Fast Reading Techniques for IELTS

Having an effective reading and notetaking strategy is important in IELTS reading test. Time spent thinking and planning can save unnecessary work. There are some tips you should learn in reading English text:

• Take notes, add margin comments or highlight sections.
• Pay attention to the structure of a text to help you to understand the writer's purpose and argument. Take notice of headings and sub-headings, of opening and closing paragraphs and of other signposts the writer has provided.
• Try to understand what you are reading, rather than simply memorizing what you have read. Consider whether you agree with the content and think about how it compares to any other reading you've done on the same topic. This effort to understand is itself an aid to memorizing.
• As you work through module activities, jot down a record of your work. You'll then avoid the need to work through these activities a second time for assignment questions and revision.

In practices, read some different topics of texts, then keep a dictionary or your module glossary to hand and look up any terms you don't understand. Accept that sometimes you need to re-read in order to check your understanding, reconsider particular points of interest and to add to your notes. Even though in real test, there's no one will help you to understand the text or the questions, still in exercises you can ask your friends before you take the test. Discuss many different topics and learn something new.

For example, read this article below! You can learn what is the main idea of the text and you can apply it to improve your reading skill.

Scanning and skimming

Fast reading techniques help you to browse text and extract the key points. Once you have the hang of them you can get through a substantial amount of reading in quite a short time.

Scanning - handy when you're looking for a particular word or phrase within a text or when you want to get an idea of the layout of the text (how many sections, where certain topics are covered).

Skimming - a useful first step before reading more deeply. Here you are reading the words quickly to get a feel for how something is discussed. If you think that the text will be useful to you, you can slow down and read in a more focused way.