1. IELTS reading: how to smash it!
Eleanor barnes. 2015

2. Ielts reading exam overview:

3. In this presentation… Timing 3 skills Increase your speed!
Key words & unknown words
Common mistakes
Increase your speed!

4. The three reading skills are…
Skimming
Scanning
Close reading
What do you read?
Read the whole text, including title, subtitles and pictures/diagrams
For general meaning, not for detail
Ignore difficult vocabulary
Very fast
Only reading individual words and short phrases
To find key information
Take care with unknown vocabulary but focus on key words and synonyms
Fast and slow
Reading specific passages carefully and in detail
To understand complete meaning and avoid misunderstandings
Try to understand unknown vocabulary from the context
Slow
Why do you use this skill?
What words do you focus on?
How fast do you go?

5. Skimming stones. Keep your eyes moving over the text, like the stone keeps moving over the water.
Scanning at the airport when you are late for your flight. Block out all the other text and noise and focus on the information you need.

6. asklfjsaljaskfanlkhalksfnaskfncNewcastleadnglkagpiahaekna
Scanning techniques
What word stands out at you in this line:
asklfjsaljaskfanlkhalksfnaskfncNewcastleadnglkagpiahaekna
Why did you see the word?
Names are easy to spot because they are capitalised. Numbers are also easy. These are good key words to scan for if they appear in the question.
Notice that you didn’t need to read the whole line to find the word. When you are scanning, you should not be reading.
Turn to pp84-85 in Ready for IELTS and do exercises 1 – 3.

7. Do I have to use all 3 skills?
Different learners work in different ways.
There are people who manage without skimming/reading the whole text.
But you will probably want to use the skills in different ways for different types of question.
As you get more advanced you’ll build different strategies.
Experiment to find out what works for you.

8. Try Me

9. “Do I need to read the whole text first in IELTS?”
Trying to answer the questions without skimming the text first is like trying to do a jigsaw without looking at the picture.
It’s difficult!

10. Skimming
is like looking at the whole picture
Close reading is harder and takes longer. It’s looking carefully at the distinctions between similar words and ideas and seeing which one fits best.
Scanning
is looking for specific parts, like all the pink bits or all the %s

11. How do I use all the skills in the exam?
skim the title, subheadings, pictures, first line of every
paragraph. Now you should know the general topic.
write the main topic of the text and the general topic of each paragraph, eg living in space, reasons for, reasons against,
current experiments, conclusion. This will help you find key
information and answers.
read the questions. Underline key words. As you read, some
answers may pop into your head. Note the paragraph you think
contains the answers,
scan to find key words and quick answers
close read small parts of the text for more difficult questions

12. Timing 3 skills Increase your speed! Common mistakes
Key words & unknown words
Common mistakes
Increase your speed!

13. good bad good bad bad good good bad
Is this advice about timing good or bad?
There is not enough time to complete the reading test.
Spend about 1 minute on every question.
You should answer every question. If you don’t know, guess.
Go as quickly as you can.
Stop when you find a word you don’t know the meaning of.
Use your finger to help you read faster.
Don’t waste time highlighting/underlining words you don’t know
You have extra time at the end to fill in the answer sheet.
good
bad
good
bad
bad
good
good
bad

14. Timing in the IELTS reading
60 minutes, 3 papers. There is not enough time to complete it. Don’t panic about this. When you run out of time, guess. You will not get extra time to transfer your answers to the answer paper, like in the listening.
Don’t set yourself rules like ‘1 minute per question’ or ‘20 minutes per text’ or ‘ ’. Be smart with your timing. Use it where you can get the most points. Don’t rush the parts you can answer – spend more time on them.
Increase your reading speed when you are skimming and scanning. Using your finger, underlining and highlighting are all good techniques.
Do not underline or highlight vocabulary you don’t understand. You should be looking for the words that help you understand, not distract and confuse you.

15. Timing 3 skills Increase your speed! Common mistakes
Key words & unknown words
Common mistakes
Increase your speed!

16. Keywords in the questions do not exactly match the answers:
Get into the habit of making key word tables when you do practice readings.
Try it now: Ready for IELTS, p Answer Qs 1-6 then make a table like the one above.

17. unknown words

18. Does it start with a capital letter or is it in italics?
Capital Letters = proper nouns
Italics = scientific terms
So don’t waste time trying to understand them.
The tulip was introduced to Europe in the mid-16th century from the Ottoman Empire, and became very popular in the United Provinces which are now the Netherlands. Tulip cultivation in the United Provinces is generally thought to have started in earnest around 1593 after the Flemish botanist Charles de l’Écluse had taken up a post at the University of Leiden and established the hortus academicus.
This is a phrase that you should learn to ignore because it is in italics and is therefore a technical term.

