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Our 3 tips to get a high score in the IELTS Reading test

What are our three top tips to improve your IELTS Reading score? Here are some easy tips that will help you in your preparation. Remember that your preparation and test technique that will make a big difference to your score.

Skimming and Scanning

You get one hour to complete your IELTS Reading test. That’ why it is important to “skim & scan.” Skimming just means that you read quickly by skipping the unimportant words. You also ignore difficult words that you don’t have to understand. Skimming gives you a general idea about a text or a paragraph. It also helps when you are searching for the answer of a question.

Scanning is a similar technique. Scanning is what you do when you look for a name in a contact list. So, when you scan you don’t actually read the whole text. Instead, you move your eyes quickly over it. You can scan either left to right or right to left, from top to bottom or bottom to top. It helps to spot words like numbers, dates and words beginning with capital letters such as place names.

Highlight

Now that you know skimming, use it for your IELTS Reading. When you skim over the text, highlight the most important phrases. It will help you to save some time when you will search for answers. With IELTS on computer, you can use the highlight feature in the Reading test. Just right click on the word/sentence and select “highlight” from the menu. Easy!

Manage your time.

Don’t get nervous about running out of time. Plan ahead. Each text should take you about 20 minutes. Remember, you have a timer at the top of your screen to help. Also, never spend too long on a single question. You can either guess if you don’t know the answer exactly or skip the question and return to it later. Also, if you feel you are running out of time, tackle questions like gap fills before attempting “easy-to-guess” tasks.

 

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