IELTS listening test how to pass easy steps colombo English classes

Important Exam Information

In order to score a Band 7+ in IELTS listening, you need to have a solid understanding of what is expected from you. Spending time understanding the exam format and question types will allow you to manage your time wisely and walk into the exam with confidence:

• The IELTS listening test lasts around 30 minutes.
• There are 40 questions in total. Each question carries 1 mark.
• The test is divided into 4 parts. The questions get progressively more difficult as the test goes on.
• Timing is key. For each part, you will have time to look at the questions before the recording begins and you will have time to check your answers at the end.
• You will be given 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet provided at the end of the test.
• Both General Training and Academic IELTS pupils take the same Listening exam.
• You only hear each recording only one time.
• The Listening passages get more difficult as you progress through the exam.
• There are a variety of questions types with which you must be familiar.
• You must stay very focused in order to answer questions well.
• You must also develop your skills at predicting answers by analyzing the questions.
• There are a range of English accents represented on the exam.
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 IELTS Listening Lessons

1.      Part 1 – Social context (2 speakers)

2.      Part 2 – Social context (1 speaker)

3.      Part 3 – Education/training (2-4 speakers)

4.      Part 4 – Academic context (1 speaker)

·        Passage 1: This is usually a conversation between two people. Typically, the conversation will involve a basic exchange of information. For example, someone might be placing an order over the phone, or confirming details for a reservation. The topic will be a daily-life situation.

·        Passage 2: This is usually a monologue (one person speaking). Passage two will also come from a common daily situation. For example, you might hear someone providing directions, or presenting basic information about a place or an event.

·        Passage 3: The topics become noticeably more challenging in Passage 3. This will be a conversation, often among several people, about an academic topic. You might hear a few students discussing something from class, or a professor providing feedback about an assignment, for example. Passage 3 is tougher because the vocabulary is more difficult, the topics are more complicated, and there are more speakers involved in the discussion.

·        Passage 4: This will be a lecture from a professor. It could cover any topic from a typical college course. You are not required to have specialized knowledge about the subject matter. However, the language will be difficult and the lecture will be complex. This is the toughest passage on the Listening exam for most students.

• Summary Completion Lesson

This lesson will help you prepare for the test by familiarising you with summary completion questions, giving you some tips and a chance to practice.

• Overview and Tips 

This is a good article to start with and will allow you to understand exactly what the test is and how you can use this site to improve your listening skills.

• Form Filling Question Tips

In the first section of the test, there is often a form filling question. Normally the answers will be one or two words long and will be factual information, such as phone numbers, dates and times.

• Multiple Choice Questions

This post will show you how to effectively answer multiple choice questions in the test. It will show you the three different types of multiple choice questions, look at common problems and give you tips and a strategy to help you on test day.

• Labelling a Map or Plan

This post will help you answer labelling map or plan IELTS questions more effectively by looking at common problems, useful language and giving you a strategy to use on test day.

IELTS Listening Tips

Tip #1: 

You will be given some time to read the questions before each recording is played. Read the questions very carefully as you will hear each recording only once, so you want to be familiar with the questions before you hear the recording

Tip #2:

As you listen, write your answers in your test booklet and then transfer them at the end of the listening test. You will be given 10 minutes to do this. Be sure to check that you have transferred your answers correctly and remember to check your spelling and grammar. Also, be sure to complete your answer sheet. An incomplete answer sheet means an incomplete score.

Tip #3:

Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything you hear. Listen out for the keywords from the questions and focus on what you need to be listening out for.

Tip #4:

If you miss a question, don’t dwell on it because you may miss the answer to the next one. So, if you miss one, move on.

Tip #5:

Make sure you follow the word count in the instructions of each question. For example, if the instructions say “write no more than one word” and you write “the train” instead of “train”, your answer will be marked as incorrect.

Tip #6:

There is no negative marking, so you will just get a zero for an incorrect or incomplete answer.

Tip #7:

Those are our IELTS Listening Tips! Always cross check your answers from your answer sheet to your listening booklet.

IELTS Listening: Strategy

Although each Listening question type has unique features, the basic approach to each one is the same. There are three things you must do for each set of questions you encounter:

1.     Analyze the questions

2.     Predict the answers

3.     Track questions and the speaker

IELTS Listening Strategies 1 and 2: Analyzing and Predicting

The first two steps require practice because you must be able to do both quickly during the actual exam. Before each recording, the IELTS gives you some time (30-40 seconds) to look at the questions in the next section. Some students use this time to check their answers from the previous section, but this is a big mistake. It is very important to study the upcoming questions. Remember, the best approach to IELTS Listening is to answer questions in your Question Booklet while you’re listening to the speaker. If you try to answer questions without looking at them first, there is a very good chance you’ll get lost and miss the information you need.

