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Reading tips

How to prepare for the IELTS Reading test, tips and techniques to improve your skills and raise your score

IELTS: Academic or General?

As I promised, this is a story about a mistake I made while studying for the IELTS test. I started to prepare for the Academic module whereas I should have studied for the General Training. It took me about 2 weeks to see what a mistake I was making, which means half of the time I had was wasted and the deadline moved much closer.

The first thing to do is to find out what module of IELTS are you going to take, Academic or General Training. Usually the Academic module is intended for future students and the General training for immigrants, but you should not assume – check and double-check which one you need to take.

The difference between these two IELTS modules is that the Reading and Writing tests are different in the Academic and General Modules. The Listening and Speaking tests are the same.

The difference between two Reading tests is that you may have to read 3 longer and more complicated passages in Academic versus 4-5 smaller and easier texts in General Training.

From my experience, the fact that I studied for Academic reading and practiced using Academic kind of texts didn’t hurt me and even helped me. The problem was the Writing test assignments. The difference between Academic and General Writing test is that in the Academic you receive a graph and the task is to describe it in 150 words. In the General Training you receive a description of a real-life situation and the task is to write a letter about that situation.

So I learned my lesson and now my advice to you is:

  • Practice in Academic Reading no matter what kind of IELTS you’re taking. If you take the General Training IELTS – do some General reading tests as well. This way you hope for the best and prepare for the worst 🙂 Jokes aside, here are some Academic reading tips and here is how to deal with one of the challenging question types True False Not Given. Another good idea is to learn how to practice smarter, not harder.
  • Pay attention to the Writing test: Academic = Graph, General = Letter, practice accordingly. Before you start practicing, go through these helpful tips for Academic writing task 1. If you’re studying for the General Training IELTS, click here for some writing tips

    • Reading at a glance

    Reading consists of 3 to 5 passages of text and 40 questions in total. The Academic Reading test has 3 longer passages, whereas the General Training Reading test can have 4 or 5 shorter passages. Your job is to read the passages and either answer questions, label diagrams, complete sentences or fill in gaps. For every type of task there are instructions and an example. Passages are taken from books, newspapers, magazines and the topics are very diverse, from scuba diving to space exploration. Passages progress in difficulty, with the first being the easiest and the last being the hardest.

    Good news is that you don’t really have to read the whole passage, thanks to a technique I will refer to later. Not so good news is that there is no additional time to copy your answers to the Answer Sheet and you need to squeeze it in the 60 minutes that you have in total for the Reading test. Please, don’t forget to do it – I witnessed someone who did, and it was not a pretty sight. The poor guy was crying, he received a score 0 for the whole Reading test. Here too you may write in pencil only, no pens are allowed.

    Click here for more Reading tips