IELTS General Reading Training In Detail step by step classes colombo sri lanka band score 9

IELTS General Training Reading Tips

IELTS General Training Reading Test comprises of three sections. The texts in these sections are taken from notices, advertisements, leaflets, newspapers, instruction manuals, books or magazines. You will find in IELTS General Reading practice tests that the difficulty level of the text increases with each section.

Duration	Sections	Version
60 minutes	3	General Training	Download Answer Sheet

• Section 1: It may consist of two or more short texts. These texts usually contain factual information. For example, advertisement for a restaurant or sports centre facilities.
• Section 2: It may consist of two texts of more complex language than Section 1. These texts are based on 'workplace survival'. For example, pay schemes, work conditions or contract.
• Section 3: It consists of a long text and is usually the toughest among the previous texts. This text revolves around 'general reading'. For example, passages taken from magazines, fictional or non-fictional books.

IELTS General Reading test comprises of 40 questions. Each question is worth 1 mark. These question types differ in order to assess your reading skills. However, these question types are same as the IELTS General Academic Test.

Question Type 1 – Multiple Choice

This is a traditional question type with which you are probably very familiar. You will be asked to select the correct answer to a question from a set of choices. IELTS Reading Multiple Choice questions can test a variety of things. Some will focus on details, while others focus on main ideas. As with other question types, you should look for keywords in the questions and the answer choices before you scan the passage for answers. You will be given a part of the sentence and will be asked to complete it. Or a complete question will be provided for which you are supposed to select the best suitable answer from the given options. You are required to choose either

• One answer from four alternatives (A, B, C or D)
• Two answers from five alternatives (A, B, C, D or E)
• Three answers from seven alternatives (A, B, C, D, E, F or G)

The questions asked are in the same order as the information provided in the passage.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to understand particular points or overall idea of the passage

Question Type 2 – Identifying Information [True/False/Not Given]

True/False/Not Given questions can be very tricky. These questions consist of several statements. You need to decide whether each one is TRUE according to the passage. This means that the information in the question statement agrees with information in the text. However, if the question statement contradicts something found in the passage, you must mark the answer FALSE.

A third option is also possible. If the information in the question statement cannot be found in the article (the article does not say whether the statement is true or false), you must mark NOT GIVEN. This is tough! It is very easy to waste a lot of time searching for something that is, in fact, not there.

Try your best not to spend excessive time on these questions. If you can’t find an answer after you’ve searched for it thoroughly in the article, mark NOT GIVEN and move on. You don’t want to lose easier points because you spent too much time looking for an answer that might not be there at all, In this question type, you will be given a set of statements. The question will be: 'Do the following statements agree with the information in the text?'. Then, you need to write your answer as 'True', 'False' or 'Not Given'.

Be clear about the difference between 'False' and 'Not Given'.

'False' – Passage states the opposite of the statement.

'Not Given' – The information in the statement is not mentioned in the passage.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to recognise the information conveyed in the passage

Question Type 3 – Identifying Writer's Claims/Views

Yes/No/Not Given questions are almost exactly the same as True/False/Not Given questions. The difference is that they focus on ideas, not facts. Yes/No/Not Given questions are common for reading passages that present an author’s opinions or perspectives. Your job will be to say whether the statements in the questions agree (YES) or disagree (NO) with what the author states in the essay. If the information isn’t discussed directly, you must answer NOT GIVEN. You will be given a number of statements. The question will be: 'Do the following statements agree with the views/claims of the writer?'. You are required to answer in 'Yes', 'No' or 'Not Given'.

Be clear about the difference between 'No' and 'Not Given'.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to identify the ideas and opinions of the writer

Question Type 4 – Matching Information

In this question type, you are supposed to match the information given in the question with the information found in one of the paragraphs in the passage. The passage contains lettered paragraphs (A, B, C, …). So, what you are required to do is write the letter of the correct paragraph on the answer sheet.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to scan a text to find specific information

Question Type 5 – Matching Headings

This type of question asks you to match a list of “headings” to each paragraph in the passage. A correct heading captures the main idea of one paragraph in the text. Usually, there are some extra headings in your list which do not work with any of the paragraphs. These extra headings typically do not represent the text accurately, or (commonly!) they represent a minor idea found within one of the paragraphs.

To get a headings question correct, you must find the heading that articulates the main idea of a paragraph. Sometimes, you can find the main idea in the first sentence or two. This is definitely a good place to look first. But don’t stop reading after the first two sentences as you try to answer these questions. Scan the remainder of each paragraph to confirm that the heading represents everything contained in the paragraph in a general way.

