Best IELTS reading strategies Suitable for computer-based exam Contact author for additional information on educational practice tests shivajaafari@gmail.com

1. IELTS READING
ACADEMIC MODULE:
Tips and Strategies
Preparation for computer-based exam

2. IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is the world’s most
popular English language proficiency test for study, work and migration. IELTS is for
non-native English language speakers and tests the ability to listen, read, write and speak
in English. It is scored on a nine-band scale, with each band corresponding to a specified
competence in English from 1 (the non-user) to 9 (the expert user). There is no pass or
fail but most of the academic institutes or universities accept the score band above 6
(competent user) or 7 (good user) and compared to CEFR it stands for B2 to C1 levels.
Exam Format:
You will get 40 questions and 60 minutes;
consist of 3 long passages.
You need to answer 30 questions out of 40
correctly in order to get a band 7.

3. Question Types:
1. Matching Headings
2. Matching Information
3. Matching features
4. Match sentence endings
5. Multiple Choice or choose two letters or five letters
6. Plan, map, diagram labeling
7. Sentence Completion
8. Summary, form, table, flow chart completion
9. Short –answer questions
10. TRUE-FALSE-NOT GIVEN
11. YES-NO-NOT GIVEN

4. Time management:
The main strategies for IELTS exam is time management so
learners should have practiced the speed reading and go
directly to the questions first and then to the text; there is no
time to waste. Many references suggest to allocate 17
minutes to passage 1, 18 minutes to passage 2, and 25
minutes to passage 3 which is considered to be more
difficult.
General strategies:

5. Skimming and Scanning skills: In IELTS exam it is important to
identify the location of the question in the text which can be done by
scanning and matching the key words of the question with the
synonyms or paraphrased sentences in the text and then analyze and
decide what the answer is. It is called Intensive reading, reading slowly
and looking for details. Skimming on the other side is fast reading,
trying to find what information are in that part of the text and to
understand the main or general idea behind the paragraphs without
paying attention to words you don’t know and it is called Extensive
reading. It can be used for match heading and match information
question types. However, most of the question types in IELTS reading
require the combination of both intensive and extensive reading skills.
 Tip: if you have highlighted all the key words while skimming the text,
you‘ll be able to scan it more quickly.

6. Paragraph structure:
Getting familiar with the paragraph structure is another
key strategy to understand the whole idea of that paragraph
quickly and guess about what information will come in the
paragraph next and what would be the supporting
sentences. So in this case skimming skill can be simply
regarded as reading topic sentences which is the first
sentence of the paragraph.
Chunk reading: Another general strategy is to read
phrases not words it is called chunk by chunk reading
and helps increase your reading speed.
 This technique can be used for Match
heading questions; where you need to get
the general idea of each paragraph
quickly and choose a title for them.

7. • Type of questions that require scanning or intensive reading:
Often they are completion tasks, where you have a gap or blank
to fill, summary and flowchart completions or you have to answer
short questions, and even T/F or Y/N/NG .Most of the times these
type of questions are in the order in the text.

8. GAP Fill Questions:
Method:
1. Don’t read the passage firs, just read the title
2. Go to the first question and underline keywords in the question
3. Search for location of those key words in the passage
4. Read that part of the text carefully and intensively
5. match the keywords and find the answer
 Pay attention to the rubric of the question for how many words you
should write in the blank
 Write exactly the words written in the text and don’t change them,
pay attention to spelling
 When it comes to summary completion picking from a box, it is
much harder and you should think of synonyms of words.

