Understanding the IELTS Reading test &

Maximizing your score

“The IELTS reading test is a game; if you want to win the game,
you must know the rules”

Presented by NNPVy
Mail: nnpvy@dthu.edu.vn
Tel: 0925 310 040
Foreign Languages Faculty - Dong Thap Uni

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Objectives
By the end of the course, you will:

1 2 3
have a better understanding be able to identify your problems get to know some useful
of the IELTS reading test and know how to fix them techniques to maximize your score

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 Test overview
Overview (60 minutes – 40 questions) Skills tested Question types
Passage 1 Passage 2 Passage 3 • Skim (Reading for Matching
gist) • headings
13 questions 14 questions 13 questions • Scan (Reading for • information
800-900 words/passage details) • features
• Intensive • sentence endings
R Types of texts: Reading Completion (Filling in
• Factual texts (Reading for blanks)
E • Descriptive texts comprehension) • note
• Discursive texts • sentence
A • Argumentative texts • table
• diagram
D Easy Medium Difficult • summary
I • flow-chart
Passage 1 6 5 2 Identifying
Passage 2 5 5 4 • facts (T/F/NG)
N • opinions (Y/N/NG)
Passage 3 3 5 5 Others:
G • short answers
No. of correct 15 30 40
answers and • multiple choice
raw scores • multiple options
5.0 7.0 9.0

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 Test overview
The IELTS Reading test is designed for non-specialist candidates, which means you do not need to be a medical
student to be able to read the passage about medicine. It is also true for other fields such as technology and
psychology.

It is designed to test your reading skills only. There are three main reading subskills that you need to master to
get a high score:
 Skimming – Read the passage/paragraph quickly to get its main idea(s)

 Scanning – Read the passage/paragraph quickly to find details

 Intensive reading – Read the passage/paragraph carefully for detailed understanding
 making inference
 making conclusion
 reasoning
 argumentation
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 Test overview

Different types of questions require different subskills to answer. In other words, you DON’T
use the same subskills to answer all question types.

E.g.
Matching headings with paragraphs: Skimming
Sentence Completion: Scanning
True / False / Not given: Scanning & Intensive reading

If you apply the same skills to all question types, you may fail to finish your test in 60 minutes.

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Common problems
What makes IELTS Reading difficult to you?

Send your thoughts to the chat box.

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 Common problems
• It takes me a lot of time to read and understand what I read.
Speed • I read a sentence, then I forget what I have read, so I have to read
reading it again.
• I do not have enough time to read all 3 passages.
• There are so many new words that I do not understand.
Language • I have to stop and read the sentences over again because they
contain complex grammatical structures.
• There are so many types of question, and I do not know how to
deal with each.
Test • I can understand the passages but fail to answer the questions – I
understanding don’t know why.
• I do a lot of practice tests but my score is the same every time.
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 Speed reading
Screen Paper Comprehension Reader profile
100 wpm 110 wpm 50% insufficient reader
200 wpm 240 wpm 60% average reader
300 wpm 400 wpm 80% good reader
700 wpm 1000 wpm 85% excellent reader

Research shows that reading is around 25% slower from a computer screen than from paper.

There are a number of ways you can do to increase your reading speed:
increase field of sight
eliminate visual regression
reduce subvocalization

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Speed reading
There are a number of ways you can do to increase your reading speed:
increase field of sight (read in chunks)

https://effectivelearninglab.com/how-to-read-faster/
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Speed reading
There are a number of ways you can do to increase your reading speed:
eliminate visual regression
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.
Visual regression is a hindrance to speed reading.

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Speed reading
There are a number of ways you can do to increase your reading speed:
reduce subvocalization

VISUAL MEANING VISUAL MEANING

VOICE ACCOUSTIC VOICE ACCOUSTIC

SLOW READER FAST READER

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Language (vocabulary)
 Passive vocabulary is the words you can recognize and understand, but can’t come up
with on your own when writing and speaking
 Active vocabulary is the words that you can think of and use right away when you’re
in the process of writing and speaking.

The active and passive vocabulary of a learner changes constantly. They start using words,
try new meanings, forget words, abandon words that have no use, revise words, etc.
Advanced learners often have an extremely large passive vocabulary but a considerably
smaller active one.
Passive Active
vocabulary vocabulary
✅

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Expand your vocabulary

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 Expand your vocabulary

https://quizlet.com/class/13789084/

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 Language (grammar)
‘There is a lot of evidence showing the importance of grammar in reading
comprehension. Studies over the years have shown a clear relationship
between syntactic or grammatical sophistication and reading comprehension;
that is, as students learn to employ more complex sentences in their oral and
written language, their ability to make sense of what they read increases,
too.’
Professor Timothy Shanahan, University of Illinois, Chicago

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 Language (grammar)

Read this sentence for 30 seconds and see if you are confused about its meaning.
The women of Montgomery, both young and older, would come in with their fancy
holiday dresses that needed adjustments or their Sunday suits and blouses that
needed just a touch - a flower or some velvet trimming or something to make the
ladies look festive.
(44 words)

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Language (grammar)

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 Language (grammar)

Baekeland's invention, although treated with disdain in its early years, went on to
enjoy an unparalleled popularity which lasted throughout the first half of the
twentieth century.
(Cambridge IELTS 5, Reading Test 2, Passage 1)

Choose True, False or Not Given for this statement.

