I’m not sure that reading speed is the biggest factor in IELTS Reading. I am quite a slow reader myself as I like to savour the words and the text and think carefully about what I am reading, but I can do the reading test quite quickly and accurately using techniques which don’t really need me to read the text in the conventional way.
The techniques that you need to focus on and get good at for the IELTS Reading Test are:
- Skimming
- Scanning
- Key Words
- Matching text with question
- Common sense
- Self-belief
Other language skills like knowledge of grammar and a wide range of vocabulary help a lot too but these 6 skills can get you most of the answers.
Skimming
This is a way of casting your eye over a text to get the main ‘gist’ of the information. It’s also useful for picking out a few words to help with overall understanding. You should do this at the beginning of each reading – generally I would just skim the first paragraph and then look over the rest very quickly. With General Training just look at the overall topic, headings or titles just to get a sense of the main information.
Scanning
Scanning is looking for specific information. You only do this if you KNOW WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, it isn’t a way of finding general information. You’ll need to use this technique for each question after you have chosen your key words. After you have scanned for the key words then you must read that sentence or few sentences very carefully in order to answer the question.
Key Words
Yes, that ‘old chestnut!’ but good key word skills are vital to getting a high score. Once you can select and use them really well you will be able not only to find all the answers but also be certain that you have made the right choice.
Practise at the skill of choosing and then using these to match against the text and select the correct answer will allow you to be accurate and also fast. Once you are able to do this then you’ll have nailed the reading and will wonder why you ever struggled with it.
Matching text with question
Clearly this is the object of the exercise however, it is very common for students to read the question, pick key words, find the first keyword and then choose an answer randomly without ever going back to the question. For some questions this may be possible but for many it is important to go back to the question to make sure that your chosen word is in fact the answer. As you search for the key words it often happens that you forget the actual question and then put down and answer that is not actually being asked for. It’s worthwhile checking backwards and forwards especially with things like YNNG.
Common Sense
Alas common sense often goes out of the window when it comes to IELTS! When I’m working with IELTS students it is not uncommon for them to choose an answer that even they don’t believe in but for some bizarre reason are able to persuade themselves that it ought to be correct. Your answers should be justified by the text so try not to go off at a tangent especially if you feel it isn’t correct.
Self-belief
If I had $1 for the number of times students have the right answer and then ‘change their minds’ I’d be a very rich woman indeed! A few years ago I had one student who struggled with headings and every time we went through her reading results she had them all incorrect. She told me, however, that in fact she had put the correct answers and then changed them – ALL of them! We made it a rule that she must NEVER change her headings answers and after that ‘rule’ was implemented she never had a heading answer incorrect. Finally she achieved 7.5 in her reading test.
Self-belief is major. Try not to over-check your answers and trust your common sense. If you also find yourself changing answers that are in fact correct then you know that your instinct is good and you must trust it.
Even I can persuade myself that an answer is wrong if I look at it long enough!
If we look at these main skills for IELTS Reading it is clear that none of them require slow or fast reading. Being able to skim or scan quickly can help a lot but if you are a slow reader, don’t worry it won’t really hold you back at all.