing is pronouns. If I look at a sentence and I know that sentence is going to help me get the answer and it has the word ‘this’ or ‘these’, then I go back to the previous sentence or even further, to discover what ‘this’ or ‘these’ refer to, because that could be important for the answer of the question. You don't need to analyse the grammar of every sentence or even every question, but just be aware of anything that is specifically grammatical that will help you to look at the right information. If the question has ‘will’ and it's talking about the future and you pick a sentence in the passage that is in the past, then you're clearly not going to get that question correct.
3.Negatives
Negatives in a question can be a bit of a nightmare because you've really got to focus and think. You will often need to make the negative into a positive (especially with YNNG/TFNG questions), because in that way it will be easier to find the information. Once you've found the information, you then need to go back to the question and make it negative again so that you get the right answer. For example, if the question is negative, make it positive, find the information and then come back and make sure you remember that the question is negative and turn it around. So if the answer you have found is yes, your actual answer is probably going to be no. A lot of students get caught out by this. Be very careful and think a little bit more deeply about it.
4.Skimming and Scanning
Some people feel it is not necessary to skim or scan. I really don't know how you find the information quickly without doing this. What I have seen though is that people often randomly search around the whole passage like a headless chicken. If you have good skimming and scanning skills, then you will be able to locate the information a lot more quickly. There is a difference between the two. Skimming is looking for an overview - going through a whole paragraph just to get the gist of it - what is it telling me?
This is particularly important in questions like headings, or matching information in paragraphs.
Scanning is looking for individual words, so it is a lot more focused. This is the skill or technique that you need to use for things like YNNG where you need an individual word. If you are matching names with information or with quotations, you need to be able to find that name quickly – so you scan the passage. But you need to practise these things a lot to become proficient at them and it is these skills and techniques that will give you those Band 8 and 9 scores that many of my students have already achieved in their IELTS reading.
All these techniques will make your reading process a lot faster and a lot more accurate resulting in more correct answers, a higher band and no panic.
5.Timing
If you practise keywords, grammar and negatives, and if you practise skimming and scanning, you will find that your process speeds up naturally and you'll be able to do the reading a lot more quickly and should be able to finish it in 50 to 55 minutes. However, even my students who have done all this and become good at it, could sometimes get stuck on a question and not let it go. You have to be prepared to let a question go if you can't find the answer. I do this myself all the time - if I come across a new reading that I've never done before, and if I can't find the answer to a question, I will leave it and move on.
In order to complete everything in the time, you can only afford to spend 1 minute per question - so if you are taking more than a minute - you need to let it go. The main reason for letting it go is that it is better to lose one question in passage one than five or six questions in passage three. It is simple logic - let one go, in order to finish the test, in order to get a high band. This is especially the case if you want 7or 8.
You have to answer all the questions and the only way you can do that is by not spending too much time on any individual question. Furthermore, the questions in passage three are going to be more difficult to find, so by wasting a lot of time on passage 1, your chances of completing passage 3 well are diminished.
Manage your time well. As you move to the next question and then the next you may discover the one you missed – this happens all the time.
There are three times when you can come back to that missing answer.
- The first time is at the end of that particular section before you move on to the next block of questions.
- Then, at the end of that passage. When you finish it, have another quick look. If you still can't find it, leave it again and move on to the next passage.
- The last time you can come and check is when you have those few minutes left at the end of the test before you hand in your paper or before you complete your online test. (you will have this if you have good skills and do the things I’ve mentioned above)
- If at the end, you've finished and you still can't find the answer, then make an educated guess, because you're not going to be penalised for a wrong answer.
So don’t put the cart before the horse! Be systematic and practise all the 5 things that I’ve outlined here.
And if you want my help to put these in place then we can get together and do that. Just follow the link below and I will be more than happy to help you.