Why do IELTS candidates make mistakes in the reading paper? Time and the difficulty of the texts are two reasons. Another reason is that they do not read in the right way and they focus on key words only. Key words can help but only if used correctly. Used incorrectly, they can in fact cause more mistakes, not fewer. In fact, my belief is that not knowing how to use key words causes more problems in the reading paper than anything else.
I want to help you, so let’s look at why and how and when you should look at key words in the IELTS reading paper.
Why use the key words approach
Key words can help you read more efficiently. This is helpful because the texts are quite long and normally complex. If you focus on key words, you can read more quickly by only looking at the part of the text you need to. Great.
Why not to use the key words approach
Sadly, the key words approach probably causes more avoidable errors than anything else in the reading paper. This is because it makes you try and match words in the question with words in the text. In fact, the reading paper doesn’t work in this way: you are not matching words but the meanings. This is an extremely important distinction which it is important to understand.
An example
Here is an example adapted from an English language textbook:
For a few years, there has been a campaign to improve school meals in the UK. Daniel Brown is the head teacher of a school that banned junk food and started serving healthy food in 2006. “Our research shows that, since 2006, the children’s behaviuor in class has been a lot better. They are now calmer and they concentrate more. As a result, they are learning more.”
The question is:
How many years ago did the school start serving healthy food?
Which is the answer?
- a few years ago
- 2006
- since 2006
You will find the correct answer as a comment. The teachers’ book actually gives the wrong answer. Why? Whoever wrote the question forgot to check the meaning of the question, they only looked at words
When to use key words?
Key words are useful, of course they are. However, they only ever tell you where the answer is in the text. They do not tell you what the answer is. So my strong suggestion is this:
- look at key words in the question
- underline key words in the text
- always, always, always read the whole question for meaning before you fill in your answer
It may take more time this way but you will certainly get more answers correct and this is the goal: not to do it quickly but to do it quickly and well.
The answer in the book was “since 2006″: this has to be wrong as you cannot answer the question”How many years ago” with “since”. How many is asking for a length of time and since is a point in time.
This is an important mistake to understand: you are not just looking for words, you are looking for meanings of words. The meaning of words can include their grammar. Be very careful.
The correct answer is of course “a few years ago”.
thnks for guiding us
Thanks you Dominic.
It provides valuable information in a second.
The correct answer is :a few years ago”. why? let’s eliminate other answers
2006 can’t be so B is eliminated. C since 2006 is not the answer because since 2006 means 2007, 2008, 2009 (I think pls correct me if i am wrong). But actually in text it is given in 2006 so I chose A.
Thanks you Dominic.
for making such a wonderful site
thank you for your great tip.
Dear Dominic ,
the information that you have provided is really relevant and helpful.
Thank you so much !
thanks Dominic , the way you make people understand ..shows that you are a great and caring teacher
Just thought of saying Thank you for your IELTS tips,Its really helpful..
I am extremely bad in reading, I am not sure why..
But to me, this is a very tricky question, and I am still struggling to understand your explanation.
Reading is tricky. Perhaps the most technical skill. If you’re having major problems, my suggestion is to read for meaning and not simply word match. Matching words from the question to words in the text is probably where most marks are lost.
Thank you Dominic
You are doing a marvelous job for us, who are preparing for IELTS.
Your tips and guide lines helped me in my test
Thanks
Thank you Dominic.
This would be valuable tips for my coming IELTS test. Please give me more instruction to improve my reading and speaking skills as I
got only 4.5 bands in both modules in previous test.
4.5 means you have quite a lot of work to do probably. On reading I suggest you read plenty every day – get into the reading habit. A good place to start is with Words in the News on my Little but often page. Also, try newspapers and magazines such as the Economist as they contain exactly the right sort of language.
thank you sir
Thank you dominic, do you have tips on how to get the topic sentence just like in some questions regarding choosing the statement that discusses a certain paragraph?
i also need it
Thank you very much Dominic!!
I am English´student, in El Salvador, in next I going to
take the exam ielts,and this e.g. helpeme in the interpret
of the paragraph.
It’s very helpful. thanks a lot
Meaning does not always exist within words and sentences but sometimes meaning exists in context.
I have sat for IELTS previously and missed by 0.5 in reading. I scored 6 in reading but I needed 6.5. Is there any advised how to improve on it ?
Thank you
Tough one.
What did you get on the other modules? Were they about the same as your reading score or much better? If they were much better, then you clearly have a problem with your reading skills. If they were about the same, then it may simply be a language problem.
The difference between 6.0 and 6.5 isn’t much though and you could look at these suggestions that can make some difference:
Always underline on the question paper the words that give you the answer – there is always something there. This technique helps you concentrate on looking at the exact wording and not what you thought you read.
