IELTS TIPS: READING

Following these IELTS tips will help ensure you finish the IELTS
Reading test with the highest possible number of correct
answers.
1. As with other modules, the first bit of advice
is to listen to the invigilator and read the
instructions on the question paper carefully.
2. When you receive the your question paper
DO NOT OPEN IT until instructed but, in the
meantime, read the instructions and check
that you have been given the correct paper
i.e. Academic or General Training.
3. Unlike the listening module there is no time
allocated to transferring your answers to
the answer sheet after the test. It is easy to
assume that, because the format of the
answer sheet is similar to the listening test,
you will be able to do this - don't be caught
out.
4. Some candidates prefer to answer all the
questions on the question paper and not
transfer them until they have finished. Our
advice would be to transfer your answers as
you go, or, at the very least, at the end of
each section. Time on the reading test is
tight. If you don't manage your time well you
could find that you don't have time to
transfer all your answers. This is a really bad
way to lose marks and we have seen it
happen.
5. The IELTS Reading module gets more difficult
as you progress, yet each answer has the
same mark. A good strategy would be to
work through the paper leaving questions
that you can't easily answer but transferring
those you can to the answer sheet. Once you
have gone through the paper, work through
your unanswered questions from the
beginning of the paper onwards so that you
do the easier questions first. If you can't find
an answer, guess.
6. In any case, be sure to read all the questions
for a section before you read the text. If you
know what the questions are before reading
the text, it will be much easier and quicker to
answer them. Remember that sometimes
questions are before the text, sometimes
after and sometimes before and after.
7. When you transfer your answer to the answer
sheet make sure you put your answer in the
correct place. You also need to be careful
about spelling and writing clearly. If your
answer is spelt incorrectly or isn't clear to the
examiner it will be marked wrong. There is
very little excuse for bad spelling on the
reading test as the correct spelling will
almost certainly be found in the text.
8. At the end of the test be sure you stop
writing and put your pencil down when told
to do so.
Q’s?
MORE TIPS...
1. Just having a very basic gist of what a text is
about before you start reading will make it
easier to understand. Looking at graphs,
tables and any illustrations will often give you
a good idea of the topic of the text. 
2. Remember - there is no transfer time for the
reading test. Make sure you put your answers
down on the answer sheet- not the question
paper. 
3. The reading test is designed to be general and
designed for people with a variety of
educational backgrounds. This means you
don't need any specialist knowledge to
understand any of the texts. However, some
readings may be more familiar than others.
4. If you are reading and answering texts out of
sequence, take special care to ensure you
don't write your answers in the wrong places
on the answer sheet.  
5. If you are not sure of the answer to a question,
it is natural to read text carefully to try to find
the answer. If you dwell on a question in this
way, you may run out of time. Remember, the
reading test is 60 minutes long and there are
40 questions. If you spend one minute of each
question that gives you 20 minutes to read a
lot of text. If you really can not find the answer
to a question easily, move on to the next
question. 
6. Although there is no grammar component to
the IELTS Test, grammar is important. As with
the listening test, you can predict possible
answers using the grammar of a question and
using the reading text to check which answer
is correct.
7. As with the listening test, do not deduce the
answer. This is especially true in True / False
Not given questions. The answers are in the
text, you do not need to work them out.
For example:

"The introduction of new government

policies gave people better lives: they had
jobs and more money to spend.“

Now look at the answer:

The introduction of new government policies

had positive long-term benefits on peoples'
lives. True / False / Not given
If people had jobs and more money, surely this is
better for them, and so it is natural to consider
this a 'true' statement. However, the key here
is 'long-term'. From the text, it is impossible to
say whether the new jobs lasted 20 years or
one day. If you don't make assumptions it is
impossible to answer question. As a result the
correct answer should be: NOT GIVEN.  
8. True / False / Not given questions are by far
the most difficult types of question to answer
as they are designed to trick people into
thinking about the answer and giving their
deduction as an answer. 
9. As with the listening test, in the IELTS reading test the words in
the questions are often not the words you will find in the
answer. As a result you have to look for synonyms of key
words as well as the actual keywords. Consider a word like
'correct' - among others, possible synonyms include:

Right, Accurate, Exact, Truthful, Spot on,

Proper , Acceptable , Accepted

Depending on the context, only some of these synonyms

might apply. You need to be aware of for these words as well
as the keywords you are looking for. In addition, consider
antonyms - words with the opposite meanings. A sentence
like 'It wouldn't be wrong' would mean 'correct' in certain
contexts. As you can see, you will need a fairly deep
understanding of vocabulary. 
10. If aren't going to finish, guess some of the
answers. It is surprising how many examinees
leave multiple choice answers blank because
they don't know the answer. If you have the
choice of A, B, C or D, you have a 20% chance
of getting the question right so just put one of
the answers in!
11. If you really don't know the answer to a
True / False / Not given question, and you
want to guess the answer, DON'T choose
"Not given" - it's the least frequent answer.
12. You might get a text with masses and
masses of long, complicated words. Very
often these words are key to the meaning of a
sentence and therefore key to answering a
question. However, equally often these words
are unnecessary - they are adjectives or
adverbs that provide greater description
rather than play a part in meaning. If you start
focusing on words you don't understand, you
will run out of time. If the some words are too
difficult, ignore them.
13. If you get a text with a lot of dates, circle
them as you go along - chances are the dates
are going to be important. If you circle them
you can find them again easily. 
 
16. Likewise with names; even if there aren't a
lot of names, circle the ones you find so you
can find them again easily. 
 
17. Don't worry about writing on the question
paper if you need to.  
14. The biggest tip of all: READ A LOT. Every
day read something. The more you read the
easier it will be. Study the sentence structure
and punctuation of what you read, but most
of all, try to grasp the ideas in what you read.
Look at a piece of writing and write down
some predictions about what the reading will
be about. As you read check off these
predictions - which ones were right and which
ones wrong? 
15. If you are really running out of time leave all
the True / False / Not given and Multiple
Choice questions until the end because you
don't have to read anything to answer them. 
Q’s?