Today you’ll learn to never do 2 things on the IELTS Reading Exam to raise your scores.
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The IELTS Reading test is not actually a reading test.
It’s all about timing and strategies, because you never have time to read every word.
You get 3 long passages and 40 questions on the Reading Exam, and you only have one hour to accomplish this. It’s really difficult!
So, today, you’ll get 2 tips about what NOT to do on your test, to save time and improve scores.
Don’t Think Too Much
There is a reading skill called ‘inferencing’, in which you must analyze and extrapolate meaning from information that you see.
You never have to inference on the IELTS Reading test.
Getting the correct answer is all about matching parallel expressions in the question and the passage. You’ll never have to ‘read into’ the information or ‘read between the lines’ to get the answer.
For example, if the passage says, “It rained a lot,” and a possible answer choice is “There was severe flooding,” one might think too much and choose this answer.
A candidate might assume, or infer, that if it rained a lot, there must have been flooding.
However, if the passage does not directly talk about flooding, this will not be the answer.
Never assume, and don’t overthink.
Don’t Get Distracted by Unfamiliar Vocabulary
If you are of an intermediate level or higher, you should have enough vocabulary to understand the questions and answers.
However, in Reading Passage 3 especially, there will definitely be advanced words that you do not know. You must learn to ignore the words you don’t know- to not get distracted by them.
Focus on the words you know, and get the answer from those.
Having said that, you should always be expanding your receptive vocabulary by reading as widely and as often as possible!
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