How to Enhance IELTS Reading Scores?

Being an IELTS test-taker, you must know that the IELTS reading section lasts for 60 minutes for both academic and general training candidates. So, you must show up your reading skills in those 60 minutes to achieve a higher band score. If you aim to score a 7+ band score, you need to solve at least 30 questions correctly. 

Well, how could you do that? The answer to this question is here in this article. In this blog post, we have rounded up some of the great and simple ways that can help you acquire a target band score in the IELTS reading. However, if you want to commence your IELTS exam preparation with expert advice to amp up your band score, you can approach the best IELTS institute in Jalandhar

Here are some great IELTS reading tips that can surely help you intensify your reading scores: 

Know the type of questions

Let us tell you that the IELTS reading test comprises a wide variety of questions. So, you need to know what type of questions you need to solve in the IELTS reading in order to get a good hand on each type. After familiarizing yourself with the type of question, you need to practice them under timed conditions for better outcomes. here are some most common types of questions you need to tackle in the IELTS reading: 

  • True, false and not given
  • Multiple-choice questions
  • Sentence completion
  • Diagram explanation
  • Summary. Table or flowchart completion
  • Matching heading
  • Matching information
  • Short answer type questions 

Learn to skim

If you plunge deep into reading and try to understand everything slowly, you are not going to complete the reading section on time. Note that, your purpose should not be to understand the whole passage, instead, your only purpose should be to find the relevant answers from the passage. So, learn the way of skimming the passage to move rapidly through the text and find out keywords. This technique will help you get a general overview of the passage. The best way to skim is to read the first paragraph scrupulously to get the idea of the entire passage. Afterward, read the first few sentences of other paragraphs cautiously and then move on to the last paragraph. Make sure to read the last paragraph attentively as this paragraph contains the summary of the text.

Practice to scan

Scanning means rapidly going through the text in order to find out specific facts such as dates, names, numbers, figures, statistics and other main phrases and terms. Make sure to underline the important information as it will help you mark the correct answer in no time. Moreover, you don’t need to read the text again to find that particular information. You need to do this process quickly because being slow and relaxed won’t help you solve 40 questions within the time limit. 

Don’t worry about unknown words and phrases 

Sometimes candidates get stuck on a single word or phrase and end up wasting an ample amount of time. Don’t do this blunder at all! Wasting time on unknown words won’t allow you to solve easy and simple questions. Stressing over unknown words and thinking about them will lower your concentration and you won’t be able to focus on the rest of the questions. Do you want to lower your IELTS reading scores just because of a single word? Obviously no! So, rather than worrying over such words, move further and pay attention to other questions. 

However, if you don’t want to encounter such a situation, it is better to intensify your vocabulary by learning an extensive range of words and phrases. 

Improve your reading speed 

To make the best possible use of 60 minutes by solving all the questions, you first need to concentrate on your reading speed. If you have a good reading pace, only then you will be able to quickly go through three long passages efficiently. Well, how can it be done? Simply, by reading English content regularly through magazines, novels, books, articles, blogs and generals. Set the timer, practice reading any passage and note the timing. Do better than the previous try, set the timer and read the passage again. Note the time difference between both practices. When you regularly try this method, you will surely notice a huge distinction in your reading pace, which in turn will help you complete the reading test timely. 

However, it is better to solve previous years’ reading question papers to gain a better experience of the actual exam along with improving your speed. You can either download questions papers from the web or you can seek help from the best IELTS institute

Summing up: 

To sum up, the IELTS reading test can turn out to be interesting and engaging if practiced in a better way. So, you can try out the above-mentioned tips to improve your reading skills effectively and achieve a high band score in the reading section.