It is important to go through the texts quickly, being aware of your time limitations.

There will be three separate texts from which you will need to answer questions.

The reading test differs, depending on if you are doing the IELTS ACADEMIC, or the IELTS GENERAL test.

What does the reading test demonstrate?

• give a overall sense of the text
• show a complete understanding
• find details
• show you understand references and implications
• understand the writers intentions and arguments
• can see the writers broader opinions

These key assessments are the same for both general and academic IELTS reading.

Time management

The exam lasts 60 minutes in total.

All answers must be written first time on your answer sheet, there is no time to make notes and transfer these.

Each section must be timed by you, the examiner will not tell you when to begin a new part.

The parts

There will be 3 separate parts to read. There will be 40 questions in total. Expect to read between 2000 – 3000 words in total.

IELTS Academic Reading test

Academic reading texts are taken from journals, magazines and newspapers. They are not specialist in nature, but they are academic topics.

The topics might be a discussion, or an opinion piece or an interview, they will most often be accompanied by graphs, diagrams and illustrations.

IELTS General Reading test

Texts are usually from magazines, newspapers, advertisements blogs or websites.

Part 1 : Two or three smaller texts of a factual nature. One of these might be split into 6-8 sections with shorter texts, such as advertisements or comments. These will be regarding general life.

Part 2 : This will include 2 texts, usually regarding work. Typical topics are job interviews, company contracts, employment rights, work place opportunities, and training.

Part 3 : Will be a larger text, with a more developed theme, again regarding an everyday topic.

Types of question

In total there will be 40 questions.

• gap fill in a text with missing parts
• link the correct heading with the the correct text
• finish sentences
• answer questions regarding the texts general meaning
• choose from a multiple selection of answers

Sometimes your answer will be a word, a sentence or a number.

Remember :

Read the question very carefully, there may be tricks that are intended to catch out the unsuspecting.