Many students LOVE reading. I do too – it’s my favourite thing in IELTS and the thing I most love to teach. However, if you are wondering how that can be, or thinking; “How can anybody LOVE IELTS Reading?” then this article is definitely for you.
Why do I enjoy IELTS Reading?
- The topics are interesting (mostly)
- It’s exciting to go on a quest to search out the answers
- It’s great fun to match keywords
- It’s very satisfying to see the answers pop out
- It’s a great way to learn new vocabulary
- It’s a bit like a puzzle and I like puzzles
If you don’t like IELTS Reading then right now you are probably assuming that I am a little weird. However, I have worked with lots of students who also had a similar approach to the reading and what is more important for you, I have worked with students who came around to my way of thinking, and guess what? When they did, their scores started to increase and in the end they achieved very high marks in the exam – some with 8.5 and even 9.
I am not asking you to fall in love with IELTS Reading but certainly if you have a different relationship with it than the one that you have right now, I think you will find that it isn’t such a nightmare after all!
So let’s look at these points of interest.
The topics are interesting
I think I have, in general, learnt quite a bit from IELTS reading topics. They are well-written and focus on a range of different topics. I have little knowledge about many of these and find some of them such as space, engineering and psychology a little challenging at times; but on average I feel that I learn things that I probably wouldn’t find elsewhere.
Clearly if a reading passage is in your area of expertise then it will be easier for you to follow, but the techniques for answering the questions are the same whatever the topic and it therefore follows that you should be able to apply these to any text. This is actually the case with students who achieve very high scores.
I suspect that if you are finding the reading hard then you are probably not really aware of the content. This is one reason that scores remain low. If you are using a ‘pray and spray’ approach to the reading which is driven by speed then the chances of reaching a high score are quite diminished because in order to answer the questions you have to have some idea about the content of the passage.
The solution is to forget about the time and go through the passage slowly and carefully and just see if you can answer more questions than usual. The real key to IELTS Reading is not speed it is accuracy. Making sure you can answer the questions is the first step, the time can come later and generally the time will not even be a concern once you can find the correct answers.
It’s exciting to go on a quest to search out the answers
If you dread IELTS Reading then I’m sure you won’t agree. However, if you turn the reading around and focus on the questions as your start point then you can imagine that it is a quest. You may feel that you are ’looking for a needle in a haystack’, but with the right tools it can become more of a quest than a fruitless rummage.
Here are two examples of what I mean.
The example of the ‘million-dollar quartet’ underlines the writer’s point about
- recognising talent
- working as a team
- having a shared objective
- being an effective leader
We need to discover what the ‘writer’s point’ is and why this example illustrates it.
Start with the ‘stem’ ‘million-dollar quartet’ looks like something that will be in the text so search for this then go back to the beginning of the sentence to discover why the writer uses this as an illustration. If this is in passage three then you may need to go back another sentences or forward a little to discover this.
Here’s another example with matching information to paragraphs.
- A description of the substance responsible for the red colouration of leaves
- The reason why trees drop their leaves in autumn
- Some evidence to confirm a theory about the purpose of the red leaves
Note the words in red – this is the type of information you need to find.
In the first question we are looking for a substance, probably its name, which turns leaves red and there will be a description of it.
In the second we need to find the reason that leaves fall.
In the third there will be evidence to prove a theory so we must look for the theory and see how this is explained. The theory and reasons may well be in different paragraphs so be open to this possibility.
It’s great fun to match keywords
Well I think it is! Searching for individual words or synonyms and then matching these in the question can be a challenge but if you see it as such rather than a drudge then you may become more involved in the thrill of the hunt.
Some words are associated with particular topics and they come back again and again so it’s possible almost to anticipate what the synonyms will be in the text.
Here are a couple of examples:
Mosquito eggs are capable of surviving in dry conditions (TFNG)
Here are the key words to use when searching for the place in the text. In the text we find desiccated eggs which means the eggs have been dried out and we also see in the same sentence remain viable which is the same as survive. This tells us that the information is correct so we can answer True in this case.
Animals which feed on mosquitos may be adversely affected by global warming
Before searching for these words I believe that animals feeding on other creatures is probably predators – this word comes up often in passages about animals (as do words like carnivore, herbivore).
In the passage I find climate change reduces the populations of predators that normally keep mosquitos in check which gives me synonyms/paraphrase for the question so again I am happy to choose True.
Matching keywords is the best way of finding the relevant information and then matching this with the question.
It’s very satisfying to see the answers pop out
I do hope that my examples above have illustrated this. When the right keywords are selected and these are carefully matched with the text then generally the answer will be there looking at you. Of course some questions are a bit trickier than others but on the whole with the right strategies and a strong technique it should be relatively easy to find most of the answers.
If the answer doesn’t seem to be there then there are two courses of action. Firstly make sure you are in the right place, you may have been ‘seduced’ by one keyword and forgotten about the others and this has led you to the wrong place. Check and see if this word appears elsewhere with the other keywords. If this doesn’t produce the answer then you need to go back to the question as you may have forgotten exactly what it is asking or there may be other words that you have overlooked.
It’s a great way to learn new vocabulary
Reading and writing are connected. Although reading passages are longer than your Task 2 writing, they will follow a similar structure and have the same kinds of words, linking words and sentence structures that you will need for your writing. Don’t ignore this source of vocabulary. Where you find synonyms for words you already know learn them as they may be words you can use in your own writing.
Also, as I mentioned before some words are linked to particular subject areas and so you will find them in several reading passages on those topics. It could just be that the words you are looking for in your reading practice will appear in the exam itself. Nothing you do in IELTS to improve vocabulary and sentence structure is wasted it will all be useful either in the exam or in your own future work and life in English.
It’s a bit like a puzzle and I like puzzles
Matching text to question is a kind of puzzle and if you take the right approach it can be a fun and interesting activity.
The skills for matching, summarising, completing tables and labelling diagrams are all things you find in puzzle books. Choosing specific words can be like doing a crossword.
The key for intrepid puzzlers is to practise and get to know the system and it’s not really any different with IELTS. The more you do the more you will learn and the more you learn the more you will be able to do. It’s a cycle that will help you. However, doing it all against the clock will not be much fun if your scores are very low. So, the answer is to learn how to do it first and get as many answers as you can then once your score is high at a slower pace, you can start to speed up and you should find this quite easy if your technique is strong.
Don’t let IELTS Reading be your nightmare – take it slowly and soon you’ll wonder why you were worrying about it at all!