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Reading Test Strategies

There are no secret tricks

IELTS is a fair test. It is not trying to trick you – it is simply trying to measure your readiness for university level English. The reading texts are at first-year university level. If you have trouble with these texts, you’re going to have a lot of trouble in first year university. 

  1. General strategies
  2. Reading strategies
  3. General question strategies
  4. Not all question types are in the same order as the text
  5. Warnings
  6. Learn the essentials of speed-reading/variable-speed reading

 

1. General strategies

Vocabulary is key: the reading test is a VOCABULARY test

The main strategy used by IELTS to make the test difficult is using synonyms. This means that the questions will generally paraphrase information in the text. If you don’t know that an item in the question is a synonym for an item in the text, you won’t be able to answer the question.

It is mainly your knowledge of vocabulary that determines your score. The bigger your vocabulary, the higher your score. The T.I.P. IELTS program uses a state-of-the-art adaptive vocabulary building app that massively increases your recognition vocabulary. The app understands which vocabulary is easy for you and which vocabulary is difficult for you, and it reviews the vocabulary you’re having trouble with more often. This is not vocabulary that you need to use when speaking or writing – it’s vocabulary that you need to understand when you see it or hear it. This app helps you build your recognition vocabulary by thousands of items and helps you get a much higher reading score.

You will NEVER know all the vocabulary

Accept the fact that you will never know all the vocabulary on the test. You will need to try to figure out the words you don’t know from the surrounding context:

  • The title of the reading will give you the overall idea.
  • The topic sentence of the paragraph will tell you what information is contained in that paragraph.
  • The concluding sentence of the paragraph will often tell you what the importance of that information in the paragraph is.
  • Looking at the paragraph before the one you’re stuck on as well as the paragraph after will often tell you what the paragraph you’re stuck on is about/not about.
  • Look at the surrounding words.

Remember that you do not need to know all the vocabulary in order to answer the questions. Do not forget you are being tested on your ability to answer the questions, not on how accurate your understanding of the text is. Just because you don’t know the meaning of a word doesn’t mean you have to know the meaning of that word, especially if that word is not critical for answering a question.

Get into the habit of trying to guess the meaning of words from context. Do not automatically check your dictionary or your phone. This slows down your ability to comprehend the text. Also keep in mind that in the real world, you will need to get the main idea from texts very quickly, often without a chance to look up new words. Get into the habit of trying to guess the meaning of words from context. Then look them up if necessary and add them to your vocabulary journal.

Just doing more practice tests is a poor strategy

Because the number one determinant of your score is your vocabulary, you need to spend most of your study time learning vocabulary. The best way to do this is by reading and recording new vocabulary in your vocabulary journal.

If you’re taking practice tests, first take the practice tests in the allotted time limit. Then use the texts to study. Record new vocabulary in your vocabulary journal.

That being said, you need to read a broad range of texts, which will help you in all parts of the test. Read the news on a wide variety of topics related to education, technology, health, the environment, and world affairs. Always record new vocabulary in your vocabulary journal, but do this after guessing meaning from context: first try to figure out the meaning of the word from the surrounding information. This is a powerful skill that is critical for success on the test as the test will always include vocabulary that you don’t know (just like the real world).

 

2. Reading strategies

Use variable-speed reading: read the questions and skim the text first

Key concepts

Skimming = speed reading to understand the overall meaning and structure of the text

Scanning = finding the location that contains the answer based on your knowledge of the overall meaning and structure of the text (which you got from skimming)

Reading for detail = reading carefully to find the precise answer after scanning the text to find the general location of the answer

 

  1. 10 seconds: Start with the heading and subheading.
    • This gives you an overall idea of the purpose of the text.
  2. 1 minute: Very quickly skim the questions.
    • Your goal here is to get a general overview of what kind of content is needed to answer the questions.
    • Skimming is crucial: it starts your brain searching for and processing all the information you need in the background while you focus on the present task. This will cause your brain to look for answers to all the questions as you read the text. It also tells you how the text is organized, which allows you to later find the information you need more quickly.
  3. 2 minutes: Skimming for overall context, which includes the overall meaning (i.e. content) and structure (i.e. where things are located)
    • Speed read the text in about two minutes: skim topic sentences and then skim the paragraph to see how the paragraph content relates to the topic sentence. E.g. if the paragraph’s topic sentence is about the unique construction challenges of building the CN Tower, you can expect that the paragraph will list several construction challenges.
    • Final sentences are important – they discuss the overall point of that paragraph, especially things like research results or the significance of research results.
    • Use your pen as a pointer to force your eyes to focus. Do not back up and reread text at this point.
    • In the margin beside each paragraph, write down a three-word summary of the main idea of that paragraph. This will make it easy to find the location of each answer in the next step. It will also help you with questions that ask about the main idea of the paragraph.
  4. 13 minutes: Scan and read for detail as you answer the questions.
    • Scanning means to find the general area in the text where the answer is located. You will know more-or-less where to look because you have already skimmed the entire text. That is the purpose of skimming the text – to understand its structure and to know where to later look to find the detailed information.
      • For example, the question might ask about a specific monetary amount, so you will scan the text to find the area that describes costs. If you are being asked about dates, you will find the area of the text that discusses dates. You will then read the text carefully to find the correct details.
      • An example of scanning: you go to a restaurant and you are interested in getting a chicken dish. You don’t read through or even skim the entire menu – you scan through it looking for the word “chicken.” As soon as you find items containing the word “chicken,” you then read the detailed descriptions of the dishes.
    • Don’t spend a lot of time on questions you’re having trouble with – move on and save those for last.
  5. 4 minutes: Transfer and review answers.

