How To Read In IELTS?

There are three passages in the IELTS reading section and each are page and half long. So, do the British Council expects you to be like robot, read them, understand them and then answer them correctly in the limited period of time. Well, no, they want you to learn how to do skimming. Don’t sit down and read them, instead try to find the information required out of them. After all you are not getting marks on how well you understood the paragraph, but how well you answer the questions. As you read along, you will find out some ways to score better in reading section.
1. Read the first paragraph. Find out what the passage is about. Then, go to each paragraph and read the first sentence. The first sentence tells you what the paragraph is about. Then read the last line of the passage. Next, go to the questions.
2. Read the question and mark the keywords and start reminding yourself of its synonyms. Why that? Because it is unlikely that you will find the same word as asked in the question in the text.
3. Be familiar with the type of questions that will be asked. Matching, true false, Not given; these are some of the type of questions. You need to know the type and then practice. The more you practice the more familiar you will be with them.
4. Read the instructions very carefully, especially in multiple choice questions. You can be asked to choose two answers or may be one. Also, remember, if there are more than on multiple choice questions in your paper, they do not need to be answered the same way. So, read the instructions every time.
5. You may be asked questions that are very general. If you cant find answer guess. You are credited for right answers, you are not penalised for wrong answers.
6. True/false/not given-: You must look very carefully to decide that it is not given.
false-: we know from the text that the statement is untrue.
not given-: the text does not contain the information necessary to decide.

Reading section is not just how well you understand, but how efficiently you answer. So, be efficient, get a good band and live your dreams.