Top Ten Tips for IELTS Reading

Read Academic Texts

Read in your free time! The IELTS texts are general academic texts. This means they are taken
from sources such as textbooks and specialist magazines and journals. If you are not familiar with
reading these kinds of texts in English it is essential that you start reading them in your free time so
that you are used to the types of language and structure used when you meet them in the exam.
Three typical sources for IELTS texts are (in order of difficulty easiest first) the National
Geographic, the New Scientist and the Economist. You can get these magazines in most newsagents.
Focus
Focus on the text first, the questions second! A good understanding of the text helps you answer the
questions more efficiently and effectively.
Categorise
IELTS exam writers select a range of specific types of texts. Learning to recognise the type of text
you are reading can help you predict its structure and therefore understand it more quickly. There
are four types of IELTS texts a) analytic texts, which discuss the reasons why something happened
or make recommendations or explain a concept b) descriptive texts, which describe a situation,
explain how something is done or categorise something c) discursive texts, in which different
opinions are expressed about an issue and d) narrative texts, which explain a chronological
sequence of events.
Skim
Develop your ability to skim. Skimming is reading quickly by skipping over unimportant words like
prepositions and ignoring difficult words that you dont need to understand. Do this to get a general
idea about a text or a paragraph or to intensively search for the answer to a question.
Scan
Learn to scan. Scanning is what you do when you look for a price in an advertising text or a name in
a telephone book. When you scan you do not actually need to read the text but move your eyes
quickly over it. You can scan from left to right or right to left, from top to bottom or bottom to top.
Do this to find the location of answers in the texts looking out for easy to spot words like numbers,
dates and words beginning with capital letters such as place names.
Structure
Learn to recognise paragraph structure. This often involves spotting the relationship between the
main ideas and supporting ideas in a paragraph. Paragraphs are most frequently descending, i.e.
they begin with the main idea somewhere near the start and develop from there, although some,
frequently the first and last paragraphs of a text, are ascending the main idea is located towards
the end. This can be particularly helpful when matching headings to paragraphs.
Overview
Get an overview of a text before dealing with the questions. Do this by reading the title and subtitle
as well as focusing on the beginnings and ends (but not JUST the first and last sentences) of
paragraphs. This helps you process the information in a text (and thereby answer the questions)
more quickly.
Parallel Phrases
Learn to spot parallel phrases. These are different ways of expressing the same thing, such as, I
like to ski and skiing is enjoyable. Many questions, e.g. YES NO NOT GIVEN questions and gap
fills, test your ability to match up a similar phrase in the task with its equivalent in the text.
Don't Panic
Dont panic when you encounter an unknown or difficult word. IELTS texts are packed with highly
specialised vocabulary. Skip over difficult words which are not essential for your understanding of
the text. For words you do need to understand, practise trying to guess their meaning using the
overall context of the text and sentence as well as the form of the word e.g. is it a noun or verb.
Manage Your Time
Time manage in the exam. Most IELTS candidates run out of time in the third reading section. Each
text should take you roughly 20 minutes (the examiners will tell you after 20 minutes have passed).
Never spend too long on a single question guess the answer or leave it to return to later. Also if
you feel you are running out of time, tackle questions like gap-fills before doing easy to guess
tasks like YES NO NOT GIVEN questions. Dont forget you also have to have all your answers on your
mark sheet by the end of the test. A good tip is to write them on the mark sheet in pencil as you go,
correcting where necessary at the end.

