Free IELTS reading practice with essential tips and techniques for success in your IELTS Reading test. IELTS Reading requires a lot of practice, but it also requires insight into question types and strategies to tackle those questions. Develop your reading skills with these useful tips and practice lessons to maximise your score. This page is for both Academic and GT IELTS reading. The question types are the same for both tests and all the techniques are the same as well. So, please use all my reading lessons and tips regardless of which test you are taking.
On this page, you will find:
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- IELTS Reading Test Information
- IELTS Reading Essential Tips
- IELTS Reading Practice with Techniques & Advice
IELTS Reading Test Information
There are two reading tests: Academic and GT. They are essential the same but with minor differences, mainly relating to passage topics. See below.
- There are 40 questions each worth one mark for a correct answer. The total number of points is 40.
- Your aim is not to understand everything, but locate answers and win points.
- The band score requires for Academic Reading and GT Reading are different: BAND SCORES EXPLAINED
- You manage your own time during the one hour.
- There are three passages, see below.
- You can start with any passage and jump between passages or questions. It’s up to you.
- The reading test requires a number of skills:
- Skimming – reviewing the passage for the main idea before the questions
- Scanning – locating specific words or information in the passage
- Analysis – analysing the sentences where the answer is located for deeper meaning to decide the correct answer.
- Both Academic Reading & GT Reading tests have the same question types, which means you prepare in the same way for both tests.
- There are 12-14 question types (depending on how you name them). Your preparation will focus mainly on techniques for question types. See READING QUESTION TYPES LIST (also linked below). You’ll also find reading practice lessons with tips for all question types on the page below.
- Biggest Challenge
- time management
- paraphrasing & vocabulary
- locating and choosing answers
- understanding question types
IELTS Reading Passages
Academic Reading Passage
There are three passages, all of similar level. They are long, academic style reading passages based on topics of general interest, such as history, natural science, biographies etc. Topics are specific, very varied and unpredictable. They cover opinions, research and descriptions. Your preparation should be based on preparing question types and getting used to a range of passage topics. My practice reading lessons below are designed to help you with that.
GT Reading Passage
There are three sections, each section getting progressively more challenging. Section 1 is usually social life related. Section 2 is work or training related. Section 3 is the same as an Academic reading passage, but slightly easier. Many candidates prefer to spend slightly longer on section 3 than section 1. Preparation should be based on question types and getting to used to a range of different topics. My practice reading lessons below are designed to help you with that.
IELTS Reading Essential Tips
These IELTS reading tips below are to help you understand the techniques needed for the IELTS reading test. Click below to open the link:
IELTS READING QUESTION TYPES: A list of all the question types in IELTS Academic & GT Reading. This page is a MUST READ page. You need to know precisely what kinds of questions could appear in IELTS reading.
IMPROVING YOUR READING SCORE TIPS: Learn useful techniques to develop your IELTS Reading skills. This is a detailed page so to help you figure out what you are doing well and what you need to work on to increase your reading band score.
TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN TIPS: Essential Tips and homework answer. The video lesson on this page explains the difference between False and Not Given as well as other great tips.
Comprehension and Strategy: Learn about reading for understand and reading to locate answers: two different skills
How I got Band Score 9 in IELTS Reading: Learn how one student scored band 9 in the IELTS reading test – get useful tips and strategies.
IELTS Reading Practice
Practice your IELTS Reading and develop skills for each type of question that appears in the IELTS Reading test. Develop techniques to tackle matching headings, TFNG questions and more. The practice lessons for IELTS Reading below vary in difficulty to help you build confidence and to challenge you. I’ve labelled the pages that include tips and techniques as well as practice. Enjoy learning! Enjoy challenging yourself!
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