Author: IELTS Research

Books # Discussion Topic

Books are something every one reads. You can either love them or hate them, but it is impossible that you haven’t ever read them. So, most probably, you are going to have questions on Books in your IELTS speaking section. Today, we shall look at some of the questions that can be asked.

  1. What kind of books do you like to read?

I would say I am a voracious reader. I love fiction, non-fiction, biographies, poems, everything. The only thing that is important and that matters to me is that the book should be good. And a good book according to me is something that serves a purpose. I have read books that were neither hilarious, nor had any message and not even any specific start and end. For example, sometime back I read Archies Comics. They were both hilarious and I could actually take help from it in the decisions I made.

Books

Books

2. Do you read the same kind of books now that you read when you were a child?

Yes to an extent. I do read the same types of books that I read earlier, but now the content that I read has improved. For example- if I read a biography of Gandhi when I was young, but now when I read it, I chose the book written by a better writer who could express the life of Gandhi in a much better way.

3. When do you think is the best time to read?

I think any time is the best time to read. Any time you feel like reading because for me reading is something that gives me the peace required. It helps me settle down a bit and figure out the next thing I want to do or take a decision I would like to take. I have a set of my favorite books and then some of the pages that I really like, so I read them when I feel out of my mind. Other then that, to read something new, I prefer a quite place, usually in the morning.

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Introduction # Reading Course

Learning how to read in English is the first step one can take to achieve a high band in IELTS. This goes especially for the native speakers. Now, if on the first day of preparing for IELTS you go about and start reading an academic journal, chances are high that you will completely lose your brain and in worse case stop preparing for IELTS altogether.
This is not something that British council or IDP wants and I am sure that this is not something that you will like yourself. Giving up is not the first choice of anyone.

So, how can one improve their reading skills? The only way you can do it, is move step by step. Take a firm step and move forward only if you have already taken the previous step with your entire heart out.
With this article, we are now beginning a series of post that will help you to improve your reading skills day by day. The course is free and frankly speaking, if you read the posts every day, level by level, I can assure you a 7.5+ band in IELTS.
So, what is the course and how is it going to go about? Well, there is no rocket science or new inventions going about here. The posts that will be published under this section, will be the ones that have already been published. So, what is the point of it? Well, the posts will be thoroughly examined and will be divided into levels, helping you to not fall in the trap of fear of English.
This will be taken from story books, magazines, novels, scientific journals, reports i.e. the stuff that you will find questions from, in the reading section of your IELTS.

There are four levels to this course-
Level 1 – This level will have posts from secondary level English books, content that is usually published in the local English newspapers. The content size will be 150-200 words.
Level 2 – This level will have articles from magazines, international newspapers, content that a graduate tends to find in his/her book. The content size will be 250-500 words.
Level 3 – This level will have extracts from scientific magazines, books on topics such as sociology or phycology etc. The content size will be 500-1100 words.
And don’t you worry, there won’t be just posts, the difficult words will be explained saving you from the hassle of looking for dictionary every time, you wish to read.

Remember, a wall can be built only if you think about placing the brick in hand perfectly and not get lost in the size and the complexities of building the wall.
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Multiple-Choice Task # Strategies

We have already talked about how to answer the completion tasks of IELTS reading section. This time let us talk about the strategies for solving multiple-choice tasks.
Multiple choice task are used to test a varied range of your reading skills. Some of them may require you to comprehend (understand) the main point or a specific point. You are given four options and you may be asked either to select only one or more than one options.
Note- The questions are given in the same order as the information in the passage.
How to answer such questions correctly and quickly?

Elimination is important
The first thing you need to do is, remove the options you think are logically incorrect. Next, remove the ones which although might be right grammatically but are not correct meaning wise. In the end, you will be left with the correct answer.
Find the reason
Once you have found the right answer, make sure it fits in well grammatically i.e. either completes the sentence perfectly or gives an appropriate reason or explanation. Once you have found the correct answer, make sure to check that other options are wrong.

If you are unable to find the answer, do not waste time. Remember you have got only 40 minutes to answer three passages (in case of academic and five or six in case of general) and each question is of only one mark. But make sure you mark an answer as there is no negative marking for wrong answers.
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Completion Task Strategies

Reading section of IELTS has different question types. Although I am sure that you are familiar with the strategies for reading section, in case you are not, click here.

This time we are not talking about the general strategies for solving the reading section, instead the focus is now on the specific questions that are asked in the reading section.
Let us begin.

COMPLETION TASK

This task includes within itself sentence completion or note/summary/flow chart/table completion or short answer type questions or the diagram labelling.
How should you answer such questions?

Answer Properly
Make sure your answer includes the words essential to answering the questions correctly. Correct answers can contain fewer than the maximum number of words as stated in the question.
Don’t change anything
These are the question types in which you need to make sure that you use the exact same words as in the passage. You cannot even change the structure of the words. For instance, if in the passage the answer is in present continuous, you cannot even make it present perfect.
How to find the answer?
While answering these questions, before you read the passage, just read the question and try to make a guess of what could be the possible answer. Then, skim the text and find out the paragraph from where the question has been taken. While skimming, look for synonyms and paraphrases. And while answering keep in mind both the grammar and the spelling.
Focus on meaning than grammar
In some completion task, you are provided with options. When answering make sure to read the options properly. The options are set is so that they all fit grammatically with the statement in the question. You need to rather find out the one that fits perfectly according to the meaning.

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