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April 2006

The IELTS Reading test: how to practice smarter

Well, your IELTS exam is getting closer and you are practicing harder, solving more IELTS tests, reading passages, etc. But is this the most efficient way of practicing?

The best tip I can share with you is this: when you check your answers versus the correct ones, pay special attention to those you got WRONG. There always will be a chance to congratulate yourself later on those you’ve got right.

When you are going over the wrong answers one by one, try to understand why your answer is wrong, why the answer from the answer key is correct, and most importantly – why you made that mistake. Remember it and make sure you never make it again.

See what trap you walked into, what are your “weaknesses”, what type of task is the hardest for you. If, for instance, most of your mistakes are in “True/False/Not Given” type of questions – double-check your answers there. Or is your problem on the “Matching headings” task? Then pay extra attention to that kind of questions.

IELTS Band Score Calculator

IELTS-Blog proudly presents a new hot feature:

  • IELTS Band Score calculator
  • This nice addition is something I always wanted but never had. It converts the number of correct answers in the Listening or Reading sections of the IELTS test to approximate Band Score. You will find it very helpful when practicing in solving IELTS exam papers; it saves you some time of calculating the exam result yourself.

    But enough said – one picture is worth a million words, check it out right here.

    Another useful calculator will work out your Overall IELTS Band score for you, using the scores in all the individual sections (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking) – give it a try here.

    Enjoy and tell your friends!

    And now after you had the chance to check your score, here is a way to improve it:

    1. Read texts from this list of sources (the passages are of Academic IELTS difficulty)

    2. Practice using these Academic Reading tasks.

    3. Practice using these General Training Reading texts.

    4. Another bunch of Academic and General Training Reading and Listening tasks here.