This isn’t a myth that you can find IELTS Reading answers one after the other. But there are 2 questions.
- Do ALL the answers come one after the other, as in from questions 1 to 40?
- How does this help in finding the answers in IELTS Reading?
After reading this article, you will know the answers. On top of that, you will know how to find answers with more confidence.
Have a question that needs answering? Click here to ask!
Question 1: Are all IELTS Reading answers in ONE order?
Let’s answer this question by looking at one example.
The following questions are from Test 1 – Cambridge IELTS Academic Book 19 (Computer-based)
Group 1 (Questions 1-7): True/False/Not Given
Group 2 (Questions 8-13): Fill in the gaps
The following photos are the “marked locations” of the answers to questions 1-13.
As you can see, Group 1 includes 7 questions (1-7) and they are True/False/Not Given questions. The answers to the questions are in sequential order from 1 to 7, from Paragraph 1 to Paragraph 9.
Similarly, Group 2 includes 6 questions (8-13), and they are “fill in the gaps” questions. The answers are also in sequential order from question 8 to question 13, from Paragraph 3 to Paragraph 10.
However, the answers to these questions, interestingly, are not in ONE order, from question 1 to question 13.
This pattern can be seen in ALL tests.
So, the answer to the question of whether ALL IELTS Reading answers in a test are in ONE singular order is NO.
In IELTS Reading, there are multiple passages (3 long passages in IELTS Academic and 4 short + 1 long passages in IELTS General Training). The answers to questions in one question group, such as in Group 1 (questions 1-7) above, are most likely in sequential order. But each question group has ONE SEPARATE order.
So, if there is more than 1 question group for one passage, there is more than 1 sequence of answers and these sequences can intertwine.
For example, you can find the answer to question 8 before you find the answer to question 4. But, question 8 and question 4 are in two different question groups.
Now, with this information in mind, the biggest question is how you are going to deal with this. You can find the answer in the next part of this article.
Question 2: How do you make use of this information?
Knowing this is knowing the mechanism of the IELTS Reading answers. It helps you narrow down the area where you may find the information to answer the questions with more confidence. And here’s how you can make use of it.
One: Guess the “location” of an answer
We know that every question group has one single order in which we can find the answers to the questions such as Group 2 (questions 8-13) above. So, if you have missed the information to answer question 10 but you have answered questions 9 and 11, you can simply go back to the part between the areas where you found answers 9 and 11. You won’t need to read anywhere before answer 9 and after answer 11.
This is particularly useful for solving True/False/Not Given. As you can see in Group 1 (questions 1-7) above, Question 3 is “Not Given” and the information doesn’t exist anywhere in this text. However, you won’t need to read the whole text to know this because the information to answer 3 could only be between answer 2 and answer 4. If you can’t find it there, it is most certainly “Not given”.
Two: Know where to start paying more attention
If you’ve been practicing for IELTS for a while you know that the “Scanning and skimming” method is one of the most popular approaches to IELTS Reading. This method basically tells you to “scan for the information” and then “skim for the answer”. In other words, you “scan” for what seems to be the answer then “skim” for the evidence that this is indeed the answer. (The effectiveness of this method – used without a clear strategy – is arguable, though.)
3 Steps to Scan and Skim in IELTS Reading
More often than not, the answer to the first question of a passage is not found in the first line, even in the first paragraph. So, focusing on the area where no answers will be found is a waste of time, and time management is the key to the IELTS Reading exam.
How much time to allocate for each section in IELTS Reading?
So, not until you see the information for the first question of the passage, should you start thinking about the answer to any question. In many cases, that means you can skip the entire first paragraph and not worry about having missed any answers at all.
How to get IELTS Reading answers with confidence
Confidence with your IELTS Reading answers
Confidence here doesn’t mean “bold guesses”. It means answering a question and having the evidence to back up your answer. Here’s what I suggest.
- Always mark the “locations” of the answers. You never know if you need to trace back a question.
- If you can’t find the answer no matter how carefully, the “location” is probably wrong, or the answer is “Not Given” (only in T/F/NG).
- If you can’t find evidence for your answer, it’s probably wrong, too.
Multi-question-group passages
What about passages with more than one question group? You have 2 options.
Option 1 (Not fully recommended): Deal with one group at a time
Unless you read very very fast and your comprehension is extremely good, I don’t recommend this. Keep in mind that you have ONLY 60 minutes for the IELTS Reading exam with 40 questions. You won’t have time to read one passage 2-3 times.
I only recommend this approach to people who just started practicing and are getting used to the format of the exam.
Option 2: Deal with all groups at the same time – Read the passage only once
To do this effectively, you need some more practice. In the example above, when you are dealing with Group 1 (questions 1-7), you should keep in mind the first question of Group 2 (questions 8) and continue looking for other questions (9-13) after question 8 has been answered.
If you only read the passage once to answer all 13 questions, you’ve mastered this approach. This is one of the Reading Rules that I emphasize on my Everything IELTS – The Comprehensive Guide to IELTS, which is FREE for all members of Everything IELTS Packages.
Struggling with IELTS Reading? Book a Consultation Call with me and get access to ALL my exclusive prepping materials for free.
Responses