hi there it's Asiya I've achieved 8.5 in IELTS Reading and 8.5
in my IELTS overall and I've taken both computer-based and paper
based versions of the exam in this video I want to share my strategies talk about
the most difficult types of tasks and just little tips you should know okay
let's get started
first of all let's talk about the some format I just want to make sure we all
were on the same page IELTS reading lasts for 60 minutes and includes 40
questions the tests for academic and general training students are slightly
different academic students get academic scientific texts general training
students get some general texts such as instructions and then something more
academic event each test consists of three sections but for academic students
there will be one long passage for section three passages in total for
general training students usually there are two passages in the first section
two in the second one in the third five passages in total overall questions for
general training students is slightly easier and you will be required to
answer more questions correctly in order to achieve a certain score I've actually
found a detailed table that shows you what school you're gonna get with every
number of correct answers so here it is if you answer 30 questions correctly
it's enough to get band 7 in IELTS academic but in IELTS general training
you will only get band 6 and will actually be required to answer 34
questions to get back 7 I got 8.5 in the academic test which
means that I answered 37 or 38 questions correctly and indeed they couldn't find
several answers in the general training test I would only be allowed to make one
mistake to achieve the same score and you need no mistakes at all to achieve
the top score in the general training test but can get one question wrong in
the academic test now let me share with you my strategy when you open IELTS
reading tasks the progression from simple questions to the most difficult
is very noticeable the further you go the more difficult questions become that
means that you should go through easy questions quite quickly to save more
time to find answers to the more difficult ones and if you open IELTS
academic the instructions are spent about 20 minutes on each section I would
say that is definitely not the best time allocation
I recommend spending about 15 minutes on the first passage 20 on the second and
25 on the third because the first one is quite easy you can do it in 15 minutes
but there is no way you can do the third one in 20 minutes you need more time
actually I go through the questions even more quickly I spent about 12 minutes on
the first one 15 on the second 20 on the third and then I can't back to questions
I couldn't answer yes when I can't find a certain question I don't know what the
answer is I can't find it I just don't understand the answer I
leave it and I move on because you give yourself the best chance to answer as
many questions as possible if you don't spend too much time on any single one
more than to review you will come back to them if you have some time left
remember that in IELTS reading you don't have extra time to transfer your answers
if you take a paper-based exam you'll be marking your answers on the question
sheets you should do that that's better but then you've answered the first
section transfer your answers answer the second transfer your answers during the
third one when the examiner says you have five minutes left
whatever you're doing stop transfer all your answers apart from the questions
you want to review and then resume what you wanted to do the worst mistake is
when people just don't have time to mock answers they've already found I saw this
happening during the real exam don't repeat this mistake in a computer-based
exam you simply select your answers you don't need to transfer them anywhere
I would say that saves you 2 or 3 minutes of your time but actually my
point is go through the questions quite quickly don't stop on those you can find
come back to them later next in IELTS reading I never read the
whole passage in one go I base all my strategy on questions and actually many
questions come an order it means you can read the first question then you start
scanning quickly reading your passage until you feel that the answer is
somewhere here then you slow down perhaps you reread the question you
reread the sentence you find the answer then you read the second question and
your resume quickly scanning through the passage until you find the second answer
and so on and it just saves a lot of time if you read the whole passage quite
likely you will not memorize all the details to give correct answers and also
you will not know which details you need to memorize so you will spend a lot of
time reading I've done some research into which question types come in order
and which don't I have a detailed video that I'm gonna link in the description
but in short here is what I found and let me tell you which question types
come in order well first of all missing words where the task is choose one word
or choose not more than two words from the passage for each answer those come
in order are the next question type is true force not given I think it's one of
the most complex tasks in IELTS reading and there is another similar one yes no
not given those questions come an order apart from the situation where you get a
set of yes/no not given questions at the end of the
third section of your test in this case perhaps they're not in order but in
other cases they are also multiple choice where you need to select one
option out of four or maybe two options out of six or seven of course there are
questions which don't come an order typically all matching questions such as
matching headings that's where the task is to choose the correct heading for
each paragraph from the list of headings below in this case you should read the
first paragraph find the answer read the second paragraph find the
