STRATEGIES

   READING SESSION LASTS FOR 60mins, consists of 3 passages each passage
   lasts for 700 - 1000 words and these passages are excerpts of Journals and
   academic books(Basic Topics).

   The difficulty in reading session is 1st passage > 2nd > 3rd passage.

   So, Time plays a key role in reading, Spend your Time wisely.
   Follow my Schedule :

                                       1st  Passage : 17 mins
                                       2nd Passage : 20mins
                                       3rd Passage : 23 mins

     Like Listening you won't get extra time to transfer your answers.
   All the work need to be done in 60mins. Transfer your answers after
  completion of each passage.

     Types of Questions:

      Notes / Sentence / Summary Completion (Fill in the blanks type)

      MCQ's

      Label the Paragraphs

      True / False / Not Given

      Yes /No / Not Given

      Matching / Classification.

     #. True : Fact - exactly relevant to your passage
     #. False: Contradicts the information present in Passage
     #. Not Given : Not at all related to the Passage

     *. Yes : its a Claim based on the information present in Passage
     *. No : Contradicts the information
     *. Not Given : Not at all related to the Passage 

       Now its time to think for strategies: Follow my Basic strategies to crack
       advanced reading comprehension :

   1. Reading the Passage :

      a. Skimming
      b. Underline keywords
      c. Get the Gist (Main Idea)

  2. Reading the Questions :

     a. Understand & Simplify the question
     b. Pick some keywords in the question
     c. Scan the keyword in passage
     d. Fit your Answer.

    Now lets see what exactly Skimming and scanning are : 

    Skimming : 

    Consider an example how you read a News paper : Do you read entire Article? well the answer is NO.
    Then what exactly you do is : You will just read the first few lines - which gives an idea of what you are
    going to read i.e., you will get a main idea of the Reading Passage.

   Apply same here : First get the GIST (Passage) of the Passage meanwhile underline some keywords.
   What are Keywords : Keywords are Nouns, Adjectives, main verbs and some adverbs. Don't worry
   while reading you will automatically recognize the keywords.

    Scanning :

     When you simplify the Question you will get some keywords in the question. and Now feel happy for
     getting keywords. SCAN these keywords in the passage and fit your answer.

     70% of your answers will be with keywords.
     15% - you need to read a line before and after the keyword.
     15% - Answer with your GIST.

    What to read first : Passage or Reading ?
    My suggestion is always read the passage first and get the Main Idea of the passage and label each Paragraph in the passage with your understanding.(it will be easy for Labelling the paragraph questions)

Posted in: IELTS, Reading