10. True/False/Not given:
Method: Technique is the same as for gap Fill questions; find
key words in the question and match them with counterparts in
the text, read carefully and decide the statement is true or
completely the opposite for false. The only point is that even in
Not Given option there are some information about key words
in the text but the exact concept of the sentence is not
mentioned. So it can be challenging and you should understand
the meaning of target sentences.
 don’t use your own knowledge or way of thinking for
answering question
 questions are in the order of the text
 pay attention to meaning of verbs and the function they
carry

11. I

12. Yes/No/Not Given:
Method: Technique using here is the same as for T/F/NG,
but it is trickier because T/F is about facts mentioned in the
text but Y/N/NG is about writer’s view. Test taker should
comperhend the meaning of sentences completely and reach
to a masterfully understanding and deduce the writer’s view
or orientation about that topic.
 Pay attention to conjunctions between the sentences and
grammar structures

14.  Type of questions that require Skimming or Extensive reading:
These type of questions are Matching Headings and matching Information.
 Note: these type of questions are not in the order of the text.

15. Matching Heading
Method:
1. Read the title of the passage and guess what it can be about
2. Go to the list of headings first
3. Underline the keywords and extract gist of each heading by note or in your mind
4. Start with the shortest paragraph in the passage
5. Read the first sentence or topic sentence of that paragraph to get the main idea
6. If you got the main idea and found the answer, so lucky; otherwise, keep
skimming the whole paragraph to the end to find the answer
7. Write the correct roman numbers in front of Letters
 You may find similar headings for one paragraph, so you need to pay attention to details
 Two of headings are extra and not needed
 Don’t spend more than 10 minutes on this type of question

17. Matching information:
This type of questions are claimed to be one of the most difficult and time consuming ones
because sometimes it requires skimming and reading of whole passage carefully .
Method:
1. Find and highlight key words in each statement
2. Start with easiest statement or information that you can remember its location in the text
3. Read that part of the text and match keyword
4. If statement is correct, so this paragraph contains the target information
 Let this type of question last
 Start with the easiest or shortest paragraph
 You may use one letter twice
 One paragraph might contain none of information and only waste your time
 They are not in the order
 If a question was very hard and you are losing time, leave it

19. Type of questions that require both Extensive and intensive reading:
Match people or feature:
Method:
1. scan the text from the beginning to find the first Name of people
2. Skim that part to get the idea or opinion of that person
3. Go to the statements of the question
4. Read and underline the keywords of questions
5. Choose one of the statements that matches with the idea in the text
6. Continue Skimming the text to find next name.

21. Multiple Choice:
Method:
1. Read the title of the question only and not the options
2. highlight the keywords in the question
3. Find the key words in the text (scan)
4. Read that part of the text and simultaneously read every option
5. Match the keywords of every option to the text
6. Decide which one is correct (intensive reading)
 If you read the options or alternatives first it can be confusing
 you can eliminate not relevant options
 Most of the time. You will doubt between two options and you should choose the best one.

22.  This type of question is on the order in the text, so if you didn’t
find the keywords of one question don’t waste too much time
on that and go for key words of next questions, then you can
come back to it again.
 Pay attention to the synonyms and every key words and match
them , it is very tricky
Multiple Choice:
You can also use this explained technique for match
sentence Ending question type or choose 2 letters or choose
five letters from box and somewhat matching features.
In match sentence ending the letters A B C D E in the box are
considered to be alternatives or choices.

24. Match sentence Ending:
The strategy for this type of question is the same as for
multiple choice.
Method:
1. Read the first question and underline the key words
2. Find the location of question in the text and read it
3. Return to the Alternatives identified be letters A-H in the
box
4. Read each of the ending options and match the keywords
5. Like multiple choice, you should eliminate irrelevant
options and choose the best option.

26. Conclusion:
the goal of IELTS exam is to test the ability of test taker to recognize
and use various synonyms to comprehend the meaning of a whole
paragraph quickly. The majority of question types require both detailed
oriented and holistic view of comprehension the main idea and all need
precision, punctuality and good range of vocabulary and structure.
Generally speaking, it can be concluded that although the main
strategy in IELTS reading exam is keywords matching, it is obvious that
it needs a great amount of practice to achieve a high degree of
competency on it and it takes time to make these strategies automated in
your mind.