Ten top tools to do Academic reading successfully

It’s a download from D.Colls Blog.

For many academic IELTS candidates reading is the hardest paper and the one which requires most training. Here I suggest some different ways to make that training as efficient as possible. These pieces of advice are fairly general and are designed to help you think about the best way to train yourself in IELTS reading and how to avoid some common mistakes.

1. Beat the fear – read as much as possible

My first suggestion is to read as much as possible. By this I don’t mean do endless IELTS practice tests, I mean do as much general reading as possible. I suggest you focus on reading short articles on topics that interest you or on topics that are common in IELTS – newspapers and magazines are a great resource here.

One reason why this is such a good idea is that many candidates freeze in the reading believing it is too hard and so fail to get their band score. If, however, you read enough “native English” before the exam, you will become more and more confident in looking at texts where you don’t understand every word. Confidence is a very important concept in IELTS.

If you look at Daily Exercises, you will find lots of possible exercises for you. The idea is to find something that interests you and read. That’s all.

2. Improve key skills – skimming and scanning and reading in detail

A major problem in the exam is the length of the texts and you will not have time to read them all carefully. You need to train your speed reading skills so that you can read as efficiently as possible. 2 skills here are skimming which is reading quickly for general meaning and scanning which is looking for specific information.

You may sometimes see advice saying that you don’t need to read in detail. Incorrect. Bad advice. You shouldn’t read the whole text in detail but you will need to parts of the text in detail – if you want to get the right answer. Put simply, skimming and scanning are useful skills to help show you where the answer might be: reading in detail tells you what the answer is.

You might want to look at this post on improving your reading speed.

3. Time management – experiment to see what works

Because the texts are so long you need to have a definite strategy for how you manage your time in the exam to make sure you finish on time. This means deciding:

• how long you look at the text before answering questions
• how long you spend on each question
• how long you spend on each group of questions
• how long you spend on each text
• do you leave time at the end to go back at look at unanswered questions?

There is a lot to consider here. You will find books and websites that insist you do it their way. They may claim to have a magic formula and that you must do this or you must do that. Ignore them. Their advice may be good for some people but not for you.

The key point here is that different learners have different styles and different needs. Much the best advice here is to experiment and try different approaches and see what works best for you.

Focus on the question – avoid careless errors

The texts in IELTS are typically quite hard, so candidates spend as much time as possible reading the texts. Mistake. Why? Well, a huge amount of mistakes are made by not focussing enough on the exact question. It can be easy if you are in a hurry to miss a word such as “always” or “often”: the problem is those sorts of words can change the meaning of questions.

There is an easy solution to this problem: it is to go back and look at the question before you write in the answer. Make sure that the question says what you think it says. You will normally save yourself 2/3 marks this way.

5. Learn the exam – know the different types of questions

There are 8/9 different types of reading question that examiners may use. Before the exam, you should make yourself familiar with each type of question as they are slightly different. What I suggest is that you look at my series of tutorials on the different types of reading questions as a first step to see what the question types are. The next stage is to experiment and see what techniques you are going to use for each type of question.

This may mean that you approach different types of questions differently.

6. Train yourself, don’t test yourself

One common mistake candidates make is to practise exam questions too much. Exam practice is important to learn the timing (3 above) and learn the question types (5 above), but that does not mean that every time you practise reading you need to do it in exam conditions. My suggestion is that you do some “open book” tests where you can see the answers as you do the questions. This way you will learn how examiners set questions and how to find the answers. If you just test yourself, this may not happen. How often and when you do this training will depend on your preparation programme.

7. Learn how to underline

This is a very specific piece of advice. You may believe it is wrong to write in books and generally I’d agree with you, but IELTS is different. A very strong suggestion is that you should underline words in the text in the exam. There are at least two reasons for this:

1. if you underline key words in the text, it can help you organise the text and this will save you time in the exam
2. if you find an answer, it is sensible to underline the part of the passage that relates to the question as a check (see 4 above) and to write the number of the question next to it in case you find a better answer later

How you do this will depend on you and your style. Some people underline different types of words in different ways.I’d only add that less is more: if you underline too much, it can become confusing.

8. Beware word matching – be careful with key words

One very common mistake is to match a word in the question with a word in the text and to think you have found your answer. It is almost never that simple and I am tempted to say that if the words do match, then that is not your answer. What you are normally looking for are either synonyms (words with a similar meaning) or paraphrases (short bits of text that say the same as the question.

One reason candidates make this mistake is that teachers (myself included) tend to say look for key words in the question. This is helpful advice to show you where the answer might be and which paragraph it might be in. After that you need to go back and read the whole question carefully to see what the answer is.

Focus on the question – avoid careless errors

The texts in IELTS are typically quite hard, so candidates spend as much time as possible reading the texts. Mistake. Why? Well, a huge amount of mistakes are made by not focussing enough on the exact question. It can be easy if you are in a hurry to miss a word such as “always” or “often”: the problem is those sorts of words can change the meaning of questions.

There is an easy solution to this problem: it is to go back and look at the question before you write in the answer. Make sure that the question says what you think it says. You will normally save yourself 2/3 marks this way.

9. The questions follow the text – normally

This is a very practical piece of advice and could save you a lot of wasted time. Typically, the questions will come in the order of the text: so the answer to question 3 will come after the answer to question 2. This can be very helpful in the exam if you are a quick worker who goes through the questions once for the easy ones and then a second time for the harder ones. If you have answer 4 underlined (see 7 above) and answer 6 underlined then you know where answer 5 must come.

One word of warning. In certain types of question (eg paragraph matching) the order of the questions are jumbled.

 

10. The questions or the text – which do you read first

There is no one right answer here.

Text books tend to advise you to read the text quickly first so that you know how the text is organised. This helps as you will save time later by knowing which paragraph will contain the answer. This can be a good approach, particularly for high level candidates provided you don’t spend too much reading and you have notes/underlinings afterwards.

Many teachers say that you should read the questions first and not read the whole passage. There is logic here too. Normally, you do not have to understand the meaning of the whole passage to answer the questions, so why waste time reading it? This approach can work, especially for lower level candidates who might not understand too much of the passage anyway.

However, thee is always a third way. Life is not black and white. It is quite possible to decide to use different strategies for certain question types. In paragraph matching you are going to have to read the whole passage, so you might decide to read first then. In the short answer questions, you might decide you look at the questions first. As ever, you decide.

The only bad piece of advice is the one that tells you you must do it their way. Ignore them. The only right way is the way that works.

11. Fill out the answer sheet

Okay, this is an eleventh tip. Practise filling out the answer sheet before you get to the exam. Too many  avoidable mistakes are made this way. I’d go further: whenever you practise IELTS reading, use an answer sheet. This is what I do with my classes. Two points:

1. when you go through the answers in your practice book, make sure that you have written the answer exactly as it is in the book – anything else will lose you the point
2. you need to fill out your answers in the 60 minutes. They don’t give you any more time.

In an academic environment which is replete with tough competition, some say, it is not that advisable for students to go for a summer vacation spanning up-to two months while there are others who claim that schooling is not a non-stop exercise. 

Try to identify the arguments that make these two groups stick to their points.

In an academic environment which is replete with tough competition, some say, it is not that advisable for students to go for a summer vacation spanning up-to two months while there are others who claim that schooling is not a non-stop exercise. 

Which view do you support and state why?

Ajaypeesdoc.1.4.2013

In an academic environment which is replete with tough competition, some say, it is not that advisable for students to go for a summer vacation spanning up-to two months.  

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this view?

In an academic environment which keeps students pressed with stressed for ten months, some say, there should not be any classes during summer vacation.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this view?

Spending enormous money and time for comforts in life has become the order of the day. But the extent of problems great many people undergo is due to this extensive love for comforts.

·         Discuss it.

Man’s comfort quotient has always been on the rise; so is the extent of his problems. In fact, the more his love for comfort is, the more the extent of problems he confronts. Let me discuss this dichotomy.

Man craves for comforts and he craves for newer comforts. For example, there was a time when man found his life worth living if he had a little entertainment via TV, a land phone, a moderate income, a little socializing with his near and dear ones. But today, what he is flooded with are explosion in real time technology, 3G and 4G communication tools, TV channels from around the world and an array of appliances to keep him comfortable. All these comforts aside, he is still prepared to spend for more comfortable.

Do these things of comfort keep him free from problems? Actually, they do not; rather his problems get aggravated. For example, there is a list of diseases, which are mocking at all the medical systems across the world, called lifestyle disorders. They are his creations.  Secondly, the ubiquitous time poverty he faces today is the byproduct of his love for more. So, is the case with shortages like water, energy and fuels. For example, our personal cars are threatening the Planet but their number is on the rise as part of our comforts. More are the conveniences so are the inconveniences. 

The discussion makes it clear that there is close relation between the comfort quotient man enjoys today and the discomfort he undergoes. They seem to be more than proportional. In my opinion, a successful life is one that keeps the right balance between what life offers and what one’s life needs.

280 words

Ajaypeesdoc. 11.3.13

Moving out to foreign countries today is easier than it was, but this easier mobility, in some people’s opinion, is more disadvantageous than advantageous.

·          

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this view? 

Easier mobility across national borders today, in fact, is both a problem and possibility. However, I find it a little hard to fully agree with the view that it is more disadvantageous. I can prove it the other way round.

The first thing against the view is that today the world stands better positioned to exploit human resource for the benefit of all. For example, the development spree that is taking place both in India and in the Gulf countries is by way of human interaction. For India, it is a kind of manpower export for foreign currency and for the Gulf it is import of expertise.

The second thing is tourism as an industry is keeping the whole world benefitted, and it is possible because of mobility. The story is same in relation to businessmen and students who move out to greener pastures. Here I find it right to take the IELTS exam as an example. It is promoted across non-English countries because both the English speaking world and the world elsewhere find it advantageous in many counts. The IELTS clicks on mobility.  

All these advantages notwithstanding, I cannot be ignorant of the fact that freer mobility causes a few concerns. The world has become a little vulnerable to nefarious, divisive forces. For example, many terror outfits and fundamental forces make foray into other quieter parts of the world wrecking havoc.  Another danger is there are possibilities for discrimination based on race, nationality, language, colour and the like.

In short, like any new development, freer mobility of people cross borders too has got its on seamy aspects, but there are enough evidences around us to show that its advantages far outweigh its disadvantages. In my opinion, the world needs to learn to move with this change.    

285 words

Ajaypeesdoc. 10.3.13

There is heightened need for many urban areas to impose stricter curbs on population moving in for good.

·         Try to see the flip and seamy sides of this mass management mechanism?

Population influx experienced in urban landscapes is becoming an issue and there is need for some controls. Any such controls may have pleasant and unpleasant dimensions. This essay checks them out.

The most striking positive effect of any strict curbs is that urban landscapes would be able to breathe easy in terms of controlled population. This may be in two counts; like populations mix may come down to an extent and there would be peace of mind thereof. For example, uncontrolled arrival of people may lead to crimes and asocial activities, but congestion and curbs on supplies would go down dramatically.

The second thing is the educated and employed that belong to urban areas will be able to enjoy greater employment guarantee. For example, when great many people different skills and qualification come around hunting for job; there will be dilution of opportunities leading to supply-demand equilibrium in employment environment. 

Let move on to the other side. The thing is the population moving in may comprise of highly skilled and qualified people who can contribute greatly to the employment environs. For example, employers may run short of right people to man their vacant positions as urbanites, most of the time, are not willing to take up certain jobs. Secondly, it is undemocratic to restrict people from moving to other places. For example, in a free country, anyone could move to anywhere and find job according to their likes and qualifications. So any curb may divide people. 

So, imposing curbs on people moving in for good has stronger and weaker aspects. In my opinion, it is not only impractical but unconstitutional as well. The population useful need to move, but cities should not be turned into refuges. 

280 words

Ajaypeesdoc. 9.3.13