 

3. General question strategies

Question types

  1. Multiple choice
    1. Choose 1 out of 4; choose 2 out of 5; and choose 3 out of 7.
    2. Identify whether information is true, false, or not given.
    3. Decide whether statements share the same perspective, disagree, or do not apply.
  2. Matching 
    1. Match information to its place in the text.
    2. Match the heading to its correct place in the text.
    3. Match statements to examples.
    4. Match the beginning of a sentence to its end.
    5. Match the researcher to the finding.
  3. Pseudo-writing
    1. Sentence completion: finish a sentence with the right words from the text.
    2. Complete a table/summary/notes with the right words from the text.
    3. Complete a summary/graphic organizer/diagram with the right words from the text/list of choices.
    4. Short-answer questions using the right words from the text.

 

For all question types:

Read the questions before skimming the text. This causes your brain to look for answers as you are skimming the text.

Do not use your prior knowledge of the topic to answer the questions. You are not being tested on your knowledge; you are being tested on your understanding of the text.

If you’re completely stuck on a question, move on to the next one. Save the most difficult questions for the end and guess if you have to.

Eliminate choices when guessing: When there are four answer choices, your odds are 25% when guessing. If you can eliminate one wrong answer, your odds of guessing correctly go up to 33%. If you can eliminate two wrong answers, your odds of guessing correctly go up to 50%.

 

True/False/Not given

What do these three mean?

True: Information in the passage tells you information in the question is right.

False: Information in the passage tells you information in the question is wrong. You can correct a wrong question statement using information from the passage.

Not given: There is no information in the text to tell you whether the information in the question is right or wrong. In other words, it might be right or it might be wrong – we just don’t know. Another way of thinking about this is that you cannot correct “not given” statements based on information in the passage.

 

  1. Scan to find the location of the information you need. Do this by finding a paraphrase in the text of  keywords in the question.
  2. Skim that part of the text to make sure the information you need is located there.
  3. If you’re spending a lot of time on one of these questions and you cannot find information that shows the question is either true or false, that probably means the information is not in the text. If you can’t find the information, it is likely “not given.”
  4. IELTS is about detail. You will generally need to read a chunk of text to be able to determine  the correct answer; do not stop at the first sentence that has some information that is relevant to the question. Read carefully before reaching your conclusion.
    • Watch out for qualifying words that differ between the question in the text (e.g. “always” vs. “generally”; “believed” vs. “was”)
  5. The answers appear in the text in the same order as the questions.

 

Pseudo-writing/short answer

The answers appear in the text in the same order as the questions.

Complete a summary/graphic organizer with the right words from the text/list of choices

  1. Watch out for grammar. If the choice does not make sense grammatically, it’s wrong.
  2. Eliminate wrong answers and grammatically incorrect answers. Try to figure out the answer from the options that then remain.

Sentence completion

  1. Most options will be grammatically correct. Looking for grammatical matches is not a good strategy here.
  2. The answers appear in the text in the same order as the questions.
  3. Look at the incomplete sentences first. Don’t spend time looking at the endings in detail.
  4. The first question is the most difficult because it has the most ending options. These will get progressively easier.

 

Multiple-choice/matching

  1. Distractor answers often have key words from the text. Having key words from the text does not make an answer correct.
  2. You must read for detail carefully.
  3. First eliminate answers that you know are wrong. This improves your odds of determining or guessing the correct answer. When there are four answer choices, your odds are 25% when guessing. If you can eliminate one wrong answer, your odds of guessing correctly go up to 33%. If you can eliminate two wrong answers, your odds of guessing correctly go up to 50%.
  4. The answers appear in the text in the same order as the questions.

 

4. Not all question types are in the same order as the text

A common belief is that the order of the questions follows the order of information in the text, i.e. that the answer to question three always follows the answer to question two. However, some question types are not in the same order as the text:

  • Matching headings
  • Matching information

Match the heading to its correct place in the text

  1. Answers DO NOT appear in the text in the same order as the questions.
  2. Do this question first. This will help you better understand the general meaning of the entire text.
  3. Start by skimming the topic and final sentence of a paragraph – these give you the main idea.
  4. If you can’t decide between several possible paragraph headings, write them down next to the paragraph. Then read the paragraph in detail.

Match the researcher to the finding

  1. You have first skimmed the questions before you have skimmed the text. If you know that you will need to match the researcher to the finding, underline the researchers’ names every time you see them.
  2. It’s more difficult to find the answer for names that appear several times throughout the text because you will have to look in more places to confirm that it’s the right answer.
  3. Do the easy questions first. Save the difficult questions for last – some of them are meant to distinguish between Band 8 and Band 9 responses.
  4. When you find the right answer, cross out the name. Each name is only used once.

 

5. Warnings

Logic and knowledge of grammar can only help you confirm whether some answers are correct

A common belief is that logic or knowledge of grammar can help you answer some questions without actually reading the text. This is not true – the questions test your understanding of the text. In some cases, however, you will use logic and your knowledge of grammar to confirm your answers.

Synonyms/paraphrasing

The question will often paraphrase key words from the passage. You won’t necessarily find the same words in the question and in the passage.

Don’t go over the word limit

If the question tells you to use one or two words, do not use more than two words! A number counts as one word; a hyphenated word also counts as one word.

 

6. Learn the essentials of speed-reading/variable-speed reading!

Most people have ineffective reading habits. They tend to read every single word on the page carefully. This is going to cause huge problems on IELTS!

Click here to learn more about speed reading/variable-speed reading.

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