IELTS Simon

IELTS Reading: the future of cars

Read this article entitled 'Driving Lessons', and answer the questions below.

1) In paragraph 1, what does 'radical overhaul' mean?
2) In paragraph 2, who is Joshua Brown?
3) What is "Autopilot", and how safe is it?
4) In paragraph 4, what cost was hard to imagine a century ago?
5) In paragraph 5, why does the writer mention pods and minivans?

Note: You won't see this style of question in the IELTS test. The above questions are very open, and everyone will answer in a slightly different way. I'm only asking these questions to encourage you to read the article.

IELTS Reading: a good website

Psychology, children's development, family and education are common topics in the IELTS reading test. A good place to read articles about these topics is the "Psychology Today" website.

For example, click here to read a recent article about the benefits of exercise for children. It's good reading practice, and you'll find some great vocabulary that you could use in the writing and speaking tests.

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's a keyword table with vocabulary from the last two reading exercises on this blog. I always recommend keeping a list of keywords, even the easy ones.

IELTS Reading: match the synonyms

This isn't an exercise that you would ever see in a real test, but it's a useful way to look at vocabulary and synonyms.

Use the following passage to help you with the exercise below it.

A fundamental question in ageing research is whether humans and other species possess an immutable life-span limit. A theoretical study suggested the maximum human lifespan to be around 125 years. The longest-living person whose dates of birth and death were verified to the modern norms of Guinness World Records and the Gerontology Research Group was Jeanne Calment, a French lady who lived to 122.

Reduction of infant mortality has accounted for most of the increased average life span longevity, but since the 1960s, mortality rates among those over 80 years have decreased by about 1.5% per year. The progress being made in lengthening lifespans and postponing senescence is entirely due to medical and public-health efforts, rising standards of living, better education, healthier nutrition and more salubrious lifestyles.

Match the words in column A with their synonyms in column B.
Try to do this without a dictionary; use the passage above instead.

IELTS Reading: topic research

Reading can also be good preparation for the writing test. Just search online for a writing task 2 topic, and read some newspaper articles about it.

For example, last week we looked at the topic of "high salaries" in writing task 2. So let's see if we can find something to read about this topic.

Click here to see a newspaper article that I found when I put the phrase "maximum wage" into Google. It's full of great vocabulary for the high salaries topic (e.g. grossly-inflated pay, inequality in the workplace, pay gap), and you might find it interesting that British politicians are debating this issue.

IELTS Reading: keywords from blog exercises

The table below shows keywords from the two matching exercises that I've recently shared here and here on the blog.

IELTS Reading: a student's question

A student called Shakhzod asked about the following question from test 2, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS 11. The passage is about a ship called the 'Mary Rose' that sank in the 16th century and has recently been recovered.

Question 3 (true, false or not given):
Most of one side of the Mary Rose lay undamaged under the sea.

Relevant part of the passage:
Because of the way the ship sank, nearly all of the starboard half survived intact.

Task:
Do you think the answer is true, false or not given? Which keywords gave you the answer?

IELTS Reading: how to do multiple choice

Try following these steps when doing multiple choice questions:

1. Read the question and underline the "keywords" - these are the words that you will try to find in the passage (the main words that give the meaning of the question).
2. Read the choices and underline one or two keywords for each one. Focus on words that make the difference between each choice.
3. Go to the passage and look for the keywords from the question.
4. When you have found the right part of the passage, look for keywords from the choices.
5. Read the relevant part of the passage carefully, comparing it to each choice.
6. To be sure you have the right answer, you should be able to show that the other answer choices are wrong.

IELTS Reading: don't 'over-think' the answer

I've noticed that many students get the wrong answer because they think too much! They worry about small differences in meaning. For example, look at the following part of a reading passage:

The two week planned study into the psychological impact of prison life...

Now decide whether the following statement is true, false or not given:

The study aimed to investigate the mental and behavioural effects of life in prison.

The statement is true, but many students put not given because they "over-think" the meaning of 'psychological'. They think that the definition of psychological must be more complex than 'mental and behavioural'.

Don't think too hard about small differences in meanings. 'Mental and behavioural' might not be a perfect definition of 'psychological', but the overall meaning is the same (a simple definition of psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour).

IELTS Reading: more keywords from book 11

Here's my keyword table for test 3, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 11.

