General Training Reading Skills and Strategies in IELTS

Reading Strategies for IELTS
The range of text types and question types in IELTS General Training Reading requires candidates to skim, to scan and to read for detail. Skimming, scanning and reading for detail are skills that enable a reader to get meaning from text.

What reading skills are tested in IELTS General Training Reading?
In IELTS General Training Reading candidates are expected to be able to deal with texts from a range of social, training and work contexts which are general rather than discipline specific. Technical terms are avoided and low frequency lexical items may be glossed. It is a test of reading and not of general knowledge. Candidates may have to:

• identify the writer’s overall purpose, target audience, sources etc.
• use skimming and scanning skills to locate information in a text
• read for detailed information
• identify and follow key arguments in a text
• extract relevant information
• identify opinions and attitudes as opposed to facts
• group pieces of information in a text in accordance with salient criteria
• locate specific information
• distinguish the main idea from supporting detail
• make inferences
• reorganise key points for a summary
• extract information from a prose text to put into a diagrammatic representation
• use correct spelling and correct grammar in their answers

How do we read text?
In everyday life we use different strategies or approaches to read different texts. Sometimes we read quickly, skimming for general ideas or scanning for a specific point. Sometimes we read slowly, trying to gain a detailed understanding.

What is skimming?
When we skim a text we read very quickly. We just look at the headings and subheadings and the first lines of each section or paragraph. We also notice the key words that are repeated throughout the text. Our purpose is to understand the gist – the general idea of the text. Skimming is a useful strategy to use throughout IELTS General Training Reading.

What is scanning?
When we scan a text we are looking for a specific piece of information or specific words. We ignore information that is not relevant to our purpose. Scanning is a useful strategy to apply when the questions ask for specific factual information such as times, places etc. It is also a useful strategy to use to find the section of a text about which a question is asked.

What is reading for detail?
When we read for detail we read every word in a text and think carefully about the meaning of every sentence. It is often necessary in IELTS General Training Reading to read a certain section of a text in detail in order to answer a question correctly. Usually a candidate must skim or scan the text first to find the right section and then, having found the relevant section, read for detail.