Are you worried about the IELTS Reading test?
One student asked us this: if you don’t read the whole passage how are you going to know what the answers are?
We have already talked in general about Reading strategy and steps to follow on the test but today we’ll focus on this specific question.
It doesn’t seem logical to take a reading test and not read everything.
Why do we give you the advice to not read everything?
There is not enough time to read everything.
You have 40 questions that you have to answer and there are 3 passages that are between 600 and 900 words each.
They are not easy.
You have to do all of this in one hour.
You cannot read every word so you MUST have a strategy.
So how do you find the answer?
Understand the key words and scanning strategy.
Key words are nouns, important dates, names, numbers, or anything that stands out as being important.
The tricky part is being able to recognize a synonym for the key word.
If a key word is “high level education” then you also need to scan for “tertiary education” and “higher education.”
This is why you need to have a robust vocabulary.
Read the newspaper!
This will help you.
How do you scan?
You move your eyes over the page and look for something very specific.
You are not reading.
The word is a picture that you are looking for.
There is not enough time to read the whole thing and you will be distracted if you try reading.
*Hot tip! Use your finger or pen and move backwards over each line so that way you cannot read it because it’s not natural.
Let your eyes drift over each line, looking for the specific key word.
You must practice this strategy. This is not a natural skill.
What questions do you have?
Have you tried this strategy yet?
Let us know!