Always, always refer back to the exact question, before you write in the answer. It’s surprising how many mistakes come from not reading the question well enough.
If you want to go pro, try practising different types of questions.
Don’t practise complete tests, rather look at the reading skills. Forget about time and concentrate on getting the answer right. Time is not the problem in the exam – it’s making mistakes.
Whenever you practise, don’t just check your score, review why you made mistakes and how you could get the right answer
Hope that helps.
thank q 4 ur valuble advise…
Thank you Dominic for your advise. My other modules, I scored 7 for speaking,writing and listening. My overall score band is 7. My requirement is at least 6.5 in each module.I ran out of time for my reading module. You are right I should concentrate on getting the answer right. I actually read the first 2 passages and understand it before answering the questions.But ran out of time on the third passage .So I panic and just could not concentrate to fill in the blanks.
Some candidates that resit told me the reading passages is much harder now compare with previous years.Is it true?
Another piece of advice you might think about is this – particularly as time is a bit of a problem. Consider how long you spend on each part of the paper. 20-20-20 is of course one option. Another is to spend more time on parts 1&2 which are somewhat easier with the idea of maximising your score there and not worrying too much about part 3 ie going 25/20/15. The problem with that is my online calculator tells me you need 32 or thereabouts. So the third option is to spend more time on part 3 than part 1, ie 15/20/25.
No, personally I’m not sure that there has been any real change in the standards. It’s always been a tough exam. If it makes you feel any better, educated native speakers would struggle to max out on some IELTS readings and that includes IELTS tutors – myself included.
thanks for tips…..appreciate your helps!…
Hi, Mr. Coles
This may sound strange but whenever I take an IELTS reading test, the first passage turns out to be the most difficult to me. Questions there are really tough and often too generalised so that it’s hard to deduce which heading to choose or if a statement is T/F/NG. Eventually it takes me about 25 minutes for the passage 1.
Is this a common problem, and can you suggest any possible solutions ?
thank you.
Theoretically the first passage should be the most straightforward. I have to say though that I am not always convinced by that and I am not too surprised by what you say. It is slightly unusual, however, and something is probably not quite right of you are having consistent problems like this.
Can I ask when you are taking the exam? It may be that you are shouldn’t be focussing on timed exercises just yet. My general view is that the best way to prepare is to learn how to get the answers right and that may mean not trying to do the reading papers in 60 minutes. The danger is you get plenty of practice but you don’t improve your skills. You only need to finish 3 readings on the day itself! Think of marathon runners if you like who prepare by running shorter distances.
You might learn more by giving yourself around 75 minutes for a complete paper or by only doing single passage exercises or even just focussing on question types that give you problems. For me this is a real learning process – particularly if you spend plenty of time afterwards analysing how you could get the right answers.
My other general advice is something like this:
Don’t spend too long on any one question. Some questions are just plain hard and designed to sort out band score 8 from 9.
Figure out a “guessing” technique. Don’t be random – but try and eliminate the answers that can’t be correct.
Try leaving tricky questions and come back to them later. Sometimes it’s obvious when you come back to them. To do this, it helps to mark the right bit in the passage so you don’t waste time.
You don’t necessarily need to go 20;20;20 on the time. It can be more efficient to go 25;20;15 or 15;20;25. It depends on who you are and what band score you need. Experiment to see what works best for you. Normally I only advise people who need around 6.0 to spend 25 minutes on the first passage. I say this on the basis that they can get almost enough points from the first two passages for their score and that the third passage may be too hard.
In your particular case, you could try doing the 3rd reading first and see what happens. It could be that you concentrate better as you go on.
okay, thank you very much , I’ll follow your advice. My exam is on the January 15. I’m counting on a score 7, at least.
Good luck.
For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t try and do too much in 3/4 days immediately before the exam. Your English is what your English is by then and you are unlikely to “learn” any useful skills/language in a few days. I
It’s a personal thing but I would relax and get my exam strategies clear in my head for each of the papers. If you have clear strategies and plans, that should give you more confidence and confidence is a good thing.
If you want to do some practice, how about going through papers you have already done?
This is very good website.I like it.It help me lot to organise my reading style.Thanks……
Thanks a lot for this wonderful site.
my problem is i always ran out of time in reading module.if i do the reading test at my own pace,i am able to get band 7 but in timed test i hardly manage to get 6.5……can u please advice ,how should i prepare???my exam is on 22 jan….
Well from one point of view there isn’t a great distance between 6.5 and 7.0 – so you are close. The real problem is of course you need to make sure that 7.0 is the worst case scenario and that means you need to be getting 7.5 when you study in your own time. It may be that you just need more time to “guarantee” your 7. It does take a while to move from one band score to the next – tips and tricks only take you so far, the core problem is language.
