9 tricks to hone comprehension skills for IELTS Reading

Undoubtedly, IELTS is the most crucial exam that one needs to clear if he/she is planning to move abroad. There are some points to consider before giving your IELTS exam. Your reading section is the most time-consuming part. It becomes struggling for candidates to cover all the questions within the given time-phrase. Although there is no negative marking, you get marked only for your correct answers. Moreover, candidates must practice hard to hone their comprehension skills to achieve good bands in the IELTS Reading section

Most people are unaware of the correct way of reading comprehension. At times, they consume a lot of time just reading all the paragraphs. The right mechanism can help them boost confidence on their exam day and they can score well. You can go through some of the best tips and tricks to save time and perform well. Look below to know them completely:

  • FIRST SENTENCES
The majority of students hold the opinion that the first few lines of each section of text contain the necessary information. It can help them explore the main idea of the answers to comprehension questions. It is because the first line of a paragraph denotes the topic sentence. Moreover, it gives a brief idea about what comes in the later sections of the paragraph. This method can save you precious time and effort. But, it is easy to neglect necessary information.
  • Know your test
IELTS exam has a unique style just like all the other international language testing systems. Therefore, make yourself familiarise with the information before you start to attempt. You should begin by responding to the following conditions:
  • Duration of the test.
  • Format of the test.
  • Text Sections of the paper.
  • Kinds of text in the exam.
  • What type of skills do you require?
  • The kinds of questions that will be there.
  • Must know if they give you any extra time to transfer answers.
  • Enlist everything that you must know regarding reading comprehension. Candidates should be aware of reading comprehension skills meaning to prepare themselves thoroughly. It will help avoid risking their good scores in exams.
  • Practice is important
If you are a book lover and love to read novels, magazines, and blogs, then your having good reading skills is mandatory. Learning new effective reading techniques can be useful for you. Reading frequently will help you grab the latest vocabulary words and enhance your reading speed. In contrast, if you are not a reading lover, then prefer involve in topics that you are interested in beforehand. Then gradually, you must be moving on to advanced academic topics. Also, you can search for a lot of new IELTS reading topics and practice through reading mock tests and training yourself.
  • Build your reading skills
It is true that the length of the text is too long that candidates struggle to read the whole passage. Furthermore, it makes it difficult to find out suitable answers to the questions within the time limit. Moreover, one hour time seems to be insufficient for students to cover all the three long passages having 2,750 words, in total. Clearly, there is no proper time management to completely review all the texts. Hence, approaching some simple reading ways will surely guide and make you better at solving reading comprehensions.
  • Skimming is necessary
Skimming is a very significant term that makes taking a general overview easier. It works by just looking at the titles and headings to know the general topic. Also, you can see how each section of text is centered around one major idea. Moreover, it can be stated in the topic sentence, commonly in the first or central sentences of the paragraphs. Remember, finding and highlighting the topic main sentence will prepare you to answer the questions.
  • Scanning is useful
One of the most effective techniques used to find specific keywords or phrases is scanning. You need to go through the text surrounding the targetted keyword in the paragraph. It will benefit you to find the correct answer you have been searching for. Doing daily practice can help to master these primary techniques before your exam day. Remember, the more the practice, the better the results.
  • Emphasis on keywords
Undoubtedly, there are too many vocabulary words incorporated in the IELTS reading section. But you must make sure that you do not get demotivated by them. Also, there is no need of understanding every word. Moreover, using contextual hints is a useful method to estimate the meaning of a word that you don’t know.
IELTS Reading Test Style Candidates will see the three long sections of the text in their Reading module. Each section is described below:

Section 1: It depicts two or three short factual texts. One of these texts seems to be composite text. It means that they contain 6-8 short texts related to the topic. For instance, hotel advertisements. Also, topics are well-known or correlate to everyday life in an English-speaking nation.

Section 2: It denotes the two factual texts briefly that focus on work-related issues. For example, company policies, seeking jobs, salary, workplace amenities, or staff development and grooming.

Section 3: This section of text contains a little more complex and longer text on a generic topic. There will be passages taken from real notices, magazines, company handbooks, official documents, advertisements, or newspapers.

Conclusion: 

In conclusion, there is no magic to pursuing a high IELTS Reading score. But you can go through a vast number of strategies to solve comprehension quickly. Also, using any of the above-discussed tips and tricks may help you further if you show dedication toward your goals. Moreover, don’t forget to practice through IELTS Reading practice tests or mock tests since they can help you discover your errors or inaccuracies. Furthermore, you must revise all types of comprehension questions to avoid losing your scores.

Dr.Roma

Content writer