How to Teach IELTS
1
Show them what theyre in for!
At the beginning of the course, in order to give them a taste of what
theyre aiming for, start with a practice exam. This demonstrates the
structure, timing implication and the serious nature of study that they need to
undertake until the time of their exam. You should tell the students that IELTS
is no walk in the park, and if they seriously want to improve their score, then
they really need to put in the effort and knuckle down to get the grade they
desire. Students should also be given honest feedback as to what their
levels are. Dont give them false hope. If the student is at a basic level, dont
promise them a 6.5 IELTS grade. Be honest with them. IELTS examiners say
that the average improvement for a typical student who studies on a
regular basis will achieve an increase of 0.5 for every six months of
studying.
2
Focus on their weak points
After the practice test, you should have a good idea of their weak
points. The IELTS test is broken down into four parts: reading, speaking,
listening and writing. While you should be teaching all aspects of the
test, focus on the weak points of the students and provide them with extra
activities. Bring it all the way back to basics for them if need be, and get them
writing simple sentences if they make simple errors.
3
Structure, structure, structure!
One of the great things about teaching IELTS is that most of the
questions are similar, and even though they increase in level of difficulty
throughout, they can all be written to a structure. With the writing tasks, ensure
that students include all the necessary information in an essay, such as thesis
statement, topic sentences, supporting ideas,well-constructed paragraphs and
a conclusion with no new information. Achieving this formula is the half-way
point to achieving a decent score. For writing, one of our favourite tasks is
what we call a Mini-Essay. A Mini-Essay builds the students skills by focusing
on the structure rather than the overall content. The student must write
anintroduction, body paragraph and a conclusion. This can be done towards
the end of an IELTS class and the students can read out their answers.
4
Timing is everything!
After students have learnt the structure of the questions, it is important that they
learn tocomplete the tasks within the set time limits. As the questions in the
reading become more difficult, the students should spend an increasing length
of time on the questions. For example, the IELTS reading task contains three
passages that become increasingly difficult. Instead of spending 20 minutes on
each, they should spend 15 minutes on the first, 20 on the second and 25
minutes on the third.
5
PPP Plan, Produce, Proof
Plan, Produce, Proof - these are the keys to the writing section. Students
must be made aware of the structural implications that their work has on their
overall IELTS score. By planning, the student will lessen the risk of writing any
word that pops into their mind and sticking to a structure as set out in the
plan. Proof reading is also important, as students will lose marks on silly
grammar and spelling errors one easy way to lose marks.
6
Listening tricks and tips
Well, not strictly cheat codes, but some methods to help the students
with the listening. Students can look ahead at the questions during the 1
minute and 30 second gap in the listening exercises. This should give the
students a brief outline of what they are listening out for, such as the topic and
the possible vocabulary involved. This should enable the students to use
their power of prediction. Also with the listening, the students should listen out
very carefully to misspoken words. An example of this is where the day, date
or location is corrected by the speaker. For example, the speaker may say So,
we shall meet on Tuesday, oh no.. Wednesday. Students need to be careful to
put the correct information down, as sometimes they are distracted by the first
answer and dont hear the correction.
7
Speaking Its whats not asked that counts
In speaking task one, students should provide as much information as
possible. This allows for the student to demonstrate their speaking skills using
a wide amount ofvocabulary. Below is an example.
Bad Example
Examiner: Where do you come from?
Student: Melbourne.
Good Example
Examiner: Where do you come from?
Student: Well, I originally come from Melbourne, Australia, which is the capital
of the state of Victoria. It is home to a population of 3,000,000 citizens and is
home to a number of well known sporting events.
Even for closed questions, the student should still provide as much information
as possible.
Bad Example
Examiner: Do you have a part-time job?
Student: Nope.
Good Example
Examiner: Do you have a part-time job?
Student: No, but I used to help my uncle at his seafood restaurant during
school holidays. It was quite busy and I used to have to show guests to their
tables.
8
Skim n scan
When it comes to reading, timing plays a vital role. If the student loses track
of time, they can find that they have five minutes to complete a whole reading
exercise. One of the best ways to keep timing to a minimum is to skim and
scan for the reading. Skimming and scanning involves looking for particular
information, such as dates, opinions, quotes,comparisons or anything that
may be important to the article. Students should have a quick look at the
questions, skim the text for any important information, then go back and scan
for the specific information as they answer the questions. If a student read a
reading passage word-for-word, they would never complete the reading task in
time, so skimming and scanning are essential for a high score for the
reading section of the test.
9
Practice, practice, practice!
The final tip about the IELTS test that the students must do to succeed is
to practice as often as they can. Doing exercises and practice tests is helpful,
but can lead to burnout over time. Students can also gain a strong
understanding of grammatical structures, speaking and listening from a wide
range of media sources. Watching the news should be able to help students
with vocabulary relating to science that may come up on the reading test, while
providing them with a range of different accents. Reading magazine or news
articles is a great way to improve the pace of reading.
So there you have it, nine vital tips and tricks that you can pass on to your students
taking the IELTS test. By following these steps and using some top materials, there is
no reason why any ESL teacher couldnt help their student achieve their goal for the
exam.


Time management for IELTS Reading
Top Tips for Time Management
Splitting up the time: With three sections in 60 minutes, roughly, you should aim for about 20
minutes on each task. BUT. work out what is best for you. Some teachers suggest a certain
formula such as 15-20-25 mins for each of the three sections. But this might put unnecessary
pressure on you if you dont keep to it. Just be aware that if you start to go beyond 20 minutes
for each section, you need to hurry up a bit!
Dont go too fast. Another idea is to spend 1 minute on each question. Again, this could cause
more problems. Questions vary in difficulty and students might have different strengths with
certain questions. You shouldnt dwell for too long on a single question but dont abandon the
question because you have taken a second over one minute!
Practice skimming and scanning. This involves reading at a quicker pace. It is a skill that can be
improved with regular practice. Start with one question and identify any key words to look for in
the text. Then start scanning the text. Look out for these trigger words or similar ones. They
will probably hold the key to the answer. As you get better, you can search for key words from
two, then three questions at the same time.
Underline, highlight, make notes: When skim reading, you will not remember as much
information as if you were reading at a normal speed. So highlight any important text so you can
come back to it later.
Read the questions before and after the text. This will help you identify key parts of the text, so
you are aware of answers to the questions as you are reading.
Read the text again. Dont expect to get all the information required the first time. You may be
able to go straight to the most important part, or you might have to scan the whole text again.
There is nothing wrong with that.
Dont worry if you dont understand every word. If you can work it out, great. If not, move on
and dont waste time worrying about it.
Dont stop reading when you hit a word you dont know. If you carry on, it might be explained or
you might be able to work out the meaning later on from the context.
Match up activities: When you have to match a letter or number to something like a picture or
sentence, start with the ones you definitely do know. You dont have to go in order from top to
bottom. Once you have completed these, you then have less to choose from. Which can help
with
The process of elimination. If you get stuck, try and narrow down the options. Find out which
option it definitely CANNOT be. This will increase your chances of a right answer.
Guess. Never leave a blank answer. In IELTS, you do not get penalised (lose a mark) for a wrong
answer. Whether you get it wrong or leave it out, the score is still zero so you may as well have a
guess.
The answer sheet. If you want to fill in the answer sheet as you go along that is fine. Some
people prefer to make notes then transfer the answers. If you do, make sure you leave yourself
enough time to complete this. Every answer must be on the answer sheet!






Happiness is considered very important in life.
Why is it difficult to define?
What factors are important in achieving happiness?