Well, IELTS is getting closer and you are practicing harder, solving more IELTS exams, reading passages, etc. But is it 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 did WRONG. There always will be a chance to congratulate yourself later for those you’ve got right.
When you are going over the wrong questions 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 in, 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” task - double-check your answers there. Or may be your problem is “Matching heading” task? Then pay extra attention to that kind of questions.
Every IELTS Reading test, no matter Academic or General has tasks of this kind. Lots of students tell me (and I agree) that this is a very confusing task.
For those who has no idea what I am talking about, I’ll explain - this task has a statement, and your job is to say is it True, False or Not Given in the reading passage.
How do you “attack” it? First learn the rule:
If the statement clearly appears in text - it is True
If the text clearly says the opposite of statement - it is False
If you didn’t find the statement to be True or False - it is Not Given
For example:
“Smoking is dangerous and can lead to cancer” - T, F, NG
1) If the text clearly says that “smoking is dangerous and leads to cancer” than the answer is T.
2) If the text says that “No research showed evidence that smoking is dangerous and leads to cancer” than the answer is F.
3) If the text says “The research included smoking people of both genders of ages 30 to 45″ and nothing else about smoking - your answer is NG.
Don’t make these mistakes:
Don’t assume anything based on your knowledge and experience, read the text! It is the oldest trick in the book and they use it a lot in IELTS.
Don’t “over think” your answer - you could start building long logical sequences that will take you to the wrong answer.
Let me give you an example:
The original text is something like this: “Everyone should make a business plan during startup of a business. Business nature changes from time to time. One should update the business plan based on changes”.
The Question is: ‘A business plan needs to be created only for new businesses’.
How would you mark this? T, F or, NG ?
Comment by mchisty — September 5, 2007 @ 1:06 am
This looks like a False to me. Why: trap word “only” - the text says that EVERY new business needs a plan, not ONLY new business needs a plan.
Comment by admin — September 6, 2007 @ 4:27 am