Page 14 - Mission IELTS Leaflet
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Tips for IELTS
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On the next page, there is a practice test for Reading Passage 1. Here are some tips to help you with the
Reading Paper. Tick (
✓
) the tips that you need to practise most.
EXAM FOCUS:
IELTS Reading Paper (Academic) Passage 1
Short-answer questions, identifying information tasks, matching
information tasks, completion tasks
• Use the text’s title, any photos and the questions to
predict the topic and key words.
• Use your understanding of how texts develop to find
where the answers are. Some common patterns are:
– causes
➞
effects
– problems
➞
solutions
– findings
➞
conclusions
– points for
➞
points against
– the history/development of something
– a description of a process
• Time is enormously important in the Reading Paper.
You have less than 90 seconds for each question, so
you do
NOT
have the time to read all the texts
carefully.
Only read carefully those parts of the text that
contain the answers.
•
Answering short-answer and completion tasks
– Never answer with more than the stated number
of words. NB Hyphenated words count as single
words and contracted words aren’t tested.
– Write numbers as words or figures.
– Use American or British spelling.
– Write in capitals or lower case.
• Skim the text first to see what it is generally about.
Then just skim each task to see what it generally asks
you to do.
• Only pay attention to difficult words if they are key
words. Then use the context (the topic and words
round a word) to guess what the key words probably
mean.
• Candidates sometimes spend too much time on a
question or a section, so they don’t have enough
time for the later questions. Don’t do this! Divide
your time equally between the sections.
•
Identifying information tasks
In these tasks:
True
= the statement agrees with the information in
the passage
• Add new vocabulary you meet to your vocabulary
record. If words are ‘formal’ mark them ‘fml’ in your
record. And don’t forget to note down collocations.
• Outside class, read as much as you possibly can, and
note down and learn new vocabulary.
• Try to read ‘serious’ things, like magazines or
Internet articles about current world issues, recent
research discoveries and the development of
processes, trends, inventions, etc. Here is a site that
gives links to English language newspapers around
the world:
• Reading a lot in English will help you improve your
reading skills and reading speed, increase your
vocabulary and give you information and opinions
to use in the Speaking Test and Writing Paper.
False
= the statement disagrees with/is the opposite
of the information in the passage
Not Given
= there is no information in the passage
about the statement in the question, so the passage
doesn’t confirm the statement or disagree with it.
•
Matching information tasks
For these tasks you may need to read for specific
information or read for detail.
Always look for key words in the questions then
scan the passage to find them.
•
Flow-chart completion tasks
– These tasks usually occur with factual
information or descriptive texts.
– The answers do not always occur in the same
order as in the passage, but they come from one
section rather than the whole passage.
– Scan the passage to find the words you need to
complete the flow chart.
– Always read through the flow chart when you
have completed it to make sure it makes sense.
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Exam tip sections