Note: gulls and terns are types of bird

IELTS Reading: academic and general

If you are preparing for the academic IELTS test, you might never have tried a general reading paper. I recommend that you do. The techniques that you'll need to use are the same for both papers, and because the general test is easier, it serves as good practice.

Here's my keyword table for the general test questions on page 122 of Cambridge book 4:

Notice how the people who write the IELTS reading test use paraphrasing to make the questions. When you see 'keywords' like cultivation = growing, elderly = aged, or beach = coastal, you know you have the answer.

IELTS Reading: Cambridge book 11

Last week I used Cambridge IELTS book 11 for the first time. Here's my first keyword table for this book; it's for test 1, passage 2.

IELTS Reading: more keywords from book 10

Here's a keyword table for test 1, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 10. If you have book 10, try this test and underline the phrases below.

IELTS Reading: keyword demonstration

The following question demonstrates the 'keyword technique'.

Question (true, false or not given?)
New trainees who want work experience should check out vacancies before they depart.

Passage
What's more important to you - travel or work experience? You can be flexible with travel plans but you must research job opportunities in advance.

Task
The correct answer is 'true', but can you complete the keyword table below to show how we found this answer?

IELTS Reading: improve your vocabulary

Whenever you practise doing an IELTS reading test, you should treat it as an opportunity to improve your vocabulary knowledge. Look carefully at the phrases used, and the way ideas are expressed.

For example, did you notice this vocabulary in last week's lesson?

• change (verb) over time
• make use of
• gather knowledge about
• apply a method
• make inferences about
• trace something back to
• is derived from

Try making your own sentences to practise using some of these phrases.

IELTS Reading: keyword gap-fill

Here's a keyword table for a 'true, false, not given' section in Cambridge IELTS book 10 (page 121). I've left some gaps to encourage you to study the keywords carefully.

Use the following words:
restaurant, vacancies, purpose, soon, leavers, catering, dream

IELTS Reading: 'paragraph headings' keywords

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course here in Manchester. We did some good work on 'paragraph headings' questions, and one of the exercises that we used was test 3, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 5.

Here are the keywords from the 'paragraph headings' section in that test:

Note: I always recommend doing paragraph matching questions last. They are much easier if you are already familiar with the passage, having done other question sections first.

IELTS Reading: false or not given?

Here are two tricky questions that people have asked me about. For each question, decide whether the answer is false or not given, and try to explain why.

Question 1 (Cambridge 7, test 3)
Problems in Nordic countries were excluded because they are outside the European Economic Community.

Relevant part of the passage:
Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be subject to joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded.

Question 2 (Cambridge 10, test 3)
Tourism contributes over six per cent of the Australian gross national product.

Relevant part of the passage:
This industry (tourism) is the world's leading industrial contributor, producing over 6 per cent of the world's gross national product.

IELTS Reading: another keyword table

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course here in Manchester. One of the reading exercises that we did came from Cambridge 5 (test 1, passage 2). The topic of the passage was a famous psychology experiment.

My students found the 'which paragraph contains?' exercise particularly tricky. Here's a keyword table for that exercise:

Note:
Psychology is quite a common topic in the reading test. If you're interested in this topic, try reading about the Stanford prison experiment and John Bowlby's Attachment theory.

New video lesson for IELTS reading

I've just published the final video lesson in my series about IELTS reading. It contains a summary of the tips and techniques in the previous 9 lessons.

Click here to go to the video.

I'll publish my first video lesson for IELTS speaking this Friday.

IELTS Reading: question types and techniques

Later today I'll publish a video lesson that summarises my advice for IELTS reading. Before you see it, think about the following questions:

1. Do you know how many types of question there are?
2. What is the main technique that I recommend for IELTS reading?
3. Do any of the question types require a different technique?

IELTS Reading: false or not given?

Over the weekend I taught an IELTS course here in Manchester, and my students found the following question tricky. (Cambridge IELTS book 10, page 67)

Here's the question. Is this statement true, false or not given?:
Tourism has a social impact because it promotes recreation.

Here's the relevant sentence from the passage:
Tourism has a profound impact both on the world economy, and because of the educative effect of travel and the effects on employment, on society itself.

What's the answer?
My students were sure that the answer would be "false". According to the passage, the social impact of tourism is related to education and employment. However, the correct answer is "not given".

