For gaining high band scores in IELTS reading follow these wonderful tips:
1) Never try to know the meaning of every word.
Majority of the IELTS candidates have been taught to look up every word in a dictionary that they are unable to understand. The theory behind this is, good a wide Vocabulary is key to get a good score in the IELTS examination, but worrying about all the words you don’t understand in the IELTS reading exam is one of the most negative thing you can do.
If you don’t understand a word in the reading test, there are two things you can do. You can look at the words and sentences around or clues relating with its meaning or you can move on. You don’t require to understand every word. Even native teachers would not be able to understand all the words in the reading test. Just focus on the words that are related to the question and don’t worry about the words you don’t know.
2) Practice your Reading skills NOT your IELTS skills
It is very important to be familiar with the IELTS reading test, focus on IELTS reading tips and gain an understanding of the various questions. It is also important to learn from your errors (see below). HOWEVER, students who only practice IELTS exams are missing out on a great chance to ameliorate their general reading skills.
IELTS reading texts can be a little boring and you are more likely to read regularly if you read about something you are interested in. Reading for pleasure a little every day will not only improve your English skills but also boost your Vocabulary range. There are thousands of blogs, magazines and newspapers to choose from online.
Remember this _Practice makes perfect.
3) Read the instructions very carefully
Many of the easy marks are lost by good IELTS candidates because they fail to read the instructions properly. This is especially true in the reading and listening tests because they give very specific instructions. You will answer the question wrong, if you don’t follow these instructions exactly.
For instance, the instructions might state ‘write two words and /or a number ‘.
This means:
One word
One word and a number
Two words
Two words and a number
Even if a number is written as a word it counts as a number e.g. Thirty two is counted as 32. ‘ Thirty two cars ‘ is one word and a number. If you don’t do this, as stated in the instructions, you will lose a mark.
If the answer asks for two words only and the answer is ‘red, blue’ not ‘red and blue’. Red, blue are two words. While, red and blue are three words and hence that will be considered incorrect.
4) Don’t panic
Some of the questions will be easy and some will be too difficult. The key is not to panic when trying to answer a difficult one. Nearly all of the IELTS trainers I know have to check the answers to some questions because they are so difficult.
The wrong thing to do is spend a large amount of time on a question and fail to spend enough time on the rest of the questions.
Time and nerves need to be controlled in order to do well in the reading test. All the IELTS reading tips in the world won’t help you if you can’t CONTROL your NERVES. You are probably not going to get all of the questions correct and accepting this will help you to control your time and emotions in test day.
5) Be careful when transferring your answers
In the test, you will be told to transfer your answers to the answer sheet. The most common mistake is to spend too much time on reading and answering questions and leaving very little time to transfer your answers. It is only that silly mistake, made when people are under the pressure.
We Advice our students to practice with an IELTS Answer sheet and see how much time it takes them to transfer the answers. This will allow you to familiarise yourself with the process and have the confidence level in test day.
Moreover, leave No blanks. In case, you don’t know the answer , attempt it and predict according to your knowledge. You might get lucky and you have nothing to lose.
THANK YOU:)
For gaining high band scores in IELTS
For gaining high band scores in IELTS