IELTS Reading Tips: How to Improve Your Reading Score in IELTS

If you’re looking to improve your IELTS reading band score, then you’re certainly in the right place. We’re going to give you the best IELTS reading tips and tricks! Read on for a higher band score.

Tips for IELTS Reading

Let’s get into the best IELTS reading tips to help you improve your score.

Learn to Skim

Skimming and scanning (see below) are two important skills for the IELTS reading exam. Skimming is reading a passage quickly to get a general idea of what it’s about.

In the IELTS reading exam, you’ll have three passages to read. It’s recommended to take 2-3 minutes to skim each one before getting into the questions. Pay close attention to the headings and key words (circle them) during this time.

IELTS Reading Tip: Learn to Scan

Scanning is a key skill to know for the IELTS reading exam. If there’s only one IELTS reading tip to know, it’s this one!

Scanning is the ability to quickly look through a reading passage to find one specific piece of information that you need to answer a question.

Only two of the question types (matching headings and choosing a title) out of approximately 14 require a general understanding of the passage. All of the other ones require looking for a specific piece of information. That’s why this is by far the most important skill you can practice for IELTS reading.

Reading Quickly is Required

You will have to read 3 passages and answer 40 questions about them (total) in 60 minutes. That’s not a lot of time. If you read slowly and/or every single word, you will not be able to complete the last passage.

Taking a couple of minutes to skim each passage is helpful to get an overview of what it’s about. But, you’ll also have to scan the passage quickly in order to find the answer to a specific question.

If you want to know how to improve reading in IELTS, this is an important one!

This is similar to the writing portion in which you’ll have to write very quickly. Learn more: IELTS writing tips. 

Knowing Every Word is Unnecessary

Many people learn English reading by trying to understand every single word. If they don’t know a word, they get out their dictionary and find out what it is. However, there will likely be many words on the IELTS reading exam that you don’t know. This is normal. Even native English speakers may come across words that they don’t know.

Don’t attempt to read every single word. This isn’t necessary. If you see a word that you don’t know, don’t worry about it. Just skip it. Reading quickly and finding specific bits of information is far more important than any other thing.

How to Improve Reading in IELTS: Learn More Vocabulary

One of the main reasons for not scoring well is because of a small vocabulary. Do practice IELTS reading exams and make note of words that you don’t understand. Practice them until you become very familiar with them. If you do enough exams, you’ll start to notice some of the same words over and over again. Pay close attention to these ones.

Key Questions Words are Important

Look for the key words in a question. For example, date, time, name, location, etc. The sooner you recognize these words, the more quickly you can being to scan to look for the answer.

Pay Attention to Grammar

Summary completion and sentence completion questions require that the sentence is grammatically correct when you put the answer in. Using your knowledge of grammar can help you to spot the right question. Do some practice exams and you’ll get a better idea of what I mean here.

Most of the questions from students about why one answer is correct but the other one is wrong are related to this. This is an important reading tip for IELTS for people who want to score in the higher band levels.

Reading Tip for IELTS: Learn From Mistakes on Practice Exams

When you’re doing IELTS reading practice exams, pay close attention to the questions that you’re getting incorrect. They may be related to:

• Understanding the content (improve general reading skills and vocabulary)
• Misunderstanding the questions (focus on key words in questions)
• Running out of time (work on reading more quickly/scanning for information)

Have Realistic Expectations

It’s very difficult to get above a band 7 on any of the IELTS sections (speaking, IELTS listening, reading, writing) unless you are quite good at English. It’s doesn’t matter how many practice exams you do if your general English ability isn’t high.

Do IELTS Reading Practice Tests

Practice makes perfect, right? If you want to score highly on the IELTS reading exam, you’ll have to do lots of practice exams. I recommend doing one a day for a month before your exam. That way, you’ll become very familiar and comfortable with them.

I recommend sticking with general or academic practice exams for whichever kind of IELTS exam you’re doing. However, either version can help you to become more familiar with the format and kinds of questions as well as time management.

Here are some recommendations:

British Council 

IELTS Up

Official site for this exam

Exam English

Doing practice exams is by far one of the best IELTS reading tips and tricks to know. Without doing practice tests, it’ll be difficult to score in the higher band levels.

How to Improve Reading Skills in IELTS: Timed and Non-Timed Exams

When you’re starting out with practice exams, don’t set a time limit for yourself. Go at your own pace and get familiar with the types of reading passages and the kinds of questions.

Once you get familiar with this, give yourself a time limit of one hour, the same as the IELTS reading exam.

Read a Range of Materials

Get used to reading a variety of higher-level materials. For example, articles from BBC News, The Economist, and other similar things. If those are too high of a level for you, a good place to start is Breaking News English.

Although the IELTS reading exam is a specific kind of test with specific questions, improving your general reading skills will go a long way towards getting a higher band score.

Read Instructions Carefully

Reading the instructions closely is very important for the listening and reading sections of this exam. If you don’t follow the instructions, you will get questions wrong, even if you know the answer to the question.

There are a Mix of Easy and Difficult Questions

Think about it this way. A band 3 and band 9 person are doing the same reading test! That’s a huge gap, which is why there are easy, medium, and difficult questions.

The easiest questions are for the lower band levels, like 3 and 4. The medium questions are designed for band 5 and above. Finally, the most difficult questions are for people who will score band 7 or higher.

If a question seems very easy, it’s not a trick. There are easier questions! Just give the correct, but easy answer to it.

On the other hand, don’t waste too much time trying to figure out the most difficult questions. Those are for the people who will score a band 8 or 9 on the exam. Basically, accept that you won’t get all the answers correct and don’t stress about it.

Tip for IELTS Reading: Base your Answers on the Text

If you’re an expert in biotechnology and an article for the IELTS exam is on that same topic, don’t use your knowledge of the subject to answer the question. Instead, read the text to find out what it says.

Transfer Answers Carefully

You will have to transfer your answers to an answer sheet. Do this carefully and leave enough time to do so. Rushing through this can lead to mistakes.

Tip for IELTS Reading: Pay Attention to Spelling

A quick tip for the IELTS listening and reading sections is to pay careful attention to spelling. If you spell a word incorrectly, it will be marked wrong.

Make a Guess if you Don’t Know the Answer

If you don’t know the answer to a question, make a guess. There’s no point in leaving blanks as you might get lucky with an answer.

IELTS Reading Strategy: Pay Attention to the Order

This isn’t a rule that is followed 100% of the time but you can generally count on it. Usually, the answer to the first question can be found at the beginning of the passage and then the next question after that and so on.

Learn IELTS Vocabulary

If you want to improve your band score on the IELTS, you’ll have to learn more vocabulary. A fun, easy way to do this is with this book: IELTS Speaking Vocabulary Builder. You can easily pick it up on Amazon.

If you want to level up on IELTS, be sure to pick up this helpful book today:

More IELTS Exam Tips

If you’re looking to improve your score on the IELTS, have a look at some of our other resources:

Speaking Tips for IELTS

IDP vs BC for the IELTS

Speaking Part 1

Speaking Part 2

Speaking Part 3

IELTS Speaking Evaluation

How to Improve Reading in IELTS: Join the Conversation

Do you have any IELTS reading tips that you’d like to share with us? Leave a comment below and let us know. We’d love to hear your IELTS reading tips and tricks to get a higher band score.

Last update on 2021-02-06 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API