Everyone knows the IELTS reading
exam is tough. You a very short amount of time to answer a large number of
questions on very complicated texts. You need to develop very good reading
skills to get a 6.5. Band Score or higher and have a range of strategies
prepared in order to tackle it. Here are some tips:
Read Academic Texts
Read in your free time! The IELTS
texts are “general academic texts”. This means they are taken from sources such
as textbooks and specialist magazines and journals. If you are not familiar
with reading these kinds of texts in English it is essential that you start
reading them in your free time so that you are used to the types of language
and structure used when you meet them in the exam. Three typical sources for
IELTS texts are (in order of difficulty – easiest first) the National
Geographic, the New Scientist and the Economist. You can get these magazines in
most newsagents.
Focus
Focus on the text first, the
questions second! A good understanding of the text helps you answer the
questions more efficiently and effectively.
Categorise
IELTS exam writers select a range of
specific types of texts. Learning to recognise the type of text you are reading
can help you predict its structure and therefore understand it more quickly.
There are four types of IELTS texts a) analytic texts, which discuss the
reasons why something happened or make recommendations or explain a concept b)
descriptive texts, which describe a situation, explain how something is done or
categorise something c) discursive texts, in which different opinions are
expressed about an issue and d) narrative texts, which explain a chronological
sequence of events.
Skim
Develop your ability to skim.
Skimming is reading quickly by skipping over unimportant words like
prepositions and ignoring difficult words that you don’t need to understand. Do
this to get a general idea about a text or a paragraph or to intensively search
for the answer to a question.
Scan
Learn to scan. Scanning is what you
do when you look for a price in an advertising text or a name in a telephone
book. When you scan you do not actually need to read the text but move your
eyes quickly over it. You can scan from left to right or right to left, from
top to bottom or bottom to top. Do this to find the location of answers in the
texts looking out for easy to spot words like numbers, dates and words
beginning with capital letters such as place names.
Structure
Learn to recognise paragraph
structure. This often involves spotting the relationship between the main ideas
and supporting ideas in a paragraph. Paragraphs are most frequently descending,
i.e. they begin with the main idea somewhere near the start and develop from
there, although some, frequently the first and last paragraphs of a text, are
ascending – the main idea is located towards the end. This can be particularly
helpful when matching headings to paragraphs.
Overview
Get an overview of a text before
dealing with the questions. Do this by reading the title and subtitle as well
as focusing on the beginnings and ends (but not JUST the first and last
sentences) of paragraphs. This helps you process the information in a text (and
thereby answer the questions) more quickly.
Parallel Phrases
Learn to spot parallel phrases.
These are different ways of expressing the same thing, such as, “I like to ski”
and “skiing is enjoyable”. Many questions, e.g. YES NO NOT GIVEN questions and
gap fills, test your ability to match up a similar phrase in the task with its
equivalent in the text.
Don't Panic
Don’t panic when you encounter an
unknown or difficult word. IELTS texts are packed with highly specialised
vocabulary. Skip over difficult words which are not essential for your
understanding of the text. For words you do need to understand, practise trying
to guess their meaning using the overall context of the text and sentence as
well as the form of the word – e.g. is it a noun or verb.
Manage Your Time
Time manage in the exam. Most IELTS
candidates run out of time in the third reading section. Each text should take
you roughly 20 minutes (the examiners will tell you after 20 minutes have
passed). Never spend too long on a single question – guess the answer or leave
it to return to later. Also if you feel you are running out of time, tackle
questions like gap-fills before doing “easy to guess” tasks like YES NO NOT
GIVEN questions. Don’t forget you also have to have all your answers on your
mark sheet by the end of the test. A good tip is to write them on the mark
sheet in pencil as you go, correcting where necessary at the end
Right,
rite or wright (a faltu post for ielts task 2 so please dont read it)
Right, rite or wright (a faltu post
for ielts task 2 so please dont read it)
By Rayhan
Chowdhury on Monday, September 22, 2014 at 4:18am
Right, rite or wright (a faltu post
for ielts task 2 so please dont read it)!
I have explored many IELTS books so
far but never seen a complete manual for IELTS writing task 2...So, here I am
your Ieltsologist(lol) to show you right(write) path!!!! Follow steps and
reach your zenith though its not a shortcut way...(success needs a lot of
devotion)
Learning Brain+Storming: Yes we have to come up with some basic ideas to answer
our ielts questions effetively....It is really vital to learn thinking in exam
situation which is often a daunting task for us..As it seems that exam halls
are not right place for Brain hurricaning sorry Brain storming(though hurricane
seems more powerful than storm)....idea generation strategies are well learnt
by going through a lot of essays..read essays from good sources and
definitely explore dominics ielts, simon ielts websites! ...some simple ideas
are required to elevate your score but they really need to be relevant!!!!
After reading each essay take few minutes break then let your brain to think
and prompt to make a note of main ideas discussed in body paragraphs of that
essay and this is simply fueling your brain for next typhooning sorry
hurricaning oh no for brain storming session...By doing so, you and your brain
will be able to beat up scary exam conditions....Just some simple but relevant
ideas are necessary to fully answer your task 2...So guys think simple and be
smart!
Just Break it: After understading ielts task essays its time
to make your hand dirty....At first, learn writing introduction of different
essays..yes only intro just be lazy....practice writing good introductios
within few lines..Above mentioned websites are best source for understading and
writing a precise and quality introduction for your essay. Then move to writing
body paragraphs...dont attempt to eat full apple together...just bite it
slowly...One thing always remember, just learn writing only 250 words full
essay so break it into pieces and after introduction get ready for your
body paragraphs....taugt yourself about examples, connective devices etc...So,
its time to explore IELTS BUDDY, another great website to give you some
practical ideas about body paragraphs..Finally, end your journey with exploring
a best conclusion for your essay! So just simply break it into pieces and learn
slowly but smartly...
Sewing
up: Its your time to bring your pieces together and meshing them with
one another. instead concentrating on just writing few lines be ready to write
full essays..motivate yourself to write full essays and just write 250-260 not
more than that(quality matters really not quantity)....Keep writing with ideas
and vocabularies you have learnt so far and keep your brain alive for
next brain storming session and indeed for your exam...
Finally, Read a lot of examples essay+ make notes of main
ideas+Be lazy(write only intro then body then conclusion)+ Make your hand
dirty(write full essays)=Best of luck and happy ielts task 2learning...
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