Why?
There is no mention of "recreation" in the passage. For the answer to be "false", the passage would need to tell us that recreation is not part of the social impact of tourism.

Remember:
The answer is "false" when the information in the passage contradicts the question statement. If any of the information is missing, we have to answer "not given".

IELTS Reading: imagine it's a game

Finding the answers in the IELTS reading test is a bit like doing a "treasure hunt". The answers are all hidden in the passage, and the questions are the "clues" that you follow to find the "treasure".

The next time you do a practice reading test, imagine that it's a game of treasure hunt. The IELTS test writers are your opponents, but if you know how questions are made, you can learn to beat them!

IELTS Reading: 3 study tips

Here are 3 tips to help you prepare for IELTS reading:

Materials
First, for test practice I only recommend the official Cambridge IELTS books. These contain real exam papers from previous years, so you can trust that the difficulty level will be accurate. Second, for advice, techniques and quick exercises, use the lessons here on the blog. Finally, read as much English as you can (in newspapers, books, on the Internet etc.) and write new or useful vocabulary in a notebook.

Method
There are just two things that you need to do in the reading test: find and understand. First, you need to find where the answer is in the passage. Then you need to read and understand that part of the passage in order to get the right answer. Look through my lessons here on the blog to find more advice about the "keyword technique". I've also explained the keyword technique in this video and in all of the reading lessons on my video course website.

Improving your score
To improve your score, you need to work on two things: exam technique and your overall knowledge of the English language. With practice, you'll get better at using the "keyword technique" to find answers. However, if you don't understand the passage, you'll find it very hard to get the right answers. To improve your overall language knowledge, read as much English as you can, and write new or useful vocabulary in a notebook.

IELTS Reading: similar words

Here are some of the key words and phrases that helped my students to get the answers to reading test 4.1 in Cambridge IELTS book 7:

uncannily: means strangely or extraordinarily

IELTS Reading: new video lesson (free)

I've just published a video lesson about "matching sentence endings" questions in the IELTS reading test. You can watch the lesson here.

IELTS Reading: 6 tips

How can you improve your reading? Here are 6 tips:

1. If you want to improve your reading, the first thing to do is read a lot. There are no shortcuts or secret techniques; you will only improve with time and practice.
2. Anything you read in English is good practice, so read about subjects that interest you. Try to enjoy reading in English.
3. English is the most used language on the Internet. Whenever you search for information on the net, try searching in English first.
4. Remember that "understanding is not the same as using". Keep a notebook with useful words and phrases that you find when you're reading, and try using them in your own sentences.
5. Apart from reading things that interest you, you also need to read lots of IELTS passages. If you've done all of the tests in the Cambridge books, read the passages again without doing the questions. Use a dictionary, take notes, and try to fully understand each passage.
6. Another way to use the Cambridge tests is to look at the correct answers to each question first. Then, your task is to find out why those answers are correct by analysing the passage carefully and finding the 'keywords'.

I'm sure you can think of other suggestions. Be creative with your reading practice, try to enjoy the learning process, and trust that you will improve if you persist.

IELTS Reading: are you seeing the pattern?

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course. After a full morning of IELTS reading work, one of my students said this: "I'm starting to see the pattern."

So, what pattern was he talking about? The 'keyword' pattern.

Here's an example from one of the tests that we worked through:

The more practice you do, the better you'll get at finding the answers by recognising the similar 'keywords' in the questions and in the passages. The IELTS reading test really does get easier as you get used to seeing this pattern.

IELTS Reading: techniques

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.

IELTS Reading: more 'short answer' questions

For today's quick exercise, you'll need to click here and look at an article on the National Geographic website.

Answer each question using a maximum of THREE words from the article.

1. What name has been given to the field of research that is concerned with bringing extinct animals back to life?
2. What, according to Maura O'Connor, is affecting habitats and environments?
3. What phrase is used to decribe the difficulty of defining a species?

IELTS Reading: 'paragraph headings' keywords

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course here in Manchester. We did some good work on 'paragraph headings' questions, and one of the exercises that we used was test 2, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS book 10.

Here are the keywords from the 'paragraph headings' section in that test:

Note: I always recommend doing paragraph matching questions last. They are much easier if you are already familiar with the passage, having done other question sections first.