IELTS academic writing Resources

In the reading section, the problem is the time. You are supposed to read three passages and to give a total of 40 answers. You have one hour. Therefore you can devote just 20 minutes for a passage, which is sometimes not enough time. First of all: use just 20 minutes for each section: if after 20 minutes you do not have some answers, guess and pass to the next question. Remember: you won't have extra-time at the end of the hour to transfer the answers to the answer sheet. Therefore write them on it at once: this is an important difference from the listening section, where you will be given time to transfer your answers.

Second: read the questions carefully before reading the passage: this is very very important. If you read the passage without knowing the questions, you will waste your time. Here is a useful procedure: use 3-4 minutes to read the questions; use 10-12 minutes to read the passage and to answer where you can. In this way you should be able to find a lot of answers. Use the last minutes to find the answers in the text that you did not find when you first read the passage. Usually, but not always, you will find the answers in order.