Reading
Three passages, forty questions, sixty minutes and no extra time. Free guides to every question type.
The IELTS reading test gives you three passages and forty questions in sixty minutes. That works out at about ninety seconds a question, including the time spent finding the right part of the text, which is why so many candidates finish the third passage in a rush or not at all.
Reading is also the paper where technique makes the biggest difference to your band. Two candidates with the same level of English can be a full band apart simply because one of them knows how the question types work and the other is reading every word.
The test
The format differs between the two modules, but the timing and the question types do not.
About twenty minutes each. The passages get harder as you go, so leaving the hardest until you are short of time is a bad plan.
In General Training, Sections 1 and 2 contain several shorter texts and Section 3 is a single passage of 700 to 1000 words. Academic uses three long passages throughout.
Marked out of forty and converted to a band. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave one blank.
Unlike listening, the reading test gives you no extra time at the end to copy answers. On paper, write them straight onto the answer sheet.
Notices, adverts, handbooks and workplace documents in the first two sections, then one longer general interest passage.
Three long passages from journals, books and newspapers, written for a non-specialist reader. Denser vocabulary and more argument.
A correct answer spelled wrongly is marked wrong, and so is an answer longer than the word limit in the instructions.
Free guides
Each guide explains one question type and includes a practice exercise with answers and explanations.
Method
Six things that move the score, in rough order of how much difference they make.
Skim the passage once, then scan for each answer. Reading carefully from start to finish is the single commonest reason candidates do not finish.
Each type has its own trap. True False Not Given punishes outside knowledge, matching headings punishes vocabulary matching, and so on.
All, most, some, never, always, only. One of these can make an otherwise correct statement wrong, and they are easy to read past.
Everything you know about the topic is irrelevant. The test is checking what the text says, not what is true.
If a question has taken ninety seconds, put something down and go. You can come back, and a blank costs the same as a wrong answer.
Spend as long working out why an answer was wrong as you spent on the test. Doing more tests without that step changes very little.
Section 1 and 2 texts come from notices, handbooks and workplace documents. Reading that kind of English in your own time builds the speed no technique can.
Saying the words in your head caps your speed at talking pace. Reading in short phrases rather than word by word is faster and loses nothing.
Past about Band 6.5 the limit is usually the range of language you recognise at speed. That takes longer to build than any strategy and matters more.
Sixty minutes for three passages and forty questions. There is no extra time at the end to transfer answers, unlike the listening test.
No. The timing and question types are the same, but the texts are different. General Training uses everyday and workplace material, Academic uses long journal-style passages.
It varies by test and by module, but Academic candidates typically need around 30 out of 40, and General Training candidates rather more because the texts are easier.
No. There is no penalty, so always write an answer even if you are guessing.
Yes. An answer with a spelling mistake is marked wrong, even when it is clear what you meant.
Full membership
Practice tests show you which questions you got wrong. They do not tell you what band you are working at, or whether you are ready to book.
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