The IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam is one of the most popular tests for assessing English language proficiency, especially for people aiming to study, work, or migrate to foreign countries like Canada, Australia, the UK, the USA, New Zealand, and a number of other countries. Globally, there are more than 4 million test takers a year, making IELTS the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education and global migration. IELTS is developed and administered by the British Council in partnership with IDP Education and Cambridge Assessment English..
These are the most common types of questions that students face in the exam. However, there are some other types of questions, such as diagram completion and short answer questions, which are rare to some extent. In the exam a candidate will face a mixture of all these types; that is why it is very important for every candidate to learn all the question types. Based on the correct answer, the candidate gets a score out of 9. You can find how much a candidate scores based on their correct answers just by searching IELTS reading module score criteria in Google.
There are different strategies a student can use to boost their score, and these include scanning and skimming. Now you may ask what scanning and skimming are. In scanning, you take a keyword from the question and locate the keyword in the passage, and the answer for that question is generally found in the part of the passage where you found the keyword.
This scanning method helps in questions like true/false/not given, tables, flowcharts, notes completion, summary completion, multiple questions, and many more. Another approach to reading a module is skimming, where you read rapidly to get a general overview of the passage. This approach helps in matching the heading question and finding the location of the summary completion question. However, keep in mind that there are times when you cannot rely on strategy but have to read the passage carefully word by word to understand what the passage is trying to tell.
Firstly, candidates face problems understanding the vocabulary and unfamiliar words; as a result, they fail to understand the meaning of the text. Without a good understanding of the text, it is nearly impossible to answer correctly. To tackle this problem, students should learn various topic-related vocabulary and need to practice as many passages as they can at home. Reading newspapers, journals, and online articles can help in faster understanding.
Another problem candidates face is time management. Many students find it difficult to answer 40 questions in 60 minutes. This can be avoided by answering the easy question across the three passages. You can target the easy question type first, and after that, in the remaining time, you can work on the hard question and get as many corrections as you can. You should not spend too much time on one passage.
There is a book called Practical Faster Reading, which helps students with vocabulary, contextual meaning of words, and some other reading question types. Words have different meanings depending on the context; from this book, a student can learn the contextual meaning of words, thus making the student understand the true meaning of words and the sentences as a whole. Similarly, books like Mindset for IELTS 1, Mindset for IELTS 2, and The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS are also very helpful for students preparing for the IELTS reading module, and students can practice their reading module from Cambridge IELTS 1-20.