IELTS Reading: vocabulary review

Let’s review some vocabulary from the last few reading exercises that I’ve published here on the blog.

Would you have been able to match the keywords below?

IELTS Reading: instead of skimming and scanning

Many teachers and books talk about skimming and scanning as key techniques for IELTS reading.

I have stopped using the words ‘skimming’ and ‘scanning’ in my lessons because I find that they confuse students. In fact, many students get the wrong answers because they ‘skim’ too quickly and miss the words that they are looking for.

So, forget ‘skimming’ and ‘scanning’ and focus on ‘finding’ and ‘understanding’.

1. Finding: read the text to find words from the question.
2. Understanding: when you have found some key words from the question, read that part of the text carefully in order to understand it and get the right answer.

IELTS Reading: how should you practise?

Here’s a useful question that a student asked me:

Many students complain that they don’t get a high enough score in IELTS reading, and many teachers respond that you need more practice. Dear Simon, could you describe how to practise for reading correctly? I do practise with the Cambridge books and spend time reading newspapers, but with no results.

Here’s my answer:

Good question. First, testing yourself is not the best form of practice. You should test yourself from time to time (e.g. once a week), but spend much more time studying rather than testing. ‘Studying’ means that your aim is to learn something from what you read. For example, when reading newspaper articles, you might learn a new word or phrase, or you might learn how to use a word correctly in a new context. Don’t forget to check things in a dictionary or by searching online, and write new language in a notebook.

The Cambridge IELTS books are a great resource for studying (as well as testing). Try doing some reading tests without a time limit. Allow yourself to use a dictionary to check words, and aim to get all of the answers right. Analyse your mistakes carefully, and make keyword tables.

Above all, remember that IELTS reading is a vocabulary test. Ask yourself what new vocabulary you have learnt this week. Can you point to a page of your notebook and say “I’ve learnt these 10 or 20 new words and phrases this week”? If you can, you are improving.

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the text below about Issac Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”; usually called the Principia), published in 1687, is one of the most important scientific books ever written. It lays the groundwork for most of classical mechanics.

Newton is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential people in human history. French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange often said that Newton was the greatest genius who ever lived. Newton himself had been rather more modest of his own achievements, famously writing in a letter to Robert Hooke in February 1676: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Are the following statements TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN?

1. Newton’s Principia is recognised as a groundbreaking text in its field.
2. Many experts regard Newton as the greatest genius the world has seen.
3. Newton wrote that he had achieved everything without the help of others.