Bakelite was immediately welcomed.

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 Language (grammar)

clauses (dependent clauses & independent clauses)

simple sentence
compound sentence
complex sentence
compound-complex sentence

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 Work out the meaning of a word based on contexts
Read the sentences below and guess the meaning of the underlined words.
1 - While Howey’s business focuses on serving wealthy customers, his brother’s making
products and services for the lenish.
2 - During the time Jack lived with his grandparents, he got himself familiar with
gardening skills such as choosing the type of seed, watering, fretting, and using
fertilizers.
3 - My cousin has vast knowledge in geography. Besides remembering where every
country is on the world’s map, he has a great understanding of every continent’s
appires, oceans, and mountains.
4 - The first half of the game witnessed the domination of the away team, but it all
changed after the break, as United totally obsized the game.
5 - A German car brand is making attempts in producing cars running on recontible
sources of energy, with the hope of solving the problem of climate change.
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Test understanding – Question types
NO. TYPES OF QUESTION NOTE SKILLS NEEDED
1 Short-answer questions Questions in order Scanning
2 Multiple choice / Multiple options Questions in order Scanning + IR/Skiming
3 Identifying facts – TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN Questions in order Scanning + IR
4 Identifying opinions – YES / NO / NOT GIVEN Questions in order Scanning + IR
5 Sentence Questions in order Scanning
6 Note, table, flow-chart Questions in order Scanning
Completion
7 Diagram X Scanning
8 Summary with given words X Scanning + IR
9 Summary with words from the passage Questions in order Scanning
10 Features X Scanning + IR
11 Matching Information X Scanning + IR
12 Sentence endings Questions in order Scanning + IR
13 Headings X Skimming
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 Test understanding - Scanning
Scanning helps with finding specific details (e.g. completion tasks) or locating
information before answering a question (e.g. T/F/NG).
If you do scanning to locate information, you should look for words in the
questions that cannot be paraphrased in the text. These words are called
‘keywords’.

>>> How many types of keyword can you think of?

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 Test understanding - Scanning

Four types of keywords:

Proper names (people, places, etc.)
Numbers (date, quantity, etc.)
Terminologies (tuberculosis, cardiovascular, carbon dioxide, etc.)
Quotes (words extracted from the text with “ ”)

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 Test understanding - Scanning Identify keywords in the statement 1-7.

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALS if the statement contradicts the information
E if there is no information on this
NOT
1. GIVE
Polar bears suffer from various health problems due to the build-up of fat under their skin.
N
2. The study done by Liu and his colleagues compared different groups of polar bears.
3. Liu and colleagues were the first researchers to compare polar bears and brown bears
genetically.
4. Polar bears are able to control their levels of 'bad' cholesterol by genetic means.
5. Female polar bears are able to survive for about six months without food.
6. It was found that the bones of female polar bears were very weak when they
came out of their dens in spring.
7. The polar bear's mechanism for increasing bone density could also be used by people
one day.
Cambridge 16, page 18 @nnpvy
 Test understanding - Question distribution
Easy Difficult
1. 1.
2. 2.
Paragraphs 1, 2, 3 Paragraphs 1, 5, 10
3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5.
6. 6.
Paragraphs 2, 4, 9,
7. 7.
Paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7
8. 8.
9. 9.
10. 10.
11. 11. Paragraphs 3, 6, 7, 8
12. Paragraphs 8, 9, 10 12.
13. 13.

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 Test doing procedure
TIME TASK DESCRIPTION NOTE
60 minutes do the test time yourself while doing the you should have an answer sheet. You
test as if you were in the real can download it from ielts.org
test room

60 minutes (*) correct the test and track make sure you understand you should have a record, which I call
your progress why you get it wrong for ‘progress tracking’, to note down your
some of the answers mistakes and track your progress

3-4 hours (*) make notes of new  as discussed in previous slides

words  choose a suitable vocabulary learning method

(*) how much time should be spent on these two tasks varies from one person to another

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Progress tracking

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 Study material
Online resources
(Authentic English)

Authentic tests

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