A lot of students focus too much

on specific IELTS tasks and become very stressed

with only being concerned about the exam. You can practice and improve your

IELTS reading skills every day by doing non-IELTS

specific reading.

All of the IELTS reading skills I will talk about can be practiced improved while doing

any type of reading. Try doing these things

when you read novel, newspaper article

blog post or any kind reading.

Skimming and scanning. These two skills are vital

in the IELTS reading exam. Skimming

means reading a text quickly for only one

or two minutes to get a general idea of what the text

or paragraph is about. The idea is to notice headings,

topic sentences and keywords so you can figure out

the topic and context on the reading passage.

Scanning means looking for specific

words in a text. For example it is usually quite easy to scan

for dates, names, numbers and places.

If we know the answer to a question is a person's name

we don't need to read the entire text in detail we just need to scan for

names with capital letters and

make sure the name matches the question. Next time you read an article or blog

post

spend two minutes reading from start to finish

just to get a general idea. Then spend a few minutes

scanning for any names and numbers

mentioned in the text. What do those names and numbers

represent. Being able to do this quickly

and often will really help your IELTS reading skills

when it comes to the exam. Improving your reading speed.

Every time you read you have an opportunity

to practice increasing the speed at which you read.

This is one at the IELTS reading skills that students think

is difficult but is actually quite easy to improve. Get into the habit of timing

yourself when you read.

Set a time limit

when you read and then read the text as many times as possible

in that time limit. The idea

is to skim the text as many times as possible

in the time limit. Don't read information once,

read it three or four times if you can.

In my classes I start by giving students five minutes

to read a text and five minutes to answer some questions

about the text. Each lesson I reduce the time

by thirty seconds by the time students

only have two minutes to read and two minutes to answer

the questions the accuracy is still the same as

when they had 10 minutes to read and answer. This activity trains you to read faster

and focus on what is important

in the text. Overtime your brain gets faster

at reading. This then gives you more time

in the IELTS exam to go back and spend time

on the difficult questions. Summarizing

a text. In my classes I have seen so many students

spend five to 10 minutes reading a text

but when I ask them what it is about they can't respond very well

without looking at the text again. You should be able to remember

some what you read and then summarize

that information. You can start by just reading

one-paragraph and summarizing that information.

Can you express the information in one sentence?

what was the topic of the paragraph. Were

any people mentioned. A good summary of an IELTS

text only needs to be 3

or 4 sentences. You don't need to repeat

the entire article or include

every detail you should practice

summarizing both verbally and in writing.

Read an article then tell your friend about it.

Read an IELTS text then spend a few minutes

writing a four sentence summary.

As always don't forget to check your spelling

and grammar when you write. Summarizing

is one of the more important IELTS reading skills

because summary completion is one of the activities

in the IELTS reading exam.

Having your own summary when reading a text

will make it easier for you to complete the summaries

presented in the exam.