In case you haven't seen them before, here are my six main tips for IELTS reading. Notice that 'skimming and scanning' are not on the list - it's usually best to read at normal speed.
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September 28, 2015
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Simon!some tips sound "revolutionary" but thanks ,anyway
Posted by: maxmets | September 28, 2015 at 13:01
Dear simon/
Do you mean by (go straight to the first question) that no need to read even any part of the passage,and to read only while answering questions?
Posted by: tema | September 28, 2015 at 16:09
@Tema,
Simon means that the first thing you start with in reading test is to go straight th first question , read it, underline keywords, then go to the passage and start reading from the beginning at normal speed and look for synonyms for keywords, once you see one, read carefully around this word , if you find the answer there , then go to the second question and do the same thing, if not, then keep reading until you see another synonyms and read around them. He means that don't start reading first , don't read without purpose, purpose here means looking for answers or keyword synonyms.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes
Posted by: lana | September 28, 2015 at 18:20
Dear Sir :
If I have a double bars graph , for example men and women in different activities . Can I compare men's activities in the first paragraph and women's in the second paragraph . Because when I try to compare them together , it looks strange and confusing .
Posted by: Ghalia | September 28, 2015 at 18:32
Hi Simon. I just watched a video of Miss Pauline Cullen - author of Cambridge IELTS Books about 'How to manage your time in the IELTS reading test': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBHC-1Btp-M You and she shared many things in common, except for 'read the passage or questions first'. She has good reasons why we should't read questions first. What do you think about this?
Posted by: Thom | September 28, 2015 at 19:38
Thank Simon, I will apply your method right now~
Posted by: Donna | September 29, 2015 at 02:42
Dear Simon, one of pupular chinese tutor who are pubished the book , he memtioned candidates must be used the technical while doing the ielts reading , that is scan those quesstions then memberized all if possible, seaching the anwer on the passages at the same time, to finding the difference questions on the same passages
how do you think about that ?
Thanks
Posted by: good | September 29, 2015 at 06:32
Dear Simon
Are there many applicants like me?
I keep getting similar results like, R9 L8 S8 W6
It is pretty frustrating that there are 3 points gap between the best and worst scores.
Always been curious, it's because I'm the weird one or the level of difficulty in each section in this exam is not fair enough?
Thanks
Posted by: ERIC | September 29, 2015 at 08:54
Hi Simon and the others . I find the reading part is the most difficult part in the exam and I always get the lowest degree in this section . I face problem how to know the synonyms and manage the time . So , I will work to improve my weakness points by follow your advices . May Allah bless you
Posted by: Amnh | September 29, 2015 at 10:42
Dear Simon,
I did apply your introduced method as "go straight the first question", I found it is really useful in some type of questions, however in other question such as "containing the following information" and "summary to the whole passage", such technique is not applicable, I suppose I have to overview the whole questions at first and underly the keywords, how to you think of my opinions here?
Thanks~
Posted by: Donna | September 30, 2015 at 01:56
FROM SIMON:
PLEASE NOTE:
The advice in the lesson above is quite general. I have a different approach for some question types (e.g. 'matching paragraphs' questions). I explain my approach to each question type in much more detail in my video lessons, and in other lessons here on the blog.
...
tema,
I think lana answered your question really well (see the comment below yours.
...
Ghalia,
I would compare the figures for men and women, like I did in this lesson:
http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/10/ielts-writing-task-1-table-exercise.html
...
Thom,
Many teachers recommend skimming the passage first, but I've found that this doesn't usually help my students. My usual advice is to go straight to the first question, underline keywords, then start reading the passage to search for the first answer. I don't read ALL of the questions, only the FIRST one.
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good,
That's not the way I advise my students to do it. I find that students perform best when they focus on one question at a time.
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Eric,
It's quite normal. But the good news is that you have less work to do! - Just focus on your weak points.
...
Donna,
I agree with you. The advice in the lesson above is very general i.e. these are my main, basic tips. I have a different approach to 'paragraph matching' and some other types of matching question. I explain these techniques in much more detail in my video lessons, and in some other posts here on the blog.
Posted by: Simon | October 01, 2015 at 20:48
@Eric, focus on the task respone, add more complex or compound sentences in the structure, and selecting the good vocabulary
you know that you are almost here,
Cheers
Posted by: sun | October 02, 2015 at 02:37
Hi Simon,
I am so thankful for your techniques, however I've found out that there is a technique which is about the order of each answer in the passage is not right, since I did practise Cambridge 9,test 1 that does not sort the question location in order. So, what should I do in this case?
Thank you,
Ena
Posted by: Ena | October 11, 2015 at 10:22
Hi,I am not clear how to develop my reading.please advice me.thanks
Posted by: Rowshonara zaman | January 07, 2017 at 23:19