Master the Passage, Not Just the Words

1. Timing is key.

You will have just 1 hour to complete 40 questions, so you must use your time wisely. I advise my students to finish each section in 20 minutes. This will give you 16-17 minutes to read and answer the questions and 3-4 minutes to transfer and check your answers. You’ll find more help with time management here.

2. Read the instructions carefully.

Many strong candidates lose marks in IELTS Reading because they don’t read the instructions properly. Pay close attention to the instructions you’re given to avoid losing easy marks.

3. Don’t panic.

Some of the questions will be easy, and some will be extremely difficult. (I knew many IELTS teachers who had to check the answers to some questions because they are so challenging!)

The wrong thing to do is spend a lot of time on a hard question. If the answer does not present itself, move on to the next one. You can always come back to the difficult questions later.

You must stay calm and keep your nerves under control. Accepting that you are probably not going to get all the questions correct might help you control your nerves and timing on test day!

4. It’s really a vocabulary test.

In many ways, IELTS Reading is more of a vocabulary test than a reading test. The reason is that you need a wide range of vocabulary to understand the passages of text given to you. You must also be aware of synonyms and paraphrasing if you wish to identify the information required to answer the questions correctly.

5. Don’t expect to understand every word.

If you don’t understand a word in the test, you should look at the words and sentences around it for clues about its meaning. Alternatively, you can move on and forget about it.

Focus on the words that are related to the question, and don’t worry about the words you don’t understand.