Everything you must know about IELTS Reading Locating Information

It is not surprising that all four modules of IELTS have their unique significance but Reading is the most important module to put focus on and is the only module to achieve 9 bands easily. You can practice reading via ​​IELTS online coaching to perform well in the exam. Also, IELTS training improves the reading skills of the candidates. And, there are a lot of question types in the reading module such as:

  • Identifying a writer's views/claim
  • Matching sentence endings
  • Matching headings
  • Matching information
  • Sentence completion
  • Summary, note, table, flow-chart completion
  • Diagram label completion
  • Short-answer questions
  • Matching features                                                                                                                
It is a must to manage your time well enough to accurately answer a variety of question types in an hour. You have to follow the tips on how you can manage your time during the IELTS Reading test.
Here are the tips to manage your time during the IELTS exam

Skimming

Your reading test includes three different reading comprehensions. You can quickly skim through the whole passage to get the central idea. You have to avoid spending too much time reading every sentence in detail since this can be time-consuming and unnecessary. Kindly keep your eyes on headings, and subheadings and search for the central points that tell you the intent of the passage. 

Be attentive to the introduction and verdict

 the crux of the passage is often expressed in the first and last paragraph. You will find it easier to answer most of the questions once you read these two parts of the reading passage. Then, you should skim through the body of the passage. 

Target keywords 

A keyword will help you know the concept linked with the passage. Check these keywords and mark or highlight them when you start skimming through the passage. It can be helpful to you to answer most questions that follow the passage. 

Strictly go through all questions before answering

Firstly, you need to look at all the questions before you begin answering. You must remember the questions in para 3, or 4, or more, so read carefully before studying the text. Also, you have to highlight the key information words in your questions. It will then be easier for you to find all the answers since you have already skimmed through the paragraphs and highlighted keywords.

 Answer every question

It is a must to answer every question even if you cannot find the right answer or option. If you are short of time, remember that you will not lose a score if the answer goes wrong, so try to make an educated guess and you may have the right answer. 

Just view your answers

Lastly, don’t forget to check your answers as they can help you make your IELTS Reading score better. Also, you must finish answering all the questions and have at least 20 minutes at last, for the check. You can use the IELTS practice materials available online and consume time to achieve perfection. 

IELTS Academic Reading Locating Information regularly comes in the IELTS Reading test. The paragraphs of the reading passage will be marked alphabetically - A, B, C. There will be a few pieces of information marked with question numbers in the question set. Your role is to find out which paragraphs contain the given pieces of information. It will become challenging and hard if you don’t have the right methods to answer right to the given questions. 

Your skimming and scanning skills are tested by locating information question types. The questions deal with locating the specific information in the paragraph. The prominent steps that you need to follow are: Reading, Understanding its main idea, and underlining the keywords. Also, use these keywords to know the appropriate paragraph for the statement. You can repeat this process for every statement to finish this task smoothly.

IELTS Academic Reading Locating Information indeed is one of the hardest IELTS academic reading question categories. You can get all the details and knowledge about this question type. This will help you train well to ace the IELTS academic reading test.
You may enhance your problem-solving ability with the help of a few IELTS Academic Reading Locating Information tips and strategies, mentioned below. These tips and tricks are all developed by IELTS experts, who are proficient in IELTS academic reading section.

  • Make sure that you read the instructions carefully. Do Skim through the whole passage since it gives an idea of information typically included in each paragraph.

  • You must remember that you are not looking for the central idea of the paragraphs, instead, you are looking for specific details. The questions usually tell what type of information you must search for, such as a reason, description, examples, etc.

  • At times, a section of para can be used more than once as an answer. But instruction is mentioned in that case.

  • Candidates must read the question and understand clearly what type of information it is. For instance, it can be factual information, descriptions, or explanations.

  • Candidates have to read the first labeled paragraph. Then, read all the questions and see if any of the keywords or their words with the same meanings are present in the paragraph. They have to read the next section carefully and judge whether it conveys the same information as being asked in the question. If yes, write the paragraph alphabet just beside that question.
  • Also, if you see more than a paragraph containing information likewise, re-read the paragraphs and the question and choose the most appropriate one. Here is where you should focus on the synonyms of keywords and paraphrased details.

  • If you see any relative information then read the portion carefully to check whether the information matches the question statement. If yes, this can be your correct answer.
  • Be careful while you are answering the questions. If you are fully focused then you may prevent errors in the answering process.
  • Scanning proves to be a good method. The nature of scanning is looking for specific information or facts. You can use scanning to locate which paragraph contains the given information.
  • You may use the Process of Elimination. It means that you can take the specific statement and remove the sections which don't fit with the selected statement. This is beneficial to choose a suitable answer.
  • Highlight the names, places, and numbers in the question statements. These are the things that can help you find the right answers.

Conclusion

At last, hopefully, the above tips and tricks and exercises will upgrade your capability in solving IELTS academic reading locating information. But, you can ace it only if you start applying this in your daily practice. So, remember these tips and try answering previous IELTS question papers. If you have any questions or suggestions then seek guidance from Ielts Course online.

Dr, Roma

Content Writer