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My IELTS Reading and Listening Tips

by Sunil
(Pune)

READING TIPS

1. Use different codes to highlight things in the reading – like circle for Person/City Names, Square for Time/ Year. Also try to use Single Underline, Double Underline and Dotted Line for other predefined purpose.

2. Initially just look over the questions and underline main words so that you can easily remember while skimming. Just do it quickly.

3. Whenever you are close to where the answer is in the reading, read complete sentence nearby in detail & understand what will be the exact and complete answer.

4. Don’t be overconfident on easy questions.

5. Be alert - “USE LETTER MORE THAN ONCE” means one paragraph may be matched to two answers

6. Be careful for short forms written in the passage. Sometimes we miss it. For e.g. UN – United Nations

7. Does your answer really match the fill in blank types?

8. If asked to complete a question then make it complete by choosing a word from the passage. Don’t write the answer just based on the question. For e.g. What are colleges the centre of? The answer is not "Oxford University". The correct answer is "Social Life"

9. If you have doubt over an answer, mark where it is, and move on. Whenever you get the time, come back to reconfirm.

11. If some questions you can't find, then move ahead, don’t waste time on the answer.

12. Time is very important. Hence solve what is easy to you. If heading selection for paragraphs takes time, then keep it pending and solve it later.

13. Lastly, 100% you have to keep 3-4 minute time for checking of written answer. This helps also checking of spellings.

LISTENING TIPS

1. And, For, Of etc - that will count in word limit answers

2. Keep 3-4 minute time for checking of written answer. This helps also checking of spellings.

3. Sometimes written answers we forget to write The, A, An, For, To, At (At initial) to fulfill the correct answers

Comments for My IELTS Reading and Listening Tips

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Feb 01, 2017
 Thanks for the tips
by: Anonymous

i very much appreciate your time and effort in providing such good tips, these are very helpful.
May 27, 2019
 Reading - Complete this table doubt - Regarding
by: Kumar

Hi i was solving a mock paper where i had a session like

Question 20-27
Choose NO MORE THAT THREE WORDS From the passage for each answer

------
------
------

so my doubt is if one of the answer is like
10-15% can it fill it in blanks since it is a number and the instruction was not to fill the number ??

please help and thanks much in advance !!
Jul 22, 2019
 Reading
by: Kenny

Thanks for your support. Please can I use capital letters for all my answers on the reading answer sheet?

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