6 strategies for IELTS Reading

1 - Read the text first

quickly read the article then read the questions

2 - Read the questions first

Skim read the questions then read the article

3 - What is the vocabulary telling you

Identify what vocabulary the question is using in order to identify its synonyms in the text. Take for example a semantic field, which is; a set of words which cover a conceptual domain and bear specifiable relations to one another. If for example the semantic field is about cooking and you come across words such as, fry, boil, roast etc, then you can find the relationship between vocabulary and question, and synonyms and text.

4  - Deduct from tricky vocabulary

it’s inevitable that you will come across some words you don’t know the meaning of. Even as a native speaker with a healthy vocabulary, I sometimes stumble across words I don’t know that are quite technical, according to the context. Ways to combat this is to, A. Use the surrounding words to decode meaning, B. Use what the previous sentence is telling you. Use what you do know as your solution.

5 - Follow the order

In IELTS reading, the questions and answers will be in the same order, so once you have found the answers to specific questions, you specifically know where to search.

6 - Optimise the chances of scoring

by spending too long on a question, you risk losing the opportunity to answer other questions and therefore risk a lower score. If you are struggling with a question, move onto the next question. You can always come back to the question if you have worked towards saving yourself a spare five minutes at the end.

Note: Skim reading is when you quickly read a text to get a general overview. Scan reading is when you quickly read to find specific information