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Reading 2 min read

IELTS Top tips - Reading

What is the Reading Section made of and what tactics can I use?

Reading
Time 60 minutes (no answer transfer time)
Number of questions 40 questions
content Academic

Academic content (800-1200 words) environment, science, history, research result, etc.

General

Section 1 : advertisements, guidelines

Section 2 : specific rules and instructions

Section 3 : academic content

Section 1/2 – 400 – 500 words

Section 3 – 800 – 1000 words

TIP 1 : Practice speed-reading Skills

Speed-reading skills are required to pace speed when reading different types of questions

  • Practice skimming - quickly reading for the gist of the paragraph
  • Practice scanning - reading a paragraph altogether and looking for important phrases or words
  • Practice understanding sentences by identifying subjects and verbs
  • Practice understanding the context as a whole
TIP 2 : Look at the first paragraph to identify the topic, then look for keywords

'Keywords' are essential to answering the questions
The exam covers proper nouns, numbers (e,g, year), adjectives, new words or synonyms!

  • Check keywords and match their meanings with the answers based on the question types, accordingly
TIP 3 : Study important vocabularies

It is crucial to understand the meaning of the keywords

  • Know the translated meaning of the keywords in the text
  • Memorize adjectives and verbs, which describe actions within sentences
  • Categorize synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, and suffixes into different groups when studying
  • Need to practice guessing whether a vocabulary is used in a positive or negative sense in a context

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