IELTS Band 7+ Reading Mini-Course: Day 2

hi everyone Chris here from IELTS advantage and welcome to lesson two of our brand new reading mini course so what we're gonna do today is continue on with our reading course and if you missed lesson one so in Lesson one what we did on Monday was we looked at the real reasons why people struggle and we looked at a lot vocabulary and we gave away a vocabulary improvement plan so if you have not watched lesson one all you have to do is just have a look here on our Facebook page or if you're watching on YouTube and just have a look on our YouTube channel and you'll be able to see lesson one what we're gonna do today is all to do with reading skills so a lot of people talk about reading skills especially skimming scanning things like that but not a lot of people know what they really are and more importantly how to use them on test day so we're gonna look a lot of these gonna look at some reading skills that you might not be aware of on how to improve your reading skills and use them on Friday so today's Wednesday yeah on Friday we're going to look at a strategic approach and how you can use strategies for all the different types of questions and that'll be a third and final lesson on Friday so today you're watching a knob on a Friday it'll be at 11:00 a.m. so let's get going before we get into lesson two let's have a look again at this because this is what the whole of this this mini course is about the main reason why people struggle with IELTS reading is they focus on this they're just the top of the pyramid which is tips they want tips and tricks and hacks and shortcuts and they ignore all of these things which are way way way more important so unless someone we talked a little bit about mindset and how that's important but we'll talk about that throughout this course including today on Monday in Lesson one we looked at vocabulary and why the reading test is as much a vocabulary test as it is a reading test and if your vocabulary isn't at a certain level and you're really really going to struggle so if you haven't watched lesson one you can go back and watch that after this one what we're gonna look at today is to do with strategy and I'm sorry skills and then on Friday we will look at a strategy so look here what we'll be doing today so just to state again we'll be looking at skimming scanning we'll also be looking at close reading this is probably the most misunderstood or the most misused of the reading skills and we'll talk about the real problem when it's related to skimming scanning close reading all of these skills we'll talk about the real problem the real reason why people aren't using these correctly and why you'll get into trouble if you don't understand these and you don't work on them also as a little giveaway today what we're going to give you is full access to our fundamentals course if you haven't done our free fundamentals course we're gonna give you instant access to that today for free I'll tell you a little bit more about that at the end of the video so to explain what this might seem a little bit weird I'll show you this in a second to explain what skimming scanning close reading what these skills are I'm gonna give you a little bit of an exercise so how many angels are there outside Rockefeller Center in New York in Manhattan in New York so I was here in December we went to see all the Christmas lights and amazing place if you ever get to go to New York definitely visit Rockefeller Center at Christmastime so what I'm gonna do to explain what skimming scanning and all these things are is I'm gonna try and answer this question just using Google Maps so I'm not going to use Google search or not going to use Google images straight away or anything like that what I want to do is just use Google Maps to try and find this so I'm to think and this is to help you understand what skimming scanning close reading is so here's where we are so we're in a little place called Northern Ireland and so if I need to find out where Rockefeller Center is what do we do we don't zoom out and then go to France and look everywhere we can't in France and look everywhere in Germany and look everywhere in Norway and look everywhere in Algeria and Chad and all of these places know what we're gonna do is we're gonna zoom out and we're going to scan quickly for the United States because we know what's in New York and assume that you know New York is in in the United States so we quickly go over here we scan over here okay it's not Canada it's not Mexico it's United States you know what do we do next do we go to every single state in America and try and find Rockefeller Center there no we don't go to California or Texas or Florida or anywhere we scan very very quickly to find New York because that's going to help us do that so New York's up here so let's zoom in on the eastern seaboard here we have all of these different places we're gonna go into New York to try and find Manhattan okay so there are five boroughs in New York we've got Queens where my sister lives Brooklyn Bronx Staten Island and Manhattan and this is where at Rockefeller Center is so again we're using scanning to find out where it is but when we get here there's a lot of different places and stuff and stuff to see in Manhattan obviously so we have to pay a little bit more attention here and try and find Rockefeller Center so if we scan here and try and find it boom here it is and let's remind ourselves of the question how many angels are there outside Rockefeller Center so it's not come weeds quickly scan the pictures of Rockefeller Center to find out the Angels no we need to look at it a little bit more closely we need to look at it in a little bit more detail so let's do that so here's one that kind of looks like an angel that might be then if we go in here we can't scan this very very quickly