hey aubrey um as we're recording this tomorrow is thanksgiving for us uh thanksgiving happy
thanksgiving to you so what are you gonna what are you gonna do what are your plans we're going to
the mountains um we my in-laws have a cabin and my brother-in-law has a cabin so we rented a little
vrbo to go up and where all the whole carter family is doing thanksgiving up in the woods
so that will be really fun so fun i did a lot of the cooking in advance because ain't nobody want
to be cooking in a cabin like the minimal kitchen that's terrible so i made a cherry pie already
and candy dms already so they're like ready to just put in the oven don't worry about it yeah
yeah so it's gonna be really fun what about you uh we're having some friends over and uh i'm cooking
most of it a friend one friend is bringing a signature cocktail that she has
designed for the day um i know it involves bourbon that's all i know and then another cranberry a
lot of the thanksgiving cocktails have a little cranberry which i love yeah me too i love like
the sour sweetness and then another friend is bringing a squash side and two pies so anyway
i'm real excited i'm already like planning all the games and stuff we're going to play
you're doing the the turkey have you done a turkey before last year never cooked a turkey
nice yeah i think we talked about that last week yup so i'm pretty confident this will
be great so guys those are our plans today however we are talking about ielts reading
we've had a lot of great questions lately from students in three keys that are really thinking
a lot about these reading strategies what is stopping them from finding the right answers
i love the the the insight that our students can give us into the reading strategies yes definitely
as they're finding what works was it what doesn't as they're fine-tuning these strategies
often students will post something in our facebook group it's like a trick or something they've
figured out to save time or or something because sometimes you learn these strategies but it's not
enough just to hear it once once you put it into practice you start really realizing how this works
how it's saving me time and so that's one of the best things about this facebook group is students
sharing the insight they get as they practice yeah totally totally um okay so let's get into
this aubrey what is the first reading question today okay so a student posted in reading when
we solve a group of questions and then we have another group do we start reading again from
the beginning for example if we finish seven true false not given questions and then we have
sentence completion do we start from the beginning or not good question that is an excellent question
yes you always have to go back to the beginning to scan a new group of questions you don't know
if it's gonna be from the first half of the passage or the last half of the passage
um for every group of questions which there will be at least two groups of questions right two to
four groups of different questions per passage each group of questions is different so you have
to start skimming for sorry you have to start scanning from the beginning every time you have
a new group of questions go back to the beginning of the passage and scan for that first answer okay
yeah it's so interesting there's so a lot of the strategies are the same for each
group of questions right but it is so vital to know for example which questions are in order
right because that does change the strategies this is one of the things when i first went through the
three keys modules that you created in this three keys study system that we have that was one of
the things that stood out the most to me is what a difference it made when you understood everything
there is to know about the different question types when you know which ones are in order
when you understand what exactly to be looking for it really empowers you to be able to find
those answers so much more easily yeah totally i mean that's why we have so many three key students
that get nines in reading guys the reading exam is all about time saving time maximizing
your time being efficient with your time guys all the strategies are about that so here for
example like aubry's talking about there are some questions that are in order in the passage which
knowing that saves you time because you don't have to go back to the beginning of the passage
for every question no that's such a waste right um and just a little bonus tip about that because
this person did mention true false not given um now technically right ielts says that true false
not given and yes no not given questions are not in order in the passage that's what they say but
honestly guys i can tell you they usually are they usually there will be like two of them that are
really close together so maybe you'll find uh the answer for number three at the end of a paragraph
and the answer for number four is the question is the sentence right before that so it's like
slightly not in order but always right next to each other so we want to approach true
false not given knowing that because it already takes a lot of time to figure out that answer
yes that can save you so much time okay let's jump into this next question which is also a
very good one so this student was saying that she has learned hundreds of vocabulary words but still
sometimes gets stuck in reading just words she doesn't understand doesn't know the parallel the
synonym getting stuck so she just said what do i do any advice and she said i have read
hundreds of articles but sometimes i still lose confidence well so if uh she has this much reading
in experience already and she has this much vocabulary already then she knows everything
she needs to know for ielts guys um the danger is getting stuck on words in the
passage that you don't know because if you are if your english is intermediate level or higher
you you know all the vocabulary you need guys ielts does not use like incredibly rare vocabulary
in the questions and they don't use it to give you the answers in the passage there might be
crazy hard words in the passage but you don't need to know them the answer is not there okay
it's designed this test is made so you can get a nine because we've seen students do that
they don't know every word in the english language they're non-natives like you
so guys don't get stuck on crazy hard words that you don't know because you don't need them
yes that's such great advice this student is ready if she is reading as much as she's saying you know
she says she is if you guys are reading that much reading difficult articles you will be ready you
will have the vocabulary you need in order to find the answers to those questions exactly exactly
um so finally guys this is the most important takeaway we can give you
about reading to summarize what we've said today guys you must learn a system of strategies
that you can follow every time you take a reading practice test and so you can use them
very easily on test day you have to do these steps again and again until they feel feel natural they
will involve reading in three ways skimming scanning and reading for detail in three keys
ielts allianceenglish.com forward slash keys we give you that whole system for every part
of the ielts exam um and finally guys practice practice practice right um let's say it's a week
before the exam aubrey how many reading practice tests should i be taking oh that's a really good
question you mean per day yeah or in the week in the week in the week i would say you should do
three to five reading tests in the week if this really depends actually on you have to be really
aware of where your strengths are if you're scoring ninth on reading exams but you're really
struggling still with reading or listening questions that's where your focus should be
right and then you'd be good to do one or two in the week just to keep those skills sharp but
if reading is really where you're struggling and you feel like you're ready for these other scores
yes you're going to take more reading exams it's kind of a trick question jessica because it really
depends on where you're at for the individual exams right i like testing you sometimes
yeah no for sure in fact i was just talking to a super high level student this morning it's like
you know i'm not very good in writing and therefore i don't do it that often
you know that's such human nature of course it is um but we have to feel uncomfortable if we're
going to improve right that's like me i'm not really good at cooking so i don't do it very
well no but me neither okay except tomorrow i'm cooking a whole thanksgiving dinner it's
gonna be christmas and i asked james to make something and he's making chili mac and cheese
so that'll be fun a new thing's gonna be delicious tradition i love chili mac and cheese
it sounds really good right i have added and it's delicious all right awesome well aubry enjoy your
thanksgiving with your family and i will uh talk to you after the break awesome see ya
you