Most candidates before taking an IELTS or OET do a lot of reading practice tests. While it gives the most useful practice for the test, for some, it turns out to be a cause of worry. They find their scores are not improving even after investing such a lot of time and effort. However, streamlining these efforts with right strategies can be greatly fruitful. Let us look into it in a different perspective
Skills tested in reading
The reading paper will test a number of different skills, including:
- Completing a diagram, table or summary
- Tell the difference between main ideas and supporting details
- Find specific information
- Identify the writer’s opinion
- Follows key arguments
- Identify the writer’s purpose
Different types of questions you might deal with in your reading test
There are several different question types all designed to test different reading skills. It is essential that you familiarize yourself with each different question type. They are as follows
A) Summary, flow chart, table, note completion
B) Short answer questions
C) Diagram or label completion
D) Sentence completion
E) Matching information to the paragraph
F) Matching sentence endings
G) Multiple choice
H) Matching Headings with paragraph
I) True, false, not given
It will be important and indispensible to develop a strategy to deal with each of these questions. And a systematic practice with right mentoring anyone can master these skills.
Some of the questions are easy while others might be extremely difficult. The key is to get a practice under right guidance and not to panic when trying to answer a difficult question. Time management is also vital to your score. In fact it is the key. The wrong thing to do is spend a large amount of time on a question and fail to spend enough time on the rest of the questions. If the answer does not present itself, move on to the next. You can always come back to the difficult questions later and answering the other questions will often help you. There is always an easy and practical strategy to manage your time effectively.
Time and nerves need to be controlled in order to do well in the reading test all the IELTS reading tips in the world won’t help you, if you have not got the right amount of practice with a right tutor.