Mastering some basic skills and strategies is the key to success in IELTS Reading. Here are six super tips for IELTS prepared by Shiksha IELTS coaching classes in ahmedabad. Skimming You can quickly ‘get the gist’ (understand the main idea) of a passage by using speed-reading, commonly called skimming. A quick glance at titles and headings to identify the general topic works the best. You should know where to look for the writer’s main idea: near the end of the introduction and the beginning of the conclusion. When reading body paragraphs, stop as soon as you understand the main idea. Do not bother much reading supporting sentences such as examples and quotations. If you see a word that you do not recognise, don’t stop to consider what it means. Instead, constantly keep going through the text. This is skimming. Use skimming techniques to read more quickly and don’t spend more than five minutes reading any passage in the IELTS test. Understanding the passage organization An IELTS Reading skill that goes nicely with skimming is, understanding how the passage is organised. How many paragraphs form the introduction? Where is the thesis statement? What is the main function of each paragraph? Which linking words indicate a change of topic or opinion? Right technique is to underline key topic words and signal phrases, and sometimes to write brief summarising words (annotation) in the margins. Understanding how a text is organised is a critical reading skill as it helps to locate information more quickly later. Scanning Scanning is another reading skill that you will often hear associated with IELTS Reading. But how does it work? Effective scanning begins with careful study of the question. What information do you need to find? A person’s name? A date? A reason? An effect? Are there any names or technical vocabulary in the question that will surely appear in the passage? Now scan to find them quickly, without re-reading the text. There are speed-reading techniques that can help with this: for example, looking backwards through the text. Identifying paraphrase Most IELTS Reading questions paraphrase the original text. Naturally, it helps to have a huge vocabulary; but vocabulary size is not everything. Recognising paraphrase begins with knowing which words are most likely to be paraphrased: conceptual words like find/discover, avoid/prevent, and theory/explanation are typically paraphrased, while more technical naming words such as infectious disease, volcanic eruption, or silicon chip are likely to also feature in the text. Anticipating unknown words There can be vocabulary you have never seen before in the IELTS Academic Reading module. The test organisers deliberately place uncommon words in the passage to test if candidates can figure them out using contextual clues. These contextual clues can include a definition, a paraphrase elsewhere in the text, collocating words, or word parts like prefixes and suffixes. High - scoring. You should have more than just a well-stocked vocabulary; also good reading skills are required to analyse an unknown word and guess intelligently at its most likely meaning. Managing time Devote 20 minutes for each passage and you will surely excel. As a general rule, if you are still unsure of an answer after one minute, pencil in your best guess, move on to the next question, and come back to it later if there’s time. Shiksha provides one of the best IELTS coaching in Ahmedabad. For more information on other courses, please visit Shiksha Ahmedabad.
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AuthorJyoti Mulchandani Archives
September 2017
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