Techniques To Increase IELTS Reading Speed

Before you start frantically browsing on how to increase your reading speed, you need to first have a detailed understanding of the IELTS paper and the various sections it contains. This is the fundamental research that one should do diligently, as you will find many hidden answers once you have the knowledge of how the paper is structured and what it examines a candidate for.

Understanding of the IELTS Paper

The IELTS test comprises 4 sections, namely

• Speaking test
• Listening test
• Reading test
• Writing test

All these sections have various sub-sections or parts to them. In this article, we are focused on the IELTS Reading section. On the exam day, a candidate takes the listening, reading, and writing tests in the given order. The speaking test happens separately. One important thing to keep in mind is that the listening test happens right before the reading test, so one should get accustomed to this pattern and take the practice test chronologically in that order so that on the D-Day, there is no problem with the instant shift from one section to another.

Few things to keep in mind regarding the IELTS Reading Test

Below is a quick overview of the IELTS Reading test.

• It’s a 60 minutes test.
• It consists of 40 questions.
• The 40 questions are divided into 3 sections with one text per section along with questions.
• The Test is different for IELTS Academic and General training students.
• One should write the answers while reading after there’s no separate time allotted for it.
• The word count of the passage ranges from 900-2000 words.

The IELTS Reading Test consists of 3 passages followed by a few questions. There are a variety of questions asked. For some questions, understanding the entire passage is not even required and for others, it is important to understand the author’s claim.

Types of Questions Asked in IELTS Reading

There are many IELTS reading topics from which different questions are asked in the test. Below is the list of every question type that you can get in your IELTS reading test.

• Multiple-choice questions
• Matching questions
• True/False/Not given
• Yes/No/Not given
• Fill in the blanks
• Summary completion
• Tables and Flowcharts with partial information given
• One word Answers
• Matching headings
• Locating information

As you can see above there all sorts of questions are asked from the passages. So, you should practice all types of questions to have a good grasp of the question types, so that there can be no surprises in the exam. Include all these questions types in your IELTS preparation for a better score.

Few General Reading Tips 

These general reading tips will surely help you in getting a good score on the test.

• Do not waste time on one particular question, you can always come back to it later if time permits.
• The questions usually start from the initial parts of the passage and progressively go to the succeeding paragraphs in the later questions. Knowing this will help you in locating the answer, in case you get confused.
• The questions test whether you can understand what the text is saying and not whether you can understand the language, hence the questions usually paraphrase the given text, therefore do not go back trying to find the exact lines but rather locate where the information is given.
• The texts and the questions usually keep getting denser in the latter stage, so try finishing up the easy questions as soon as possible, so that you can spend more time on the difficult ones.
• Some questions do not require you to read the entire text. All you need to do is locate in which paragraph the information is located and this can be done by skimming through the first and the last line of every paragraph.

If you’re someone who reads slowly, these are a few points that might sound familiar to you:

• You do not need to read each and every word given in the passage.
• You read aloud the entire passage which slows you down.
• You start forming ideas on every sub-topic in the passage and think about it in details
• You do not in general have any reading habit
• You get stuck on difficult words, trying to understand their meaning

How Can You Improve Your Reading Speed? 

To score well you must have a good reading speed. Here is how you can improve your reading speed.

• The most basic way to improve reading speed is to start reading simple content online. This will help you to get accustomed to the process.
• Do not read, rather skim through each paragraph and get a basic idea of what the author is talking about. This will increase your reading speed exponentially.
• It’s a good idea to read the questions in the first 2 minutes before reading each passage so that whenever you come across similar information, we can read those parts a bit carefully.
• Practice taking a glance at the passage and scanning the important words, like several proper nouns like names of individuals, places, or a concept to have a basic idea of what the passage is talking about.
• The title itself reveals the main focus of the passage, try to take cues from the title and read with a particular mindset.

Few Things To Keep In Mind While Reading

There is always so much going on before and on the day of the exam. Apart from IELTS reading tips, there are a few more things that should be kept in mind while reading.

• Be careful with the transition words, that’s usually where the tone changes or the idea gets concluded.
• Do not focus on difficult words, IELTS doesn’t test your vocabulary.
• Use a pencil to track each line while reading. This will help you to concentrate
• Locate the main idea of the passage. This will not come easily and requires a certain amount of practice.
• If the author has quoted someone else in the passage to validate his/her point, then you do not read the entire line in quotes. Come back to it, if the question requires you to.
• Do not get caught in details and examples, skip those parts as this is used in the passage to reiterate the main idea by giving more evidence and explanations.
• Be careful with the true and false questions as the question statements are very close to the original idea for the “false” and the “not given” statements to trick you. So go back to the paragraph and confirm the related information given in the passage and crosscheck it with the question.
• Lastly, read the instructions clearly and adhere to them. Do not write more than one word for one-word questions or else your answer will not be accepted.
• Check your answers at random once you’re done with the section, this will allow you to go through the passage again and detect mistakes if there happens to be any.

Practice Is The Key To Become An Efficient Reader 

All the tips and the tricks that are mentioned can only come in handy if you’ve enough practice. Whenever you’re practicing, always take a timer and complete each passage within 20 minutes because without the timer there’s no pressure and in the actual exam, there will be even more stress to complete the paper. So practicing with a timer will help you with your accuracy and speed. Practicing with reading practice papers also helps in the preparation of the exam.