Bad habits in IELTS Reading that cost you marks!

Over the past few months as I’ve started working with new students, I have noticed quite a few practices that are really not helping them to achieve a high score and are often, in fact working against them, especially in getting everything done in the time.

So, what are these things that stop you from gaining that all-important high score? I’ve listed them below and explained why you should stop doing them.

  • Trying to understand the whole text – you simply don’t have time and you don’t need it all in any case.
  • Skimming through the text before you start – as above this wastes time and you will find out the information you need as you work on the questions.
  • Underlining key words in the text before you start – why? You don’t yet know the questions
  • Underlining unknown words in the text before you start – again you might not even need them.
  • Reading the first two lines and the last two lines of each paragraph to get an overview (at the beginning or for headings) – the reading passages today usually have clear titles (if there is no title then you’ll probably have a ‘title’ question. For headings its much better to have an overview of the whole paragraph – good skimming skills will help you do this.
  • Spending too much time on the text before you have looked at the questions – this wastes time and what are you looking for? You won’t know what you need to find out until you have looked at the questions
  • Believing that everything will be chronological – why should it be? Some question sections can jump about and by sticking to this rule you can miss very easy answers
  • Finding a key word and then only reading the sentence AFTER the key word -  I see this a lot and it baffles me especially when the word is in the middle of the sentence – surely it’s logical to go back and read the whole sentence. Certain words tell you to go back – these, this those – you will only find out what they refer to if you go back. In fact my rule is ALWAYS read the whole sentence.
  • Continuing to search after you’ve found the answer – a lots of students lack confidence in their ability in reading and like to ‘double check’ their answers. This not only wastes time but also gets you in ‘over-thinking’ about the answer and probably changing what was the correct answer to an incorrect one. If the key words match and the information is plausible just put down the answer and move on. If you have a doubt then mark it in some way and come back later – better to be wrong on this one than lose too much time and guess the last 5 questions.
  • Not sticking to the ‘1-minute’ per question rule – you know the dangers of this – panic, not completing the test, losing momentum – losing confidence just for starters! It’s not worth it! Keep going and then you’ll be able to come back at the end to check those you are not so sure about. Believe me this is absolutely the BEST way.

These are just some of the reading mistakes I see. I think there may be more but if you stop these things today you will certainly see a big improvement in your scores.

If you want more tips and advice and also the chance to be in a group with other IELTS students looking for bands 7 and 8 then join my new Facebook group:

IELTS Band 7 & 8 Success Network

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