Hi
I recently asked an IELTS candidate from China who got a 9.0 in her IELTS reading test what advice she had for other IELTS candidates.
This is what she said:
She said it was important to read a lot of different kinds of English text, not just those specifically for IELTS preparation, and that it’s a good idea to have some strategies for the different questions in the IELTS reading test.
She also said that it’s important to do some practice tests under timed-conditions before you take the real test.
With that in mind, have a look at the reading section of this blog for some recommended reading and some advice on reading strategies for the test.
For IELTS practice tests, I recommend the versions in the ‘Official IELTS Practice Materials‘ and the official papers published in Cambridge IELTS 5, 6 and 7.
And remember, you can get quite a few answers wrong and still get an IELTS Reading band score 6.0 or 7.0.
I’m sure most of you don’t need to get an IELTS band score 9.0.
Pete
PS For your interest, here’s a copy of the Chinese candidate’s Test Report Form.
See our IELTS tutoring options to find out more about how we can help you improve your English for the IELTS test.
Rate this post
Odd results. 9.0 for Reading and pretty average results for the other modules.
Hi Luisa,
A lot of candidates get quite different band scores for each of the skills.
On average, the IELTS Reading and Listening band scores of candidates are higher than those for IELTS Writing and Speaking in both IELTS Academic and General Training. For more information, have a look at our post ‘Who gets the highest IELTS band scores?‘.
Pete
Can u tell me some tips for questions like when we have to complete sentence by choosing the correct letter..well, the problems I’m facing in such questions are like..most of times I found the correct line from where I can pick the correct answer for the given line but I get confused when I read next lines and the most astonishing thing for me is that..those lines also contain same type of informations..so can u tell me please ..how should I read the paragraph to get the exact information.
..and SIR..thanks a lot..!..u know few days ago u blessed with some great tips about how to choose headings..n u know..?..when I started to read such paragraphs as u adviced me..sir..!!!!..believe me..on the very next day all my questions were totally right..and the accolade goes to your advices.. :D :D ..
..once again..thanks alot sir.. :) ..
..n sir..can u tell me please that which kind of different “ENGLISH TEXTS” one should read to get 9 bands..?..please tell me examples of such difft ENGLISH TEXTS texts..BECAUSE..i have no idea about such english texts.. :/ ..
Hi Manoj,
I’m glad you found my post ‘Matching headings to paragraphs‘ useful.
In answer to your first question, multiple choice questions where you have to complete a sentence with one of four choices (A, B, C or D) are usually testing your ability to understand detailed information from the text. Once you’ve found the right part of the text to read, you really do have to read that part very, very carefully and then choose the answer which has the most similar meaning.
The good news is that multiple choice questions are in the same order as the information in the text, i.e. the answer to the first multiple choice question comes before the answer to the second multiple choice question.
In answer to your second question, the candidate was saying that you should read newspaper articles, magazines, books, blogs, etc. in English as part of your IELTS preparation. For some suggested newspaper articles to read, check out our blog post ‘Five days of reading‘.
Pete
Hi,
I have just given IELTS and my score is as 8(listening),7,7,7 – 7.5(overall). I need to score an average 8. Can u please suggest me free online test materials.
Regards Tarun
Hi Tarun,
There are some free sample IELTS test materials on the test sample page of the official IELTS website. Apart from those, I recommend you use the official tests in the Cambridge IELTS series of practice tests (e.g. Cambridge IELTS 6, 7 or 8).
Check out the IELTS band score 8.0 videos on our Youtube channel as well.
Best wishes,
Pete
Thanks for the reply. I have already practiced cambridge 6,7,8 and don’t think there is any point practicing them again. do u have links for some e-books?
Hi Tarun,
When you do a practice test, I think it’s very important to think about why you got certain answers wrong, e.g. why you got a particular reading question wrong, but you’re right it’s not worth just doing the same tests again.
Have you thought about what else you can do to improve your chances of getting the IELTS band score you need? It sounds like you’ve already done a lot of IELTS practice tests and it may be better to focus on improving your English in other ways such as reading some newspaper articles related to common IELTS topics – I’ve recommended a few in my post ‘Five days of reading‘.
If you do want to do more practice tests, you can order the Official IELTS Practice Materials Volumes 1 and 2 from the official IELTS website. Each of these books includes one IELTS Academic test and one IELTS General Training test.
Pete
tx Pete
Hi I want to improve my reading and writing skills. Please advice me for that which books you will recommend and can u please tell me any other websites for ielts material. I have given thrice ielts exam but no luck every time 6.5. And i need 7 in each section.
Thanks
Hi Rijjas, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t get the IELTS band scores you need.
A book that gives a good introduction to the IELTS Academic and General Training test, and includes some useful tips for the different parts of the exam, is ‘New Insight into IELTS’. It’s the book that a lot of schools use on their IELTS preparation courses, but you can also use it for self-study.
For practice tests, I recommend using the Cambridge IELTS series (e.g. Cambridge IELTS 7 and 8) because they include official versions of the test. Each book provides four IELTS Academic tests, as well as extra reading and writing modules for IELTS General Training.
To hear how an IELTS candidate got an IELTS Reading band score 8.0, check out our video ‘How I got an IELTS Reading band score 8.0‘ on our YouTube channel.
For some online practice material, have a look at the sample materials on the official IELTS website.
If you’d like some individual help with your writing, have a look at our IELTS tutoring options.
Pete