Students often wonder what could possibly go wrong in the IELTS Reading Test. Well, here are 5 common practices or more appropriately, mistakes, that tend to be overlooked by test takers.
1. Reading the entire passage
The IELTS reading test consists of three passages of approximately 500-700 words and 13-14 questions each, all in a span of 60 minutes! Now, if you were to read each of these passages, word for word, you’d spend nearly 30 minutes. So how much time are you left with to answer 40 questions in all? Do the math.
Hence, we advise to skim through the passage. Here’s how to do that. Read the title and the first paragraph. Then, start reading the first sentence of subsequent paragraphs to understand and finally read the last two sentences of the concluding paragraph of the passage. This should give you an idea of what is being spoken about, in the entire passage, without you having to actually read it!
2. Starting with the questions
Some students, in order to save time, start answering questions directly. Well, this is as bad as reading the entire passage. Of course you might save time, but, quite possibly your answers could be wrong! Especially answers to questions like the ones shown below.
3. Ignoring the instructions
If the question reads: “Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS”, you would rather do just that. Any more than two words and you defeat the very purpose of the question which is to test your vocabulary and paraphrasing ability.
4. Not being familiar with the question types
If you’re not familiar with the types of questions asked in the reading test of IELTS, you might spend a few valuable minutes of your test duration, just to understand them well. If you wish to save those minutes, you must go through the practice papers available in the kit and also on the British Council website.
5. Not managing time
Completing your reading test within 60 minutes is fairly difficult. If you do not manage your time well, you make it simply impossible. Answer the questions that require less brainstorming before the complex ones. Eliminate options from multiple choice questions before you actually search for the answer. A question about the sun, for instance, has options like “Hot”, “Blue”, “Cold”, and “Yellow”; you know the sun is neither “Blue”, nor “Cold”. The answer could be either “Hot” or “Yellow” based on the information provided.
You might also come across a question like the one above where you have to match the paragraphs with suitable phrases. Just read the first and the last sentence of each paragraph and you’ll have the answers in no time. Using keywords is going to be very helpful here.
This article is written by Prof. Puneet Khurana, Founder of Khurana Academy.
Khurana Academy, founded by Prof. Puneet Khurana, is one of those few institutes who train their students so passionately that results are always guaranteed. Khurana Academy is a British Council partner and registration centre and has had a track record of band improvement amongst students for IELTS, having maintained a consistent average score of band 8 among all their batches.
