IELTS Reading: Top 10 Tips
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Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, we are going to talk about the reading module
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of the IELTS. I'm going to tell you some of my top IELTS reading tips. So let's get started.
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During the reading module of the IELTS, there will be three passages that you read, and
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for each passage, there are a bunch of questions you have to answer. The first tip I have for
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you is: don't spend too much time reading the passages. What happens to a lot of students
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is they read word-for-word everything. They see a word they don't know, they keep trying
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to understand the meaning. You don't have to understand everything to understand the
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passage. If you don't know a word, that's fine.
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The better thing to do than to slowly read is to use skills such as skimming which means
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you quickly read for the main idea or scanning, meaning you look for key words or you look
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for specific detail. A lot of students, what they do for the IELTS is they will actually
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read the questions first, and then they will read the passage. And that way, they... They
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know what they're looking for. You don't have to do this; it's one technique. Some students
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find this a lot easier, other students like to read the passage first and then answer
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the questions. I recommend trying both out. First do the reading, then the questions,
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then try to read the questions first and read the passage and see what you like better,
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what you're more comfortable doing.
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So the key thing here is: don't read slowly. It's a timed test, you have three parts you
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have to get through, 40 questions; it's very important that you read quickly. You can start
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practicing reading quickly also. There are a number of resources out there where you
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can actually start practicing. And time yourself when you practice, make sure you're not going
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over time.
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Number two, similar to number one, my tip is: don't spend too long on each question.
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Some of the questions are difficult-they're possible, you can do well on them-but some
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of them, you might be reading and you might think: "Oh, I don't know what the answer is,"
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and you might look at it, and think, and try, and try, and try. Well, the problem is if
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you spend too much time on a question, there are 40 questions and the one hour limit for
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the test, it goes by very quickly. So you can spend too much time on each question.
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So what I recommend is read a question, try to figure out the answer. If you don't know
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it, you can put a star beside it and come back after. Don't spend too long on any question.
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You can also take a guess, move on, and come back later.
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My third tip: spend less time on earlier questions. For the reading module, the... Like I said,
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there are three passages. The first passage is the easiest, then the second passage, and
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then the third question. If you spend all your time on the first passage, you're not
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going to have time to do the second and the third. And, like I said, the first one is
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easier. So a good idea is to spend less time on the first passage, maybe about 17 minutes,
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then the second passage maybe spend about 20 minutes, and the third passage maybe 23
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minutes. You don't have to follow this exactly, but the main idea is spend less time on part
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one, more time on part three because part three is harder.
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My fourth point is: make sure you have enough time to transfer your answers. They will have
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an answer sheet and you're supposed to write your answers on it. It's very important to
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leave yourself time to transfer your answers from your test paper to the answer sheet.
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A lot of students, they work through the booklet and then they realize there's no time to transfer
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their answers, so make sure you leave time for this.
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Okay, my fifth tip is a very, very common error students make: three words or less.
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