Assalamualaikum.

Annyeong peeps. Today I will share with you some reading tips for IELTS. Tips - tips reading test ini diambil daripadaTarget Band 7 keluaran Simone Braverman yang sangatlah aku recommend dekat korang. Jadi hari ni, tips untuk reading dahulu, lepas ni, aku bagi lagi tips untuk writing dan speaking. OKEY? Sabar. 


1. Test Structure

• Academic reading most cases consist of 3 large passage taken from newspapers or magazines. 
• The first passage usually is the easiest and the last one is difficult.
• See the question before or after the passage the belong to.

2. Manage your time

• Manage your time carefully.
• Rules "15-20-25" where 15 minutes on first passage, 20 minutes on second and 25 on last one.
• Why? Because they progress in difficulty
• Set aside 2 minutes to copy your answer to Answer Sheet for each passage.
• If you have some time left in the end of reading test, make sure you didn't forget to answer any question, check and double check your answer.

3. Don't read! - scan

• The best thing is to scan quickly through the text.
• Don't try to understand every word!
• Just go over it and understand the idea each paragraph.
• Usually you don't need to read whole paragraph.

4. Make a map

• Each paragraph has its own idea, which is different from all other paragraphs.
• Write on the margin near the paragraph what is its topic, main idea.
• Underline the words, explain its main idea.

5. Learn the rules

• First, read the instruction and the example.
• Style - copy the example style

• Example 1 : If the example says "55%", give your answer in this exact form. Any other form or style ( 55 or 55 percent) may harm your score!
• Example 2 : If the example says"first". Any other form or style (1st, 1 or first marriage) may harm your score

• Words limit
• Usually if there is a word limit for an answer, it is no more than 3 words.
• Prepositions (in, of, to, at, etc) and articles (a,an,the) do count for a words.

• One question, one answer
• Example : Question ask to name just one - don't even think of giving 2 or 3 names.

6. Type of tasks

• Task of different types come with different instruction.

7. Go fishing!

• Read question one-by-one
• See what its theme
• Find it on your map (paragraph to search for the answer)

8. Choose your battles

• If any question takes you too much time - give up and move to next one.
• Leave the hard question, do all easy question and then do hard question.

9. Use passage layout

• Every task and every paragraph in it has a certain structure, meaning it is written according to some rules.
• First paragraph/introduction contains the main idea of the passage and the author's opinion. Last paragraph often summarizes the main points of the passage.
• If you want to understand quickly what a paragraph is about, it is enough to read only its introduction

10. Find the keywords

• Keywords are the main words in the question.
• Example : " Employers are likely to employ graduates. who..". There are 3 keywords : employers, employ and graduates.
• Then, look for the keywords in the text