My IELTS Classroom Podcast

IELTS 101: Introduction to the IELTS Reading Test

May 04, 2020 Shelly Cornick and Nick Lone Episode 4
My IELTS Classroom Podcast
IELTS 101: Introduction to the IELTS Reading Test
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

If you are worried about IELTS reading, then you are in the right place! Today, Nick and I will tell you everything you need to start preparing for the IELTS reading test. This is the fourth episode of our IELTS 101 series and can find the full episode notes and a transcript of the conversation at http://podcast.myieltsclassroom.com/

Episode Notes

Yes, it is time to look at IELTS reading - the first of the two tests that are different for Academic and General Training students. Today, Nick and I will talk you through the basic facts of both tests, such as how long they last, and the type of texts you can expect to find in each part. Then, we will have a look at each of the question types in the exam and give you some clear advice about how to tackle each of them (spoiler - scanning does not work for every question!). We'll also show you which reading skills each of the questions is targeting, so that you can understand what your weak areas are and how you can improve them.

In this episode, you will find out:

  1. basic facts about the IELTS reading test (number of sections, time, etc)
  2. what types of topics you can expect to read about in the passages of the Academic and General Training reading tests
  3. the 10 types of question that you might be asked to tackle in the text
  4. how you should start to prepare for the IELTS listening test 
  5. our top advice for scoring well in the test

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spk_0:   0:00
way.

spk_1:   0:03
Welcome to my eyelids Classroom. The podcast where two ex examiners discuss a ll things isles. I'm Shelley Cornick

spk_0:   0:12
and I'm Nick Lung. And

spk_1:   0:13
today we're going to be talking about isles reading. How are the academic and general training test different? What type of questions will you have to face on? What are some of the main problems faced by Isles test takers? Hey, Nick, how you doing?

spk_0:   0:33
I am feeling absolutely fantastic today. Why? Well, I told you a couple of hours ago that I was planning on making a shepherd's pie. Yes, but my potatoes were a little bit wrong. So So instead, I made a very nice spaghetti Bolognese.

spk_1:   0:53
Oh, that was a good alternative.

spk_0:   0:55
It was planted to bed cheese

spk_1:   0:58
hungry now, although, but you have to make another shepherd's pie another time.

spk_0:   1:03
Yeah, get some details, and then I can go back and again.

spk_1:   1:07
It's funny that you potatoes were run. All right, so now, now I'm a little bit hungry. But today, before I can eat, we're going to be talking about the aisles reading test in general. Are you a reader? Do you read a lot,

spk_0:   1:19
actually, To be honest, I don't read that much. I mean, if you include sort of websites that yes, I read every day but actual books. I don't actually read as much as I should.

spk_1:   1:30
Me too, I think after once I finished university, I think I was so tired of having that. I did a lot of English, like literature modules, where you had to read like, seven or eight books. The semester. I just felt exhausted. And since then I mean, I think I've only really read one book this year. To be honest, during quarantine, you're in quarantine. And it was about a month ago. What? That was about two weeks ago. But what I do do now, though, is I listened to a lot of audio

spk_0:   1:56
books. Yeah, I do sometimes. But I'm a much bigger fan of just general podcasts with their discussion rather than audio books.

spk_1:   2:04
I totally agree. Podcasts are definitely the way forward. So although I'm not a massive reader, the one thing I do read I mean, obviously, I complete every single Cambridge reading test in the books that done so The only thing I do read nowadays our isles reading papers. But before we start discussing what's involved in the reading test on what the text alike. I think Nick is going to go and give us the island's basics about the reading test again before we do that, please remember, this podcast is meant as an introduction to the Isles reading test. So if you have been preparing for a long time, you may already know everything we're going to discuss in this episode. You are very welcome to stay. But if you want to hear something more advanced, skip ahead toe Episode six on DH Start listening from there, but for everybody who is staying his neck with some ill

spk_0:   3:01
DS basics. Okay, so we've looked at speaking. We've looked at listening, and today it's time for the reading test Now, we said last week. Listening test will be the first test you take in the exam. The easiest one, we kind of figured reading is next. It will be the 2nd 1 that you take on the exam day for unlike listening, general training on academic tests are different this time. However, there are some similarities between the two tests, both academic and general training reading tests last 60 minutes and have three different sections. Each section is slightly more difficult than the one before involved tests. You have to answer 40 questions, so that's generally 13 or 14 questions per section. Both tests used the same type of questions which will be discussing today. So how are they different? You might ask. Well, you'll be reading different types of texts. In the academic test, you will read three academic passages that are each roughly 800 words long, so quite lengthy. In the general training tests, you can read up to eight passages in the three sections in but one. You will have up to five passages on topics that test. If you can survive living in a foreign country similar to the listening test. In Part two, you will have two passages that are related to work on. In Part three. You will have one long passage on a general topic. On Finally, please note that, unlike listening, there is no extra time in the region exam for you to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.

spk_1:   4:49
Fantastic. So thanks for that neck. So, like always, there was a lot of information in our basic chapter, so let's go through each of those points in a bit more detail. So let's start then by talking about these different text that the students are going to find. We did mention this in our isles 101 lesson, but let's just remind people of the type of text you're going to read in the academic and the general training papers. So let's start with academic Nick. You said that there are three texts on each text is roughly 800 words long, so it's quite long. But what type of topics can the students expect to find in the reading

spk_0:   5:31
test? So very similar to the to the fourth part of the listening exam, which is a scum academic lecture or the third party even of the speaking test? The topics are going to be things like psychology, astronomy, animals, social behaviour, the environment, sort of academic style topics.

