What to Expect from the IELTS Reading Test

60 minutes to answer 40 questions would be too simple to have a feel for what we need to expect and thus prepare for the IELTS reading test. 

You do have an hour to answer 40 questions, but what about the reading materials? There are 3 reading passages with a variety of questions with a number of question types or task types.  Some sample of the task types are: multiple choice, identifying information, identifying writer’s view, matching headings, sentence completion and so much more.

 Passages are taken from books, magazines, newspapers and journals.  The topics of the passages are for general interest and written for non-specialist.  Writing style of the passages will be similar to the once you read from the above mentioned sources.  If you are not used to reading from such sources, you better start practicing now; buy today’s newspaper and start reading, it’s never too early to start practicing.  If ever the passage contain some technical terms, you can expect to see a glossary.  Please remember that the reading passage may contain diagrams, graphs and illustrations.

For the General training test, the only difference would be the source of the passages.  The first section focus mostly on basic daily task, things you normally do and reading on a daily basis.  The second will be focused on the workplace, an example would be contracts and training materials.  The third will be general reading, sources of which are newspapers, magazines and books. 

For more information about what to expect from the Academic Reading and GT Reading

For other tip, check out the Reading Category