The reading section can be hard to get through with enough time. I hope that these 25 IELTS reading tips will help you improve your speed and your accuracy.
If you aren’t familiar with the IELTS reading exam, check out our overview of the IELTS reading test or the whole IELTS exam. IELTS Reading tips for all sections, academic and general
1. Take note of special features of the reading passage. Headings, subheadings, bold, italics, underlined, graphs, figures, etc. These will help to give you a general understanding of the text.
2. Follow the instructions EXACTLY. Especially for completion questions. If the instructions say the answer is two words, your answer must be two words or it will be wrong.
In some questions the words must be exactly the same as in the text; in some you must use your own words. If the instructions say write a letter on the answer sheet (i.e. a multiple choice question) write the letter not the answer.
If the instructions say write 3 letters, write three letters. If the instructions say to write no more than three words you can write 1, 2, or 3 words but no more.
3. Make sure you understand the questions completely. Focus on the question at least as much as you focus on the text to answer it.
Pay attention to words like only, most, always, never, every, etc. They can change the meaning of a question a lot. There is a big difference between almost never and never.
4. You don’t need to understand every word of the text. Remember you are only reading to answer the questions.
5. Pay close attention to the time. You have 60 minutes. So give yourself a maximum of 20 minutes per section.
Remember there is no extra time to transfer your answers to your answer sheet. So put your answers on your answer sheet or make time to transfer them from your question book.
Since the last section is often the hardest, you may want to spend 15 minutes on the first section. Then 20 minutes on the second section. And lastly 25 minutes on the third section.
When you take a practice test, always time yourself. Give yourself only 60 minutes to complete the practice test. If you can’t complete practice tests in time, practice skimming and scanning more before trying another practice test.
6. Learn to skim and scan as well as read in detail. Skimming, scanning, and reading for detail; these are your new best friends.
Skim means read quickly to understand the broad information.
Skimming helps you understand what the text is about and where information is located.
Scan means to look for information without reading the text (i.e. finding a specific name or date).
If you get good at scanning you will be able to find keywords quickly.
Reading in detail helps you understand a small part of the text fully so you can correctly answer the question.
You will NOT have enough time to read the whole text in detail. Skimming and scanning help you find what you need to read in detail.
7. If you don’t know the answer, guess. A wrong answer is better than no answer. There is no difference between blank answers and wrong answers. You might guess correctly.
8. All the answers are in the text; you don’t need any outside or specialist knowledge. Don’t use generalizations or previous knowledge for yes / no / not given and true / false / not given questions.
They will often try to trick you into using your own knowledge to answer true or false when the answer is not given.
9. If you are answering a completion question, write the words directly from the reading passage. Don’t change the words unless the instructions ask you to.
Also, don’t rewrite words from the question. Just write the answer.
Example:
Sentence in reading passage: “John has loved going to movies since he was a child.”
Question: “John likes to go to _________.”
Answer on your answer sheet:
A: movies (correct!)
A: go to moves (incorrect!)
10. Small mistakes can really hurt your score. Make sure to double-check your answers.
Spelling counts so check to make sure your answers are spelled correctly.
Watch out for plurals and singulars and also be careful of subject-verb agreement.
Double check your grammar in the short answer questions and also the completion questions. Capitalization also counts.
11. If you don’t know what to capitalize, just capitalize the whole answer.
You are not penalized for capitalizing every letter. But you are penalized for capitalizing the wrong letter or not capitalizing the right answer.
(i.e. denmark – incorrect, denMark – incorrect, Denmark – correct, DENMARK – correct)
12. With completion or fill-in-the-blank questions you can usually determine if the answer is a verb, noun, or adjective. Use this to help find the correct answer.
13. Read. Read a lot. Read types of material that you might be tested on. Even reading English for enjoyment will help a lot (especially in magazines and newspapers).
When practicing your reading try NOT to use a dictionary. When you encounter a difficult word, try to guess the meaning of the word first. Then you can check the dictionary to see if you are correct.
