this is how much you need to read in 60 minutes plus all the questions I'm sure you
feel that you're short of time in IELTS reading indeed your reading speed directly affects your
score but some habits unintentionally learned while studying English may be holding you back
let me show you how you can start reading in English faster and
complete your questions in less time it's Asiya let's get started [Music]
when we learn English at school we are often taught to read slowly paying attention to every
detail and writing down unfamiliar words this is called intensive reading and it's very slow
there is another approach to reading called extensive reading which is similar to how we
read newspapers in our native language or read fast don't stop if we can't understand something
and still grasp the general idea of the text here is why it's important to understand the difference
between intensive and extensive reading In this passage I've highlighted all the bits you really
need to study carefully to answer the questions this is what you need to read intensively
everything else is the background information which you can read fast extensively and this
is the skill many tests take a slack so what stops you from Reading fast several things
perhaps here is the first do you read each word one by one let me show you how it looks read this
right now you had no choice but to read the sentence word by word paying as much
attention to the Articles and auxiliary verbs as to the keywords reading in chunks
of phrases rather than word by word can significantly improve your reading speed
your ice span is approximately three and a half centimeters long
allowing you to read several words at a time now try reading in chunks ready
have you noticed that at certain points your eyes jumped as soon as you got the phrase
train yourself to take in phrases this can enhance your reading speed as well as comprehension
if you read word by word you may concentrate on unfamiliar words too much when you see a phrase
with only one unfamiliar word it's easier to guess the general meaning without forcing
you can find this task from British Council in the description
and now let's check if you have another habit slowing you down when you read do you pronounce
words in your head or maybe even whisper them with your lips this is called sub-vocalization
slows you down a lot you can't move on to the next word until you've finished hearing the previous
stop pronouncing words in your head you can overcome this by having a tune while speed
reading to break this habit now I'm not saying not to cervicalize at all I love Whispering words
it really helps me concentrate but you should only do this as an intensive reading technique
basically if you found where an answer is located and you're trying to figure out
which option is correct feel free to pronounce each word in your head not a lot the next bad
habit is re-reading re-reading sentences you didn't understand is a big time waster most
likely you will read it again but not gain much comprehension only re-read the sentence if you
know it contains an answer to a certain question in this case feel free to read it twice don't rush
what I'm saying is you should avoid re-reading solely for the purpose of better understanding
let's talk about a couple of exercises that that help you learn to read faster and avoid re-reading
a piece whether it's your finger or a pen can help you read faster by guiding your
eyes across the text and maintaining a steady rhythm place your finger or a pen just below
the line of text and move with a consistent speed keep your eyes focused on the Pacer
this helps prevent your eyes from wandering or getting distracted try to maintain a steady and
consistent pace avoid slowing down or speeding up too much the goal is to create a smooth and
continuous movement of your eyes resist the urge to go back and re-read words or lines the paceset
helps you train your eyes to keep moving forward improving your reading speed and reducing the
tendency to read with practice you'll be able to read faster even without a physical piece the next
exercise is called accelerate first do you drive if you do you might have noticed that if you're
traveling at 120 kilometers an hour and then slow down to 60 it feels slow however if you're
initially driving at 30 and then speed up to 60 it feels fast even though this speed is the same
similarly when you begin reading try starting at a faster Pace than what is comfortable for you
this approach allows you to challenge your reading speed after reading for page 2 at
this accelerated Pace gradually slow down to a speed that feels comfortable
by initially pushing yourself to read faster you can improve your overall reading speed
and of course an absolute must read one article a day to read faster you must read more
you can find relevant articles on websites like the guardian science section
these are in many regards similar to IELTS reading particular academic and actually interesting
first practice extensive reading which means reading the entire article without stopping you
can either read in chunks or use a Pacer resist the urge to use a dictionary or re-read anything
and try not to pronounce words in your hand if you don't understand everything at first it's normal
after the initial speed read go back and read the article intensively slowly
take your time to translate unfamiliar words and analyze any challenging structures by doing this
exercise regularly you can enhance both your reading speed and comprehension skills let's
return to reading in the IELTS test the secret to answering 40 questions in 60 minutes is to
allocate your limited attention and time to the key information that matters and
skim over the rest yes you've probably heard about scheming and scanning in IELTS reading
scheming is an official speed reading technique that involves quickly glancing over a text to get
a general overview of its content when skimming you're not reading every word or focusing on every
detail but rather looking through the text to identify the main ideas or the key points
skimming is similar to reading books to find interesting or relevant information
scanning is particularly useful if you do this when you're skimming the passage highlight
keywords such as dates names of people places or theories then you'll be able to navigate
the text much more quickly when searching for answers in the IELTS reading exam it's
crucial not only to focus on your reading speed but also to allocate your time wisely
spending 20 minutes on each part is not the right way to solve this test to learn how you should
spend your time instead to answer more questions and get a higher score watch this video here and
thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye