hi there it's asiya and today my ielts reading score is band nine
yes in the last test i finally achieved a perfect nine which i'm really happy about in the previous
two tests i got 8.5 but i still remember how intimidating this test was when i took
it for the very first time to study for my master's degree in london
i couldn't understand everything and it felt like there was very little time but i still managed to
get an aid back then and today i'd like to share with you my tips that will help you perform
better in your test and hopefully achieve a higher score okay let's get started
let me quickly tell you about the exam format and then we move on and talk about the tips
ielts reading lasts for 60 minutes you get 40 questions split into three sections and questions
generally get harder as you progress the tests are slightly different for academic and general
training students academic students get three longer passages and general training students
get five sometimes six shorter passages academic students need to answer 30 questions for band 7
and 35 for band 8. they get more scientific more difficult texts general training students
get easier passages and they will be expected to answer more questions correctly for the same score
basically they need 34 correct answers for band 7 and 38 for band 8.
now let's discuss how you can answer all 40 questions in 60 minutes
in ielts reading you have a lot to read and most likely you won't even understand everything
because this section demands the widest vocabulary out of all four ielts sections
and you have just 60 minutes so the pressure will be high and time management is key the official
guidance says that you should spend 20 minutes on each section 20 20 20. the truth is that questions
in the first section are the easiest and you need less time to answer them and questions in the last
section are the hardest and 20 minutes is probably most likely it's not enough to answer them so
i think you should spend about 15 minutes on the first section 20 on the second and 25 on the third
then you have the best chance to answer all the questions that you can answer quickly
if your english skills allow for that you should go through your test even more quickly and have
some time left at the end to go back to the questions you missed and try to find those
answers and you need to track time if you take a computer-based exam it's not a problem
the timer will be on the screen but if you take a paper-based exam there will be a clock on the
wall you're not allowed to have your own watch and under all this stress you may simply forget
what time you started so as soon as the section starts write down the time on the sheet then you
always know how much time is left invigilators will tell you when you have 10 minutes left
and 5 minutes left my big strategy here is to start with questions here is what i mean
if you read the passage first and then attempt to answer questions you're likely gonna spend
much more time doing that that's because you have to read the whole passage attentively because you
don't know which information you will need and also by the time you get to questions you will
forget little details and you will have to go back to the text and find those bits because
remembering just a general idea is not enough in ielts reading
the good thing is that most questions come in order you can read the question start reading
the text find your answer read the next question find your answer and so on in this case you save
time because when you feel that your answer is not there you can read quickly and then slow down when
you feel that that's a sentence or sentences which contain the answer and you spend your
time you re-read the question you find the answer then you read the next question and you continue
some questions don't come in order for example matching headings but still you don't have to read
the whole passage you can read the first paragraph find the answer the next paragraph find the answer
then you always know what you need to concentrate on and it saves time i have a detailed video
describing this strategy and all the types of questions which come in order and which
don't come in order and i will link it in the description box below my next tip is don't rush
i know you have little time but if you don't read your questions carefully your options
or sentences which contain answers you will make mistakes which you could easily avoid
you save time on answering questions as you read the passage you also save time on reading some
sentences of your text quickly because you know they don't contain your answer but when you find
the sentence which contains the answer you should read it carefully re-read the sentence if you need
otherwise you simply leave points on the table and also you have to read the whole passage even
though you can read some sentences quickly and some more slowly and attentively you have to read
everything don't try to crack the test by reading the first sentence of each paragraph or by just
looking for keywords in the text those tactics don't work in ion's reading the next tip is don't
spend too much time on any single question some answers are really difficult to locate but if
you spend too much time on a single question you may still not find the correct answer but you lose
the ability to answer several questions that you could answer so first go through all the questions
and then if you have some time at the end go back to those you skipped and try to locate your answer
every time i take an ielts reading test i mark several questions to review
and i go back to them at the end of the test and spend much more time on every question
because i know that i've answered all the other questions already the next step is use keywords
these are the main words in your questions in the options in the text that will help you understand
what this sentence is about so if you use keywords they help you concentrate on what information
you're looking for and in the text they help you navigate in your long passage but don't look for
the same words in your questions in your options and in the text ielts reading is built in such a
way that correct answers are paraphrased they use different words and if you look for the same word
those are usually used in incorrect options those are traps so look for the meaning
look for synonyms and not for the keyword in the option and in the text that will not help
when you're reading the passage highlight all the names surnames locations names of theories dates
they will help you to find information if you need to go back to this passage later so how can
you highlight keywords in a computer-based exam you have a function to highlight them in yellow
and in a paper-based exam you can simply underline them you should also cross out incorrect answers
let's say you have four options if you eliminate two you'll be selecting between
just two of them and have a better chance of guessing what the correct answer is and answer
all the questions at the very end even if you don't know what those answers are select one
you always have a chance to guess correctly and you don't lose any points for incorrect answers
and let's talk about transferring your answers so if you take a computer-based test you don't
need to transfer your answers anywhere you just select them on the screen straight away but if you
take a paper-based test you'll be selecting your answers on the question sheets first and then you
need to transfer them to the answer sheet but you don't get any extra time to do that like in ielts
listening so don't leave it until the end you finish the first section transfer your answers you
finish the second section transfer your answers third transfer and only then when you have just
a few gaps left for those questions you are not certain about then you go back and you try to find
those answers and on the last minutes of the test if you don't know just answer something oh yes and
don't try to answer on the question sheet directly because that will be distracting you from the task
you need to concentrate and choose the correct answer and select the correct letter and write
it in the correct box so don't do that during the test find your answers for the first section
then transfer them that will give you a one minute break and then you concentrate on the next passage
and so on now let's talk about the format of your answers you can write
them in capital letters or on small letters or capitalize the first letter it doesn't matter
when you're answering true false not given and yes no not given questions you can just write t or
n or ng not given that's fine and actually even if you write no instead of false or
true instead of yes those will still be counted as correct answers so don't worry about that
but pay attention to your spelling if you have a spelling mistake it's an incorrect answer if
you take a computer-based test and you need to copy a word you can actually select the word
and press ctrl c copy and then ctrl v to paste it in the gap then you are guaranteed that the
spelling is correct and if you're taking a paper-based exam then well you need to copy
those words carefully and if you're wondering if ctrl f works to search for certain words then no
it doesn't if you're wondering what it's like to take the ielts exam on the computer
i personally find it pretty convenient and it's great for ielts reading because you have the
passage and questions right next to each other and you don't need to transfer your answers anywhere
you simply click on them and that's it so you save a couple of minutes but it all depends on whether
you're comfortable typing your answers in ielts writing or you're better off writing them by hand
and that is what will decide which format is better for you now let's talk about preparation
i think you should definitely prepare for the most difficult types of tasks and for most people these
are true false not given yes no not given and matching headings you need to have your strategy
then you know what you need to do and you can find more answers in less time but those are
big topics so i have two separate videos with strategies and practice tasks linked below
and what you do to prepare for your test really depends on how much time you have
and i have a separate video where i explain how you should prepare in one week in one month in
three months with pdf study plans which you can download and this video is right on the screen
so thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye