hey everyone welcome back to my channel this is Dori I 'm a
teacher of English and today we're going to talk about the top 15
reading tips for IELTS I know that lots of
you ask me about this question, so without further ado
let's get started! So tip number one
yourself from the very beginning of your practice
lots of students at the very beginning of their practice
take their time with the practice tests until they feel a little bit more confident
however when they the start timing themselves after some time they
panic because they're used to different timing
and they don't have enough time during these 60 minutes
so don't make the same mistake one
of the most challenging parts of reading is timing so start
timing yourself from the very beginning and try to get used to it
spend approximately 20 minutes in each
passage and please remember that this is part of
your practice too and as important
as finding the correct answer tip number two
familiarize yourself with the tasks before you start practicing it is a good
to check out a little bit the tasks
that you may encounter during your IELTS
reading practice test. Get to know a little bit what they ask you to do what you need
you should follow in each task I have videos for each and every task in reading so these videos
may help you with that in this way you will instantly recognize them when
you see them you will know what you have to do in
each task without wasting any time and you will be even more confident which is
the different tasks you may encounter in your reading practice are quite a
this step because it is very important
in the long run tip number three don't read
everything this is extremely important you do not have time to read
each and every word of the passages
it is impossible lots of students tell me
well this is impossible how can I answer to all these questions without
do you know what's impossible? to actually be able
challenging passages of 900 words
each; to be able to read and find the correct answers to forty questions
and then to have even more time spare time
to transfer your answers to the separate answer sheet
that's what's impossible! So you have to change a little bit your traditional
idea of reading regarding IELTS and
start practicing the texts without reading them
you should practice by using different reading
techniques how can you do that? well this leads us
skimming well I'm sure that you have heard skimming before but
do you use it the right way because if the idea of skimming
you have is just reading here and there
a little bit just for the gist of the text
this is not a reading technique this is a chaos so what you need to do
very very briefly is read the title read
the first paragraph very quickly just to get an idea
of the text then read and underline the first
two lines only the first two lines of each paragraph and
then you can read the last paragraph as well
while you practice enough with skimming you will be able to recognize
some key words in between paragraphs but this will
for the beginning you can do just these
about skimming and how you can practice skimming the right way
please check this video over here tip number
5 scanning is another reading technique
that compliments skimming and will really really help you
so what's the difference from skimming? skimming helps you to get
an idea to get the gist of the text but scanning
helps you to locate the exact answer just like you try to find a word in the
dictionary this is what' scanning is
you have read the questions you know what you're looking for
and you go to the text to find it
In the example of the dictionary you know the word you're looking for
so you go to the exact letter in order to search for it
okay this is what you do you know
what you're looking for and you go to the text
and the underlining that you have done during the skimming
process helps you to locate the
correct answer for more details on how you can use
skimming and scanning effectively please watch this video
here for both reading techniques that will save you
time and will teach you how you can answer correctly
the texts word per word tip number six
always read the instructions carefully
this may sound a little bit self-explanatory but it is not because sometimes when you
have done lots of practice tests and when you know the tasks
you go straight away to answer the questions but please be careful
always read the instructions and check out
the word limit you have because if you exceed your word limit
not you may you will lose points valuable points
even if you have answered correctly so for example
if the instructions say no more than two words
and/or a number please try to keep it that way and don't start writing whatever you want
okay don't get too carried away even in multiple-choice
tasks sometimes they ask you to find two correct asses
instead of only one which is more common okay so
always read the instructions carefully tip number seven
underline key words this is equally important in both the texts and the
you underline key words to help you through the skimming
process and when you read the questions basically
you underline easily recognizable words
such as dates, terminology which means words
that cannot be easily paraphrased, names
and numbers in the questions you underline
you always underline what you need to search for
in the text because sometimes you may get confused during the process
so always underline what you are looking for
tip number 8 be careful of paraphrasing
this is where most mistakes happen in IELTS
they happen due to paraphrasing usually
they use the same words both in the text
and the questions in order to confuse you so
try to focus and concentrate on
same meanings rather than same words
okay try to to go beyond the words
and understand the meaning of the texts, and the passages
and the questions you can understand how paraphrasing works
a little bit better in this video over here tip number nine
the order of the text this is really important
that nearly in all tasks the order of questions
is the same as the order you will find the answers in
the text for example the answer to the first question will be found
first in the text, the answer to the
second question will be found second in the text and so on so forth
okay this is really useful when you have found the first answer let's just say
and the third one so you know that the answer to the second question
will be in between okay this is the good news, the bad news is that
this doesn't take place necessarily in
all tasks be careful of tasks like
map labelling, diagram labeling or even some completion tasks
where the order of the questions and the answers is not necessarily the same
as they will be found in the text
get stuck on words you don't know
please do not make this mistake it will waste
valuable time don't focus on separate
words focus on meanings so if you don't know a word
please move on with it read a little bit further you will probably get
the meaning from the context around it okay so don't worry about that
don't dwell on words or questions you'don't understand
or you don't know move on with it a video that will help you with some
quick tips on what you can do when you don't know a word is this video over here
be careful with grammar mistakes even if it is a reading
with your grammar mistakes for example when you give an answer to a question
if it is a gap-filling question
a completion task you should make sure
that the answer you give fits both grammatically
and syntactically with the rest of the sentence
okay specifically for completion tasks you cannot
change the word you found in the text to something different for example
if you found a noun in the text
you think this is the correct answer but in order to fit it
grammatically in the sentence you have to make it a verb
then probably you have made a mistake so please
check out your answer again okay
you cannot change the words you found in the text you should copy them
exactly as you found them tip number 12 be careful
of your spelling you still need to be careful of your spelling
mistakes because you lose points for that
too try to improve your spelling and
keep in mind that most words can be found in the text
so before you copy them make sure that
you write them correctly as you had found them in the text
your own technique what do I mean by that?
try to find your own technique that works best for you some
students start first with the text and then they move
on with the questions some other students start straight away
from the questions and then move on with the text
there is no right or wrong way both
of these techniques work very well
for the students so you have to
to work it out a little bit and see what works best
for you choose a technique and try to be consistent with it because it will
you valuable time in the future with your practice
and with your timing tip number 14
read a lot in English the more you read in English
in the reading examination start with reading
articles about the things you love about your interests about your hobbies
and you can find numerous articles online
about things you are interested in and read about them in
English in this way you're going to be practicing and
as it sounds this is equally important with all the rest
if you start moaning and groaning about the exam this is not going to get you
very far the only one you're going to harm is yourself
not Cambridge, so try to see the exam as a game
as a quiz or as a quest that you have to fulfill
so your attitude plays a major role
with the exam and it will greatly help you
if you see it that way so these were my top 15
tips and I really do hope they will help you put them in