A list of headings with lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, …) and a passage with lettered paragraphs (A, B, C, …) is given. You must match the heading to the correct paragraph. You need to write appropriate Roman numerals in the box on the answer sheet. The number of headings will always be more than the number of paragraphs.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to recognise the main idea or theme of a particular paragraph

Question Type 6 – Matching Features

This type of matching question presents you with a list of items in a box. These items will be categorized in some way. For example, they may be the names of people or cities. Of course, each item will be mentioned in the reading passage as well. Your job is to match phrases or sentences in the questions with the appropriate items listed in the box. If the box includes a list of people mentioned in the article, then the questions may ask you to match statements with the person who said them.

Frequently, some choices in the box will not relate to any of the questions, and some choices will be used more than once. The directions will always tell you whether you may use an answer choice more than one time.

Try to scan the passage for answers to each question, rather than using the items in the box to direct your scanning. This is because some answer choices in the box may not relate to any of the questions, you might waste a lot of time scanning for information that doesn’t answer any of your questions.

This type of question asks you to match information from a list with one of the paragraphs in the passage. Matching Information questions can be very tricky because you need to search for details. To answer them correctly, you need to find the paragraph that contains the information presented in the question. As always, this information will be paraphrased, so don’t look for the exact wording in the text. Search for the same idea

In this question type, you need to match a set of statements or a piece of information to the list of options given. The options are group of features from the passage. For example, you need to match different events to historical periods. It might be possible that some options will not be used while some may be used more than once.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to determine relationships and connections between facts

Question Type 7 – Match Sentence Endings

For these questions, you will have to match two halves of a sentence. The question will provide the first part of the sentence. You will have to select an appropriate ending to the sentence from a list of options. Like other matching questions, it is common to have extra answer choices that do not answer any of the questions. Keep in mind, correct answers must:

1. be grammatically correct.
2. make sense logically.
3. agree with the information in the reading passage.

Sometimes, you can easily determine that a few answer choices won’t work with some of the questions because they create ungrammatical or illogical sentences when combined. However, this only works to eliminate a few combinations. To get the correct answer, you will have to search for information in the text to confirm that your combined sentence agrees with the passage.

An important feature of these questions is that the answers will come in order in the passage. In other words, if you find an answer to question 3 first, you will know that the answers to questions 1 and 2 will be found somewhere before the information for question 3 in the passage.

First half of the sentence will be provided. You need to complete the sentence by choosing the best from a list of possible options. The number of options will be more than the number of sentences. The questions are in the same order as the information appear in the text.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to understand the main idea within the sentence

Question Type 8 – Sentence Completion

Sentence Completion questions and Short Answer questions are very similar. Sentence Completion questions ask you to fill in a blank at the end of a sentence with some words taken from the text. Short Answer questions also require you to choose some words from the text for your answer, but the words you need to fill in aren’t located at the end of a sentence. Typically, you simply need to answer a question about the text for regular Short Answer questions.

It is very important to read the directions carefully each time. The directions will state a word limit. For example, they will say you should write “NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS and/or a NUMBER” for your answer. Some questions limit you to ONE or TWO words. If you exceed the limit, you will miss the question, so pay close attention to word limits.

On these questions, the answers will come in order in the passage. When you find a correct answer, you’ll know that the answer to the next question will come later in the text.

In this question type, you are asked to complete the sentence with specific number of words. The instructions give you a clear idea about the number of words you need to write. It may be 'one word', 'two/three words', 'no more than three words/a number' and so on. Read the instructions carefully before noting down your answers. If you write more than required words, you will lose marks.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to locate specific information from the passage

Question Type 9 – Summary, Note, Table, Flowchart Completion

This type of question asks you to complete a set of notes, a table, a diagram, or a summary with information from the text. Sometimes, this will be a Short Answer question. Other times, you will choose from a set of answers in a box or from a list.

Very often, the answers to these questions can be found in one portion of the reading passage, so it is very likely you won’t have to scan the entire text to fill in the necessary information.

Diagram label completion questions are usually associated with hard sciences, especially biology. On the exam, you’ll often label the body parts of an animal, a diagram of an ecosystem, or other biology-related infographics.

In this question type, you need to fill in the gap in the summary, note, table or flowchart in context to the passage. You either have to select your answer from a list of options or choose words from the passage. It is not necessary that the answers appear in the same order as given in the passage.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to identify the main idea of the passage and the type of words that fits into the gap

Question Type 10 – Diagram Label Completion

A labelled diagram with respect to the description in the text will be given. You are supposed to complete those labels. The diagram may be some type of machine, parts of building or other objects that can be easily represented pictorially.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to relate the information in the text to the labels in the diagram

Question Type 11 – Short-Answer Questions

In this question type, you need to answer questions regarding the details mentioned in the passage. The details mainly relate to some factual information. You must write your answers on the answer sheet in words/numbers as per the given instructions.

