British Council, Cambridge English Language Assessment and IDP Education Australia jointly own the IELTS . International teams of writers from different English-speaking countries write the IELTS assessment material . The IELTS content reflects real-life situations and situations around you.
You will need an Academic test band score to enroll for an (under)graduate where the teaching is in English.
Here are the 10 tips that help you to get best score in your IELTS Reading Test.
Read as much written English as you can to prepare you for the IELTS Reading Test. Read different types of texts. So newspapers and magazines, blogs and academic articles, books that interest you – which can be fiction or non-fiction. Remember though that reading a long book is very different from reading a short text in a Test, so don’t worry if you come across words you don’t understand, or complicated sentences in a book which are a bit difficult to follow. Always keep a dictionary handy so you can look up words you are unfamiliar with. Try and get into the habit of learning one or two new words every day to build up your vocabulary.
Read the IELTS information provided on the Ulearn.Education and IELTS.org websites. Also look at takeielts.britishcouncil.org and the cambridgeenglish.org website. Get as much information about IELTS as you can. Do the practice tests on the IELTS.org website.
When you are practicing for the Reading test it will be useful to try and do this under test conditions, so without distractions like a TV or radio playing in the background. Some students can find it difficult to read fast enough to get through the text and the questions in the time available. You might find it useful to download a teleprompter app like iAutocue which allows you to scroll text at different speeds on your table or smartphone – so you can practice increasing your reading speed.
Make sure you are prepared and ready on the day of the test; get a good night’s sleep the night before the test. Arrive at the test centre half an hour early and make sure you have a reliable means of transport to get you there. The last thing you want is unnecessary extra stress on test day because you didn’t manage your time properly.
Read the questions really carefully and make sure you follow all the instructions you are given. So, for example, if you are asked to use “three words or less”, then do exactly that. Don’t use four words because, even if they give the correct answer, your answer will be wrong because you haven’t followed the instructions. Make sure you are familiar with ways of reducing the number of words you have to use. For example, by saying “The shop’s entrance”, rather than saying “The entrance to the shop”.
Familiarize yourself with the different types of questions you might have to answer in your test. These include true/false questions; sentence completion, matching information, matching headings or labeling diagrams. Do the practice tests on the IELTS.org website so you can get familiar with how to answer these different types of questions.
Skimming and scanning are two techniques you should practice. Skimming is learning to read through the text quickly so that you can get a sense of what each paragraph is about – without reading every single word. And scanning is looking through the text for specific words or phrases you have been asked to identify in one of the questions. So there is no point scanning the text until you have read the question – and you know what you are looking for. If you can practise skimming and scanning you should be able to use your time in the test more efficiently.
The first sentence in each paragraph is very important. This usually tells you what the paragraph is about, without you having to read the entire paragraph. So when you are answering a question, for example a Matching Headings question, you can read the first sentence in each paragraph to identify where you are likely to find the answer – which will save you a lot of time.
You will have a test paper and a separate answer sheet. And the idea is that you work out your answers on the test paper during the test and then transfer your answers to the Answer Sheet at the end. So make sure you leave at least 10 minutes at the end of the test to do this. Unlike the Listening test you will not be given any extra time to fill out your answer sheet. In the Reading Test you will have to fill out your answer sheet within the 60 minutes you are given to complete the test. Don’t rush this final stage because marks will be deduced if you make spelling or grammatical mistakes, or if the examiner can’t read some of your answers. Then, if you can, leave a little bit of time to finally check your work at the end. And don’t just think about “is this answer write of wrong” but check if everything is spelt correctly, make sure you have used apostrophes, capital letters and plurals correctly. Think as well about different spellings of similar words like PLAIN spelt P.L.A.I.N and PLANE spelt P.L.A.N.E.
Don’t read too slowly or spend too much time on trying to work out the meaning of words you don’t understand. The important thing is that you get the sense of a whole sentence – which you can usually do without spending lots of time trying to understand each and every word.
Also, don’t spend too much time on each answer. You have one hour to answer 40 questions so if you get stuck on a question leave it, go on to the next question and then come back to it later. Keep in mind as well that the questions get more difficult as you progress through the test, so don’t spend too long on the earlier questions.
Look out for alternatives for the words in the question, or words with similar meaning. For example, the question might include the word “annually”. But the relevant phrase in the text might describe this as “every year” or “each year”. Or even “every September”.
Keep focused throughout the test. Don’t let yourself get distracted or stressed out – you have an hour to complete the test which is plenty of time if you manage your time properly.
And finally, attempt all the questions. Even if it’s a guess. You are not penalised for incorrect answers.
I hope you found our tips useful, and don’t forget to watch our other videos to help you get the highest band you can in the other IELTS for UKVI Academic Tests.
Students from a country where English is not the first language, must obtain a minimum English Language competency level. Some programmes require a higher level of English Language competency than the minimum requirement indicated, you can view further details on specific programme requirements. Contact Ulearn to know more about IELTS requirements for your course.
Undergraduate Level – 5.5 IELTS
Postgraduate Level – 6.5 IELTS
18 months – Two Term
All international students who want to study in the UK are required to get a student visa (Tier 4). This type of visa is only available to full-time university students pursuing a degree in the UK, and not short-term or language courses.
Know more about UK Visa requirements
All international students who want to study in the UK are required to get a student visa (Tier 4). This type of visa is only available to full-time university students pursuing a degree in the UK, and not short-term or language courses. Click here for more IELTS tips
IELTS Preparation Tips