19. Reading unknown vocabulary. How many of these words do you not know?
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
Let’s see how much you can understand without knowing these words.

20. Where is Jack? Reading unknown vocabulary
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
Where is Jack?

21. What’s he doing? Reading unknown vocabulary
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
What’s he doing?

22. How does he feel about it?
Reading unknown vocabulary
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
How does he feel about it?

23. What can you ‘put on’? So what is a ‘redick’?
Reading unknown vocabulary
What can you ‘put on’? So what is a ‘redick’?
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!

24. What type of thing is a ‘pogtry’?
Reading unknown vocabulary
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
What type of thing is a ‘pogtry’?

25. What are yagmas? Reading unknown vocabulary
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
What are yagmas?

26. What’s good about the pogtry?
Reading unknown vocabulary
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
What’s good about the pogtry?

27. Reading unknown vocabulary
Garage
Tools
Car / bike / machine
Difficult / boring
Dressing gown?
Sofa / comfortable chair
Bargain / deal
currency
Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favourite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!
There will be words you don’t know in the IELTS reading. Read around them. Have confidence, trust your instincts, use your logic.

28. Key advice
Do not spend minutes reading and re-reading a sentence just because you don’t understand one word.
Each question is only worth 1 point. Make a guess and move on. Use the process of elimination to increase your chances.
There are questions that are difficult for native speakers too. Don’t get stuck.

29. Timing 3 skills Increase your speed! Common mistakes
Key words & unknown words
Common mistakes
Increase your speed!

30. Mistakes in IELTS – two categories
1. Language problems
The first is mistakes made through lack of language ability: in a way these are unavoidable. Only a highly educated native speaker can expect to get 9.0 – every IELTS candidate will make mistakes because of their language level. The only way to stop these is to learn better English skills.
2. Exam skill problems – how you think
This common mistake is quite different. They are avoidable mistakes. You knew the answer but you got it wrong. Aaaaaagh! It’s not a problem with language here, it is a problem with thinking. A huge amount of these problems are caused by just one thing: not reading and understanding the question

31. What’s the wrong answer?
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 1 for each answer
Blue Moon
b) Blue Moon Cheese
c) The Blue Moon Cheese Company

32. Read, understand and answer the question
If you don’t understand the question, you are not going to find the answer except by pure luck. And you might fall for an IELTS trick. Spend time understanding it. Don’t rush to look for the answer. This is not a waste of time. It is a waste of time if you don’t understand and then get the wrong answer. This way, you will get the right answer. Don’t focus only on the key words. You need to read questions closely, not scan them for key information.

33. Mistakes Using Key Words

34. An example Here is an example from a textbook: For a few years, there has been a campaign to improve school meals in the UK. Daniel Brown is the head teacher of a school that banned junk food and started serving healthy food in “Our research shows that, since 2006, the children’s behaviour in class has been a lot better. They are now calmer and they concentrate more. As a result, they are learning more.” How many years ago did the school start serving healthy food? a) a few years ago b) 2006 c) since 2006

35. How many years ago did the school start serving healthy food?
a) a few years ago
b) 2006
c) since 2006
The teachers’ book actually gives the wrong answer: ‘since 2006’. Why?
Whoever wrote the question forgot to check the meaning of the question, they only looked at the key words. But the answer ‘since 2006’ does not match the language in the question.

36. Key tips Read and understand the question before you answer
Don’t rely on key words in the questions, read them closely for detail
Look for key words in the text, but remember to check the meaning matches the question

37. Some of the most common pieces of advice you hear in IELTS are:
focus on key words in the question
you don’t need to understand the whole text
I disagree.

38. focus on key words in the question:
Key words only tell you where the answer is, not what the answer is
you don’t need to understand the whole text
The more you understand, the better chance you will have of answering the question correctly.
What you don’t need to understand is every technical word.

39. Timing 3 skills Increase your speed! Common mistakes
Key words & unknown words
Common mistakes
Increase your speed!

40. Can you guess what these speed-reading tips are?
1, 2, 3, 4
Can you guess what these speed-reading tips are?

41. Use your finger, a pencil or a ruler to keep your eyes moving across the page

42. Remember to scan-read in the opposite direction that you read in to find key words

43. 1, 2, 3, 4
If you whisper or use your mouth when you are reading, you will read too slowly. Say ‘1234’ with your mouth. It sounds crazy but it is an expert tip to increase your reading speed because it stops you reading out loud and trains you to read in your mind.

44. Cueprompter