Skills Assessed

• Ability to understand and locate the information given in the passage

General Tips

• Pay attention to the number of words you can use in your answer
• Skimming and Scanning is a must-have skill to score well in IELTS General Training Reading
• Grab keywords to spot the right answer
• Increase your range of Vocabulary
• Make correct use of Grammar & Spelling while noting down the answers on the answer sheet

IELTS General reading practice test can provide you an interface about the type of questions asked in the actual IELTS Test. Practise rigorously and acquire success!

IELTS Reading Tips: Keys to Success

All of the information in this section applies to both the Academic and General Training IELTS Reading exams. Let’s start with some important keys to success:

Pacing

Pacing is critical in order to do well on the IELTS Reading paper. This is especially true for the Academic IELTS, but it also applies to the General Training Reading exam. Sixty minutes is not a lot of time get through all of the passages and answer 40 questions. Since each question is worth the same amount of points (1), it makes most sense to divide the 3 sections equally—spending 20 minutes per section.

Instead of reading each passage carefully, it works much better for most people to “skim” the Reading passages. This is something we will discuss in detail in the “Strategy” section of this post below. I advise my students to spend 3 to 5 minutes quickly skimming the passage before looking at the questions. That leaves 15 to 17 minutes to study the questions and find answers in the text.

Note: Unlike the Listening exam, you do not have an extra 10 minutes to transfer answers from your Test Booklet to your Answer Sheet. On the Reading paper, you need to record all of your final answers on the Answer Sheet within 60 minutes.

Scoring

Scoring is fairly simple on the Reading section. Each question is worth 1 point, so you can achieve a “raw” score of up to 40 points. From there, IELTS converts your “raw” score into your Band score. You can find a basic band score conversion table on the official IELTS website. However, keep in mind that each version of the IELTS is slightly different. The tables can give you a general idea about how “raw” Reading scores are converted to band scores.

It is also important to keep in mind that the hardest questions and the easiest questions count equally towards your final Reading score. Therefore, if you’re struggling to finish all of the questions within 60 minutes, make sure you’re not losing out on easier points because you get stuck on hard questions. Sometimes, you simply won’t understand a question or a segment within a passage fully. Other times, no matter how hard you try, you won’t find an answer in the text. If this happens, just make your best guess and move on so you don’t miss out on easier points later in the test! You can always return to a difficult question later if you have spare time at the end.

Vocabulary

The more vocabulary you know, the easier the IELTS Reading exam will be for you. Vocabulary is very, very important if you’re aiming for a high Band score. As you prepare for the exam, make sure to study new words regularly. Your goal should be to learn 15 to 20 new words each day.

Also, try to read in English regularly (15 to 20 minutes per day at least!). It’s an excellent idea to keep a vocabulary journal as you read. Record new and unfamiliar words, and then define each one with a synonym or short definition. Keep it simple. You should return to your list a few times each week to review, focusing attention on terms you have difficulty remembering. Additionally, Magoosh offers a Vocabulary Flashcard app and a Vocabulary PDF word list for the IELTS. (Bonus: They’re both free!) No matter how you prefer to review vocabulary, study a little bit every day!

Focus on the Directions

Attention to detail is very important on the IELTS Reading paper. Unfortunately, too many test-takers lose points unnecessarily because they don’t pay close attention to the directions. The directions for each task will tell you how to mark answers on your Answer Sheet. For example, some questions require numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc), while others require letters (A, B, C, etc). Short Answer questions are even more complicated. The directions may say something like, “Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.”

Each set of questions will have its own instructions telling you how to mark your answers. As you practice, get into the habit of looking at these instructions every time. You don’t want to miss points because you didn’t notice a key detail in the directions.

IELTS Reading Tips: Strategy

The IELTS Reading exam is probably different than the English reading tests you’ve taken in school. Most of the time, reading exams involve carefully reading a passage from beginning to end, and then answering comprehension questions about it. In theory, this is also what you should do on the IELTS Reading paper.

In practice, this approach doesn’t work very well for most people. The reason is simple—there simply isn’t enough time on the IELTS Reading paper to read each passage slowly and carefully AND answer all of the questions. This is especially true on the Academic IELTS, where you only have 60 minutes to read 3 long and complex passages. On the General Training IELTS, it may be possible to read each passage carefully if you are a proficient reader. Nevertheless, I still recommend a different approach. Try these strategies as you practice:

Strategy 1: Skim each passage for 3 to 5 minutes before looking at the questions.

Learning to skim a passage effectively can save you a lot of time. To skim, simply look over each paragraph quickly, but in a strategic way. You should read the first line or two of each paragraph normally, but then you should go over the rest much faster. As you skim, you’re trying to notice words that stand out because they seem important. This helps you to get the “gist,” or the basic sense of each paragraph.

