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Home > IELTS & IELTS Reading: IELTS preparation | Maximising your IELTS Reading Test Score!
September 18, 2017 | by kaia
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This article will teach you some relevant tips on how to maximise your score in
the IELTS Reading Test. Be sure to practice the 3Steps to improve your reading
comprehension and make your preparation time count on testday!
Get ready to: “knock your opponent of the table”(aka the IELTS exam!) using the following test
preparation strategies for IELTS reading.
How can I improve my IELTS reading test score?
A great way to get off to a strong start with your IELTS reading test study is to firstly do
some IELTS reading practice tests to find out or ‘diagnose’ what kind of mistakes you
are making, and from there where you need to improve.
You might need to focus on increasing your academic vocabulary, improving your
grammar or simply your speed of reading and ability to take in the meaning quickly – so
tightening up your reading comprehension skills is a great start!
Next, start to read widely from a variety of sources to build up your vocabulary on a
range of academic topics and improve your overall reading skills.
IELTS reading tests contain authentic reading passages, so as well as reading IELTS
reading tests, articles that can be found in good newspapers, such as:
BBC
The New York Times (8 free articles per month)
Also, for more advanced reading material try:
The Economist
Financial Times (which can be accessed online also).
Thirdly and very importantly, it’s not only what you read but how you read! If you just
let the information you read ‘go in one ear and out the other,’ and brush over unknown
words like they don’t matter, you probably won’t be improving your reading skills much!
If you want suggestions on generalized IELTS study tips (IELTS general and
academic), follow the link to the blog here!
3Steps for IELTS reading practise
In order to achieve a high score in the IELTS reading test, it’s really beneficial to
practice your reading comprehension skills using these 3steps:
Step 1: Skim the passage first
Have a quick look at the whole thing to find out what it’s about and then your mind will
start predicting information: read the heading, then the topic or first sentence of each
paragraph and quickly speed read through the whole thing.
This will help you with ‘global’ IELTS questions, such as assessing the attitude or the
author of the passage or in choosing the best title or heading for the whole passage.
Step 2: Summarise each paragraph as you read
Get into the habit of looking up after each paragraph you have read and then
summarise the main idea/points in the paragraph in your own words in just 12
sentences.
Not only will this really exercise your brain, it will greatly improve your reading speed
and comprehension skills.
Step 3: Keep a record of new vocabulary
After reading an article, note down any new words you have discovered and their
meaning on an Excel spread sheet or in a notebook.
Then read this sheet/list everyday whenever you can: before work, during your lunch
break, after work, on the train, before bed (!) etc.
Even spending a few minutes at the train station reading a news article online, would count as
practice towards your IELTS reading exam.
To note, it’s said that it takes 6 revisits or reviews of a new word or expression in order
to remember it properly.
This is at the point where it becomes part of your personal lexicon ( … a new word for
you? I will be kind and tell you the meaning this time to help you start your own IELTS
reading test vocabulary list!)
A lexicon is the vocabulary of a person, a language or branch of knowledge; it is a
countable noun so we can use ’a’ in front of it or put it in plural form by adding ‘s.’ For
example: ‘People in the IT industry need to learn a lexicon of computer terms.’
Like I have just done, it is always a good idea to put new words into a sample
sentence, so that you ‘engage’ with the word and bring it to life, thus making it easier to
retain in your memory.
Overall, widening your academic vocabulary in this way will certainly be helpful for both
the IELTS reading test and writing test components.
Even though it might seem like a bit of a ‘hassle’ (something that’s a bit annoying to do
and seems like hard work) at the time, you will thank yourself later, and also your
overall confidence in your English skills will grow 10fold!
Making use of your time on testday
Finally, to achieve a high score in the IELTS reading test, use the full hour to check
over your answers once more, even if you have already, or feel confident and that it
was ‘easy’.
You may have missed an answer, or made a careless error or an accidental mistake
when transferring your answers from the test to the IELTS reading test answer sheet;
you might have misread the instructions so you have put 3 words instead of 2, etc.
Remember: “Practice makes perfect”, so read regularly and stay uptodate with news items.
Surprisingly, on testday, it is always quite amazing to observe the number of IELTS
test takers who finish early and decide it’s a good idea to have a little sleep or start
drawing cartoons when they have finished and are waiting for the hour to be up!
I wonder if they all achieved their target IELTS reading test scores?!
Learn about the format of the IELTS reading test on this informative IELTS
Reading Tips article!
Watch the E2 IELTS video below to practice in a real life IELTS Reading mock
test!
Do you have any tips for tackling the IELTS reading section? Be sure to let us
know what your top strategies are in the comments!
Written by Danielle K.
Posted in IELTS, IELTS Reading | Tagged Blog, E2Language, IELTS, ielts blog, IELTS course, IELTS
Preparation, IELTS Reading, IELTS Reading Test, IELTS Study
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