Tackle IELTS Reading Tactfully
Jaypee’s document posted third time on 23.9.010

What are you reading My Lord?
“Words, Words, Words”

The instructions, tools, keys, tips and tricks or whatever explained here are purely based on a number of tests I have done myself. Many of them are general instructions that could be right, sometimes wrong. Still, the possibility of getting a right answer is more if you follow these seriously. One more thing, reading involves a lot of reading. You have to have great reading skills like fast reading, reading for specific information, reading between lines, reading for a general idea, skimming the passage and the like. Please keep your knowledge on vocabulary, say synonyms, antonyms, equivalent phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions and at times some linguistic peculiarities of some words etc. may be of great use while doing reading.

Be a good reader to do better in reading. There is no short cut to the same. And don’t think that the following tips are shortcuts to a better score. All good scores are the result of the amount of related work done towards the given module. Listening, writing and speaking to mention the other modules in the IELTS. Good luck to you all.

General instructions
1. Never ever leave an entry vacant. There is no negative marking. Guess and write.
2. Write your answers neatly. Don’t leave out letters, apostrophes, prepositions and similar niceties of the language. It is a language testing exam.
3. Manage your time tactfully. Though all sections give you equal time, it is a good idea to finish the first section within 15/16/17/18/19 minutes, the second section in 18/19 minutes and finish the last section in 20 minutes. Utilize the remaining minutes to cross check your answer for spelling errors, singular plural errors, question sequences; that is you have written the answers exactly against the corresponding question numbers.
4. Remember reading does not give you 10 minutes at the end of the exam. You have to write your answers in the answer sheet as you go on reading.
5. The most important thing: read the instructions and questions prior to reading the text. This will give you clues to answers. Type of the question, number of words, etc. are vital in doing reading.

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Here are some ways to do it:

Primarily, you have to have an attitude towards reading whatever literature you happen to put your hands on.
Secondly, read analytically, look how different people put in ideas differently. And finally, inculcate a sense of language as you go through different passages every time. Reading skill is a matter of patience, practice and attitude.

Reading: paragraph heading:

· 80 % paragraph headings could be located either from the first one/two sentences or the last one/two sentences of every paragraph.
· In these paragraphs, the first and last phrases of the sentences are more important than the rest of the sentences.
· This is because most of the time, the last/first phrases of these sentences happen to answer the questions that follow paragraph heading.
· Then look for the key worlds given in the headings and check if these key words are there in the first and last sentences.
· Some paragraphs go on describing an idea without giving any emphasis on any part of the paragraphs, say at the beginning or middle or end. These paragraphs are really confusing, and do not waste your time in such paragraphs. You have the freedom to write wrong answers, as you do not want 9 out of 9.

1. Beware of these following words: however, still, on the other hand, yet, but, on the contrary, similarly and in the same way. Whenever you find these words in a given paragraph, identify the idea put in there, for these ideas will be tools for framing other questions.
2. And the other questions will be framed with enough confusion so it is a good idea to read this area grammatically as well as analytically.
3. A good number of yes, no, not given, true, false, information is not given and the like questions are found to be created from these areas where you find these words.
4. These words give twists and turns and stops and starts to new ideas, comparison, generalization, conclusion and at times contradictions.
· Look out for italicized words, single quoted, double quoted words and phrases. They most of the time are answers or tools for questions.
· Strange words: sometimes proper nouns, unfamiliar expressions following an explanation will give you hints to locate a gap fill answer.
· When you find a particular word’s synonymous words or expression/s in the question, beware there will be a great possibility for an answer.
· Phrasal verbs are tracked in questions of true or false nature and you have to have some ideas about phrasal verbs. Two of five
· When you get answers like, no, not given, no, write the fourth one Yes. Or on the other hand, you get, yes, yes and no, serially, write the fourth one not given. And finally, you have been able to find answers like yes, no, not given and no, and you have only one question left, write yes. You may use your common sense in this case.
· As you go on reading, locate and underline strong thoughts, prominent ideas, their explanations and examples. Forget about those phrases that you find really difficult to understand. When there is an example used by the author, he is proving a point. There will an answer.

1. When it comes to multiple choice, do the following things wisely.
2. Read the question quizzically and analytically concentrating on the English of the question.
3. As you go on looking for the right answers, spare some time to locate the possible wrong ones. Eliminate them right-away. Elimination of the wrong ones will help you locate the right one.
4. In all multiple choices, there will be one option without any reference to the question. There will be two options; one right and the other misleadingly similar. Here you have to be clever.
5. Please identify the use of negatives and double negatives, either in the question or in their answers. This is a tricky way of creating questions.
6. And the next option is a critical one, but it is worth trying: If you find that all four answers are equally confusing or you are not able to tell apart which one is more right or wrong, pick out the longest answer and write the corresponding letter, a, b, c or d.
7. The above trick is applicable mostly when the shortest answer is not coming close to the right answer.
8. Last question will be from the last paragraph and most of the time at the last sentence. And to be precise, the last phrase will give you tips to an answer for sure.
9. If the last paragraph is so small, say a single long sentence, the answer will be at the end of the sentence.
10. The last word or the phrase will be an answer or a tip to an answer.
11. If a paragraph begins a small sentence less that half-line long. It is a key.
Gap fills:
· Read out the left and right of the gap to find out the type of word. A singular, plural, past of present or future form, noun or adjective,
· Check if the gap completes the sentences.
· Or if the gap begins a sentence. Words like, however, importantly …..
· Cancel out the used words if one word cannot be used two or more times.
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· If the instructions tell you that you can use a word as many times as you want, please note that there will be a word which could be used 2 times.
· Remember, if a particular word that begins a sentence in the body text comes at the end of a given question, please note the answer can be reciprocated like, active and passive forms will be used, be careful here. This reverse question is easy to answer if you know a little about active and passive voices.
· There are many examples to show you one fact that a sentence or a phrase that has helped you find one answer or paragraph heading, will be key to one or more following questions like yes or no, true or false or not given. It is a better idea to note the key sentences.
Matching phrases with corresponding phrases:

Read the question phrase/s carefully, grammatically and quizzically.
1. Check if the phrase is looking for a singular match or a plural match, past or present match.
2. Check if the question phrase has a noun in it, so that the equivalent could be traced in the matching phrase.
3. Cancel out the used phrase.
4. Check if the question phrase is an if clause, if yes, you may look for its main clause.
5. The other way round is also possible, here you may look for the conditional clause.
6. Check if the question phrase is a negative or positive one. This will help you.

Yes, no, not given and information not given
· Beware of double negatives and negatives in the body text and their corresponding questions. Not in any way possible…Not that he dislikes it…. It is not in the inability but in the lack of attitude etc. It is not always impossible to reach at a conclusion…
· There will be one direct yes question and one direct no question. The not given question often has a strange/alien phrase with a little resemblance to one of the main ideas discussed. Here you have to be analytical. So such questions give you outright hints to say, not given is the answer.
· Imagine you have 5 such questions, and you got all four different answers but the unrepresented one is either yes, or no, or not given. Whatever it is write it.
· Ideas for No questions are normally taken from a long sentence, but a following small sentence or a question will give clues to it.

Paraphrasing is very important. Summarizing the thought in a few sentences or summarizing a sentence into a phrase or converting a phrase into a word etc. The last part is important, as there are some answers with word limits. When you get the idea from a long phrase or a small sentence, you have to meaningfully summarize it into the given word limit. Four of five
Distribution of questions among the sections and time management

Look at the number of questions in each section. If the first section has only ten, you can do it in 10 to 13 minutes. If the number of question is 15 or more, go for serious reading, you may have to use all 20 minutes for the same.

Follow the thought of the topic. And track the paragraphs in accordance with the sequence of questions. Most of the time questions are sequentially prepared.

Remember: every reading is an opportunity to learn more about reading. So never ever forget to develop a reading habit. No matter what you read, it is whether you read something or not, that matters.

Knowledge on the following is must.

· Basic English grammar
· Punctuation
· Synonyms and antonyms
· Negative and positive forms
· Active and passive forms
· Idiomatic expressions
· Phrasal verbs and their corresponding main verbs
· Spelling and number consciousness
· And a sense of reading, the ability to infer meanings out of phrases, expressions, sounds, tones and explanations.

Read and read and read your ways
to 7s and 8s and 9s.

jaypeescopies@yahoo.co.in




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Tackle Reading Tactfully


What are you reading My Lord?
“Words, Words, Words”

It’s all words all the way


How to get 9 out of 9
in the Reading module….?

A thorough study-based Reading Tool kit to manage maximum score.

Prepared by
Jaypee
and it’s his property