Put your best effort forward when taking the IELTS Academic or General Training test to get the required band score for your application to study or work in your desired location.
That entails mastering every aspect of the IELTS exam structure, even the deceptively straightforward IELTS Reading test (all it involves is reading and correctly answering questions).
The IELTS Reading test is about reading quickly and remembering as much information as possible while undertaking analysis simultaneously. Still, there are also over three types of text, 40 questions, and 11 different assignments to complete!
Given the enormous stakes involved, you’ll need to adjust and increase your reading speed to have the best chance of passing your reading exam.
We’ll review 6 habits and strategies in this post to help you read more quickly and perform better on exam day!
Build these six skills and habits to read more quickly and succeed on your reading exam.
1. Begin to read in chunks of three to five words
Even though we were all taught to read each word in school, doing so is sluggish and inefficient, especially when you are in a rush for time on an exam.
Instead, try word chunking, which involves reading several words at once and analyzing them for information and details. Try reading three to five words at a time to hone your reading skills. Once you finish, assess your understanding of the sentence or phrase.
Continue working on this using your peripheral vision, starting with three words and progressively increasing it to five. Reading several chapters this way can help you continually train your reading speed and comprehension.
2. Skip the second reading
According to common wisdom, we should reread a line or chapter if we are unsure of anything we read or are perplexed by it.
However, this causes your eyes to jerk back and forth while you read, costing you valuable time that may quickly mount up.
You may teach yourself to swiftly absorb and remember information while moving on by merely skimming a phrase as you read to stop this from happening.
3. Skim while reading the first time, then scan when responding to questions
Skimming the major parts of your book is an excellent technique to approach reading the sections if you are more comfortable with word chunking.
It’s critical to skim the section and note its key aspects, particularly the title and the questions. In order to get a sense of the overall image and the structure of the paragraph, you also need to focus on the nouns in the text.
4. Increase your vocabulary to hasten comprehension
Not knowing what a word means is one of the main obstacles to sluggish reading.
Fortunately, this is one of the more straightforward issues to resolve, and you may start by expanding your vocabulary in general.
You may deliberately begin reading more books and tuning in to news programs like those on the BBC and CNN.
Make sure you do this proactively by underlining or writing down unfamiliar words and utilizing a dictionary or thesaurus to guide you.
5. Become familiar with and read several texts that are similar to the reading tests
Increasing your vocabulary when reading texts like books, magazines, newspapers, and journals is a fantastic method to achieve this while preparing for the Reading test.
You can begin by reading a variety of themes in different formats to get a sense of whether books are more or less challenging for you to read.
You may concentrate more on them and become familiar with how they are written and how sentences and ideas flow in the sections once you have identified the material style you find challenging.
6. Start pacing yourself on IELTS reading exams
While the first five stages will aid in improving your reading speed, nothing compares to completing the exams to imitate actual exam conditions.
You may increase your reading speed by completing our IELTS Academic or General Training test while also considering the pressure of simultaneously responding to questions.
This may help you identify other areas where you may be missing, such as inadequate scanning abilities or a deficit in reading for specificity.
Understanding this enables you to modify your reading technique to focus on areas that require improvement so that you may advance significantly!