IELTS official website announced a change they are making to General Training Reading from 1 May 2009.

At the moment Passage 2 of Reading paper is focusing on training content (university, courses, etc). From 1 May it will be focusing on work context (e.g. applying for jobs, company policies, pay and conditions, workplace facilities, staff development etc).

The reason for this small change is that now more employers, professional associations and immigration authorities recognize the IELTS test. This change will ensure that the module will be adapted to real life situations and because of it will more closely meet the needs of candidates who take IELTS for employment or immigration purposes.

Nothing else will be changed, the rest of the passages remain as they were.

And here is an example of the new General Training Reading passage:

Click here to view.

There is even an answer key!

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What do you do to get a higher score in the IELTS Reading test? Increase your speed by reading more texts, that’s right. But not just any texts – there is a certain kind of reading passages you will find in IELTS more often.

Many of you were asking me: “What should I read?” and here’s the answer: reading passages in the previous IELTS tests came from the following sources:

1. The Economist – a weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news and opinion.

2. The Economist Technology quarterly

3. New Scientist – a weekly science and technology news magazine, considered by some to be the world’s best, with diverse subject matter.

4. American Scientist – an illustrated bimonthly magazine of science and technology.

5. The Geographical Journal – publishers of original research and scholarship in physical and human geography.

6. Interscience – online editions of scientific, technical, medical and professional journals

7. Australian geographic – an entertaining and fact-filled reference for anyone who loves and is fascinated by Australia and things Australian.

8. The British museum – online publications

9. Illustrated London News – a pictorial example of a historic social record of British and world events up to the present day.

In all of these websites there are articles you can read online (no need to subscribe, they are free) . This way you will get familiar with the style and level of articles you are likely to see in a real IELTS exam. Practice in reading using these resources and you will kill two birds with one stone, improve your speed and expand your vocabulary.

And now it’s your turn – do you know of other free sources of IELTS-like reading passages? Please, share!

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Doan Hung Phuong, who got Band 7 in IELTS, shares with us his secrets to success in the Reading test.

Reading tips

I must say that this skill based on intelligence very much. I was advised that reading various type of articles is the best way to prepare for IELTS. In reality, I have never done that, simply because I don’t have time. I hate reading. But the fact is that is the skill I got the highest score. I have no idea why, not because I am intelligent man, but maybe, just maybe because I can understand the main idea very well.

Reading requires a great deal of vocabulary. But when my friends tell me that I got the high score because I have a good range of vocabulary, I totally disagree. Vocabulary is important, but you don’t need to know every word. You should only know keywords, the words that can change completely the answers.

Pay a particular attention to the grammar structure. You may see various types of grammar structures, but try to understand them all, they will be helpful for your writing. We all don’t know much vocabulary, but if you are weak at grammar, you don’t know what the text refers to, and obviously, you lose main idea. As a result, you can’t guess the meaning based on context.

Catching main idea in reading is also important. You must have known that skimming and scanning are 2 essential tools in reading. Both rely on understand main ideas. Therefore, if you can’t catch main ideas in short time, you will suffer. But how to practice getting main ideas in brief time? I must say that reading various articles in this case is helpful (even though I’ve never done so). But I tried to do reading tests every day, and tried to understand the main idea of every passages.

Another way to practice Reading is Speed Reading. I have known this method at English centers but to many people, maybe this is still a strange way. You choose a short easy passage (about 500 words) and then read quickly (for both main idea and details). Please note that the passage you choose must be easy. If there are more than 5 words that completely new to you, perhaps it is not the good one for speed reading. in addition, read as quickly as possible is NOT the key. If you read so fast that you have to read again, there are no benefits gained from this practice. The key here is main ideas, and next is details. Besides understanding all main points, you should try to remember as much details as you can. In speed reading exercises, there are 10 true/false question for you to do in the back. These questions will measure your accurate comprehension.

Besides skimming and scanning, I found that reading intensively is also important in IELTS test, especially to understand tough questions. Some questions or particular sentences, you need to read and try to understand every single word. Especially with true/false/not given (or yes/no/not given) questions, only one word can change the whole meaning.

After doing reading practice test, you MUST check all wrong answers, try to explain why you wrong (you may need someone which has good level of English to help you) and think of another way to answer faster those questions. You will gain necessary experience by doing this before the real test.

In brief, guessing is the key for reading. You must guess logically and academically. Pay time to practice reading, you will see that your reading skill will improve in just a short period of time.”

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Multiple choice questions
click here to see a Reading passage with 3 sample questions

Matching information
click here to see a Reading passage with 3 sample questions

Table completion
click here to see a Reading passage with 5 sample questions

Information classification
click here to see a Reading passage with 3 sample questions

Headings matching
click here to see a Reading passage with 5 sample questions

Paragraphs labeling
click here to see a Reading passage with 7 sample questions

True/False/Not given
click here to see a Reading passage with 4 sample questions

Diagram labeling
click here to see a Reading passage with 4 sample questions

And the last one is the Answer Sheet for the Reading section

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I have found a great collection of real test samples. Before you get too excited – the good news they are free and can be downloaded, but the bad news there are no answers. Anyway, I think you guys will find them useful, so here goes:

Flow chart completion
click here to see a Reading passage with 7 sample questions

Matching topics to advertisements
click here to see a Reading passage with 8 sample questions

Matching headings
click here to see a Reading passage with 5 sample questions

Matching information to statements
click here to see a Reading passage with 6 sample questions

True, False, Not given
click here to see a Reading passage with 6 sample questions

Multiple choice questions
click here to see a Reading passage with 5 sample questions

Gap fills
click here to see a Reading passage with 5 questions

Short-answer questions
click here to see a Reading passage with 5 questions

Sentence completion
click here to see a Reading passage with 3 questions

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We can’t have too many free tasks samples, can we ? IELTS official site recently released some more free practice material.

They have added some Academic and General training reading passage and tasks, Academic and General Training writing tasks and one Speaking card for the 2-minute monologue. Too bad there are no correct answers given for the reading questions (and some listening samples would be nice to have too)!

So those of you who haven’t seen the free samples yet can find them here:

Academic Reading Sample

Academic Writing Sample

General Training Reading Sample

General Training Writing Sample

Speaking Card Sample

And we will do our best to publish the correct answers soon – so stay tuned!

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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.

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IELTS-Blog proudly presents new hot feature:

This nice addition is something I always wanted but never had. It converts number of correct answers in Listening or Reading sections of 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.

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.

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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:

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:

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As I promised to one of my most loyal visitors (hi, Dave!), this post is about efficient ways to improve your reading skills.

Academic Reading module is a little bit different from General Training – instead of 4 or 5 it has only 3 passages (more difficult ones). Actually the first passage is usually the easiest and then they become more and more difficult. With that said, here come the tips:

First of all – don’t read the whole passage. Train yourself to scan and notice only the important information. After you go over the text for the first time, you should know what each paragraph is about, what its main idea. This way of “reading” saves you a lot of priceless time.

Second, watch your time closely. Don’t divide the 60 minutes you have into 3 equal parts of 20 minute. Why? Because the last passage is the hardest and you are going to need more than 20 minutes to crack it. So I suggest 15 – 20 – 25, but feel free to look for any other timing that works for you.

Third, don’t forget to copy your answers to Answer Sheet. You can write them in the booklet as you read the passage, but you get your score based on what is written in the Answer Sheet.

Forth, if you can’t find an answer to certain question – mark it with big fat ??? so you can easily see it later and move on to the next one, don’t get stuck. Later you can get back and try it again if you have time left.

Fifth, count your words – if instructions say “answer in 3 words” – you need to answer in EXACTLY 3 WORDS, when even “a” and “the” count as a word!

When you practice, read your passage, answer the questions, compare your answers to the Answer Sheet and pay special attention to the wrong answers. You need to understand WHY you made those mistakes and remember them so you won’t make them again.

And finally, these few tips came from “Ace The IELTS” e-Book (and of course there are much more other tips, techniques and strategies). So those of you who need step-by-step guidance, clear study plan and want to be ready for IELTS in ONE MONTH – take a closer look at it here. Think a little about how great it is, buy it, study, get your target score and forget all about IELTS

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