The best approach is to use your 30-40 seconds strategically. First, you should analyzethe question. Quickly determine:

·         What type of question is this? (Question types are discussed below)

·         How should you answer? Look at the directions, which will tell you whether your answer should be a letters, numbers, words, etc.

·         What are the keywords in the questions? Quickly underline words and phrases that seem most important in each question, keeping in mind that correct answers are almost always going to be paraphrases of these words. Underlining them helps you to focus your attention on what’s most important as you listen.

For example, you might encounter a Sentence Completion question that looks like this:

After the exam, Marcus scheduled a meeting with________________.

These keywords are the concepts you’ll listen for in the passage. As an example, you might hear something like this from the speaker to answer this question:

Marcus: “I feel so disappointed about the test yesterday. I met regularly with a study group to help me prepare and I thought I was ready. But I’ve decided to make an appointment with a tutor since I got such a poor grade. I guess I need more help.”

In the example above, the underlined keywords would help you remember that you need to find 1) who Marcus scheduled a meeting with 2) after the exam. He met with a study group before the exam, but he met with a tutor after he got his disappointing results. Underlining the keywords helps you to keep these concepts straight as you listen to the speaker.

This leads to the second goal during the 30-40 second period you have to examine the questions. This may seem like a lot to accomplish in such a short time, but the second goal is closely related to the first: make predictions.

Very often, when you are underlining key words as you analyze the question, you will come across very useful information that will help you make predictions about answers. For example, let’s take a look at the sentence completion question we just looked at above:

After the exam, Marcus scheduled a meeting with __(noun/person)___.

You could easily predict, based on the sentence alone, that you will need to listen for a noun because the sentence ends with the preposition “with.” Indeed, nouns typically follow prepositions. In fact, it would also be very reasonable to predict that you need to listen for a specific person’s name or a type of person. Since we know, simply based on the information in the sentence, that Marcus just finished an exam and he’s now scheduling a meeting, it would be a very good guess that he might schedule a meeting with someone who is going to offer help.

All of these things are predictions. You won’t know the answers until you actually listen to the passage. However, if you have a good sense of what to listen for based on your predictions, it is much easier to catch the answers while the speakers are talking.

Let’s try some more prediction, this time with a slightly more difficult example. Here are two IELTS Listening Multiple Choice questions. Without listening to the text, what do you think the answers will probably be?

39. If Americans had an extra day per week, they would spend it
A    working harder
B    building relationships
C    sharing family meals

40. Understanding how people think about time can help us

A    become more virtuous
B    work together better
C    identify careless or ambitious people

You won’t be able to guess the correct answer without listening to the passage. However, there is some very useful information in the questions that you can use to make predictions. For instance, a few of the answer choices relate to the topic of “relationships.” “Building relationships, sharing family meals, and working together better” all fall into this general category. You could predict that if the speaker focuses the discussion on the connection between “time” and personal “relationships,” the correct answers are likely to be one of these answer choices. These kinds of predictions can really help you make decisions when you’re listening closely for answers during the exam.

IELTS Listening Strategy 3: Track Questions and the Speaker

The final IELTS Listening strategy is called Tracking. Tracking is something you do while you listen to the recording, and it requires great focus and attention. Basically, your goal is to keep track of where the speaker is in the passage, and which question you should be answering in the Question Booklet at the same time.

Tracking works because IELTS Listening questions always provide contextual clues to help you know where you should be in the passage. Importantly, IELTS Listening questions also come in order. In other words, the speaker(s) will provide the answer to question 1 before you will hear the answer to question 2, and so on. Therefore, imagine you are filling in a set of notes based on a professor’s lecture for Section 4 of the Listening exam. In your Question Booklet, you will see the notes with blanks for the information you need to fill in. Tracking successfully in this task means that you will use the information in the notes to determine where the professor is in the lecture.

As you listen, you should focus on the question you’re trying to answer AND you should keep your eye on the next question as well. If you miss an answer to a question, you’ll know because the professor will be discussing something related to the next question, not the one you’re on. In this case, it is very likely that you missed an answer. While that can be frustrating, it is much worse to get completely lost as the speaker is talking. You will have to make a guess about the question you missed in this case. It is more important to continue tracking the speaker and the current question so you don’t get completely lost.