spk_1:   5:54
That's right. I mean, I think they're all kind of neutral, so there's never anything controversial or never anything religious. So you know, so basically that these air text, which anybody, anywhere in the world should be able to read and understand, What do you think you need? Does it help if you have any specialist knowledge of these

spk_0:   6:13
topics? Well, no, you don't really need any specialists. Knowledge off these topics To set the example. I would say that having some kind of specialist knowledge can definitely help, especially if we talk about vocabulary.

spk_1:   6:29
Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. May I think sometimes, you know, even I find if there's a if I'm doing a reading test and the topic is psychology. I find that much easier to understand than some of the more science based questions because I'm not a massive scientists. However again, these tests are not designed. They're supposed to be the same level for every student, so it's not supposed to influence your score. But I know I've got some of my shoots, absolutely hate the ones about going out into space and studying the stars because they just don't know anything about that topic. And therefore all of the vocabulary is quite tricky. So definitely you gonna you're gonna want to practise this before you go into the test. And there are also some really great Isles vocabulary books which cover thes topics so you can get like a good background vocabulary for any of these type of topics, right? So we also said in the introduction that each part off the test is slightly more difficult than the one that comes before. Do you think what that's the official like? That's what I'll says, right? That's the official position. Do you think that's always true, Though? Um, I would

spk_0:   7:49
say is true. To be honest,

spk_1:   7:53
I mean, I would say Part one is definitely the easiest

spk_0:   7:57
text. And what's the reason for that?

spk_1:   7:59
That's that's a very good point. So, essentially in the academic paper, although the topics are always thes academic toppings, the type of text can be divided into two groups. On the one the one hand, you've got descriptive text. So their text, which kind of give information essentially right. That tends to be what you get in Section one. So you may get a text which describes, for example, the life of Marie Curie. That's going to be that is one of the exam, Tex. I always think of that one. That is a description off her law. So is purely factual information. When you get this part three, though, you might get an argumentative text. So that's a text which presents somebody's opinion or if it in a more difficult test, presents three or four competing theories, right or competing appearance, opinions on a top and the questions. So then that's much more difficult to understand. Somebody's attitude or opinion is much more difficult than to understand factual information on DH. That's the type of text you usually get in Part three. So I would say Part one is definitely the easiest. My only question, though, is that is part to always easier than Part three. I think it sometimes is okay, and I don't know why. Maybe it's just the type of questions they asked. Maybe it's the topic of the reading, but I would say, Yeah, if you sometimes find Part two more difficult in Part three, that's okay. Sometimes even I find so so, yeah, but I do definitely think part one is there for the lower level students, people who need like a four or five, and in Part three, that is definitely like the higher level questions which we'll talk about in a minute. That's the academic paper. The general training paper is kind of completely different from me. Although there were three parts still in general training. I really think they're kind of to take tests here. You've got parts one and two, which are purely checking exactly the same as parts one and two in the listening, as we discussed last time. If you can function in an English speaking country and then Part three is much more similar, actually, to the academic reading test is more like I would say, part one. So it's a long text, say MERS in the Academic is an 800 word text on this type of text is usually the descriptive, so it's it's not gonna have lots of different peoples opinions like the end of the academic paper, which is really difficult. It's going to be the life of Marie Curie, or information about some history or some archaeology. It's like is factual. Okay, so if we just have a quick look, then so if parts one and two are about functioning in a society part one is all about social survival. So what type of text might the students get? A general shouldn't get in part one.

spk_0:   11:15
Yeah, so part one off the general training reading tests, social survival you might be given information about five different suitcases or watches our jobs and then be asked to match some information to each of them. For example, you could be given a brochure about a course, and then you have to complete the relevant information. It could be something like on adv er or an advert for some accommodation or something, or a competition that you can enter a citizen of the country. Or it could be something like a notice how to join a club, Uh,

spk_1:   11:58
how

spk_0:   11:58
to join a community or something like that.

spk_1:   12:01
Yeah, very good. So you know this part one for May. These questions often just cheque. If you can understand or find basic information, um, they should be relatively easy, I say should be there not always, because the questions can be a bit tricky sometimes. But the actual text in terms of what you read should be fairly easy for a good student. I also think that the purpose of Part one is also just to cheque your basic vocabulary. So you might have if you had the question about the suitcases. You Maybe you've got five different suitcases, and it may ask you find the suitcase which is good in wet weather On then in the text you're going to read this suitcase is water Exactly Exactly s Oh, they're just checking. Do you know the meaning of water? Right. And that is a really good example of what? The type of questions. In part one part two looks quite similar in a way it does its heart one, because it's still how you're gonna function. I'll says that these topics are work. I actually think they're more like work slash legal kind of text. So can you look what kind of text would you might read in this

spk_0:   13:23
section? We'll definitely. I agree completely that it's it's sort of legal texts because you're you're looking at things like rules, basically, aren't you? In some areas. So, for example, you could be given like, ah, complicated guide to Parking University, which, as we know in the UK, is parking rules are a little bit crazy. So

spk_1:   13:43
long, complicated and must be followed. Yeah,

spk_0:   13:49
and as well you know how much the UK loves health and safety. Yes. So you know, when you start a job, you've got a lot of health and safety material to read so having health and safety material in the aisles test is also quite common. It does appear very often alongside other sort of workplace rules being absent or booking a holiday or something like that. Yeah. Another one that's quite common is a guide to writing a good CV.

spk_1:   14:22
Yeah, which isn't that mean? That is something you know, if you're gonna work and live in another country, you're going to need to have a good CV. So that's what Americans call it a resume. Like a cheat of paper with all of your work history. So you know all of these. I mean, I do think, you know, the island is doing a good job here. All of these things are things you are going to need to read and understand when you arrive in an English speaking country. Definitely. I think, as you said, a lot of the questions in part to because the Tex Avery form or their legal a lot of the questions are about Can you understand rules? So they're checking, you know, motile verbs like you must or you should can. There are lots of words like you are permitted or allowed all of that type of stuff. I've actually got a really good block post where I went through all of the general training reading papers and I took out the words that they repeat again and again that they test. You can find that on my block. That's Blawg, Doctor. My eye arts class in dot com Just click on the reading section in there and you go down. You'll find it. It's like common isles training. Common general training words in the reading test. Definitely have a look at those, because those words do repeat. It's kind of predictable, actually, the type of questions you're going to get asking part two. Andi. What about Part three?

spk_0:   15:48
So, as you said before, Apart, three is is longer and it does look like a GN academic text. However it does Thie text is. Is Mohr, I would say, is more like a magazine article or a newspaper article rather than an academic journal on DSO. In this section. In part, three of the general training you are less likely to be reading about space are architectural. One of those topics we mentioned before and it is much more likely to be based around leadership or the world's coldest town or the development of paper. So it sounds a little bit dry. But it's Noah's Academica's academic paper.

spk_1:   16:29
Yeah, they're know so and so when Shouldn't say to me like, Can I use the academic questions? Is practise, I say, Well, if your general, if you're an academic student, you could use Part three of the general training paper, although it will be the same as your part once it's going. Or maybe Part two, it's like somewhere in the middle, so it's good practise, but it's lower level practise. And if you were general training student, you might want to look at part one of an academic paper because they are kind of the same. But I do think it's better to kind of stick with the test that you're gonna actually d'oh! All right, so they're the type of text that you're going to read. Let's have a look now than at the type of questions you're going tohave toe. Answer there quite a lot. I think it depends on how you count them. It's somewhere between 10 and 12 depending on your classifications for today, we're going to discuss the 10 main types of questions. So let's start then with headings. So headings questions looked like this before one of the passages you will be given somewhere between six and eight. Very short clause. Is there no even sentences? They're very short clauses, which actors headings for each off the paragraphs in the text. Sometimes the first paragraph in the text is done as an example. Sometimes they only asked for headings for the 1st 4 or five power, so you need to read the instructions carefully. But your job is going to be to read each paragraph and then from the list of headings, choose which off the headings matches that parallels to make it difficult. There are always some extra. So if you've got five paragraphs, you may have eight heading. So your job is not just defined the heading for each paragraph, but is to understand which power which headings you don't need. On the purpose of this question, why are they asking you to match the headings? Will they want to understand? If you are able when you're reading toe, understand the main idea off a paragraph. Can you read a paragraph and summarise it? This's a really key academic skill. If you think about when you're a university student, you have to read a lot of long academic texts and then summarise that information. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that is a high level skill. It is. So my advice for these questions is read the headings before you start, try and predict what a paragraph that had that heading would include. So you're sort of interacting with the text, Then start with paragraph A. Now a lot of aisles. Teachers, they say You just need to read the first line and the last line beheadings. That is not true. I've done a lot of analysis of many questions, and almost no answers are in the first line on. Hardly any are in the final line because we are looking for a summery off the whole paragraph. So start reading paragraph A. As you read, Think back about the headings. You've already read them. What do you think is the main idea? Are they giving reasons? Are they giving some history? Can you match one to the heading Read paragraph A. Hopefully you will find the answer. If you don't don't panic. Sometimes I'll make a the hardest because they know it's going to stress students out. Yeah, so if you don't find the heading for a continue to be keep going back, you can always return. And then my other trick is when you finish answering, look at the headings you didn't use and just cheque that they don't match anything there, so you could be 100% sure. I think that's quite a good thing to finish off. So those are headings questions I would put on a difficulty level. I put them up there. They're a nine or a 10. Wow. Yeah, because we're not just finding information in the text. Were having to understand. Like the summarising. It's like a second step. Um, another difficult type of questions are what we call information match question. So what what were those types of questions look like? Make

spk_0:   20:50
So for information, match questions, you are given a piece of information that can be found somewhere in the text, and your job is to locate the paragraph that contains this information

spk_1:   21:05
exactly. So let's give an example, because this one's hard to imagine. So let's imagine you've got an 800 word passage about the aisles exam you want because that would be crazy. They might ask you to say Okay. Somewhere in that 800 words is an example of a country who student do well in the reading test. Right. So as you're reading, you're looking for exactly that you're trying to find. Where is this example of a country whose students do one in the reading test? So it may say something somewhere like, ah, different studio students from different countries do well in different parts of the test. In particular, German students do well in the reading section. That would be quite easy, but that's what you were looking for. And then you would say, Okay, I found that information. It's in paragraph B. That's the answer. So maybe you need to find an example. Maybe you're gonna have to find somewhere it may say, Find a comparison between the exam today and examine the past. So then, is your reader you're thinking account. Need to find somewhere where is where they talk about how the exam was different 20 years ago, for example, Or maybe they may say, find the paragraph that includes a personal account of taking the exam. So there you would look for a student describing their experience of taking the test. So I think the important thing here is that you're not looking for the specific words. What I also is testing here is that you understand the function off the sentences in a paragraph. So that means, you know, you understand. Okay, here they're making a comparison here. They're giving an example here. They're giving a prediction again. That is quite difficult,

spk_0:   22:58
right? And the other thing that I think people should remember is that one paragraph can contain more than one piece of information. Eso, for example. You might decide that paragraph A contains the information for question two on DH for questions. Seven and then, obviously therefore, it would be the answer for both.

spk_1:   23:19
Exactly. And that's how these questions are very different to headings. Headings. There's always one heading for each paragraph. Yeah, I think the other thing is that there could be paragraphs that contain no information. Could be Yes, if you finish reading paragraph B. And you think Well, I didn't find any of the information. That's okay. You don't have tohave a piece of information for every paragraph there will be paragraphs that have no information. All right, So I think, honestly, they are the two most difficult types of questions. So if you're feeling a little bit frightened now, don't worry. Know every type of question is that difficult? And also, honestly, headings and information match academic students. Sorry, You will get them in parts two and three, but general training students only. Part three. Yes. So you're not gonna have to worry about them in every part. There was very easier types of questions, though, Nick. Right? So what would an easier question be?

spk_0:   24:21
Well, for example, there are short answer questions on these sorts of questions of where you are given a direct question, which has a factual answers off. Therefore, for example, how many ill students take the test each year or something, like, for example, where can you apply for the aisles test? And these sorts of questions are really common in parts one and part two, but you can have them in the academic type.

spk_1:   24:50
I think. I think those sort of like where, When? Why? Questions very common in general training because, you know, they are easier to answer, but they cannot. You know, it depends on the text, so it can be, You know, you can definitely get them in the academic texts, but they're good question of where you're just finding specific information in the tanks. I guess the classic Eilts reading test question which asked you to find specific information. A true false, not given questions. Alright, well, you can explain just real basis. What does a true false not given question look like?

spk_0:   25:36
So a typical true false not given question you are given some information on you need to decide whether it matches the information given in the text or if it contradicts the information given in the text, in which case it would be false and then finally and this is the most difficult part. The dreaded not given on this is where the information is not found at all in the texts. Not true. It's not false. Basically, you do not know from the text whether it's true or false,

spk_1:   26:14
right? And I think that it's the not given that confuses students. We are going to do a lesson about this, but let me try and make it as clear as I can. If you choose not given. It doesn't mean there's no information about the sentence in the text, the sentence in the text or the top. It will be discussed. We just don't know if the sentence is true or false. Let me try and think of a really simple example. So let's imagine. The sentence says Shelley was born in Britain. That's what you need to cheque. So if you're reading and you find the sentence, Shelley was born in London Well, London is in Britain. So were true. You agree, right? OK, if you read something like Linda Cornick gave birth in Australia before moving back to the UK with her daughter Shelly when she was three. Okay, you would think OK. Lindholm Cornet gave birth in Australia on. Then they moved back. The answer's false, right? Because my mom gave birth to me in Australia. She didn't just for this

spk_0:   27:22
I was just asking if that was true for

spk_1:   27:25
the English. Right? So that is false because we know I wasn't born in England. I was born in Australia. We have, like the truth. That's the key, right? So it's false. If you're reading the text and it just says Shelley lives in the UK Well, I might live in the UK, but many people live in the UK who were not born in the UK So do we know if I was born in the UK? No, it is not given. We don't we just don't know if it's true or false, because we just don't have that piece of information on it. I've got a really good trick to help you understand this. It's hard to teach in a podcast when you can't see the questions. So go to my blawg blogger dot my eyelids classroom dot com Go to the reading section. There are two lessons there on true false not given. The 1st 1 is an introduction. Um, is an introduction lesson. The 2nd 1 gets a bit more complicated, which is good if you need a high score. But the key thing is not given is just you don't know if it's true

spk_0:   28:31
or false, and I think you need to be careful as well with thes true, false or not given questions because sometimes the answer is actually spread over two or even three sentences. It's not just going to be in one sense.

spk_1:   28:50
That's where a lot of students go wrong. I think so. They may read. Shelley lives in the UK and they say, Oh, it's not given But if you kept reading maybe two or three sentences later, it may say it may give you more information about that.

spk_0:   29:06
Yeah, the correct information. All the dresses. Exactly.

spk_1:   29:10
In fact, there's actually a second category of true false not given questions, which are yes. No, not given questions. They're exactly the same, right? Yes. Means true. No means falls and not given. Still means not given so way. We're using the same techniques. The difference is why is it yes. No, and not true. False while true false, not given questions. Cheque, factual information. Right. So is London the capital of England? Yes, that is true, right? Where is Yes? No, not given cheque people's opinions. So these are for the much more difficult, argumentative text that we said you get in part three off the academic paper is very unusual to have, Yes, no, not given in general training. So these questions are going to ask, you know, if you've got four writers who have got four different opinions, they may ask you about a particular person's opinion all what they call a view or no sorry or what they call a claim. So acclaim is an idea that a person presents is a fact. So if I said my eyelids classroom is the best Eilts training school it is. But that is my claim, right? There is not a fact like London is the capital thing, but it doesn't mean it's a little bit, um all right, talking about opinion, right? So these are only gonna be the most difficult types of question. Another type of matching question is where we match people to their opinions. Right? So how do those questions? Weren't What do they look like? Well, these

spk_0:   30:56
types of questions where you're given three or four different opinions or theories about a particular event, for example, how the diet of cells died. Yeah. So maybe one person thinks they were all killed by an asteroid. Maybe somebody thinks they were all killed by climate change. Let's say, for example, somebody thinks they were all killed by allergies.

spk_1:   31:24
Yeah, I've had that

spk_0:   31:25
or my personal favourite. Maybe they all died because they were really heavy.

spk_1:   31:31
That would be play.

spk_0:   31:32
Obviously, it's a claim. No, a fact. But then, obviously, what you would need to do is read the text on match, each person to their own applying

spk_1:   31:42
exactly. So usually for those questions you get a little box and it will say Dr Atma, a doctor. Gemma B. Dr Cornick. See, Don't think day and then you've got a range of different opinions, and your job is to find the person and match their opinions. The easiest thing to do then was find the people, read what they think and then match it to their opinion, don't try and find the opinion that could get really difficult. Eso definitely start with the person read and then match their opinion. Um, there's actually one other type of matching question. That's where you get given the start of a sentence, usually five or six sentences, you've got half a sentence and then below. There there's a box which has got it's more than you need. So maybe eight potential ends off the sentences, and your job is to look at the box on to pick the correct end of the sentence from the books. The main problem I see here is that because the answers were in the Boggs students forget that this is a reading question on. They just totally forget to read the text on. They just spend 10 minutes doing like a grammar logic puzzle, trying to read the beginnings and the ends of the sensitive Don't do that. It's a reading question. So you're going to be able to find the information in the sentence in the text. Do that, read it and probably in the box. The end of the sentence will be some synonyms for what you've read. So then you just need to, like, choose the right synonym. The interesting thing, though, for this question it does test your grammar because sometimes maybe two of the possible answers have got the right meaning. But only one of them correctly matches the grammar from the beginning of the sentence. Yes, I mean one example of this. Maybe if the sentence ends with because off, we must have after because off just a noun. So you can't have a whole sentence there. What are the other common things that they sometimes use? What

spk_0:   33:53
about model verbs? Like Should would

spk_1:   33:56
think. Then what? So then we need an infinitive after those. Yeah,

spk_0:   34:00
exactly, with no Teo.

spk_1:   34:03
And that's often a mistake the students make. Sometimes they end the sentence with a preposition on DSO. Only some words match because propositions change with the words that follow them. So, you know, Although isles doesn't test grammar, there's no separate grammar test. They are testing your grandma, actually throughout the whole exam, so I like a big grandma, though thie Other questions that definitely test your grammar are the ones where you need to complete a sentence or a summary with a word. Let's start with the summary one. So you're given like a paragraph, which summarises either the whole text or part of the text. That's really important. Sometimes the summary is just for the final paragraph, so you need to understand which part of the text is being paraphrased. And then your job is to read the text on DH. For Type One is, find a word in the text, which can go directly into the summary. Make sure you read how many words you can use. Usually it's only one. The second type is where you're given again. The answers in a box so Now you're gonna have to read the text, find the word that whose meaning goes in the gap. But then you're gonna have to find a synonym for that word in the bogs. So in a way, I think is easier when they don't give you books, because when they don't give you a box, you can just find the missing words in the text. But when they do give you the box, you have to find the missing word in the text on DNO, the synonym they use in the box. So if you don't know some of the words in the Boggs, it's really difficult. It sounds very is Yeah, it's one of my favourite ones as an exam writer to write that type of question, but it's no easy, good news, General training students. Sorry, academic students. Everything horrible is only for you. General training shoes. You are more likely to just have sentences where you are missing one word.

spk_0:   36:17
Yeah, and fill in. That says

spk_1:   36:18
no. A summary is much easier. And you could just find the sentence and then find the words next question. Yeah. Sorry. Academic students. I'm sorry for you. Or I think we've almost that's almost all the question times. What do you think's left Nick?

spk_0:   36:33
Well, like the listening exam, you will get some multiple choice questions. Yet the main difference, though, is that in theory, reason exam There are four possible answers on the right, so

spk_1:   36:46
there's like an extra one, and these are quite common. These are common in both papers, actually, particularly in the last part off the test in Part three, because they could be used to cheque that you understand specific information. Or sometimes they can ask you to identify the writers overall purpose for the whole text. So basically, they ask you what would be not the best heading for a paragraph, but what would be the best title for the hole of the article or the passage you've just read? That could be quite tricky, actually. And I guess the last one is that sometimes you have to label a diagram. I think these are the least common questions, but I think if you look in a Cambridge book, there's usually one per book. So I guess that's like, yeah, one every four test or something. So what do they look like now?

spk_0:   37:43
So these labelling ones, you might have a text which describes an object or a process on DH. Then you would need to label that object or process, or it could be a flow chart on. Do you have to put the correct labels into the correct place on the chart on this, obviously will all be done based on the description that you've read in the region.

spk_1:   38:09
So they may have, like a description of how you know, like a hydro electric dam works and you've got the picture of the dam and then they might they might tell you like this is a pipe and this is something else, but you've got to complete the missing bits of the information. All right, so I think that pretty much summarises all of the different types of questions. Hi, this is Fatima from Asia. Grammar is my favourite. Listen in my eyes. This's my parrot. Listen, just through Hello, this's German on my favourite my eyes Classroom lesson is unfortunate from Jammeh videos, because it was totally a new concept for me. Andi, I really learned a lot from this video. So those are the 10 types of questions. There was a lot of information in that sexual

spk_0:   39:07
lots of information.

spk_1:   39:08
That's right. And so, you know, obviously I think is kind of hard to imagine a reading paper by listening to somebody. So I would say definitely the best way to start preparing is to actually do one of these tests, so so that you can see what the questions look like. You can see what the text like you could understand for yourself. What happening? So I would say again, Why I recommended to do is find a Cambridge book, Remember, you only want to practise with the Cambridge books. Don't really trust anything you find online. Yeah, Cambridge books are genuine past papers, and this is really important for reading because I've seen lots of practise reading papers online where the answers to the questions were wrong on. So if you're trying to learn howto answer true, false, not given questions and you say not given and the answer says false, but you don't understand, it could be that the answer is wrong. You could say so. Definitely. In the Cambridge books, everything has been tested again. We discussed how much time that takes in the last everything has been tested. Those are those books are perfect, used them. So I think you should make a cup of tea on this time. You I think you really need to do two or three tests to get an understanding. Why is that why they need why isn't one enough?

spk_0:   40:40
Because if you just do that, if you just do one test, then you probably won't have the full variety of the different types of questions actually, on DH. Yeah, Just I mean, if you do three, then you get a kind of a much more general idea of how the reading test works on also how varied it can be.

spk_1:   40:58
Exactly. You know, I think you're right. I think if you only did one, you'd be very surprised on exam day. Be questions you've never seen before. However, I do think four I'm going to say four to be generous. That is a whole book. Four is the most that you should do at this stage. Like we said last time, you are not going to improve your reading by doing endless reading tests. Exactly. They are there to test you not to train you. So don't waste those tests. There's nothing worse than a student who says I've done every every Cambridge book and I haven't improved from 5.5. Well, that's because your level is 5.5. Okay, you need to go away now in practise. But so Step one, do three or four tests. Just be careful. Books 12 11. All contained four academic tests on to general training tests at the back. Make sure you're practising with the right test. Yeah, if from after book 12. So books 13 and 14 There are now separate academic and general training

spk_0:   42:17
books. It makes it much easier.

spk_1:   42:19
It makes it much easier. And also, if you're poor general training student, it makes it much cheaper because you get now. You also now get your own four tests, right? So after you've done two or three tests, you should understand how many questions you are getting right now. It's probably gonna vary because each test has got different types of questions. And But look at the average. And what you want to do then, is you want to understand what score would you get with those points? So I'll explain to you now what scores now is interesting because the scores for the points are different in the between the academic on the general paper in the general paper, you need to get a few extra points for each of the scores. So if you need a 5.5, you're going to need between 19 and 22 points on the academic paper on between 27 29 on the general

spk_0:   43:18
paper, it's quite high. It's

spk_1:   43:20
quite a big difference, isn't it? That's 27 correct. Just for a 5.5 you want to six. You need between 23 26 for academic on between 30 and 31 for the general paper. For a 6.5. It's between 27 29 for academic and 32 33 for general. So that's only seven wrong for a 6.5 for seven academic students, this is the same as listening. You need 30 is the golden number between 30 and 32 for a seven, and for general soon it between 34 35. And then anything higher than a seven go to my block. How to start preparing for the islets exam, you can have a look at the table. Essentially, for the general students, one point extra is an extra 1.0.5. So one point makes quite a big difference in the general.

spk_0:   44:18
Begged, begged every

spk_1:   44:19
year. Huge difference, actually, particularly for migrating. That could be a lot of points. So I need you to look at your average score. Have a look. What score would that get you at the minute? Let's imagine you're an academic student who needs a seven, right? So you need 30 correct answers, and your average for the three tests is 19 right? Well, you could spend the next two months or the next month doing all of the reading papers in the Cambridge books. But that is not going to help you to improve from a 5.5 to a seven.

spk_0:   44:57
It really isn't.

spk_1:   44:58
No. So what should I do? So I would think if you are more than six points away from your target score, So if your target score was 35 you want a minimum of 29? If you're getting less than 29 what should they do? Make?

spk_0:   45:16
Take a general English class for show

spk_1:   45:18
you need to focus on your language,

spk_0:   45:21
improving your English overall

spk_1:   45:23
because you can. You can improve your reading skills by which we'll talk about a minute. But if your basic language is not good enough, it will not make a difference if you are close to your target score. So if you're within five or six points, your language skills are probably good enough. What you need to focus on is your reading skills. Exactly. And so the way you're going to do that is every type of question. Is testing a different type of skill? As we said headings, they test if you can summarise information. True falls not given cheque if you can find specific information, so you should now go and you should learn the correct techniques for each part of the reading exam or for each question you find difficult. So have a look back at those three exams that you did now have a look at the types of questions you got wrong is quite common. That is usually all one or two different types. You may find short answer questions easy, but headings impossible or information match. Explode your brains yet find the questions you find difficult and then learn the techniques. How? Well, we've got a lot off free lessons on our block off the techniques for each type of question. But just to let you understand how different the questions are, let's compare like how you would answer a true, false not given question compared to how you might answer beheadings. Match question, for example, So truthful is not given questions. Our questions that are designed really for, like, scanning. Yes. So what is scanning? How how how does scanning work?

spk_0:   47:12
So scanning is when you you've looked at the questions, you know the information you need to find on DH. You basically cast your eye across the whole text yet, and you're looking for that specific answer to that question. So you're not reading. You're just looking for words that are connected or related with that specific answer.

spk_1:   47:31
Yeah, so you're essentially you might underline in the text. You know, what's the what's the population ofthe Frantz you? And then you may start just looking at the text to find the word. Frantz want Europe? Francois, you're gonna then read really carefully to see if that sentence is true, False or not, given exactly. Yeah, so that's scanning for headings. Match question. If you're trying to find the summary off a paragraph, could you do that, boy scanning.

spk_0:   48:01
Not really, because scanning your you are looking for like as you said France, whereas if if if you're looking for a head in a match, the whole text could be about different aspects of front. So you're going to see the word France everywhere.

spk_1:   48:13
Exactly. So Skip scamming is absolutely impossible for a headings. Much question. We Oh, hi, my name is funny. Videos in

spk_0:   48:28
my Isles classroom are very informative, even from the watch.

spk_1:   48:32
Although they're nuts

spk_0:   48:33
off videos out there,

spk_1:   48:35
most of them are boring. After a busy day at work, you pull yourself

spk_0:   48:39
together to learn and study my eyelids. Videos are motivating to watch. Aside from that, you have an incredible teacher, and that is Miss Shelley

spk_1:   48:52
Wade. Okay, so then I think that's pretty much all of the information. Just in general. How difficult do you think the reading test is compared? Tio, we said that the listing is more or less the easiest. Where does reading stand? Do you

spk_0:   49:11
think? I think it can depend a lot on the country

spk_1:   49:19
right on your first language. Yeah.

spk_0:   49:21
Yeah, because I think if the students don't have experience with writing essays, then I would say writing is more difficult.

spk_1:   49:33
I'm gonna put writing is definitely the most difficult. And I think reading and speak. And I think it's a kind of almost a tie between reading and speaking, depending on who you are. Because, as we said, last lesson Ah, reading on listening are receptive. They're passing receptive skills. Yeah, and speaking and writing are active. So you productive, right? So, usually speaking and writing are more difficult because you are actually producing the language yourself. However the other you've also got. Remember that what is isles testing is testing your language on your academic skills. And I don't think the speaking czar really test your academic skills. It really tests more your language.

spk_0:   50:20
It does thighs Church.

spk_1:   50:22
Where was reading? Reading high level academic texts requires a lot off academic skills.

spk_0:   50:30
It does. It does, your

spk_1:   50:31
honour. I think that's where sometimes students who've got a really high level of language do really well naturally in speaking and listening. But they struggle with reading and writing because they don't have that academic

spk_0:   50:44
base. I know. I know. A lot of people actually like that. Now that you mention it,

spk_1:   50:48
Yeah, I would say the majority of students who come to me, they either have language problems. So therefore they probably need help with everything or they've got academic skills problems. And they need help with writing and reading.

spk_0:   51:01
Writing, reading. Yeah,

spk_1:   51:03
So if you're finding that the reading test is a lot more difficult for you than the listening test that's telling you your language is probably great, it's just you need to practise thie

spk_0:   51:15
skills, Theo.

spk_1:   51:19
All right. So is quite hard for us in this lesson to give you a lot of tips or advice because each type of question needs to be tackled in a completely different way. Yeah, but I think we could end today by just giving some really nice general tips for students who was starting the reading exam. So if you had a student who's never done the test before, they're going to finish this podcast and go and do two or three tests. What would your first piece of advice breeds

spk_0:   51:49
them? Well, I think the first and most obvious piece of advice probably would be to use the headings in the text to understand the general idea of each question. So, for example, if you are reading a text that is titled a Green Future Question Mark, you know you're gonna be reading a text probably about climate change, about environmentalism, maybe about changing the way we live. So that just sort of gets your brain moving and thinking and associating ideas, words and things like that. Before you start reading the question,

spk_1:   52:28
I think that's a really great tip. Yes, like the headings are there to help you. Yeah, they don't contain the answers, but they do like you say, like they get your brain moving in the right direction on. I also think you kind of like, you know, you touched on this. My first top tip would be always read the questions before you start reading the text always know what you're looking for in the text. So exactly so I think I would say open part one. Look at the heading a greener future, Then look at the first group of questions. You read those questions and then start reading the text,

spk_0:   53:07
and I think It's really critical and important as well. You know, you've got these questions used them underlying highlights, circle words. You know, it can really help you when you come to read the text.

spk_1:   53:18
Definitely, because you're gonna have to keep going back. And, like, you know, what am I looking for? Um, I in the right place. And you can highlight in the computer. Testa's well, so you don't need. Unfortunately, actually, you can't take a highlighter pen into the real test. I don't think, but

spk_0:   53:34
circling with a pencil,

spk_1:   53:35
you could still along with pencil? Exactly. My other tip is what it where my other tip would be always cheque. How many words you should have in the answer. This is the same as the listening test. It sometimes says, You know, if you've got a summary, it may say, use no more than one word. If you use two words, it's automatically the wrong answer and heels.

spk_0:   54:06
I think, Um, probably another thing I could think off would be too on ly use the words in the text and do not change the words from the text.

spk_1:   54:18
Yes, that is extremely important. Oh, yeah. If you you must literally take a word from the passage if you are asked to find a word. If you need to change that word to make the grammar correct is the

spk_0:   54:32
wrong word. It's the wrong answer. Yeah, so

spk_1:   54:35
never change anything. Just always used them. Well done. I think that's really good. I think my final tip then would be about time. As we said before, each section does get more difficult, even if academic Part two and Part 3 may sometimes be similar. So based on that, you've got 60 minutes for the three sections. Logically, you may think, Well, that's 20 minutes for each section. I don't think that's a good idea. I think you should aim to finish sexual one in about 15 minutes on then 20 minutes for Section two on, then 25 minutes for Section three

spk_0:   55:18
just because it's that little bit more difficult because

spk_1:   55:21
you're gonna have the argumentative text if you weren't acting. If you an academic student, if your general student you've now got one long text on DH, particularly for the general training students in your parts one and two, the questions are usually always true. False, not given short answer questions or one word summary. It's in Section three that you were going to get headings, information. Match these higher level questions, I think, and you are going to need the extra time for that, if you can. That said, don't rush part one, particularly if you need a six or 6.5. They are the easier questions. You still want to get 14 points.

spk_0:   56:02
You want to get everything correct?

spk_1:   56:04
Yeah, you just want what you make one or two mistakes, but you just want to do it quickly.

spk_0:   56:12
You know, I've been teaching a reading courts recently, and I've been a little bit cruel, my students, because instead of giving them 20 minutes I at the beginning of the course, I let them, like, answer the questions. However they want it. And then I said, Okay, now we're gonna do it my way on DH. I gave them two minutes to read the questions on, then only 10 minutes to find the answers.

spk_1:   56:34
Could they do it?

spk_0:   56:36
By the end of the course, they could do it. We see they had some incorrect answers, but it's just literally is getting that system, making sure that you're not reading the whole text, making sure you're reading the questions before you read the text. And, you know, being able to organise all that information in your head can really, really help with tackling the reading test. I think

spk_1:   56:57
I know. Yeah, I think that's really good advice. So I mean, I'd say start with 20 minutes and then if you're quite comfortable, start reducing the time and see, you know how much because, you know, the more time you have at the end to cheque and go back for the difficult questions, particularly fewer general student. One question is half a point. You really want to make sure you're getting everything right?

spk_0:   57:20
Yeah, Yeah, the circle and underlined in the text itself as well. So if you do need to go back, you can find the information.

spk_1:   57:27
Yes. And if you if there's a question where you can't you're not sure of the answer, put a big star next to that. And then you put a star next to the question. So when you do go back, you can immediately. You don't waste even 10 or 15 seconds trying to find that part of the paragraph again. Exactly. Poor students. I find academic reading quite all right. So I think that's it for today's episode. Once you go and you've tried a few tests from Cambridge, I'd be really interested to find out which types of questions you found easy or difficult. So drop Nic and I and email. Well, hello at my eyelids classroom dot com. We always love hearing what you're finding easy or what you're finding difficult. And that's it. We've only got one lesson left now in our isles 101 Siri's,

spk_0:   58:18
which is writing, isn't it these writing my favourite Not gonna lie.

spk_1:   58:26
They're like, I need these words. In addition, moreover, furthermore, therefore, and they think if you just add those words between the sentence, that's a nine for parents occasion. So that's what we'll be discussing in the next episode to make sure you don't miss it. Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes stitcher, Google play or any podcast provider on We'll see you next week.

spk_0:   58:57
My Iove classroom podcast is production of my I R Classroom Limited. Nick and I do not represent eyelets on everything you heard in this episode is our own personal. You can find the show notes and transcript for this episode on our block, that's blogged dot my eyelids classroom dot com. And if you're looking for our video courses speaking lessons on marking service, you can find that at www dot my i's classroom doctor. If you have a question or query or just want to chat, you can email Nick and I at hello at my iob dot com Fi music is by Heartbeat on Our Artwork is produced by David Brown. Have a great week. Study hard and remember, thiss is my Isles classroom. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

Introduction
Basic facts about the IELTS reading test
What types of topics can you expect in the passages of the Academic IELTS reading test? 
What types of topics can you expect in the passages of the General Training IELTS reading test?
Heading Match Questions
Information match questions
Short Answer Questions
True / False / Not Given Questions
Matching People Questions
Matching Sentence Endings
Completing sentences, notes, flow charts and summaries
Multiple Choice Questions
Labelling Diagrams and Maps
How should you start preparing for the IELTS reading test?
How difficult is the IELTS reading test?
Our final tips for a high score in the IELTS reading test