What you Need to Know about the Academic Reading Test (British Council Academic IELTS: Reading): Study Material

Overview of the Academic Reading Test

What is the IELTS Academic Reading test?

• The IELTS Academic Reading test measures your ability to read and understand academic texts

• The test checks several reading skills, including:

  • Understanding main ideas

  • Understanding specific details

  • Understanding the writer's viewpoint

  • Inferring meaning

  • Deducing meaning

• Texts are taken from books, journals, newspapers, and magazines

• The topics are academic, but they are written for a general audience

How is the Reading test structured?

• The test lasts 60 minutes

• There are three reading passages (2150–2750 words in total)

• Passage 1 is usually the easiest to understand, while Passage 3 includes more challenging language

• Each passage includes two or three different tasks that include a variety of question types

• There are 11 types of questions in IELTS Reading:

1. Multiple choice

2. Identifying information (True / False / Not given)

3. Identifying writer’s views/claims (Yes / No / Not given)

4. Matching information

5. Matching headings

6. Matching features

7. Matching sentence endings

8. Sentence completion

9. Summary / note / table / flow-chart completion

10. Diagram label completion

11. Short-answer questions

• You must answer 40 questions in total:

  • Thirteen questions  in Passage 1

  • Thirteen questions in Passage 2

  • Fourteen questions in Passage 3

• The questions usually follow the order of information in the passage

• Some tasks include visual information, such as:

  • diagrams

  • tables

  • flow charts

• You must write all answers on the answer sheet within 60 minutes

How is the Reading test marked?

• Each correct answer = 1 mark

• No marks are taken off for wrong answers, so if you get an answer wrong, you simply do not get a mark for it

• Maximum score = 40 marks

• Your score out of 40 (e.g. 32/40) is then converted into your final IELTS band score (0-9) for the Reading test

Time-sensitive reading strategies

• The IELTS Reading test is only 60 minutes long so you do not have time to read the texts in detail 

• Use the following strategies for each passage to extract the key information you need to answer the questions

Surveying 

• First, get an overall idea of the scope and topic by surveying the text

• Quickly look at the title, headings and features such as tables, diagrams and subheadings 

• Do not worry if you do not know the topic of the passage — the answers to the questions will be in the text

Skimming 

• Next, skim the text — quickly read each paragraph to get the main ideas

• Find the topic sentence of the paragraph — usually the first or second sentence 

• The topic sentence contains the main idea of the paragraph

• You do not need to understand every word — focus on the overall content

• Once you have skimmed the text, read the questions and answer any that you can 

Scanning 

• Once you have read the questions, scan the text, focusing on finding the specific information you need

• The questions are usually in the order of the text, which helps you know where to look for the answers

• Do not spend too long on a question — if you cannot find the answer, move on and come back to it later

Close reading

• Minimise the time spent on close reading because it is too time-consuming

• Close reading helps avoid picking the wrong answers, especially those in multiple-choice questions which can be very convincing

• It also helps you find the answers in the text, rather than from your own general knowledge