ACADEMIC READING PREPARATION
READ-READ-READ-READ
Welcome to all in my reading session. From my view IELTS reading test is the toughest section of the total exam. I think students should be punctual to read magazine , newspaper, books etc to enhance their reading ability. When you practice more you will become a good reader and I believe a good reader have the best opportunity to do better in the examination.
IELTS Academic Reading Test includes passages. You have 60 minutes to complete the test. There is no extra time at the end of the test for transferring your answers to the answer paper (you get 10 extra minutes in the listening test only); your answers must be on the answer sheet at the end of the 60 minutes. This test has 40 questions. The total length of all the texts put all together will be between 2000 and 2750 words. As in all the different parts of IELTS, the Academic Reading Test gets successfully harder through the paper. In each section of the Academic Reading Test there will be 1 text with 13 or maybe 14 questions to answer in 2 or 3 sets of differing formats. We will look at the types of question what you will meet later. The texts will come from newspapers,magazines, books and journals and are written for general interest or for an academic though non-specialist reader. At least one phase will contain a logical argument. One text may contain non-verbal materials such as a diagram, graph or illustration. If there are any words or terms of a specialist technical nature which candidates would not be expected to know, then a short summery will be provide
There are 40 questions in the IELTS Academic Reading Test and 1 mark is awarded for each correct answer. There is no half marks. Your final mark out of 40 is then converted to a band from 1 - 9 using a converting table and this band is then averaged with the other 3 parts of the test to read your final IELTS band. Band scores for the reading test and the final band are given as a whole band or a half band. The converting table used to change your mark out of 40 to the band out of 9 changes with each test. However, below you can see a rough guide that you can use to assess your practice. There is no guarantee that you will perform the same in the real test itself as the test converters vary with each test, but it can be a guide line to your progress.
IELTS Academic Reading Test Marks, Bands and Results - Rough Guide Converter Score
2-3 ------------------------------------2
4-9 ----------------------------------------------------3
10-15 ---------------------------------------------------------4
16-22 --------------------------------------------------------------5
23-28 ------------------------------------------------------------------6
29-35 -------------------------------------------------------------------------7
36-38 -------------------------------------------------------------------------8
39-40 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------9
There are different types of IELTS Academic Reading Questions which are given below sothat you could meet in the IELTS Academic Reading Test. It's important to read the list of total course,
- Short questions
- Completion questions: Completing sentences
- Completing Notes
- Completing a Summary (no word bank)
- Completing a Summary (with word bank)
- Completing the diagram
- Completing the flow chart
- Completing the table
- Matching a bank of headings to identify paragraphs or parts of paragraph
- Matching a bank of writers' views/claims/information with the writer
- Identification of information in the text: yes/no/not given questions
- true/false/not given
- Matching lists/phrases
- Classification of questions
1.Don't spend so long on a single question as that will lose you time for answering questions that could be easier for you.Read the Question First then go to the Passage so that you can find out the location easily..
2.Sometimes leaving the question and coming back later can help you answer it too. Leave any questions that you have spent too long on, and come back at the end of the test if you have time.
3.Sometimes, if the question has a yes/no/not given answer, the answer which you are looking for does not exist as it could be a not given. Try to Be aware so you don't waste time looking for something that isn't there.
4.Read the questions and instructions so you don't make a silly mistake. n answer instead of true or false. Strictly speaking you are wrong although you have understood the question .
5.When the question asks for one answer then give one answer.
6.When the question asks for no more than 3 words, use no more than 3 words. To write 4 words or more is wrong. You won't be asked to do it in 3 words or less unless it is possible so don't worry; it can always be done.
7.One area that students don't like is that, in the reading test, good grammar skill and spelling are important. The grammar part is not as important as you can't make many grammar errors in 3 words (the maximum you use in the reading test) but, if you spell something wrong, it will be marked as wrong. P
8.If the question type is difficult and asking something which is hard to answer then reading the text first can help. Just a quick read through using a technique called skimming can give you the knowledge of the text that will help you find the answer more easily.
9.If you are a good, fast reader, then you can read the text quickly, getting good knowledge of the contents without using up so much precious time. This can help you answer the questions better.
10.If time is short then it doesn't matter how complex or long the texts are. You need to get some answers on the answer sheet as quickly as possible.Remember there is no negagtive marking.
You have to be aware of Time management which is an important thing .A number of texts that you have to read and 40 questions to answer in 1 hour. If you spend too long on one part, you may find that you have not enough time to finish all the questions and some of those questions could be ones that you could answer quite easily. As I said above, don't spend too long on a difficult answer but also keep an eye on the clock. It's a good idea to take your watch or a small clock on your desk so you know exactly how long you have left in the test at any given time. In addition to this, keep control on how long you spend on every section. Remember the test gets more difficult as it goes on so you will probably need more time for the questions at the end than for those at start. Maybe a guideline could be:
18 minutes on section 1.
19 minutes on section 2.
23 minutes on section 3.
With experience and practice you will soon know how long things take you, and be able to manage your time well.
After finishing the ansering, DON'T just sit there!! Check what you have done. If you have time after the check, check again. And so on....
Techniques -
Skimming and Scanning
Skimming and scanning are the two main techniques that people use to read and answer IELTS reading tests.Let's have a look at the two techniques in turn.
Skimming is reading fast to get the "gist" or the general idea of the text. There are different techniques of doing skimming. You can run your eyes over the text getting the general meaning, not stopping at words that you don't understand as this will make you slow down. The important thing with skimming is speed. Another way to skim is to just read the first and last paragraphs of a text and summaries as well. You could also just read the title and illustrations if there are any. I prefer for IELTS the first way - reading it all quickly to get the general meaning, but of course it depends on your reading skill. If you are a slow reader in English you really need to practice to improve. You don't need IELTS specific texts for this. A good English newspaper is enough. Get one every day and read the articles as quickly as you can. Do this with as many articles as possible every day and your speed will quickly improve.
Scanning This is another very important method for the IELTS Reading Tests. This is the technique that you use when you are reading a telephone book or a dictionary. You are not starting at the top and reading every line back and forth as you would read a novel. You are moving around the text, back and across and up and down. You are searching for some specific information: a word or name. This is an important technique in IELTS reading like you are often searching for some specific information. You read the question and then you search for key words or ideas associated with the question. This is a bit so difficult to practice than skimming. You get long texts (from newspapers, magazines or other sources) and get a friend to read it and then ask you to search key ideas or words as quickly as possible. Again, if you do this frequently, your speed will quickly improve.
If you want to improve, there's no secret. Practice. Practice. You won't get better sitting and doing nothing. Even good English users need practice for the IELTS exam. It could make all the difference between your getting the band that you need, and getting half a band less than you need and having to wait 3 months to do the exam more.
Finally, I want to say again that PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE............................. Good luck! I hope that this tutorial has helped you. Below are the questions I collected from different sites to help u a lot.
Some sample Reading Questions
DOWNLOAD
| exams_ielts_mc_pt_read01.pdf |
| exams_ielts_mc_pt_read02.pdf |
| exams_ielts_mc_pt_read03.pdf |
| exams_ielts_mc_pt_readans.pdf |
| ielts_score_improvement.pdf |
| ielts_reading_volcanoes.pdf |
| ielts_reading_language.pdf |
| ielts_reading_films.pdf |
| ielts_reading_ethnic_groups.pdf |
