I.

Introducing Reading in IELTS:

1. Structure of the IELTS Reading test:
- IELTS Reading examines a wide range of reading skills, and while the
question patterns for the Academic and General Training examinations are
the same, the text styles change. The Reading test is divided into three
sections, and you will have approximately 60 minutes to answer 40
questions.
- IELTS Reading evaluates a variety of reading skills.
- The question structures are identical for Academic and General Training
tests.
- There are three sections to the Reading test.
- The General Training Reading test consists of 40 questions divided into
three sections. It focuses on situations that you might run across in your
personal or professional life, such as applying for employment or general
issues of interest. The General Training Reading test uses texts from books,
periodicals, newspapers, advertisements, company handbooks, and
guidelines as its sole source of content.
 Section 1: concentrates on your survival skills and will contain a few
short texts that are relevant to daily life in an English-speaking
country. These could be timetables, advertisements, or notices.
 Section 2: examines your ability to survive in the job. Contracts, staff
development and training manuals, job descriptions, and salary and
working conditions agreements are used to create this content.
 Section 3: contains a lengthy and more complicated text on a topic of
general interest. This text could be taken from a book, magazine, or
newspaper.
- The Academic Reading Test assesses several reading skills, including your
ability to follow an argument and determine a writer’s opinion, attitude, or
intent. It tests your ability to comprehend ideas, facts, opinions, and
implicit meanings when reading. Skimming, scanning, and detailed
reading are all included in the evaluation of your reading comprehension
skills.
- The Academic Reading test is divided into three sections, each containing a
long text from contemporary books, journals, periodicals, and newspapers.
The writings are based on difficulties that you might experience in an
educational or professional setting in English.
- The Academic Reading test comprises 40 questions that must be answered.
These can include short-answer questions, matching headings or sentence
endings, identifying information, and completion tasks such as sentence,
summary, note, table, and flow-chart completions.
 2. The band score:

IELTS Reading – Academic IELTS Reading – General Training Band

(correct answer) (correct answer)
3–4 5–7 2.5
5–6 8 – 11 3.0
7–9 12 – 14 3.5
10 – 12 15 – 18 4.0
13 – 15 19 – 22 4.5
16 – 19 23 – 26 5.0
20 – 22 27 – 29 5.5
23 – 26 30 – 31 6.0
27 – 29 32 – 33 6.5
30 – 32 34 – 35 7.0
33 – 34 36 – 37 7.5
35 – 36 38 8.0
37 – 38 39 8.5
39 – 40 40 9.0
3. Technique:
- Skimming: reading for gist and to understand the main idea.
- Scanning: reading quickly to locate a specific piece of information.
→ Both of these reading skills doesn’t dip into detail, so it’s speedy. However,
the first and the biggest difference of these two reading skills is the purpose of
receiving information after reading.
- Detailed reading: reading to understand a logical argument, opinions,
attitudes, and the writer’s purpose.
4. Misunderstand (Myths) about IELTS Reading:
- Is it true that the richer vocabulary storage you have the better you do in
IELTS Reading?
- Who had ever tried to translate as much as possible when doing the
reading test?
- Who can’t keep track of reading because there are too many words?
- Have you ever been disorientated because you couldn’t find the location of
the details?
5. Advice:
- Skim-read quickly: try to find the main idea of each passage and of each
paragraph. Don’t read all the supporting details. Ignore any unfamiliar
words at this stage.
- Identify keywords: scan the passage and the questions for words you know
will be in the passage such as names of people, names of places, and dates.
- Identify paraphrase: look for synonyms between what the passage says and
what the questions ask.
- Manage time: some questions will be extremely difficult so you should
concentrate first on the questions that are easiest for you to answer. Take
no more than 60s to consider your answer before moving on to the next
question.
- Guessing the unfamiliar words depends on the context rather than trying
to understand them.
II. Type of questions and technique:
1. Identifying information:
- Requirement: this is one of the most popular types of questions in the
IELTS Reading test. This kind of question asks the candidate to decide
whether the ideas in the subject are right/wrong/providing information to
answer Y/N/NG or T/F/NG.
- Description: the test gives 4 – 5 sentences with the information taken from
the passage. The candidate reads each sentence and decides if the sentence
is right or wrong or not given.
- Example:
- Technique:
 Step 1: read the instructions and find out the main ideas of the
questions.
 Step 2: underline the keywords.
 Step 3: locate the information in the passage.
 Step 4: use the keywords and collate the information.
- Skill requirement:
 Summarize and identify the information in the passage.
 Skim and digest the information.
 Make sense of the opinions and viewpoints of the writer.
- Tips:
 Tip 1: give full attention to quantifiers (some, all, mainly, often,
always,…) because these words can change the meaning of the whole
sentence.
 Tip 2: usually, answers to the questions will be in order. You should
know the context to look for the answers
 Tip 3: you shouldn’t predict the information and answer by yourself.
  Tip 4: keep an eye on the instructions to make sure that the test asks
you to write T/F/NG or Y/N/NG.
2. Diagram label completion:
- Requirement: you need to complete the table based on the information
given in the passage.
- Description: the candidate will be provided the charts and summaries with
blanks containing the necessary information. The candidate’s mission is to
choose an appropriate answer to fill in the blanks.
- Example:
- Technique:
 Step 1: read the instructions carefully and pay attention to the
number of filling words.
 Step 2: identify the word forms.
 Step 3: underline the keyword for information.
 Step 4: predict synonyms, atonyms, etc..
 Step 5: scan the passage and concentrate on the relevant keywords.
 Step 6: choose the answer.
- Skill requirement:
 Understand the charts
 Identify synonyms and paraphrases
 Scanning skills and vocabulary.
- Tips:
 Tip 1: understand the questions and the general ideas of the charts
before reading the whole passage.
  Tip 2: scan for keywords that can help you answer the questions. The
keywords include synonyms, so keep an eye on them.
 Tip 3: analyze the questions and the number of words carefully.
 Tip 4: need to follow the flow of the charts in order not to be
disorientated.
3. Short-answer questions:
- Requirement: answer the question with a short answer/summary.
- Description: the test will provide the candidate with questions and the
number of required words.
- Examples:
- Skill requirements:
 Locate and understand the information clearly.
 Use grammar, and vocabulary to shorten the sentence.
- Technique:
 Step 1: read the instructions and identify the number of words.
 Step 2: read the questions and underline the keywords.
 Step 3: collate the keyword to locate the information.
 Step 4: shorten the information to fit the required words.
- Tips:
 The answer will appear in order in passage.
 Read the questions before reading the passage.
 Your answer don’t have to be grammatically right.
 Don’t ever answer by your own knowledge.
III. Quizzes:
1. How long does it take for an IELTS Reading test?
a. 90 mins
b. 60 mins
c. 45 mins
2. What are the two most important things you should pay attention to when
taking the test?
a. Instruction and number of words.
b. The information location.
c. The keywords.
3. How long is it recommended to consider for a question?
a. 30s.
b. 60s.
c. 90s.
4. What is the best way to understand the meanings of unfamiliar words in
the reading test?
a. Learn more vocabulary.
b. Guess the meanings depend on the context.
c. Translate it