IELTS Reading Tips

Never read the passage first

Never waste your time at reading the passage first. There are so many people who read the passage first and they end up answering not more than 5 questions in a paragraph. You have a better chance of finding the answers if you read the questions first and then read the passage. The reading passage is not going to judge your common sense that means that you might think that smoking is bad for health, but what if the passage has been written by a smoker. You will should not rely on your knowledge to answer the questions on the contrary you should only rely on the reading passage for your answers as it is the place from where you are supposed to find the answers.

Read each question 4 times

You should try to read each question 4 times rather than reading each paragraph 4 times. If you can find understand the keywords present in the question, there is a high probability that you will find the answer quickly and easily.

Circle the nouns and underline the verbs

The good thing about the IELTS exam is that you can do all the rough work on the question as it is the not the paper which is going to be graded. You will have to transfer your answers to the answer sheet and that is the sheet which is going to be graded. You can circle the nouns and underline the verbs which are present in the questions. This not necessary to do, but it will greatly improve your process of finding the keywords.

Skimming and scanning

I know you guys might have heard a lot about skimming and scanning and now is the time when you will understand what it really is. Skimming and scanning is technique by which you find the keywords in the passage without the actually reading the passage. You will only start reading the passage once you have found the keywords and you will actually find the answers quite easily.

Similar words

This is a very important skill which you need to develop in order to answer the questions correctly. People cannot find the words because either do not know the meaning of the word or they do not know the similar word of a certain word.

Vocabulary words

Some people can find the words easily, but they find great difficulty in understanding the words. The most difficult task for a person is to understand the complex words. There is no point of finding the keywords if you cannot understand them. That is the reasoning I have been stressing on the point that people who have very poor English cannot get their desired band because they would not even be able to apply the tips and techniques.

Nouns and verbs should agree

This sentence means that you should always expect to find the keywords in the same sentence. You might not find the exact word in the passage, but you will definitely find the similar words for those keywords. There is a very high change that you would find all the information in the topic sentence. Topic is sentence is either the first or last sentence of a word.

2 lines above and below

If you have found the keyword, you have done a very good job. Do not give away the question with a small mistake. Always read the 2 line and above and below the sentence which contains the keyword, so that you could see whether they are trying to confuse you or not.

Suppose this is a statement in the exam and you are told to tell whether the statement is True, False or Not Given.

I used to drive the car which was of black color, however now I go for public transport.

What do you think would be the answer to this question.

True, False and Not Given

Original Statement: The Chinese Government spent $15 billion on health facilities.

$15 billion was spent on the health facilities by the Chinese officials. (T)

Chinese Government will spend $15 billion on the health facilities. (F)

Chinese semi-government organization has spent $15 billion on health facilities. (N.G)

People of China are not happy with the government for spending so much on the health facilities. (N.G)

Chinese government paid $15 billion for health sector. (T)

Chinese government spent $14 billion for health facilities. (F)

These tips are provided by PACANS. PACANS is the largest IELTS Preparation center in Pakistan with branches in 34 cities of Pakistan. Teachers at PACANS are Canada Qualified and they have often called the Kings of IELTS. PACANS has the NOC of IELTS to produce free IELTS preparation videos. PACANS is providing over 1,000 free online video lectures for the IELTS course. Mr. Umar Khan is the CEO of PACANS.