Understanding the reading test
Reading skills needed in IELTS: The reading aspect of the IELTS test is made up of 3 sections with passages and various question types. The Academic test has one long academic text in each of the sections, while the General training test has two short passages in the first two sections on social life and work life respectively, and one long passage in the last section.
Reading Skills Needed in IELTS
To ace the reading test, you need to understand 5 reading skills according to the British Council. These skills make it easy to answer all the different question types you will come across in the reading test on the test day.
- Survey the text
- Skim the text
- Read the questions
- Scan the text
- Close read to find the answers
Image gotten from a British council webinar.
Survey the Text
Surveying is the first skill to pay attention to. It means looking through the text for about 60 seconds to get an idea of the passage you are presented with.
What to Look out for when Surveying
- The title, sub-title, and headings of the passage. Sometimes, some passages will come with one of them, some of them, all, or none of them.
- The general topic of the text.
- A picture or a diagram, which will be in grey.
- A glossary—a mini dictionary of specialized words.
- The length of the passage.
You should note that not all passages will come with a diagram or glossary.
Skim the Text
Skimming means reading through a text quickly to find out the general topic of discussion in it and to get an idea of the organization of the text.
BRITISH COUNCIL RECOMMENDED A WAY TO SKIM
- Read and highlight/underline the topic sentence of each paragraph on the computer/question paper. The topic sentence is mostly at the beginning of each paragraph.
- Read the final sentence of each paragraph. It sometimes paraphrases the topic sentence and sometimes, it doesn’t.
- Write the general topic of each paragraph in the text margin so you can also refer to it again. On the computer, you can highlight and add notes in place of writing on the margin of the question paper in a paper-based test.
Read the Question
Before you read the question, you must read and understand the instructions given before the question. It will save you from answering the questions wrongly.
Reading the questions will help you:
- Identify the question type you are dealing with per time as there are different question types in the reading test.
- Understand the question.
- Understand and highlight keywords—words that will help you locate the answers easily.
- Think about a synonym or a paraphrase of the keywords.
Scan the Text
Scanning means searching through the passage for the answers to the questions. This is done after reading the questions thoroughly.
What you need to scan
Keywords: The keywords identified from the question, paying attention to the fact that it might have been paraphrased or the synonym might have been used in the passage. Also, names (proper nouns) and dates are easy to locate as they have limited ways to paraphrase them
Close Reading
This skill comes right after scanning. After locating the keywords from the questions in the passage, you have to focus on the environment where you found the words and read carefully to identify the right answer. While reading to locate your answers, be careful to pay attention to words that can modify or change the meaning of information.
Summary
- Survey the test to identify the idea, the length, and the content of the passage.
- Skim the text to understand the gist and organization.
- Read the questions and highlight keywords, thinking about their synonyms.
- Scan the right section of the passage for the keywords.
- Close read or read for details with the help of the keywords to find the right answers.
Reading Skills Needed in IELTS: Keep reading Seven Steps to a Band 9 Writing Task 2 Essay
