Before the Exam
. • Make sure you are familiar with the instructions for the different question types so you can quickly glance at the questions and know what to do.
. • Read as much as possible.
. • Work on your reading skills such as ‘guessing the meanings of unknown words’, ‘understanding reference words in texts’ and reading quickly.
• Read newspaper articles and practise the following: dividing the content into facts and opinions finding the topic sentences of paragraphs writing summaries interpreting any diagrams or tables thinking of headings you could give to paragraphs underlining the pronouns and working out what they refer to underlining unknown words and seeing if you can work out what
they mean reading the first paragraph and seeing if you can predict what will come next
. • Work on expanding your vocabulary. Look at the either Focus on IELTS or Insight into IELTS or the glossary in 101 Hints p.172-174 and choose 5 new words from the vocabulary sections or articles to learn each day. Write the words on cards and test yourself on the bus or the MTR, on your way to City U.
. • Do as many practice tests as you can to get used to the rubric and the task types.
During the Exam
. • Look through the whole reading module first.
. • Quickly look at the texts. Study any: titles headings sub headings illustrations diagrams words in bold type or italics