That said, if time is your problem, you need a strategy to cope. It’s important to realise that a number of the questions are really tough and designed to test reading at native speaker level. So one suggestion is to make sure you limit the amount of time you spend on any one question. If you can’t find the answer, move on and come back later. Also, you need to clear about your timing strategy in general. Are you going to do the questions once – slowly and carefully? Or are you going to go through them twice or 3 times – doing the easy ones first and then going back to the others? There isn’t any right answer to that question – different people work differently. You just need to find out what works.
The practical suggestion is to time yourself doing a reading. How long do you spend on each passage? Are you spending more than 2 minutes on individual questions? Is there any one question type that causes you problems?
Hi Dominic,
Happy new year to you and your loved ones!!..
I totally agreed with the rest, this is very good website, i’ve been here almost everynight!.(since last week) my exam is scheduled on 22 jan too, this is my fourth exam, i need minimal all models 6 atleast or 7 is better. I always ended up with one model 5.5(the rest either 6.5,6,6.5), i really not sure what is the reason/problems-(I failed my first listening, second -reading, third – writing,…)….seriously, i really don’t know what went wrong or what to do now….haha…perhaps i really have to pt more efforts on the reading…..
appreciate all your helps!
cheers,
thanks
for the wonderfull tips and website
I am very thankful to this topic because it really gives great information `”`
I am very thankful to this topic because it really gives up to date information .:.
Hi Dominic,
I read your blog and also I asked for advise for Reading because I scored 6.0 both times.I listened to your advise and this time I scored 7.5.for my reading.
I cannot believed when I saw the results . When I practised with my IELTS tutor , I scored above 6.0 but in the actual exam I just panicked. But I remembered your advise to concentrate on getting the answers right.So I did as much as I could and those I do not know I still put an answer and put a tick to come back to it. This time I managed to finish the exam and I managed to fill in the blanks with correct answers.
Previous two times my reading was 6.0 and third time is 7.5.
Thank you Mr Cole for all your help and advise.
God bless.
p/s .Also I think I managed to finish the passage 1 under 20 minutes, passage 2 in 20 minutes( as it turns out passage 2 was the hardest) and rest of the time on passage 3 which is the easiest passage of the 3.)
Dear Dominic, Your site is excellent. It is a pity that time is spent on questions such as this one. There is no choice actually, you must give time to such nonsense.
This sort of question only highlights the virtual worthlessness of some of the finicky questions in both the IELTS and especially in TOEFL. They are of use only in TV quiz shows. In real life or even in academic studies??…. of utterly no significance. Thankfully, so few questions require such concentrated effort and it is possibly best to remind students that no one can get 100% in these tests and so it is often best to take lucky dip with one or two or three questions. I think this is another example of “We are the IELTS examiners and we know more than you do” snobbery. I say that the IELTS people are rascist and like to think they are as superior to the rest of the world as the Royal Family is in The King’s Speech.
im so glad to find this site. i’am very anxious right now because i am about to take my exam on march 19 yet for the past 2 mock exams i only got a score of 5 for my reading. i agree with mr. cole that during practices i should focus more on gettin the correct answers and work on the time-bounded approach afterwards.my concern right now is that can i make it the remaining weeks left???is it possible and how can i do it??pls help me!
Awesome point-out. I really love this blog.
Hello Sir, i am going write IELTS iam preparing at home only.Your tips are very good. i am going to follow these tips. and i intrest to join and write mock tests.My native language is telugu.Icompleted my Masters.i am intrest to study in my Masters again Australia please kindly give me advice how can i get 6.5 score.
Thanking You.
Hey,
I have appeared IELTS exam for 3 times.I am struggling to get 7 in each band.
I am always getting 6.5 in reading which is problem.Constantly for 3 times i scored 6.5.
My target is i should get 7 in each module.But just bcoz of reading i am loosing.
For me true/false/not given was always a tough job.And Section 4 is worst.
Dont know wht goes wrong:(
Thank you Dominic for your guidance and now you are my teacher sir.
hi sir
thanks for your useful web.my question is that what i have to do with vocabulary???there are a lot of vocabularies that i dont know their meaning when i practice for reading test….what i have to do for them???
regards.
Vocab is a big one. It takes time to learn – by which I mean years, not days or weeks. But with reference to the reading paper, what you need to do is improve your reading skills so that you can understand the general meaning of a text without understanding all the words. I have a lesson on this:
http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-reading/reading-skills-dealing-with-unknown-words/
Thank you sir for providing such sagacious piece of information