we can't skim to get an idea of how many angels there are to answer this question we have to look at it in more detail and actually spend time in kuntum so 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 I believe so what's the answer the answer is 11 so just by doing that we used many different skills that you will use on the IELTS test during the reading test we used scanning to help us find things really really quickly and locate the correct location but we didn't use scanning to help us find the correct answer we just use scanning to help us locate it quickly to save us time to bring us to the place Rockefeller Center where we could find the correct answer but then we needed to shift and we needed to change skills and use close reading or playing more paying more close attention to contour many there were and that's exam you'll be doing on the reading test so let's take it from a more abstracted example to what you do every single day so most of you will read newspapers every day and you use skimming scanning and close reading every single day when you're reading newspapers so let's try and answer another question let's try and think about a a movie that's in the cinemas right now Mary Poppins alright my question is is Mary Poppins good so that's the question I want to answer so is Mary Poppins good or does the newspaper think that the Mary Poppins is good so if we look at the the front page of a newspaper can I tell if this newspaper The Times thinks that it is it is good or not no we've no idea because it's it's not on the front page but are we going to use close reading are we going to look in detail at every single story to find the correct answer no it would be a complete waste of time are we going to use skimming to find the correct answer no we're not going to skim the front this this story and skim this story because again that would be a complete waste of time what we're going to do is we're going to through the paper and scan and look for those keywords which is MARY POPPINS or we could look for keywords like movie reviews or cinema reviews or cinema or something like that or synonyms of that to try and help us find it and then when we do we could look at the title so if we look at the title Mary Poppins returns review a truck full of sugar can't make this up lift go down so does that help us probably not we're not certain whether this newspaper thinks that it is good or not so we're probably going to have to look in a little bit more detail so let's look at the first paragraph hopefully you can see that can you see that on that can you zoom in yeah okay so if we look at the first paragraph there are two ways that we could find out whether this is good or not or there are three ways really that we could do this we could skim it very quickly which skimming this means reading quickly to find out the the general point that is going on there we could do that pretty quickly so if we do that when you read it quickly you kind of get an idea of whether they it's a positive or negative review but would you feel confident answering that question is it is this movie good probably not you probably want to do something else so the second thing that you could do is you could scan for positive and negative words so if we do quick scan here charmless hard smiling memorable good hummable does it really help us know so there's some positive words and there's some negative words what we need to do is actually read it in detail and if we read this in detail we need to spend a little bit more time doing that close reading then we can understand that just from this first paragraph we understand that this is not a good movie or in the opinion of whoever wrote it the reporter doesn't think that it's a good movie so again demonstrating the different skills that you use but these skills are very very different and some of them are useful in certain context like for example if I want let's say I want to go see Mary Poppins scanning is going to help me find the times so what I would do is I would look at the the times in the cinema and find the correct time for me that's really going to be really really really useful but scanning to find out whether it's a positive or negative review in that context was useless because there was some positive words some negative words didn't really help us skimming give us a general idea but didn't really help us we needed to combine not with close reading so you see how important it is to use these different skills to under but understand that they are very very different and they're kind of like having different tools in your toolkit it doesn't matter how good the tools are you need to know how to use them and when to use them in order to really really help you so let's think about the different reading skills that we have so when you ask most students or most teachers like what are the skills that I that students need to be aware of or what are the things that will help me in the reading test don't normally talk about skimming and scanning so that is true there are they are two very useful skills to have but that is just a small part of the story because if you go into the test and think all I have to do is just skim and scan and then find the correct answer you're going to be in a lot of trouble if we go back here could I just skim and scan this and find out the answer to the question which is is Mary Poppins good know wouldn't really help us because there are other skills that we need to be aware of maybe not necessarily a skill but very very very important which is why I've included it here number one you need to understand the question I would include this as a skill in itself because if you immediately just start reading and you don't understand the questions then you're going to be in a lot of trouble if you can't understand the questions you won't be able to answer those questions seems really straightforward but you wouldn't believe the number of students that do not do that or don't take the time to do that also I've included your synonyms if you are trying to find the location or find the correct answer where it is in the text you need to be aware of when you're reading the question that the keyword might not be in the text it might be a synonym of that so you need to be aware of that so skimming and scanning but this really just gets you to the point where of location the scanning helps you find out where it is but it doesn't help you find the correct answer so if we go back to it was a reason for office if we go back to our rockefeller center analogy if we go back here oops back nope so let's go to maps again so let's go to map of map of New York and why I see so if we go back here not available okay excellent if we use this one nope all right so if we use that one the it doesn't help us answer this question it just but it helps us find the location all right so that's why it is very important to understand the difference between these but the real thing is you need to be aware of how important close reading is it's really really really important that you understand this in detail what is going on and then last but not least you need to have the confidence then to decide the answer to come to a conclusion and to be able to confidently state I know this answer so for example with true false not given doesn't matter if you're really good at skimming and scanning and even close reading if you don't have the confidence to say based on all of this I think it is not given or I think it is true or I think it is false then you're going to be out of los so these are all of the things you really need to think about so again these are important but they're not the most important and they're just you know two tools in an array of tools that you need in your tool kit so think about how most students use these skills so most students just think skimming scanning find answer so what about the question what about understanding that what about close reading so when you are thinking about these skills think about all of them being used but not as in step one do this step two do this step three do this step four do this step five do that it's not a step-by-step system they are just tools in your toolkit and you need to be good at all of them and be aware of the difference between them and how they are used for each different type of question so let's look at why if you just skim and scan and then do that and use them in order why you might be in trouble we'll look at two of the most common types of question so we have matching headings which a lot of people complain about and ask for help with and true false not given so for matching headings you're not going to look at the questions first you're going to look at the text first and you're going to skim the text to get the general idea so you're gonna read it quickly that doesn't mean read the first first sentence and second sentence means read everything pretty quickly to find out the general meaning of each paragraph then you will go to the questions and you'll try to understand the questions then you will read it quickly or sorry more in more detail so here's where you read it quickly here's where you're reading it more slowly thinking about the answer and then you're going to decide your answer which is in contrast to true false not given where your first you're looking at the questions so here you're looking at the question second here you're looking at the questions first then you're going to scan you're not skimming at all so you're not scanning at all when it comes to matching headings you're not skimming when it comes to true false not given your scanning more number three then you're going to read things carefully and then decide your answer so if you think about it in a very simplistic way which is most what most students think is just skims can't find the answer you are going to be in a lot of trouble because some that's applicable to some questions but it needs to be a little bit more nuanced for all the other types of questions so let's have a look then how to improve these skills so let's look at how to improve your scanning so I'm going to give you some exercises that you can do either on your own but it's better if you have a partner so you can do it online with a partner or with a partner what in your physical location or if you're in an English class you can do these during class or after depending on what your teacher wants to do but improve your scanning find an article to be a newspaper article as long as it's an English or it could be like an online newspaper identify some important words so not too many like five to ten words change some words to synonyms so let's say change 50% of those words to synonyms and then swap with your partner so give you a partner your article and the words and then what you can do is you can turn it into a game you could risk to see who can match the words or who can locate the words as quickly as possible so when you locate the word you underline it or highlight it and the first person to identify the scan and identify all of those words including the synonyms wins and if you do that regularly you're really going to improve your scanning ability this M because most students think that they this is easy and they just will be able to do it naturally and but it's a skill you do need to work on in my experience some students really don't are not able to do this well so if the more you practice it the better it's going to become it's going to improve your scanning and your vocabulary at the same time let's move on to skimming so again you can do this by yourself or but it's better to do it with a partner so again find a newspaper article look at each paragraph in the newspaper article or it could be an academic journal or it could be anything really and create a title for each paragraph so set yourself a time limit you know it could be one minute two minutes five minutes depending on the length of the article look at each paragraph and think about if I had to create a title for this paragraph what would it be then swap your text and your titles so it's better to cut these out so so that the person has to match each title with the appropriate paragraph so you're just creating your own and then swapping with a partner I'm creating a time limit and whoever get matches the the most in the time limit two minutes five minutes whatever it is wins really really simple game but by creating your own titles it's forcing you to kind of reverse engineer the the whole system so thinking about what how you would summarize the what's contained in the paragraphs yourself and then helping you skin really really quickly by matching those with your partner's article so just a really simple easy game you can do it by yourself and there'll be the easiest way to do it by yourself is do this and then once you forget about it like do it a week later and try and match them up yourself improve close reading so again you can do this by yourself or but it's better with a partner number one find an article again it doesn't really matter write one comprehension question for each paragraph so take each paragraph and think not so it's remember you're reading for detail so think of a comprehension question that the person can only find out what the answer is if they read the paragraph and in detail so they slow down they're not skimming they're not scanning they're really thinking about the detail in the paragraph and come up with a question to do that again just swap with a partner time limit whoever gets the most correct in the time limit wins she can make a little game out of it you could do this yourself as well so again it's they are skills like any skill like basketball football any skill with you that you are trying to get better at you need to do those things and those are just really easy little exercises that you can do so to summarize everything if you want to improve your reading skills number one you need to understand the difference you need to understand the difference between skimming scanning close reading understanding the question coming to a conclusion and deciding the correct answer understand what those are on the differences between them number two practice thoughtfully on regularly so practice what I mean by practicing thoughtfully is actually think about where you're going wrong think about your strengths sinks think about your weaknesses those little activities have been designed to really make you think about that so if you're getting any ones wrong think about why you got them wrong and think about what you need to do to improve and you need to be doing these regularly you can't do these the night before your test like if reading skills are something you really need to work on work on them every single day for weeks for months and then you're guaranteed to improve and number three have a step-by-step strategy for all of the different question types so we looked at a very simplified version and four matching headings and true false not given by the way this is not a full step-by-step strategy for these ones these are just very simplified versions of the ones we do to just help you understand the differences between them but four there are so many different types of questions there are true false not given yes no not given multiple choice matching headings short answer questions and they go on and on and on and on all of those different types of questions have our testing different sub skills that testing different methods so you need to understand that all of them require a unique step-by-step strategy and if you can understand that then when you're going into the test you'll be able to to just do it on on autopilot because you've you've practice it so many times do you know okay this is this question so now I'm going to skim scan do this in what order you need to do it in and they provide a framework that will help you practice in the same way over and over again they really really really do help so we'll be looking at those in lesson three so today's Wednesday on Friday a little bit earlier because Friday stuff to do in the afternoon so at 11:00 a.m. UK time on Friday we're going to have the third and final lesson and that is going to focus completely just on strategies and how to use them so if you want the fundamentals course because a lot of you on Monday we're asking how can I improve my listening how can I improve task one writing how can improve task two writing how can I improve speaking how can I improve all of these different things all you have to do is get our free IELTS fundamentals course it each of these in five videos each video focuses on one of these its how buttons and thousands of people get the scores they need you can get it today absolutely for free just click the link if you are on Facebook you'll find it above the video if you're youtube you'll find it below in the description all you have to do is just click that link and follow the instructions so I think that's going to be it for today we don't have time for any questions but let me know what you think about that or let me know if you have any questions in the comments and I'll go back and have a look later and hopefully you enjoyed that and if you haven't seen lesson 1 you can go back and watch that and I'll see you live at 11:00 a.m. on Friday for lesson 3 thank you very much bully

Channel: IELTS Advantage

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Id: JnwKmCOOqek

Length: 26min 18sec (1578 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 09 2019