answer and so on so you base your strategy on reading paragraphs one by
one rather than reading questions and looking for the paragraph with answer
there is another similar type of task called matching paragraphs the task here
is which paragraph contains the following information so they're
slightly different in matching headings you're asked about the general idea in
the paragraph in matching paragraphs you are asked about certain bit of the text
mentioned in the paragraph it may be just several words not the whole
paragraph so I think it's a little bit more difficult to find because you need
to be more attentive but again the strategy is the same and questions
don't come in order and you may also get questions where you need to match
sentence endings the task is complete each sentence with the correct ending
all these questions don't come an order what's more at the end of the third
section you get a set of questions which don't come in order those are the most
difficult ones and that's where I typically just can't find one or two
answers and that's why my score is eight point five and not and nine yet most
other types of questions come in order and of course you should take practice
tests in order to learn which common order and which don't and you need to
have a clear strategy for each type of task so that when you see it you know
straight away what you're supposed to do and how you're gonna look for your
answers so let's talk about some of them you should learn about different types
of tasks and IELTS reading and have a strategy for each of them so that when
you get one during the exam you know straight away what you're gonna do and
you don't waste time on figuring out what the task is there are a number of
official free practice tests available they're all linked in my study plan in
the description box below in IELTS reading texts a tough and most likely
you will not be able to understand everything so you should really
concentrate on looking for those answers and not get distracted on words you
don't know to do that pay attention to key words when you read the question
identify key words they will help you to keep yourself concentrated on what
you're looking for highlight those key words if you take a paper-based exam
just underline them with your pencil if you take a computer-based exam you can
highlight them select the word click on the right button on your mouse select
highlight and the word will be yellow when you read the text also highlight
the key information such as dates names names of theories names of places and
people there will be questions above them and you
we'll be able to quickly find them in the text if you highlight them you know
in aisles answers to most questions lie in several words you don't need to
understand everything you just need to find those words and that's where
keywords help but also remember that the correct option and the words in the text
will be paraphrased they will not be repeated but when you look at the
meaning the meaning is the same but sometimes you may find words in the
text and the same words in one of the options most likely this is not the
correct option this is a trap so check the meaning let me compare the
paper-based and computer-based versions of IELTS reading and give you some extra
tips first of all don't forget that you don't get any extra time to transfer
your answers you must do everything in 60 minutes and you need time for that if
you take the paper-based version of the exam you also have to manage your time
more carefully in this version because in video letters tell you when you have
two minutes left five minutes left and I don't remember if they tell you when you
have 10 minutes left but nothing else so if you take the paper-based exam when
the reading section starts look at the clock on the wall and write down the
time when it starts you may forget it later but you will in this way you will
always be able to figure out how much time you have left in a computer-based
exam it's easier because you have a timer on your screen the only thing you
don't know is how many seconds you have in the last minute you will see one
minute and then the test is over but you don't need
to transfer your answers anywhere in both versions you can either underline
words on the question sheets or you can highlight them in a computer-based IELTS
you can also copy paste words press ctrl C to copy a word and ctrl V to paste it
that's very convenient when you need to find some words and fill the gaps in a
paper-based version you have to copy words yourself be careful about the
spelling because spelling matters in both versions of the exam you can write
all your answers in capital letters if you wish you can use caps lock on the
keyboard and if your handwriting is a bit difficult try to write your answers
in capital letters because examiner's should be able to read them I actually
think that the computer-based version of IELTS reading is more convenient because
you have a big screen and you can see almost all the passage and questions at
the same time in a paper-based exam you have to turn pages and also you have to
copy your answers but of course it's up to you and before taking the
computer-based exam you must learn the interface IDP offers the full IELTS
reading test and the format is exactly like the real one it's linked in the
Ayad static plan in the description box below you know in my most recent example
I had two sets of matching headings one set of matching paragraphs and three
sets of true false not given or yes no not given basically a head room in each
section of my exam and I think you should really pay attention to those two
types of tasks of course don't forget to take the official practice tests they
were linked in my IELTS study plan and I have separate videos about those types
of tasks thank you for watching me today good
luck with your preparation and your exam button