Tips for IELTS Reading and Writing Section
If you want some tips and tricks to secure high scores in two of the modules in the IELTS Examination, then you are at the right place! The IELTS examination has four modules, which include reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Today, we will focus on the reading and writing modules and learn how to secure high marks!
READING SECTION TIPS: IELTS Reading and Writing Section
Develop Skills for Each Question
There are 14 different questions in the reading section out of 40, and to perfect these, you have to find a separate strategy for each question. For example, some questions have their answers as the text goes on, and some do not. It is all up to the student to form correct strategies to apply to those 14 questions.
Skimming and Scanning
Skimming is a way of reading a body of text to get a general overview of what it’s about. This procedure is highly recommended and taught by the best IELTS coaching experts. When a student learns how to skim text before giving his exam, he will understand its benefits.
In IELTS, you do not have time to read and understand every small detail to answer the questions properly, and you need to skim to understand the text’s topic and layout. This skimming process should take you 2-3 minutes maximum while underlying all the keywords. Now, moving on to scanning- this a process by which you can locate a piece of information regardless of whether you understood the text or not.
Develop Speed Reading Skills
As you already know, IELTS mainly tests your time management skills alongside focus. This can be a real hassle for people who do not read fast enough. This is why you need to develop your reading speed to scan over the text and locate answers quickly. This will save you a lot of time in the examination and leave you more time to develop your answers before writing them.
Don’t Try to Understand the Passage
Almost all the questions in the reading section ask you to locate the answers only. This means that you do not need to spend extra time stressing over what each sentence in the passage means.
Most of the questions force you to scan the passage for the keywords to read the sentence and comprehend it to write an answer. This is why we suggest that stressing out about every sentence is not the right approach and will result in nothing except time wastage.
Develop Vocabulary
To develop vocabulary does not mean that you learn the meaning of unique words to seem more impressive; it refers to knowing how to use these words, in what sense, with what word, and what matching verbs or nouns go with it. This is the perfect way to broaden your vocabulary and gain a higher score by incorporating them in your answers. You can even increase your vocabulary by reading practice passages and underlining words that you find unique.
Key Words
If you have ever attempted a practice reading paragraph in IELTS, you know that each question has key words. These keywords are included to help the student locate the text’s answers. This can be done by finding the keyword in the question in the passage and reading that sentence to form an appropriate answer. These keywords can either be straightforward to locate, such as names or dates, or subtle, which is the part most students mess upon.
Practice makes perfect
This next tip is known by everyone in regards to anything in life: practice makes perfect. Unless you will not actively work and read different passages and locate answers, you will never improve. In the same way, you will never build your vocabulary or reading speed if you attempt one practice passage and leave the rest. Everything in life requires constant effort, which should be done by these students to achieve the highest marks. You can easily find practice tests on google, which will make you more familiar with the exam format so that you are more prepared on the exam day.
Read Difficult Passages
If you want to improve your skills and speed further, you can opt to read the more difficult paragraphs. This way, you can train your mind to read the difficult text, and when you give your IELTS test, the reading will not be as hard. You can improve your familiarity with complex text by reading novels, BBC news, the economist, business insider, etc.
WRITING SECTION TIPS: IELTS Reading and Writing Section
Another section in the IELTS examination is the essay writing section, where you are required to write an essay based on the question provided in 40 minutes. Most students find this section difficult because explaining and describing in their second language is difficult. So here are a bunch of tips that could help you ace this section.
Understand
The first step involves fully understand what the question is asking of you. Here, you read the question and identify what type it is; for example, it can be a discussion, opinion solution to a problem, etc. Once these keywords are identified, you can go ahead and understand what the examiner wants to read from you. The biggest tip is to avoid a general essay, or else you will fall into band 5.
Brainstorm Ideas
Before you start writing down your essay, you can take some time out to brainstorm all the different perspectives and ways you can attempt this question. This will make writing far simpler than before because you will have an image in your head where you want your essay to go and end.
This will inevitably save more time, too, since you will have a general overview of what you want to write. So when the section starts, read the question and plan out what would be most suitable to write about and as ideas flow into your brain, write them down on the side of the page. This will be a good exercise since you can get back on track if you lose your focus while writing the essay.
Familiarize Yourself with Different Topics
Some of the best IELTS coaching experts offer students amazing material to help aid their writing skills. This will also broaden their mind to the different questions and themes that come in the writing section. Moreover, alongside this, students should also read different articles and newspapers to expand their vocabulary.
This will improve their essay writing skills and will hopefully aid in a better score. It is important to note that the IELTS examiners do not judge based on your knowledge instead of on the command over the English Language. Therefore, every student should work harder to ensure their writing skills are enhanced by the examination time.
Personal Opinion
The trick to writing an amazing piece of work is by adding a personalized touch to it. This can be done by employing your own opinion into the essay by writing relevant past experiences, examples, thoughts, and personal beliefs.
This can take a normal essay to another level since the reader, which is the examiner, in this case, will be more inclined to read your story because it holds emotion. This will only be successful if you are aware of what the question requires you to write.
Manage your Time
As mentioned earlier, this examination is time-bound, which means that students need to complete the essay when given, which is 40 minutes. To write a proper essay in such little time, students must develop time management skills.
The proper way to attempt this essay is by giving 5 minutes maximum to brainstorming and completing the exam in the next 30 minutes so you can spend the last 2-3 minutes proofreading whatever you wrote. Proofreading is important to correct any grammatical mistakes you have made, which could negatively impact your score.
Make Paragraphs
I know many people do not write their essays in a paragraph format but instead choose to write everything in a single body. This may not affect any school assignment marks, but during the IELTS examination, you can lose marks over this.
There is a clear format that every student should follow, which includes an introduction, paragraph 1, paragraph 2, and a conclusion. We suggest that you make separate paragraphs for every new idea you type out. This will allow for every reason to be explained properly alongside examples before moving on to the next.
CONCLUSION
IELTS Reading and Writing Section. The IELTS examination is an important examination for those looking to study or work abroad, and it is considered highly impressive to secure high marks in it. Students should hope to achieve 7+ so that none of their plans are impacted.
