IELTS reading 60 Minutes three sections 20 minutes for each section right wrong doing
that would be a strategic mistake let me show you how you should allocate your time to answer more
questions and what other mistakes you can avoid in IELTS reading it's Asiya let's get started [Music]
okay the problem with these instructions is that in the first section the questions are
the easiest but they progressively get harder and harder and you should leave yourself more
time to answer questions at the end so the mistake is starting slowly Instead try to
spend 15 minutes on the first section 20 on the second and about 25 on the third
and if you take a paper-based IELTS exam you do need to keep track of time yourself
invigilators will only tell you when you have 10 minutes left and 5 minutes
because in a computer-based test the timer is right on the screen in front of you the second
mistake is not paying attention to pesky little details that can cost you valuable points let's
have a look at these two tasks in each of them we need to write the correct letter for each answer
however in the first task you can only use each letter once well in this second
you may use any letter more than once for example you may use one of them three times
in practice we usually use one of them twice next compare these two sets of instructions choose one
word only or choose no more than two words if you write more words than required or loud the sensor
will be incorrect so let's have a look at some potential answers an umbrella how many words two
please note that articles should not be part of your answer let's say the question is Kate bot and
you see the article is already there the correct answer is just umbrella one word if you see Kate
bought then you can't answer umbrella because the sentence will be grammatically incorrect
and you shouldn't answer an umbrella because we don't include articles we need a different answer
for example umbrellas plural or rice uncountable if you spell your answer incorrectly even if
it's just a silly typo you won't get your point the good thing about ayat's reading is that you
just need to copy the right word or words from the text but do it carefully in IELTS on paper you can
write your answers in capital or small letters IDP recommends writing your answers in capital
letters so each letter is clear to The Examiner in the computer delivered IELTS handwriting is
not an issue so you should try to write all words using upper and lowercase if you use caps lock to
capitalize all the answers there will still be counted by the recommendation is not to do this
now let me show you something that may surprise you the infamous true false not given questions
the instructions Clearly say to write for Words true not given what if you just write T instead
of true or even worse what if you mix up the tasks and write why or yes instead of true
well there is a confirmation on the official IELTS channel that all these answers will be marked as
correct I'll link this video in the description now let's have a look at this task write the
correct letter let's say the answer is a what if you write the word pressure the truth is I haven't
found a confirmation if this is acceptable so be careful and write letters not words
a more fundamental mistake is trying to hack the test for example by looking for a keyword
from the question in the passage or by reading only the first sentence of which paragraph to
know what this paragraph is about in short any advice that promises you that you don't have to
read the whole passage won't work looking for matching keywords is particularly dangerous
here is why IELTS test writers start with an article from a magazine or a newspaper
then they think about what questions they could ask and finally what options they
could add to each question basically in most cases correct answers are paraphrased
if you see the keywords from one of the options in the text this might be a trap
of course keywords such as names or dates are not traps they help you locate the correct
part of the passage where the answer is but they don't direct you to any particular option another
mistake is reading the whole passage first well it's not that straightforward this is actually
a common technique that may work well for those who are fluent in English and have a good memory
however if you read relatively slowly it's gonna eat your valuable time
and when it comes to questions you have to read the text again instead start with your questions
answers to many question types common order this means you can read the first question find the
answer read the next question and so on of course some questions don't come in order and you learn
what those are a bit later the next mistake is rushing when reading questions or options
our brains have a fantastic ability to read a few words and immediately jump to
conclusions as to what the meaning is this leads to incorrect answers
IELTS reading tests your ability to understand subtleties find details and draw conclusions
slow down read your question read your options think about it you have time for that
the opposite mistake is wasting too much time on a single question yes sometimes you may be
unable to either Locate the answer or understand which option is actually correct this is normal
if you can't answer a question move on finish all the questions and then come back to those
you couldn't answer straight away in my exams I always have several questions to go back to and
sometimes answering those takes a lot of time so don't lose points you can get for the sake
of questions you are struggling with another part of the IELTS reading experience is the
vocabulary you don't know some passages are just full of technical terms that are really hard
but if you don't know certain terms certain words it doesn't mean you can't answer those questions
instead of giving up try to analyze the text first of all what are you looking
for is it a reason a technique a mistake when you're reading the text try to understand how
different parts of the sentence are related to each other from the grammatical point of view
imagine that you're looking for a cause of a certain problem and you read
the reason why the process of some terrible terms fail to produce results was that the reason quite
often the most complex words don't determine the answer try not to get scared and work around them
the next mistake can be simply devastating in a paper-based exam I took I saw someone desperately
transferring answers on the last seconds of the test and then when the time was up she continued
writing and invigilators were shouting at her to put her pencil down imagine all those lost points
remember that in IELTS reading there is no extra time all you've got is 16 minutes I suggest
transfer nonsense after each section this is a good opportunity to get a minute of rest before
beginning the next section and it's safe what you should do in the last minute or two is fill in the
answers you couldn't find leaving some questions unanswered is just leaving points on the table
when you're working on a question cross out incorrect options as soon as you see them
if you're hesitating between two answers write down what those are on the question sheet not on
the answer sheet if you take IELTS on computer you can highlight answers or use this sheet of
paper you're given to make notes if you do that and then you can't find the correct answer you
can make your best guess and have a good chance of getting an extra point or two one of the main
reasons why students have to guess answers is that they run out of time to find them one of the main
mistakes that makes things worse is not preparing for different types of questions time pressure is
the real challenge in IELTS reading but if you see the task and immediately know the best way
to solve it it helps you save valuable time so you should definitely prepare for the questions that
most people find challenging such as true false not given and matching headings and familiarize
yourself with the other question types too in this video I have strategies for the most common types
of tasks in IELTS reading and some practice tasks so you can see how these strategies work check it
out and thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye