How to Complete IELTS Reading on Time

everyone Chris here from IELTS advantage comm with another today's life lesson we're going to look at how to complete IELTS reading on time this is something that many of you struggle with many of you have emailed me and asked me you know how can I just get everything done in the time allotted for many of you it's not only a reading test it's a time management test and you need to learn time management skills and and for most people what we always ask ourselves when we get one of these problems what we always ask ourselves here is what the most students do if you are dealing with anything in the IELTS world just ask yourself what most students do and then don't do that thing because what most students do is they look for the easy shortcut they look for the easy way out and that is normally the absolute opposite to what you should be doing the best technology I can find for this is this the hundred meters sprint so this is London in 2012 when in the 100 meter sprint nine these guys finish behind him and they have a little time management issue they are not as fast as Usain Bolt but what would you say if these guys said to you I just need some time management tips I just need some tips in order to run a little bit faster to finish on time you would think that they were crazy the same is is apparent when I deal with IELTS students and they say to me you know I really just need some time management tips so that I can finish the reading test on time and then get the score that I need the thing I always say to them is the same thing that I would say to these guys you don't need time management tips you need to run faster you need to be able to train in a way that enables you to run faster it's exactly the same with the IELTS reading test you don't need time management tips or strategies or anything like that you need to read faster you need to read more efficiently you need to get better at reading in English you need to get better at doing the IELTS reading test because if you do those things time management isn't an issue at all if you get better at doing the things that I'm going to teach you then you will finish the test on time I guarantee that you will one of the things I learned last week last week I was at a conference and with lots and lots and lots of other entrepreneurs and business leaders and I was there was in San Francisco and the guy who is running the conference guy called Jocko willing very inspirational guy and he was saying stop trying to find a sweat las' solution what what he means by a sweat las' solution is an easy solution a solution that requires no work and for many of you watching this video you're watching this video thinking just tell me the easy thing to do well there is no easy thing to do there really isn't if there was I would tell you but luckily there are some very practical steps that you can take which require a little bit more hard work but well nearly enough guarantee that you get the score that you need there isn't a sweat list solution there are solutions that require hard work but when you think about it you have a choice you can look for the easy solution now I fail your test and then eventually have to do the hard work or you can just do the hard work now and pass next time which is much more sensible I think so there are five things that will ensure that you finish the reading test on time and get the score that you need and will want to familiarize yourself with questions number two familiarize yourself with a strategy for each question number three learn from your mistakes number four improvement for Cavalieri number five get the score you need before the test we're going to look at each of these things in more detail night so number one familiarize yourself with the different types of reading questions one of the reasons why many people fail to get everything done in the time allotted during the IELTS reading test is they come across a question that they just have never seen before or they're unfamiliar with and this causes a lot of surprises so if you know exactly what to do then you're not going to struggle with time so much a good analogy is when you go to a strange city or strange like last week I was in San Francisco in a big hotel and the first day I was there I kept getting lost it was a massive hotel and I was trying to find the gym and the swimming pool and you know the the restaurant and my room even and I was getting lost all the time and wasting a lot of time that's the same in the IELTS reading test when you're unfamiliar with the different types of questions you're gonna waste a huge amount of time because you don't know where you're going or what you're doing you need to be as efficient as possible and the first step is to learn what all these different types of questions are so you know matching headings true false not given summary completion yes no not given matching headings all of these different types of questions are different they test different skills you need to be aware of those and you need to have a strategy for each of the different types of question every single question you should have a unique strategy for that question because it's a unique question testing unique skills therefore requires a different strategy if you do the same thing for every question then you're going to fail because you're trying to put a square peg into a round hole you need a unique strategy so know exactly what to do in a step-by-step way like step one do this step two do this step three do this step four do this I'm not going to automate the whole process so you're not having to think about the different types of questions and what to do because you've done it you've learned the strategy you've used repetition you've repeated those questions again and again and again and again until it becomes second nature just like when you're tying your shoelaces you don't think about tying your shoelaces you just do it or driving a car you don't think about driving a car when you've been driving a car for years you just do it same when you learn these strategies you'll see the question you'll know what to do and you'll do it automatically that is going to save you a huge amount of time because you can focus on the text on the questions on thinking about the correct answer instead of thinking about like what is this question and how do I even start how do I begin and imagine trying to drive a car for the first time and you had no help would take you a very very long time you you became you know you'd stalled the car you would wouldn't know which brake to use you might even get in an accident waste a lot of time but when you practice that and repeat that over and over and over again becomes automatic and on Friday I'll be showing you a step-by-step strategy for matching headings so tune in and Friday for that this is probably the most important one and you might not think that this is going to save you time and but it is really really really important that it actually does save you a huge amount of time treat each mistake as a treasure as something very very valuable like like a piece of gold or a diamond every time we work with students and they they do the test and they make lots and lots of mistakes we always say good that's a really good thing because you've just learned what your mistakes are and that's you're going to learn from those mistakes and you're going to get better it's a complete waste of time to do lots of practice tests and then not analyze your mistakes because if you do analyze your mistakes you will see patterns patterns will start to emerge that if you do four or five practice tests you'll start to see like there's certain question types that you have a problem with or you're getting the question wrong because of spelling or meaning or grammar or you know time or whatever cab you Larry though everybody is different I can't tell you what your mistakes are but if you do that and you analyze your mistakes you will start to see patterns which is great because you will there'll be two or three things that are that are emerging that and those are causing eighty 90 percent of your problems and what do you do attack your weakest area first once you've got that sort of attack your next weakest area and just keep attacking those weak areas until you turn those weak areas into strengths if you do that you will see a huge improvement in your bond scores how does this help you finish on time because if you're able to find the correct answer and you're aware of your weaknesses your we're of the mistakes that you might be making and you've improved on those things you're going to be able to do everything much much much faster so please try and do that it's really really important that you do improve your vocabulary so the IELTS test the reading tests on the listening test well all of all parts of the IELTS test but especially the reading test it is as much of vocabulary test as it is a a reading test and you are going to be tested multiple times in every single question on your vocabulary for example the question might say might say one word but you might have to find the location by looking for a synonym or a paraphrase or you might get multiple different answers possible answers that have similar meanings and you have to figure out the meaning so improving your vocabulary is definitely going to improve your speed because you're able to locate the answer much more quickly and you're also able to decide the correct answer more quickly so if you want to improve your speed on your score improve your vocabulary and you can do this very very quickly by doing following this four-step process number one read every day don't come to me and say you need a band 7 or about 8 and in the IELTS reading test and then tell me you don't read every day you have to be reading in English every single day if you want to get one of those higher scores and it could be just 10 minutes like on the bus and the way to work or before you go to bed whatever you must re consistently in English what happens when you read in English you're going to spot new words what do you do when you see new words words you don't fully understand record them get yourself a notebook a plain notebook just like this plain pages and it write down your new words record the information that you need in order to in order to remember those words so write the meaning the pronunciation collocations antonyms synonyms example sentences whatever you need and then trying to use those new words and that will help you remember those new words and then you know every week every couple of weeks every month just get your book which after a few weeks will be full of new words and review those new words and try and use them and then when you're doing the reading test you'll be able to locate the correct answer and decide the correct answer for more quickly the last but not least get the score you need before your test so what what does this mean so a huge number of students that we work with even on our VIP course insist on doing the test before they are ready to do the test what do I mean by that so if you need a band 8 in the real test don't do the test until you're getting a band 8 in practice you're not going to get like a 66.5 in practice and then magically on test day you'll move up to an 8 I know many of you hope and pray and you know hope that you're lucky luck doesn't come into it a you know magic fairies are not going to come down and move your pencil on the paper it's it's not going to happen the only way you're going to get from you knows you know six six point five to seven eight the the difference between here and here is taking all those steps putting in the work and if you do that you if you need a bond eight get a bond eight in practice and then you're guaranteeing your scores and follow this feedback loop you if you're going to try and do something let's say you're going to try to improve your vocabulary or improve true false not given or improve matching headings questions or improve you know locating the correct answer try it you will fail because you're not an expert yet but learn from your mistakes and then you will succeed and if you do that and keep going in that loop you will improve your score bit by bit by bit until you're able to get those scores before you even do the test in practice then you know okay book the test get the score you need that is far more effective than let's hope we get here and then fail hope we get here then fail hope we get here then give up and never get the score you need so if you do these five things you will not only improve the speed at what to do the test what do improve your scores as well familiarize yourself with the different types of question have a strategy for each type of question learn from your mistakes improve your vocabulary get the score you need before you even do the test and then go do the test get the score you need hope that you find out useful if you follow those steps you will get the score you need but again as I said at the beginning there is no sweat less solution a guy on Facebook we did this lesson on Facebook about 30 minutes ago and the guy said yeah I really liked your tips but there are a lot of work it's like yes and you know tell me anything that you can achieve without any hard work whatsoever that's legal and I'll be very very surprised you have to put in the work guys but I mean that's not that's pretty simple it's not easy but it's pretty simple anybody can do those things instead of you know moaning and crying about not getting the scores you need just do the work and you'll get the scores you need let's answer some questions so here's a good question and I can't score in the real exam but in practice I always get the score that I need very very good question so this could be a couple of things happening there it could be that you just get really stressed out under exam conditions and that affects your performance however that's unlikely the more likely answer is that you are doing tests that are not real practiced not real IELTS tests and they're much easier than the real ones or you're not doing the test under exam conditions and you're you know when you're correcting your your marks you're you're not correcting them properly and it's really difficult for me to tell without looking at your work but that's that would be my guess and I use hard to practice reading there's so many mock tests how many mock tests are sufficient very very easy answer to that do as many tests as is required until you get the score you need until you're consistently getting the score you need so for some people that could be three for other people that could be thirty but if you follow those steps if you follow this this is the most important thing learn from the mistakes do not do a practice test and then do another practice test and then do another practice test you you're you're like a you know a school boy breaking up with his girlfriend and then getting another girlfriend and not learning from her mistakes like learn from things in life and get better don't be like a love-struck schoolboy or schoolgirl pretty it says pre suggests is it good to read novels it's good to read anything in English and reading novels in English is way better than not reading anything read whatever you're interested in if you are interested in novels read novels if you're interested in nonfiction read nonfiction if you're interested in whatever read whatever and the key is not what you read it is how often you read that's the key can you give me some tips on skimming and scanning Wednesday we will be making a lesson on that in Wednesday cab Siri the questions are so confusing they're supposed to be confusing if they weren't confusing then it wouldn't be a very good test and more than one answer seems to be correct sometimes yes that's actually the way the test works if there are more than if there's more than one answer and you are confused about which answer that is it's probably a vocabulary problem that you don't understand the difference in meaning between the two or three different options so improve your vocabulary and then you'll get the score you need debisch what's the best way to do matching headings we're going to do a lesson on Friday on matching headings Chris do you think we should evenly distribute time on all three passages I wouldn't really think about it that way because the first section is going to be much much much easier than the last section so some teachers will tell you you know don't spend a lot of time on the first section and then spend a lot of time on the last section I don't actually agree with that because what you should a hundred percent make sure is that you get the easy questions correct especially if you only need like a bunch seven bound eight something like that you need to bank those easy questions so if you rush through those questions you're increasing the likelihood that you're just throwing away easy marks I don't know it in your native language but in English there's a an idiom low-hanging fruit get the low-hanging fruit first make sure that you get that also the latter questions are really really really difficult questions if you need about seven abound eight you're going to get some of those questions incorrect so if you're spending all of your time on something that you're going to get wrong anyway is that a good use of your time so I wouldn't really think about it in terms of number of minutes per question or anything like that I would just do the question get that done I get a even saw some advice from the teacher saying you must spend an equal amount of time on each question like you know you've got the answer and then what do you do with 90 seconds like that doesn't make any sense just do the questions as quickly and as effectively as you can I'm not sort the best advice I can give you okay guys alright guys so it looks like I'm running out of time and I don't see any other questions that I haven't answered already cool so on Wednesday I'll be doing a lesson on skimming and scanning on Friday I'll be doing a lesson on marching headings on tomorrow I'll be doing a podcast on how to stay motivated during your IELTS preparation hopefully you find that useful and if you did let me know feel free to go to our website I'll to advantage com feel free to send me an email Crysta aisle to Vantage comm always good to hear from you and hope that you enjoyed that video and see you again soon thank you very much buh bye

Channel: IELTS Advantage

Views: 59,424

Keywords: IELTS, IELTS Advantage, IELTS Test, English, Pronunciation, live lesson, Band 7, subscribe, www.ieltsadvantage.com, IELTS Writing, Chris Pell, lesson, IELTS listening, Practice tests, tips, ielts listening, international english language testing system, ielts speaking, grammar, listening, ielts tips, In this lesson, How to Complete IELTS Reading on Time, How to, IELTS Reading, ielts exam, english lesson, english teacher, In this live lesson, complete the IELTS Reading on time

Id: PMjkfvyDeNE

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 22 2018