Reading is one of the 4 sections that candidates are going to sit. This section of the test is the second section and it is followed by listening.
Reading takes 60 minutes, and candidates must answer questions related to 3 passages. In academic module, candidates should go through 3 long passages mostly taken from scientific journals and magazines, and in general training; however, they should go through 3 passages taken from newspapers, magazines and everyday contexts which are related to daily use of English.
IELTS reading has got 40 questions. It has got different types of questions as well and in this booklet, we are going to learn different approaches for answering those questions.
So generally, the reading section is as the following:
Time |
60 minutes |
No. of questions |
40 |
No. of passages |
3 |
General training passages are taken from |
Newspapers, magazines, notes and etc. |
Academic module passages are taken from |
Scientific magazines, books, journals |
What is important in this section of the test is having a wide range of vocabulary. So, for learning good vocabulary, we highly recommend you to study broadly. This means, try to dedicate noticeable time reading and listening to different materials including magazines and podcasts. They will help you come across many words for many times and each time you need to remember what those words mean and gradually they will become activate in your active mind so that you can even use them in your speaking and writing.
We do not suggest you to study vocabulary books, because they will not help you very much. If they did, we would see their result in our candidates. However, it does not mean to not study them at all. We need to supply them with our wide reading and listening.
In conclusion, what we need to do is reading and listening to a lot of everyday English contexts which will help us comprehend the receptive skills better. Therefore, do not stick to only IELTS materials, but rather read and listen to non-IELTS reading texts and listening podcasts.
Remember, the more you expose yourself to English, the better result you will get.