How to Complete IELTS Reading in Less than an Hour?

The IELTS exam comprises four sections namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. The most challenging part about the exam is to complete all the sections within the given time frame. Amongst the four sections in IELTS, the reading section takes the maximum time as it does not just check the reading skills but also the ability to read under a given time frame. There are 40 questions in this section that have to be completed within an hour. This article will look at the ways which can be of help to complete the IELTS reading section in less than an hour.

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Strategies to Complete IELTS Reading in Less than an Hour

Here are a few strategies to help you improve your reading during IELTS preparation:

1. Know the Exam Pattern and the Questions:

The IELTS exam is divided into sections and the reading section has 3 passages with a total of 40 questions. The most important thing is to know the exam pattern as it would help to plan a strategy for the exam and on the day of the exam, candidates will know exactly what to expect. This would prevent the candidates from panicking on the big day.

2. Read and Read More:

It is not unknown to everyone that developing a habit of reading is mandatory to attempt any comprehension-based question. Being an avid reader automatically gives an upper hand in the IELTS score to candidates as they will be able to understand how a text is organized. Through reading more, vocabulary is enhanced and thus helps to understand a text in a better way.

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3. Enhance Vocabulary:

While reading any source of writing whether it is newspaper, books, magazines, if any new word comes to notice, it must be noted down along with its meaning. After noting, these words must be consciously used in everyday speech so that they can be retained in the mind.

4. Practice Extensive Reading:

All the aspirants who are looking forward to scoring a high band in the IELTS exam must inculcate the habit of reading extensively. It is considered that reading is always a good habit as it enhances the knowledge of the language as well as the vocabulary. To enhance IELTS vocabulary, what can be a better companion than spotting difficult words, referring to the dictionary and understanding the meaning. Not in the case when the priority is to speed read. The time is limited in the IELTS exam and therefore candidates do not have much time to spend on every single word of the passage. Therefore, extensive reading can be of great help. In extensive reading, the focus is upon the general meaning of the text and a word is understood with its contextual meaning.

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5. Skimming and Scanning:

Another IELTS reading tip is for attempting reading-related questions, one has to learn the ability to quickly go through the text. This process is called skimming and it helps a lot in attempting the questions at a rapid pace. Scanning on the other hand is looking for specific words in a text. Candidates can practice skimming and scanning by trying to go through newspapers and books and have a cursory glance at them while trying to get the gist of it. In the IELTS exam, one must look for dates, surnames and concepts and highlight them so that they can be easily navigated while answering the questions.

6. Read all the Questions Before Attempting the Answers:

Once a passage has been given a cursory glance, it is suggested to go through the questions first and then give a complete reading to the passage. That way, while reading, candidates will have an idea of where to find the answers to the given questions and the key information in those paragraphs can be highlighted while reading.

7. Read in the Bunch than Word by Word:

Most people while reading take into account every word which also includes articles, prepositions and so on. An IELTS aspirant must hone the skill of reading in phrases rather than every word. Instead of reading every word one by one, candidates can read three words together and make sense in their heads. The skill can eventually be improved and reading in phrases can even be improved to 5-6 words in the bunch. Reading in a bunch would automatically fasten up the reading speed and in turn, help to solve questions in less time.

8. Develop a Strategy of One Minute Per Question:

Candidates must develop a strategy to answer every question in one minute. If any question is taking more than a minute, it is suggested not to spend any further time on it as high chances are that the question would just confuse more and consume even more time. It might happen that when a candidate is spending more than a minute on a particular question, he/she can start panicking thinking about missing out on remaining questions and even though the answers could be right in front of their eyes, they might get overlooked. Hence, it is advised that those questions should be reattempted once every other question in the test is completed.

9. Avoid Re-reading the Passage:

The IELTS passage may be such that reading once would not suffice. The paragraphs can be tricky sometimes and answers to the questions could not be directly found in the passage. In such a scenario, candidates tend to re-read the paragraphs. Since re-reading consumes a lot of time, it is suggested that it should be done only when one knows that the paragraph contains an answer to some question. Otherwise, it can be avoided.

10. Practice and Improve:

It is said practice makes one perfect. That is true in the case of IELTS too. Practicing reading questions would certainly help one identify the kinds of questions that need to be worked upon. The more one practices, the more one can identify weak areas. Therefore, practicing can help to improve the ability to solve reading questions correctly and fastly too. As with more practice, not much thinking will be required to answer questions.