5 IELTS Reading Tips No IELTS Mentor Will Tell You

Find Your Answers in Order

In many IELTS training institutes, it is not even told to the students that you find your answers in the same order as the order of information given in the passage. Students who are not aware of the same are wasting their time trying to find answers here and there in the passage, by going through almost the whole passage. On the other hand, students who know this strategy are not only saving their timing, they comparatively find answers correctly and they are done with all questions even before time in IELTS Reading.

For example, if you have got answer for question no. 3 in second line of paragraph 2, you will get the answer of question no. 4 only after the second line of paragraph 2, not before it.

How to Underline Keywords

Students enrolled in IELTS reading classes are though informed by their IELTS mentors that keywords should be underlined but how to underline them is not taught to the students thoroughly. Which keywords to underline and which words they can ignore etc. are actually some of the really important things in order to get correct answers. Words that are nouns, verbs etc. are the main points in the question and such words should be underlined by leaving all the pronouns, prepositions etc. For example, main keywords have been highlighted in the following True/False/Not Given question statement:

Fertilizers would be required for some crops in the vertical farms.

Also, it is better to encircle “some” which can be the controlling word in the question and may change the meaning of the statement in the passage.

How to Effectively Manage Time

Managing time effectively is the utmost important skill in IELTS reading. For this, your IELTS mentor should provide you with the strategy that can work best for you. Depending upon the student, strategies may need to be varied because different students find different problems in the reading sections. Some find it difficult to read the passage on time while with others, solving True/False/Not Given questions is the major hurdle.

One of the most important tips in IELTS reading is to transfer your answer simultaneously in IELTS reading or you can consider transferring answers once you are done solving one section. Reading the passage should not take more than 10 minutes while you should transfer your answers in 1-2 mins in one section.

Highlighting Your Areas of Improvements

Good IELTS mentors always look for areas of improvements in your performance so that you can only improve more and more to give your best. One of the IELTS reading strategies given by an IELTS candidates who achieved high score is that you should never be satisfied with your preparation level in IELTS because once you are satisfied, you would stop improving. Once you complete a reading passage, crosscheck your answers and find out for mistakes. Some of the mistakes may be silly such as spelling errors, not meeting word instruction etc. which you can thus eradicate in your exam performance.

Basic Tips on All Types of Reading Questions

IELTS reading consists of different questions that need to be solved differently using different strategies. Your IELTS mentor should be providing you with some basic tips on solving such questions correctly. If you adopt the useful tips and tricks, you would really be benefitted by improving your band score. Once you solve a reading passage, you can yourself find out some strategies to adopt for your next attempt while practicing at home.  For example, underlining and focusing on words such as “what”, “where”, “when” would be helpful in the short answer questions.