IELTS READING TEST - READING SKILLS

Good reading skills are vital for academic studies. The IELTS exam test your ability to use a variety of reading skills. You have one hour to answer questions on three reading passages, so it is important to identify which skills are being tested in each question and to apply them appropriately.

IELTS READING TEST - GENERAL POST

Below are lots of resources to help you prepare for the IELTS reading test.

IELTS READING TEST - SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

This post will help you answer short answer questions more effectively by looking at a sample question, identifying common problems and giving you a strategy to use on exam day.

Short Answer Questions

These questions are often called ‘comprehension’ questions and they are very common in English classrooms all over the world. Most students have answered these kinds of questions before and for this reason most students tend to do quite well with them.

Despite this there are some common problems that cause students to make mistakes and throw away marks.

IELTS READING TEST - MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

This article will help you answer multiple choice questions more effectively. Your job is to simply choose the correct answer from a list of possible choices.

IELTS READING TEST - SUMMARY COMPLETION QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

In these kinds of questions you will be given a summary of information from the text and there will be some gaps in that summary.

You will either be given a list of words to fill the gaps with or asked to find the answers in the reading text. Your job is to insert some of the words from the list into the gaps, or if asked, to fill the gaps with words from the text. There will be more words in the list than required to fill the gaps.

IELTS READING TEST - MATCHING SENTENSE ENDINGS QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

In this IELTS reading question you will be given a list of incomplete sentences with no endings and another list with possible endings. Your job is to match the incomplete sentences with the correct ending based on the reading text.

This is not one of the more common questions but should be studied all the same. You are being tested on your understanding of how the ideas in the sentences are connected to the main ideas in the reading text.

IELTS READING TEST - SENTENCE COMPLETION QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

In this kind of question you will be given a number of sentences with gaps in them and asked to complete the sentences with words from the reading text.

These questions are as much vocabulary tests as they are reading tests because they require you to be aware of paraphrasing (using different words to repeat a sentence so that it has the same meaning) and synonyms (words with the same or very similar meanings). 

IELTS READING TEST - TRUE (YES), FALSE (NO), NOT GIVEN QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

‘True, False, Not Given’ questions requires you to identify if information in a text is true or not. You will be given a number of factual statements and you have to check in the text if they are true or not. This is probably the most difficult question on the reading paper.

IELTS READING TEST - MATCHING HEADINGS WITH PARAGRAPHS QUESTIONS TIPS ANS STRATEGY

This article will help you match headings with paragraphs more effectively in the IELTS reading test. In the IELTS reading test you may be asked to match headings to sections of text (paragraphs). This type of question tests your ability to understand the main idea of each paragraph.

IELTS READING TEST - LABELING A DIAGRAM QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

On the IELTS reading test you might get a question that asks you to label a diagram. This post will:

- show you examples

- look at common problems

- give you tips

- provide you with a strategy for answering these questions.

IELTS READING TEST - MATCHING NAMES WITH STATEMENTS QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

In this type of question you are asked to match someone’s name, normally an expert, researcher or scientist, to a statement.

You are given a list of names and a list of statements. Your job is to read the text and then match the names with the correct statement. The reading text will tell you what that person has said or done (normally research findings) and this will guide you to the correct answer.

IELTS READING TEST - MATCHING STATEMENTS (INFORMATION) TO PARAGRAPHS QUESTIONS TIPS AND STRATEGY

In this kind of question you are asked to match statements to paragraphs in the reading text. The statements could be reasons, descriptions, summaries, definitions, facts or explanations. What they are doesn’t really matter. 

You are not expected to have specialist knowledge in the reading test. You do not need to understand what the whole paragraph is about, just find specific information in the paragraph and match it to one of the statements. The answer will normally be contained in a whole phrase or sentence, rather than a single word.

IELTS READING TEST - VOCABULARY (A SECRET TO GETTING 9 BAND)

Let me tell you a secret. The IELTS reading test is not really a reading test. Sure you need to use reading skills like skimming and scanning but, lots of people have done really well on the IELTS test without practicing these skills.

IELTS READING TEST - OVERVIEW AND READING TIPS

These are the 10 IELTS reading tips I share with all of my IELTS classes. First, let’s look at an overview so we can understand what the reading paper is about.

IELTS READING TEST - READING SPEED

Do you know how many words you will have to read on the IELTS reading test? About 900! When you think about having to answer 40 questions, in an hour, in a foreign language, it seems impossible. Don’t worry, there are lots of ways you can improve both your exam technique and reading skills, so that you will not only finish the exam, but also do really well.

Many students fail to finish the IELTS reading test because they read at a very slow pace. The two main reasons for this are poor exam technique and slow reading speed.

IELTS READING TEST - SKIMMING AND SCANNING

Skimming and scanning are two of the most misunderstood and misused skills in the whole IELTS test. Most students think they know what they are and when to use them, but many use them incorrectly or innapropriately.

In my Facebook group, lots of students ask how to improve their reading score and most of the time, other students simply state ‘Skimming and Scanning’. They are important, but this simplistic approach will not really help you.