hi there it's asiya you know every time i take the ielts exam i feel a lot of pressure to find all
40 answers in ielts reading in just 60 minutes i've taken ielts academic and general training
both paper-based and computer-based formats and today my score is band nine but i still
remember how confusing this test was the first time i took it to study in london back then i
couldn't read fast in english and i didn't know a fair number of words but i still managed to
get band 8 in ielts reading and 7.5 overall so today i want to talk to you about techniques you
can use to spend your time wisely and answer as many questions as you can okay let's get started
to manage your time well in ielts reading you need to know how ielts reading is organized
basically you always have three sections if you take the academic test you have three passages
so it's very obvious but if you take the general training test
you may have up to five passages because they are shorter but in this case you will have
two in the first section two in the second and probably one longer text in the third
why it's important well because the official ielts instructions read spend about 20 minutes
on each section but i think this advice is problematic basically the first section is
always the easiest and the last is always the most difficult so you need more time to think
about those questions to look for your answers and if you spend good 20 minutes to answer
questions which are the easiest then you won't have time to think about the harder questions
so if you want to get to a higher score you need to answer questions more quickly about
15 minutes for the first section 20 for the second and 25 for the third
you know only in the last exam i actually got that perfect band 9 score in ielts reading
before that i got 8.5 several times which means that i always made a couple of mistakes and you
know every time i finish all three passages all three sections i have some questions i want to go
back to some questions i couldn't answer straight away and i need time to look for those answers so
if you spend 15 20 25 minutes that can bring you to about band 8 which is enough for all purposes
but if you really want to get a high score then perhaps you need to answer questions
even more quickly something like 12 minutes on the first section 18 on the second 23 on the third
and then you have those seven minutes to think about the hardest questions you couldn't answer
so this is only for advanced ielts test takers but my previous advice is for everyone do not spend
too much time on any single question if you can't find the answer if you don't understand what the
answer is mark it to review and move on if you take the computer-based test you can actually
tick to review and the question will become round and you will know which ones you need
to go back to basically the vast majority of ielts candidates can't answer all the questions
correctly there are mistakes and that's all right because with this test all you need is to pass it
if you pass it with an exceptionally good score it doesn't really give you anything extra you either
get your visa or you don't get your visa you either get that offer from a university or not
the university will not give you a better offer if you provide a test with a higher score all you
need is to meet the requirements so let's talk how many questions you actually need to answer
so this is a table and as you can see there are numbers for academic and general training exams
and they are different that's because academic texts are more difficult they're more scientific
vocabulary there is more challenging so you need to answer fewer questions to get to the same score
and some numbers are in bold and some are not that's because the official ielts information is
limited so that information is involved but i also wanted to show you what score you're gonna get for
each number of answers so i filled up this table and that information is not involved and this is
my best guess so if you need band 6 that's 23 questions in ielts academic and 30 in ads
general training for band 7 that's 30 questions in ielts academic and 34 in general training even for
band 8 that's 35 questions in ielts academic and 38 in general training which means that
there will be some mistakes but that's alright as long as you can get to the score you need
there is an important difference between ielts listening and reading because in ielts listening
you have some time after the task to check your answers to transfer them to the answer sheet
but you don't get any extra time in ielts reading you only get 60 minutes and that's it so you need
to make sure that all your answers are in the correct place if you take a computer-based test
you select your answers on the screen directly so that's easier but if you take the paper-based test
then you need to transfer them to the answer sheet and i think that you shouldn't be answering on
the answer sheet straightaway you should use the question sheets the brusher to answer questions
and then you transfer your answers then you can concentrate on one activity at a time
and when you're transferring your answers you should be thinking about the spelling of words
and also the answer format because sometimes you need to write down a word but sometimes a letter
so you need to be thinking about that and it's safest if you don't leave all that until the end
of the test so answer questions to the first section transfer your answers second section
transfer your answers third section transfer them or when there is five minutes before the
end of the test transfer all the answers you have until that moment and only then start thinking
about the questions which you haven't answered by that point yet again you need to manage time
and it's easier if you take the computer-based test because the timer will be on the screen
if you take a paper-based test then you need to remember how much time is left
you will have a clock on the wall so the moment the reading section begins write down what time
is on that clock otherwise you may forget and invigilators will only tell you when you have i
think 10 minutes left 5 minutes left and 2 minutes so they will not tell you you have 40 minutes left
you have 20 minutes left you have to figure that out yourself now how can you answer more
questions in ielts reading well you know there are two types of reading intensive and extensive
intensive is when you read slowly and carefully properly pronouncing each word in your head or
sometimes even moving your lips and trying to understand everything when we learn the language
we sometimes get used to reading like that all the time the problem is it takes a lot of time
extensive reading is how we scan newspapers we don't really pay attention to everything we just
read quickly and if something interests us we slow down that's exactly what you should do in
ielts reading luckily most questions come in order this means that you can read the first question
and then you start scanning the text you are you're reading it but you're reading it
quickly and if you don't understand some words or even a sentence don't stop don't reread it
move on just look for your answer when you feel that the answer is somewhere there then you slow
down you read the question again you read the sentence extensively and try to find your answer
you know i've analyzed quite a few ielts reading questions and sometimes the most difficult words
which you don't understand don't determine the answer you may read a sentence and there is
a part which you don't understand at all i still don't understand everything in ios reading because
they use a lot of scientific terms which i'm not familiar with and they know that will be the case
but if you concentrate on what matters you may be able to disregard the parts you don't understand
and still find the answer this is exactly how i managed to get band aid in my first
test even though there were quite a lot of words i didn't know so concentrating is very important
and i actually have a separate video about which questions common order which don't come in order
and which strategies you should have for both of them i will link it in the description
what else can you do a couple of things well the first one is to highlight keywords
when you read a question and it's long highlight the main words they will help you
remind yourself what you're looking for because we get distracted we forget then you will look
okay that's what i need when you're reading the passage you should also highlight keywords such as
names dates names of theories locations sometimes you will find one of them later on and then you'll
be able to quickly get back to the correct place in your passage so what can you do to prepare for
ielts reading i think it's important to learn about different types of questions
then you see the type you know what it is and you know what to do to solve it that saves time
recently i actually published a new video with the main types of questions
strategies for each and some practice questions i will link it in just a moment you should also take
several practice tests not many just several you need to learn the format you need to feel how
quickly you need to answer all the questions how much time you have and it's best to take
official practice tests because they have the same level of difficulty as the real exam so i have
all the free official tests linked in my ielts study plan you can also buy a book um like that
so cambridge practice tests so that's number 16 uh in summer 2022 there will be number number 17
but as long as you have a book published in the last like three years that's fine so
solve those tests they will teach you a lot and if you'd like to get the study plan with
all the useful links it's right on the screen the video i talked about is on the screen too
and thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye