IELTS Reading Skills
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is a test conducted for the purpose to check the language understanding of a candidate. Those candidates who want to go to any English-speaking country, they need to pass the language proficiency test. Therefore, most of the countries accept IELTS as a standard language proficiency certificate.
In the test of IELTS, following four types of language skills are evaluated:
- Reading
- Listening
- Writing
- Speaking
These four modules are in the test of IELTS to evaluate your understanding about English and how well you understand different types of situations.
IELTS reading is one of the modules of IELTS. Your reading skills are analyzed in this module. You have to face different types of questions in the reading module of IELTS. As I discussed multiple times in my previous posts about IELTS reading skills on this section of site, it is the time to learn about IELTS reading skills. What are IELTS reading skills and how to use these skills in IELTS reading? This article IELTS reading tips and tricks will help you to know about reading skills in detail.
There are different types of reading skills such as skimming, scanning, intensive reading, extensive reading, close reading, purposeful reading, phrase reading, analytical reading, note taking etc. But in this article, I will share some of the recommended reading skills that are used in IELTS reading to do well. These are:
- Skimming
- Scanning
- Careful reading
All these are equally important in IELTS reading. It is important to check that how you read different types of texts. Your reading speed is slow or average and how well you understand the passage. All these strategies are important to note. These are improved by knowing the reading skills.
Skimming
Skimming is one of the types of reading. Skimming means to get general understanding about text. When you are skimming, you do not need to read each word. You have to get the gist of the text.
The purpose of skimming in IELTS reading is to get gist of the text so that you can easily find specific information from the text. It will be helpful in scanning to find any facts.
Procedure of skimming
- First of all, read the topic of the text. Then read all headings and subheadings of the text so that you can get the general idea of the text that what the text is about.
- After it, read the topic sentence (topic sentence is the first sentence of the passage which tells general information about the rest of the passage. By reading topic sentence of the passage, you will be familiarized about the rest of the passage without reading it in detail). By doing this, you will get idea about the passage.
- Read all topic sentences of the passages.
- After reading topic sentences take a little glance on the rest of the passages and quickly come to the last passage of the text.
- Mostly, last paragraph contains the summary of the whole passages. So, read it a bit slow to get general understanding of passage.
Summary of IELTS Reading skills
IELTS reading skills are very important for the test of IELTS reading. The main issue which makes IELTS reading difficult is time management. If you get command to manage time, your issue will be solved. It can be happened only by practicing reading skills.
There are different types of reading skills such as skimming, scanning, intensive reading, extensive reading, purposeful reading, close reading, phrase reading, or analytical reading etc. But the main reading types used in the test of IELTS reading are skimming, scanning and intensive reading.
These three types of reading are very significant in IELTS reading test. Skimming is used to get the general idea of the text that what is the gist of the text. In this type of reading, you do not have to read each word from the text because you just need to get the idea that what the text is about.
After skimming, you have to master your scanning technique too. In this type of reading, you do not need to read each word instead of searching specific information. You have to find keywords from the questions and scan the text to get answer. Most of the time you will face difficulties while searching exact word. At that time, you require to use synonyms of the words to get answer.
The last reading type is careful reading. In this type of reading, you have to read each word. But it does not mean to read whole text. Just read to get remaining answers from the text to transfer answers to answer sheet. Most of the time, you will not be able to find exact keywords of question. At this time, you need to read text with careful reading to find answers.
Reading skills take an important role in IELTS reading. Practice links are given in this article to improve IELTS reading skills. Practice as much as is possible of reading skills to get desired bands in IELTS reading.
If you want to do this in a better way, you have to practice a lot to become expert in skimming.
Important to note that when you are skimming, you are taking general understanding of the passage, not specific information.
To do easy for you that how to skim, I share one of the paragraphs and tell you that how to skim. It will be very easy for you to do this type of practice. By doing this, I assure you that you will definitely perform well in skimming when you get its idea.
This passage is about the importance of dams. By this passage I will tell you how to skim in reading passages. This procedure of skimming is valid to apply on any text of the IELTS reading.
| Importance of Dams Dam is a man-made barrier constructed to contain full of water world across a river, lake, and sea forming a reservoir behind it. They are mostly constructed from earth natural materials and conserve rocks. There are many types of dams like arch dams, buttress dams and gravity dams. They are constructed to perform useful functions. Water plays an exceptional role in uplifting economy of the country. It is of vital importance for the existence of people, animals and vegetations. Due to increase in population, development and enrichment of mankind, the supply of water has been brought to a critical point. Only one-fifth of the fresh water which is available and suitable for human consumption. There is uneven distribution of water regarding space, time and quality. So, there is more need of constructing dams. Pakistan is an agricultural country and its economy depends upon agriculture. A lot of water is required for growing the crops; hence dams are a big source of the supply of water for agriculture. The dams are also a source of multiple-purpose projects. The water stored in dams has potential energy which can be converted into other kinds of energy. This energy is used for different purposes. Hydroelectricity which is produced by water has been stored in dams. Many hydro power projects in Pakistan are working at the place where dams have been constructed. The drinking water is supplied to different areas of Karachi from hub dam or river Indus and Mangla dam. TarbeIa dam on river Indus and MangIa dam on river Jhelum are playing their important role in agriculture fields. These dams are also helpful in producing electricity. It is the need of time that small dams should be constructed at various places so that the stored water could be used for agriculture and production of power. | Title First sentence of the passage (topic sentence) Topic sentence Topic sentence Topic sentence Last passage of text (Summary) |
Now, follow the steps which I mentioned above for skimming to get general understanding of the paragraph. After doing this, now turn to go for scanning, a next step after skimming for reading skills.
Scanning
Scanning is a technique to read a passage in a quick way to find something specific. This technique is used to find specific information from the passage in a fast way instead of reading slowly or reading word by word. The technique of scanning helps you to locate the answer in the passage so that you can easily identify your answer quickly.
Scanning is specifically used to find name of something, any date, phrase or synonym of the words in the passage. It will save an amount of time to do best in IELTS reading because the main issue of IELTS reading is time management. Therefore, gripping the knowledge of IELTS reading skills is mandatory.
The reading type of scanning is used in our daily life at many stages. For example, when we use our mobile, we use the technique of scanning. When we open our WhatsApp, we see a lot of messages normally. That is a time to scan that which message is necessary to read and which is not necessary at a time. So, we use the technique of scanning in our daily life routine.
Procedure of scanning
- Read the question carefully and find out the specific keywords from the question, you are answering. It can be fact, name, synonym, date, or number etc.
- Acknowledge that the answer cannot be same as you want, it could be nearly different from your keyword which you got from the question. So you must check the synonyms in the text.
- Now time to scan. Scan in such a way that when you find out the answer, read the nearly information of the text so that you can be sure about your answer.
- After finalizing the answer, transfer it to the answer sheet of IELTS reading.
Find the answers with specific keywords that are used in the question. Specific keywords may occur multiple times. So, be careful while choosing the correct one. When you identify, read the whole sentence to avoid misunderstanding.
Now it is time to go with our passage of Dams. By this passage, I will explain about the scanning for reading. Check yourself that how quickly you answer the questions using the technique of scanning. Firstly, check answers by your own and after it check from the below where I am mentioning the answer.
Questions
| Dams are made by? Which dam is on biggest river of Pakistan? What are the types of dams? What is the quantity of fresh water for human consumption on earth? Which is the beneficial area from Hub dam? |
Answers and technique to answer questions while applying scanning
- Dams are made by?
Guidance: First of all, read the question and find any keyword in the question. You can see that in this question ‘made’ and ‘dams are made’ are the keywords in this question. So, search the answer by using ‘made’ as a keyword.
Answer: Dam is manmade barriers. (Passage 1)
- Which dam is on biggest river of Pakistan?
Guidance: Search keyword in the question which is the biggest river of Pakistan. So, search by this keyword. You will find Indus River in the passage. But you have the knowledge that the biggest river of Pakistan is Indus River. You can find answer easily.
Answer: Tarbela dam is on the biggest river of Pakistan (Indus River). (Passage 4)
- What are the types of dams?
Guidance: In this question, ‘types of dams’ is a keyword. Search this word in the text and find the answer.
Answer: Types of dams are arch dams, buttress dams and gravity dams. (Passage 1)
- What is the quantity of fresh water for human consumption on earth?
Guidance: In this question, you have to choose keywords like human consumption, fresh water or quantity. By searching these keywords in the text of IELTS reading, you will definitely get an answer of that question.
Answer: One-fifth of the fresh water is available for human consumption on earth. (Passage 2)
- Which is the beneficial area from Hub dam?
Guidance: ‘Beneficial area’ and ‘Hub dam’ are two keywords in this question. Scan the text with these keywords. Beneficial area can be a town, street name, city, state or country. So, keep in mind the synonyms of keywords of the questions and start your scanning for getting answer of a specific question.
Answer: Karachi is the beneficial area which takes a lot of water from Hub dam. (Passage 4)
The text which I have used is just a sample, you can face lengthy and more difficult passages to answer. It is just for this to tell you that how easy the technique of scanning is.
Careful reading
Careful reading is the last skill of reading regarding IELTS reading. There are different types of reading, but these three reading skills are mostly used to get the answers of the specific questions in IELTS reading. In this type of reading, you have to read the text in detail. It is also called detailed reading or intensive reading.
As skim is used to get the gist of the text that what the passage is about while scanning is used to find answers according to facts or following keywords. But careful reading is used when you have some question remaining to answer. In this type of reading, you have to read word by word and understand these sentences in a deep manner to get answer.
It is not necessary to read whole text of the passage in detail. Just remember the question and find answers of those questions. Such as Question No. 2 was not relating to the exact wording in the text. Like these types of question or some more difficult question, if you found, you must use careful reading and identify answers of the questions.
IELTS reading skills practice
After getting the concept of reading skills of IELTS, you must have to practice for improving these reading skills. These reading skills can be improved by practice with persistency. If you are persistent and honest with your task, there is no chance to get fail. You must complete your daily task and touch the sky by getting success in life.
Practice tests to improve reading skills are given to you in this article to make easier for you to practice. Just click on the link and go on your task to perform well. As there are different types of questions in IELTS reading and when you get command on these questions and reading skills, the bands in IELTS reading will definitely touch to the top level.
- Matching Headings
- Multiple Choice
- Short Answer
- Name Matching
- True, False, Not Given
- Yes, No, Not Given
- Summary Completion
- Matching Sentence Endings
- Sentence Completion
- Matching Paragraph Information
- Table Completion
- Diagram Labelling
These are practice links to practice and to get desired bands by improving reading skills for IELTS reading in which different types of exercises are there to make you an expert of reading skills.
In a nutshell: IELTS reading skills
IELTS reading test is actually the test of reading skills of a candidate. There are three lengthy passages in the test to solve different types of questions in one hour. Examiner evaluates that how well the candidate understands the passage.
There are different types of reading skills but the main types which are very useful in IELTS reading test are three. Skimming, scanning and careful reading are the types of reading which play an important role in IELTS reading test. Skimming is used to get the general idea of the text without reading whole passage or by reading each word.
While scanning is used to find specific information after getting keywords from question. It is used to find out the facts, dates, numbers, names etc. Last type of reading is careful reading. In this type of reading, you have to read the sentences word by word. It is mostly used to get the answer of a question when the keyword of question is not matching with text. Reading skills are necessary to improve by doing a lot of practice.
