In the IELTS exam, the reading section holds a very important place. It assesses the reading skills, structuring abilities, and memory of the candidates. Moreover, in this section, there are long text prompts taken from books, journals, magazines, and newspapers. So, the main catch here is to identify and memorize the important information from the text you get in form of the question. Thus, read this article to understand the format of this section and the issues that students face here. Also, you will read about the importance of the IELTS reading practice test with answers in your IELTS preparation.
IELTS Reading Section Format
There is no such pattern or format in this section of the IELTS exam. Still, the basic things to keep in mind are:
- There are 40 questions in this section.
- You get 60 minutes to complete the task.
It includes 11 types of questions which are:
- Multiple choice
- True/False
- Yes/ No
- Matching information
- Matching headings
- Matching features
- Matching sentence endings
- Sentence completion
- Summary
- Diagram label
- Short answer questions.
This was the basic format of the reading section of the IELTS exam. Students face a lot of issues in the reading section during the exam preparation. Therefore, read about them in the next section.
Common Challenges Faced in Reading Section
Some of the major issues faced by the students in the reading section of the IELTS exam are:
- Time management
- Vocabulary and synonyms
- Difficulty in understanding the text.
- The conflict between reading speed and comprehension of the text.
- Difficulty in locating answers because of synonyms and paraphrasing.
- Unaware of implementing the reading strategies like scanning and skimming.
Thus, these were some of the major issues that students face while appearing in the IELTS reading section. Therefore, read the tips to score well in this section with the help of tips mentioned in the section below.
Tips to Score Good in IELTS Reading Section
Some tips that will help you achieve good band scores in the IELTS reading section are:
- Skimming and scanning: Read the passage in a way that you get the general idea of the passage in one go. Therefore, take 2-3 minutes to read the whole passage to get the main idea of the text.
- Develop reading skills: Try reading newspapers, books, and journals to increase your reading speed and understanding abilities.
- Limit your understanding: Do not try to understand the full passage. Rather, focus on the important information which will help you locate the specific information.
- Develop vocabulary: Learn the new words and develop an understanding of when to use them. So, try reading the dictionary and newspapers. Also, listen to podcasts for the same.
- Note the keywords: While reading the passage, identify the main keywords and write them. It will help you in locating the information from the passage.
- Grammar: Grammatical errors are one of the most irritating things for examiners. So, try avoiding such mistakes. So, practice more to start giving responses with the least mistakes.
- Regular Practice: It is hard to improve unless you practice on a regular basis. So, make a schedule and follow it strictly.
- Practice tests: IELTS reading practice tests with answers are the best medium to know the exam format. Get used to solving these tests and nourish your preparation.
- Know your weaknesses: It is important to identify the weaker areas so that you can improve them. By this, you can make the necessary changes in your exam strategies.
- Aim: At last, you must have an aim to achieve. This will motivate you to achieve that and put in more effort.
So, these are the basic tips that will help you score well in the reading section of the IELTS test. Therefore, bring them into your exam journey and you will notice improvement for sure. Moreover, practice tests are very important to help you ace the exam preparation.
Conclusion
To conclude, this was all about the reading section of the IELTS exam. Now, hopefully, you know the importance of the practice tests. Moreover, you are also aware of the major issues faced in this section and how to overcome them. So, start preparing today and score well on the exam. Still, if you face any issues during your preparation, reach out to the academic experts who will provide you with the best resources to prepare for the exam. Besides, students also face issues in the writing section of the exam, where an online IELTS writing test is the best medium to tackle the issue.