To practice for academic reading test: try reading magazines such as National Geographic, the Economist, Popular Science, etc. Magazines that are a little specialized towards an academic field. But not highly specialized. They should be academic but aimed at a general academic audience. Academic textbooks are also a good source of practice material, especially introductory textbooks.
To practice for general reading: Read magazines that you are interested in. Read newspapers in English. Read the ads in magazines and newspapers.
14. Skim the text first to get an idea of what it is about, the structure, and where to find information. After you have quickly skimmed the text:
Then read the questions and answer the ones you can.
You should have a good idea of where to look in the text for the answers now that you have skimmed it.
Go back and find the answers to the rest of the questions.
Alternately, some people read the questions first and then skim/scan the text.
Another strategy is, skim the questions, and then skim the text to locate where the answers to the questions might be. Underline the information that relates to the questions.
Then go back and scan or read in detail for the answers to the questions using your underlined words and sentences. These are just a few strategies people use. Find which strategy works best for you by doing practice tests.
15. Notice the structure of the text. Usually the main ideas are in the first and the last paragraphs, while the supporting information is in the middle.
Remember or make a note of what each section is about when you skim it. That way you can go back after you read the questions. To get a quick overview of what a text is about read the title/headings and first/last paragraph.
For academic reading, learn to identify general information (i.e. the topic, what the author’s purpose is, who the intended audience is, where the text is from, the style it is written in, and the main points).
16. Be aware that the questions will probably paraphrase the reading or use synonyms. They will use different words that mean the same thing.
Example:
Sentence in reading passage: ”Bearded lizards have many predators.”
Q: The bearded lizard is hunted by a variety of other animals. True / False / Not given
A: True
Notice how being hunted by a variety of animals means that it has a lot of predators. The sentence in the text and the question mean the same thing but use different words.
To practice for this, when you read choose some text and see how many ways you can say the same thing with different words. This will help you notice paraphrasing.
17. If you don’t know a word, skip it, you probably don’t need it to answer any of the questions. If you need to understand a word to answer a question, make a quick guess of its meaning from the surrounding words. And then determine if it is a noun adjective or verb.
Don’t focus on the words you don’t understand. Try to understand the meaning from the words you do understand. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to understand a difficult word.
18. Don’t spend too long on any one question. If you don’t know an answer make a guess and come back to it if you have time. Most test takers run out of time during the last section. Do the completion and short answers first. You have more of a chance to correctly guess the other types of questions.
19. Don’t be afraid to write in the question book and on the text. Underline keywords, circle, label; whatever helps you make sense of the text. The examiner won’t see your question book. But don’t mark it up too much or it will just confuse you.
Also remember your time is limited so only use marking if it saves you time. Usually underlining keywords and phrases is a good idea. And putting question numbers next to relevant text is also usually a good idea. But see what works best for you.
20. For most questions the answers in the text are in order. So the answer to question 1 is usually first in the text and after that is the answer to question 2.
There may be some types of questions where the answers will be mixed up. For example, paragraph matching questions (“In which paragraph does this information appear?”). But this is a good general rule.
This doesn’t apply to all the questions for a section. Usually it is just within the question types (matching, completion, etc.). With a new question type, the answer order may or may not start again at the beginning of the test.
21. Use IELTS answer sheets when you do your practice test. This will help you get used to the answer sheet.
Remember the answer on your answer sheet must exactly match what is in the test sheet (unless the instructions say otherwise) or it will be wrong.
Make sure to double-check that your answers are in the right place and written for the correct question number. Remember you must have your answer sheet filled out by the end of the 60 minutes. You get no extra time.
22. Use practice tests to help you with timing and question types. But don’t forget to read a wide variety of English material to improve your reading and vocabulary.
23. Make sure not to write a Yes answer for a “True / False / Not given question” or a True for a “Yes / No/ Not given question”. It’s easy to confuse these so be careful.
24. If you have to answer questions about the author’s opinion or view, phrases like “Many people think…” or “It can be argued that…” or “While it’s true that…” indicate an opinion that is NOT the author’s.
25. Dates and names are often important, as you skim through the text circle or underline them.
That’s all the IELTS reading tips we have for you at the moment. I hope they will help you. If you have a reading tip you would like to share, let us know.