Reading
Word limits, spelling and the words you must take straight from the passage. With a practice exercise and answers.
IELTS short answer questions ask you to answer in one, two or three words, or a number, taken from the passage. They are among the most winnable marks in the reading test and among the easiest to throw away.
Almost every mark lost here is lost on a technicality rather than on comprehension: one word too many, a spelling slip, or an answer put into the candidate's own words instead of the writer's.
The instructions
The instruction line is doing more work than most candidates realise. Read it before the questions.
One or two words. Three is marked wrong even if the two correct words are among them. One word is fine if it answers the question.
At least one answer in the set will be a number on its own. That is a useful hint about what to look for.
At least one answer will combine a number with a word, such as 20 kilometres or 1959.
Every answer is a single word. If your answer needs two, you have the wrong answer.
A hyphenated word normally counts as one. A, an and the count as words, so drop them unless the answer needs them.
Answers must use the writer's words, not yours. A correct idea expressed in your own words scores nothing.
Method
Six habits that turn understanding into marks.
Before the questions. The word limit changes what a correct answer looks like, and it is printed once, above the set.
Who wants a person or an organisation. When wants a time or a date. How many wants a number. That tells you what to scan for.
Find the proper noun, number or unusual term from the question, then read only the sentence it sits in and the one after it.
Where is not the same as why. Candidates find the right sentence and then lift the wrong part of it.
Every time. This is the commonest way a correct answer is marked wrong in the whole reading test.
A misspelled answer is wrong, even when the examiner can see what you meant. Copy from the passage rather than from memory.
Practice
Read the passage, then answer using no more than two words or a number.
The heat at the centre of the earth is contained by large plates that float on molten rock. Where these tectonic plates meet, heat escapes through fissures, sometimes as volcanic eruption. There are, however, advantages to living near a plate boundary.
New Zealand sits on the border of two plates and has a great deal of geothermal activity, most of it in the form of heated water rather than molten rock. This has allowed the country to develop spas and hot pool resorts, the best known of them around Rotorua and Taupo.
Rotorua has acquired the nickname RotoVegas, because like Las Vegas it draws very large numbers of international visitors each year. Most commercial tours of the North Island include at least a day there, and the drive from Auckland takes about three hours.
1What floats on molten rock?
Large plates. The first sentence says large plates that float on molten rock. Tectonic plates appears in the next sentence and is tempting, but the question asks what floats, and that is the phrase used there.
2How many plates does New Zealand sit on the border of?
Two. The question word how many tells you to expect a number, which makes it fast to scan for.
3In what form does most of New Zealand's geothermal activity appear?
Heated water. The passage contrasts heated water with molten rock. Hot pools are what was built from it, not the form the activity takes.
4What nickname has Rotorua acquired?
RotoVegas. One word, taken directly from the text. Writing Las Vegas would be lifting the wrong part of the sentence.
5How long does the drive from Auckland take?
Three hours. Two words, within the limit. At least a day refers to how long tours spend in Rotorua, not to the drive.
Word limits and spelling account for more lost marks in this question type than comprehension does, and both only improve by doing exercises where someone points out exactly what went wrong.
The complete IELTS course on IELTStestONLINE has video lessons on every question type, many more exercises like this one, and your own support tutor you can ask when an answer does not make sense. Take a look at the complete course
These questions had options to choose from. In the real test you write the answer yourself, which is where the word limit and the spelling start to bite.
IELTStestONLINE keeps every score you get in one place, gives you an estimated band as you work, and assesses your writing and speaking against the four criteria so you can see where you stand before test day. See what full membership includes
Your answer can be one, two or three words, but not four. An answer longer than the limit is marked wrong even if it contains the correct words.
Yes. A, an and the each count as a word, so leave them out unless the answer does not make sense without them.
Normally yes. A hyphenated compound such as well-known is usually treated as a single word, but avoid relying on it if you can answer within the limit without one.
No. Answers must be taken from the passage. An answer that means the right thing but uses different words does not score.
Yes. A misspelled answer is marked wrong, which is why you should copy the word from the passage rather than write it from memory.
Full membership
Two or three technical slips across a reading paper is half a band. Finding out which ones you make repeatedly is what changes the score.
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