IELTS Listening: Question Types

QUESTION TYPE	OFFICIAL SAMPLE	NOTES
Short Answer	Sample task Recording	Remember to read the directions! You must follow the word/number requirements for short answer questions. Very often, you will have to find detailed information related to some category. For example, you might get a question like this: “What TWO types of tree cannot survive in a desert environment?” In this case, you should underline “type of tree cannot survive” as you analyze the questions before listening.
Multiple Choice	Sample task Recording	IELTS Multiple Choice questions only have 3 possible answers. Sometimes (but not frequently), there will be more than three answer choices. In this case, you will usually be instructed to choose more than one answer. You must remember to answer with LETTERS (A, B, or C) on your Answer Sheet. Don’t write the answer choice word(s)! Sometimes, you will only have 2-3 Multiple Choice questions in a section. Other times, there could be more (5 to 8). Treat Multiple Choice questions exactly like other question types. In the time provided before you listen to the passage, skim all of the questions and the answer choices to find keywords. Answers will come in order in the passage, so you need Track answers across all of the questions in the task you’re working on.
Form Completion	Sample task Recording	This is a common question type for Section 1 of the Listening exam (although it can come up in other sections too!). In this question type, you will fill out a form of some kind. Often, these are standard types of forms such as an application or an order form. The forms will include a lot of information you can use to make predictions before you listen. For example, most forms will have some kind of title at the top, or an indication of the kind of information to expect in the discussion. It is common to see blanks next to “Phone number” or “Address” on these forms, for instance. Use contextual clues on the form to track where the speakers are in their conversation as you follow along.
Sentence Completion	Sample task Recording	Sentence Completion questions are a form of Short Answer question. Therefore, it’s crucial to look to the directions for word and number counts. As the name suggests, this question type requires you to complete a sentence with a short answer at the end. The sentence will almost always be a paraphrase of something you’ll hear in the passage. In other words, don’t expect to hear a speaker say the exact sentence as it’s written in the question. The sentences will provide a lot of information to make predictions about the answers. In particular, it is often possible to gather information about the grammatical form of the answer (noun, verb, adjective, etc).
Plan/Diagram/Map Questions	Sample task Recording	These questions involve a visual of some kind, with missing labels that you will have to fill in based on what the speakers say. You can get a lot of clues by looking at the visual for these questions. For instance, if you are answering a Map Question, look at the location of the first question, and then look at the map to see where the following questions are located. This will give you clues about the order in which the visual will be described by the speaker. Study the Map further, and you will become familiar with the location of other items. For example, perhaps the map includes a statue, a restaurant, or some other landmark. Getting familiar with the Map, Plan, or Diagram before you listen to the speaker will help you get oriented.
Matching	Sample task Recording	Matching Questions usually involve listening for detailed information in the discussion. It is very important to look at the category of information that you will match to the answer choices. These will be lettered options that look like the example below: Within which timeframe will each event occur? Event Starting Times A 9:00 to 12:00 B 12:01 to 16:00 C 16:01 to 23:59 These choices may be presented inside a box, or as a list of items like the example above. In this example, you know that you will need to listen for the time certain events will occur. You will then have a list of times to “match” to the appropriate event. 1 Ceremony _____________ 2 Orientation ____________ 3 Registration ___________ When you analyze these questions before listening to the passage, make sure you understand the category of the lettered answer choices, and pay close attention to the order of the items you need to match in the questions. It is the questions (not the lettered answer choices) that will be presented in order within the passage. You will listen for each of these question items as you “track” answers in the passage.
Flow Chart Table Note Summary Completion	Note Completion example Recording	These question types look different, but they share a lot in common. They are often Short Answer questions, but you may also be presented with a list or a box with answer choices. Basically, you will need to fill in missing information based on the Listening passage. It is very important to look at each question number. Notice where it is located on the visual or summary and what the keywords are that surround it. You will need to “track” these keywords as you listen to the speaker. Question Descriptions:  A Flow Chart is a kind of visual that shows steps or stages in a process. You can expect that you will need to listen for the different stages of the process. A Table could be many things. Often, a table is used to categorize several things, so you will need to fill in missing information on the table. Notes Questions is a common question type for Passage 4, in which you will hear a lecture. You will have incomplete lecture notes that you need to fill in based on what the professor says. For Summary Questions, you will be presented with a paragraph of several sentences which summarize the listening passage. Like the other questions in this category, you need to fill in words that complete the summary based on what you hear.

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.