IELTS : Reading part 3 (General Training)
Part 3 will include one large piece of text with questions 29 – 40. This is the final part of the reading section, try to allocate at least 20 minutes for this section.
Tips!
- Practice reading.
This might seem obvious, but a lot of people simply don’t practice reading enough to prepare for the exam. Get into the habit of daily reading English newspaper articles and magazine articles. Go through them with your teacher on Skype. It will really help you to improve your confidence. When going through a text, make notes of any new vocabulary. These words you can look up after and add to your vocabulary list.
- Practice skimming and scanning
A key skill in succeeding in the IELTS reading is you ability to read through text quickly, while retaining information. Skimming means that you are able to read text faster than normal, but are still able to answer questions regarding it afterwards. With texts in IELTS being up 1000 words long this will become an essential skill to to have. Scanning means that you also pick up essential information. If you read the questions quickly first this will tell you what information you need to scan for. Keep an eye out for this information and make notes.
- Time management
With roughly 20 minutes for each part it is essential you manage your time effectively.
Check first how many questions there are. Typically there will be 11 questions in part 3. This is less than 2 minutes per question without taking into account reading the text.
Read the text as quickly as possible, but do not rush it. You need to retain information.
If you do not understand a question, move on. You can always return to this question if you have time.
- Focus
Do not become distracted in the exam by what other people are doing. Focus on the questions, read these first so you have a good idea of what you will look out for in the text and then read the text quickly but carefully. You do not have time to lose concentration.
- Understand the exam
The reading sections follow similar patterns. The types of text are quite similar following themes such as environment, travel, economy, sport etc. Practice reading these types of text. Practice these when you have your English lessons by Skype, you teacher can provide reading materials that cover all of these topics.
The questions also follow distinct patterns!
- Multiple choice >> IELTS multiple choice reading questions
- Matching sentence endings >> Matching sentence endings in IELTS reading
- Matching information with paragraphs >> Matching information with paragraphs
- True / False / Not given >>True False Not given
- How to highlight
Highlighting is a way you can read and quickly highlight important parts of the text.
Organise the text by using a different coloured highlight for different questions. Highlight the answer when you see it in the text.
Do not over do it, You want your highlights to help you understand the text effectively, not create a confusing mess. Less is very often more.
- Word matching
Be very careful when word matching, often what seems like a simple like for like match is a trick. Look out more for synonyms (words with similar meanings) or a sentence that has the same meaning as the word you are matching.
Try these reading part 3 questions and answers :
Click here >> IELTS General Reading part 3
Click here >> IELTS General Reading Test 3.1
