First 6 tips IELTS Reading
IELTS reading tests may look scary because of the length of the reading passages and the question types. Don’t you worry! You can ace IELTS Reading with 6 top tips. Apply these and you will get your target IELTS score.
7 out of 10 students straightaway get onto IELTS Reading Practice tests and get a big loss of confidence. DO NOT START IELTS Reading Test Preparation like this if you are not in a reading habit.
It’s important to start right and adopt an IELTS Preparation Plan that builds up your confidence and skills slowly but positively. In this blog post, I discuss Preparation IELTS Reading Plan for the year 2023 tests for both reader and non-reader students.
IELTS reading tests may look scary because of the length of the reading passages and the question types. Don’t you worry! You can ace IELTS Reading with 6 top tips. Apply these and you will get your target IELTS score.
TIP #1
IELTS has a one-of-a-kind format (standardized international language testing system) designed by the University of Cambridge and approved by English native-speaking countries. Remember, the Reading IELTS format is not like the tests you’ve appeared for in schools or colleges in India at all. So it is most important that you inform yourself about all aspects of the test before you start preparing.
9 things of IELTS Reading test you need to know
#1 How long is the test?
#2 What’s the format?
#3 How many texts are there?
#4 What kind of topics are texts from?
#5 What kind of texts are they?
#6 What skills will be tested?
#7 What types of questions will be asked?
#8 What skills do you need to answer the questions?
#9 Will you have extra time to transfer your answers?
You can find all this essential information about the IELTS Reading section and much more by attending the 10-day IIWI IELTS BOOTCAMP. I’m going to recommend this to all reader and non-reader students. It’s FREE!
TIP #2
For those of you who love reading it’s going to be easy. You’re going to enjoy preparing for IELTS Reading General Test because the topics of passages given in the IELTS test are usually ones that any common person is aware of. These are topics for which no technical knowledge is required. What you need to do is to get back to light reading on a daily basis.
The more diverse your reading material, the more extensive your reading routine the better the results you will get. The more consistent you are, the faster your reading speed, the more your comfort, and better the your concentration.
If you’re not much of a reader, then I recommend that you start with easy English reading material and start with the TOPICS YOU ARE INTERESTED IN. You can also go to my Free Resources Section and download Starter Stories.
🎯 17 Best Sources for IELTS Reading (easy medium difficult)
✅ The Statesman (easy) 
✅ The Guardian (difficult)
✅ Economic Times (medium)
✅ Times of India (easy)
✅ Mint (Hindustan Times edition) (difficult)
✅ New Scientist (difficult)
✅ The Independent (difficult)
✅ World History Encyclopaedia (medium)
✅ Wikipedia (easy)
✅ National Geographic (easy)
✅ The Toronto Star ( most read news site – Canada)
✅ The Cut ( general interest news site)
✅ ABC News website (just like BBC)
✅ The Debrief (good for reading on lifestyle, celebrity, fashion, etc )
✅ The Learning Network (great for beginners)
✅ The New Yorker (high difficulty level)
✅ The Pool (short, to-the-point content)
TIP #3
If you’ve not been in a habit of reading, the first thing that’s going to scare you is the length of the passage. Isn’t it! The moment you see the long texts (about 2,750 words) + the 40 questions + the 1-hour time limit; you feel like fainting. It’s stressful, I know, but once you start with the daily reading routine, the scare will vanish.
Tackle the lengthy passage challenge with 2 Simple Reading Techniques
1. Skimming (keep a pencil handy)
This is a particularly effective first step for getting comfortable with reading texts for comprehension. ‘Skimming’ is fast reading with the purpose of getting a general idea of what the passage is about. You just spend a minute and take a look at the titles, headings, and keywords to identify the general topic. Each paragraph has one main idea. Usually, this is given in the introductory sentence but not always, there may be exceptions. While skimming you must practice underlining the topic sentences and the main words of the topic in the text. This helps in answering questions correctly.
2. Scanning
‘Scanning’ is reading with the purpose of locating specific keywords or phrases or specific facts. When you’ve identified a keyword, read the surrounding text in detail to locate the answer.
I recommend that you skim the first reading and scan in the second reading. You have to master these basic techniques for IELTS Reading Success.
TIP #4
Texts in the IELTS reading section are stuffed with lots of new vocabulary. Please don’t feel stressed about it. The idea of IELTS Reading test is not to understand each and every word. You can always use contextual clues to guess the meaning of a word you don’t know.
The main thing that matters is keywords.
5 Steps to Follow for Keyword Focus (IELTS Reading)
Step#1 Read the question carefully.
Step#2 Underline the keywords.
Step#3 Try to predict what words or phrases will help you locate the right part of the text for the answer.
Step#4 Think about alternate vocabulary for these words. (synonyms and antonyms )
Step#5 Try to paraphrase ( saying something in your own words).
For example, if the question says ‘joint’, remember that this means ‘cooperative efforts/inputs’ or ‘shared’ or ‘mutual’ So, if the text states that ‘he was the sole owner, you can understand that it was not ‘joint’.
TIP #5
Mostly, I have seen students are not in a habit of understanding the question fully. They do not pay enough attention to what exactly the instruction is saying. You need to know that if you don’t give proper attention to the instructions you are going to be answering incorrectly 6 out of 10 times. I’m sure you don’t want to do that!
IELTS Reading Question Types – 2 Examples
1. ‘Use one word only’
The correct way of answering: You answer ONLY in one word.
Incorrect way of answering: You write more than one word (your answer is marked wrong – you lose points for not reading or following the instructions properly)
Yes, you got it: understanding and following instructions also have an inbuilt weightage in IELTS Reading.
2. ‘Filling in missing words
What you have to remember: the resulting sentence should be grammatically correct.
So, be particularly careful about –
#1 singular and plural forms
#2 subject-verb agreement.
#3 spelling
#4 capitalization
TIP #6
Never forget, you have just one hour and 40 questions to answer, which means you get one and a half minutes per question.
3 Steps to answer questions within the time limit
Step 1: First answer the questions that you can.
Step 2: Skip the difficult questions.
Step 3: Come back to difficult questions after you finish (in the second round).
Fill in the answer sheet side by side. You will not be given any extra time to transfer your answers to the sheet. If you don’t do the IELTS Reading test this way, you may be in a situation where you found all the answers but could not transfer the answers to the answer sheet because of lack of time. That’s a disaster you don’t want. Right!
For managing your time limit, you will have to learn different strategies for answering different types of questions.
For multiple-choice questions or questions asking you to complete a sentence, you could try matching headings as a strategy.
Conclusion
The IELTS Reading test requires familiarizing yourself with the test format, building up pre-reading skills, applying effective answering techniques, picking up new strategies, and finally, doing lots of practice with IELTS Reading Mock tests
If you are serious about getting your desired score in the IELTS test on the first attempt itself you’ve got to respect each and every minute of yours and find out the right materials and guidance for IELTS Preparation 2023.
If you’ve read this post till here, allow me to help you out too. Join the 10-day IIWI IELTS Bootcamp and get completely comfortable with the IELTS test format – all four sections. Call us right away, we have limited slots and you have to prepare for the IELTS test quickly and smartly.
See you at the boot camp!
Founder- IIWI Learning IELTS 8+ Coach, 30 yrs exp.|Author|Blogger
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