The ultimate goal of skimming is to notice things in the text that will help you answer questions. You may find people’s names, or important dates. You may also figure out how a passage is organized.

For example, imagine you are reading a historical text. Often, historical passages are organized chronologically, from the beginning of a time period to the end. Skimming effectively will help you to notice this organizational pattern, and this knowledge will most likely help you to find answers to questions more quickly. Any time you get a question that includes a date or time reference, you’ll know where to look because you’ve skimmed the passage effectively.

Here is a summary of the key skimming techniques you should master:

1. Notice the title of the passage. It often gives you a general idea about the main idea of the text.
2. Read the first sentence or two of each paragraph. Often, this is where the main idea of each paragraph is located.
3. Underline words that stand out to you as important. This will help you get a general idea of what is being talked about.
4. Pick out words that have something in common (i.e., airports, passengers, lounge, fly).
5. Ignore words that you do not know. Focusing on words that are unfamiliar to you will slow you down.
6. At all times, try not to get caught up in the detail when you skim!

Below is an extract from an IELTS Reading passage. Some of the words are in boldafter applying the techniques above. This can help you see how the key information jumps off the page when you incorporate skimming.

Now try it yourself! Just read the bold parts and ignore everything else. Can you tell what the passage is mainly about? Could you take a guess at the main idea of each paragraph?

Strategies 2 and 3: As you skim, underline keywords in the text andwrite short notes as reminders in the text.

Strategies 2 and 3 work together with the skimming strategy above. Basically, the goal of “underlining” and taking “notes” as you skim is that this helps you remember what you learned when you go to answer questions. It’s very simple. Here’s what you should do:

As you skim, quickly underline each word that seems important in your Question Booklet (which contains your Reading passage). In other words, don’t just skim with your eyes. Use your pencil to underline things that stand out as you skim the passage.

Secondly, as you skim, quickly write very short notes (2-5 words) next to each paragraph with your best guess about the main idea of that paragraph. You don’t have to be comprehensive or even 100% right about your “guess” in order for it to be useful.To be sure, if you had time to read the paragraph carefully, you could almost certainly come up with very good and accurate summary notes. But you might be surprised how close you can come to the main idea of each paragraph just from skimming.

For example, take another look at the IELTS Reading passage from Strategy 1:

Just by focusing on the words in bold, could you write a few notes next to both paragraphs with your best guess about each one’s main idea? Try it, and then look at the examples provided immediately below.

Here are some example notes:

• For paragraph B: Amount of helium in Atmosphere
• For paragraph C: Uses of Helium

These simple notes can be incredibly valuable. Many questions ask you to find the main idea of a paragraph, like you must do for “Matching Headings” questions (which we’ll look at closely later in this post). Your underlined words and notes can even help you with detail questions by providing clues about where to search for answers in the text.

Strategy 4: Study the questions, noting keywords, and SCAN the text strategically for answers

After you’ve thoroughly skimmed the text, you’re ready to turn to the questions. Each question type is slightly different, so you’ll have to vary your approach in some ways for each new set of questions. However, the strategy discussed in this section applies to them all. The basic concept is simple: First, read the questions carefully and look for keywords. Then, you scan the passage for answers.

When you look for keywords in the questions, you should underline the most important ones. This may sound like a lot of extra work, but it really shouldn’t require a lot of time. As you read, simply use your pencil to mark up the questions.

These keywords provide the concepts for which you’ll need to search in the passage. As you’re probably aware, IELTS questions almost never use the same language as the actual reading passage (except for incorrect answer choices!). Instead, the questions will be paraphrases of information found in the article. This is one way the IELTS tests your vocabulary.

Paraphrases will be synonyms or different forms of words found in the text. A paraphrase could also be an entire sentence that conveys the same meaning as a sentence in the passage, while using different words and sentence structures. When you underline keywords in the questions, you’re identifying the IDEAS you need to search for in the passage.

Use a strategic approach when you scan the reading passage for answers. It’s best to begin with questions that have keywords you think you can find easily in the text. When you answer questions that are “easy” to locate, you will learn a little more about what is contained in the Reading passage because you had to read some segments closely to confirm your answers. This process continues with each question you answer. It is possible (and fairly common!) to find an answer to a different question than the one you’re searching for at that moment.

What makes one question easier to scan for in the text than another? Perhaps a question stands out to you because you remember seeing the topic in the text when you skimmed, underlined, and took notes at the very beginning. But there are some other things that can make an answer easier to find by scanning. For example, numbers and proper nouns like names or locations often stand out visually in a text. A date like 1950, and the names Jane Smith and New York City would be very easy to locate among other words. Once you find the words you’re looking for, read the surrounding sentences carefully to find the answer to your question.