IELTS Reading Test 1 – Teacher’s notes

Written by Sam McCarter

Aim
To help students prepare for the Academic Reading component of the IELTS
exam.

Objectives
To help students to:
• Practise doing an academic Reading Test in exam conditions.
• Develop techniques for answering questions efficiently in the
academic.
• Reading component.
• Complete answer sheets correctly.
• Develop techniques that can be applied in all reading tests.

Level of the exercises

Reading Test 1 may be used with students who are IELTS Score band 5
and upwards.

Materials
The materials (all PDFs) consist of:
• Teacher's notes
• Reading Test 1
• Answer key
• Answer sheet

Methodology
Reading Test 1 – to be taken under exam conditions.

Pre-reading advice
Before you give a class the test, there are several pieces of advice you can
give to the students. Depending on the level of the students and how much
reading training has been done, you may want to focus on one or more of the
points below.

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005

Taken from the Exams section in www.onestopenglish.com
Hints for students
1. Do not read the whole passage in detail first. The passages are quite long
and are not really designed to be studied in detail. Students often make
the mistake of reading a passage thoroughly and underlining every word
they do not know. The Reading Test in the Academic IELTS is a
‘superficial’ exercise, in that candidates are required to extract words and
meaning at speed. Therefore, those students who read the passages in
detail are at a serious disadvantage. (If students insist on reading the
entire passage, tell them to skim and underline organizational words. If
they spend more than one or two minutes skimming a single passage,
they are wasting time.)

2. Look at the title of Reading Passage 1, if there is one.

3. Read, the instructions and questions carefully.

4. Ensure that you understand exactly what is required in each set of

instructions. For example, is one word required or more than one word?
Can a word/ heading be used more than once?

5. Remember that the questions will give a summary of the content within a
passage. This will help even if there is no title.

6. Read one set of questions and then locate and answer those questions.
Completion of one set of questions should help you to find those in the
next set. The questions/ answers are usually in order, so locating the
answers to the first and last question in each section will usually show
where the remaining answers can be found.

7. Leave questions which you are unable to answer. This is a serious

problem. Students have effectively 90 seconds to locate and answer a
question. If they spend three or four minutes on one question, they are
throwing away the chances of a good grade. They may find one answer
when looking for another. Many students find this a difficult task to do but
they must be trained.

8. Avoid underlining unfamiliar words. Students instinctively want to locate

and underline words and phrases they haven’t seen before. This can
cause confusion. They should be trained to locate and underline the
words/ phrases which help with organization.

9. Repeat the process for each of the passages.

10. Always use a pencil to mark a text rather than a highlighter.

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005

Taken from the Exams section in www.onestopenglish.com
Alternative approaches
• You may wish to elicit a set of reading rules which the students follow as a
class. You can do this as a class exercise.
• You could also put the basic instructions on a chart as attached.
• You could give the chart to students in groups and ask them to discuss
which point they had difficulty with and then advise each other. They can
then do this briefly as a class exercise on a regular basis.
• Or you could give the chart to the students after they have done a test and
ask them which items they found difficult.

Answer sheet
Each time the students do a test make them write their answers on an answer
sheet. You can find one at the back of many books or use the answer sheet at
the end of these notes.

Monitoring the Reading Test

• Use a stopwatch, if necessary, to time the test. Give the students periodic
reminders of the time – every 15 or 20 minutes is enough. Remind them of
the progress they should have made by this point in the test.

• Give the students extra time to finish the test, but ask them to record
where they had reached after 60 minutes.

• While students are doing a reading test, go round the class and check that
they are following the basic rules in the chart. For example, monitor the
words/ phrases they are underlining. If you notice that they are underlining
words they don’t know, ask them to erase them. Guide them as to which
words/ phrases will help them in reading – organizing words like but/ yet/
however/ moreover/ as a result/ etc, or words that relate to a particular
theme.

• Check that the students are writing their answers on the answer sheet as
they do the test. Remind them that this is different to the IELTS listening
where they would have ten minutes at the end to transfer their answers.

• Point out that answers will be marked incorrect if there are spelling/
grammar mistakes or if they have copied words from the question in
sentence completions.

• Remind them about spelling, etc., several times during the test.

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005

Taken from the Exams section in www.onestopenglish.com
After completion of the test
• Ask students to work with a partner and check each other’s answers. They
should look for obvious errors such as spelling / grammar / number of
words / order of answers / etc.
• Go round the class and guide them as they do this.
• Point out the ‘cost’ of spelling mistakes – the difference between the
correct spelling of one word might reduce their overall grade from a band 7
to 6.5! Remind them of this constantly as it will encourage them to take the
completion of their answer sheet more seriously.

Checking the answers

After the students have checked for obvious errors, you can ask them to
discuss the answers. This can be tackled section by section, passage by
passage, in pairs or groups. You can then discuss it as a class.

Discussion of the entire test can take about an hour – if you are allowing
students time to discuss freely. Do not stifle discussion, no matter how heated
it becomes, especially if it is in English. Where possible try to get students to
explain the correct answer. Or even get a student who got an answer wrong
to explain the correct answer to the class. The more students are able to talk
through a problem question, the easier it will be for them to think through
similar problem questions in the long term.

Discussion helps students to slow their thoughts down, enabling them to sort
through and remove confusing ideas. The more students do this, and with
guidance, the clearer their reasoning will become.

Discussion also allows the whole class to think through their individual
thoughts and to check the path their reasoning followed.

Manipulating reading texts

Below are methods of manipulating the reading passages should you not
want to use them as a test.
• Take Reading Passage 3. Hand out the passage without the questions
and ask the students to read it in whatever way they want. Time them
as they read. Tell them how much time they spent ‘reading’ it and
compare that with what is expected in the exam.
• Using the same passage, ask the students to decide what type of
questions they would ask. What information would they focus on if they
were testing reading skills?
• Give the students a reading passage or a whole test, questions and
answer key. Ask them to discuss in groups why a particular answer is
correct. This will help them see the reasoning behind a question. You
can check if their thought processes are correct or whether they have
arrived at an answer purely by accident or erroneously. This activity
sometimes surprises students and teachers. It also helps students to
see patterns and develop thought processes.
• Give students a reading passage and ask them to prepare their own
questions. Compare the students’ questions with those in the test.

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005

Taken from the Exams section in www.onestopenglish.com
 Rules for reading
1. Do not read the whole passage in detail first.
2. If you have to read the passage, skim and underline organizational or
theme words. Maximum time for skimming: two minutes.
3. Look at the title of the reading passage if there is one.
4. Read, the instructions and questions carefully.
5. Check that you know exactly what is required in each set of instructions.
6. Remember that the questions give you a summary of the content within a
passage.
7. Read one set of questions and then locate and answer those questions.
8. Leave a question if you cannot do it.
9. Avoid underlining words you do not know. Ignore them.
10. Locate and underline the words or phrases which help with organization.
11. Fill in the answer sheet carefully.
12. Check spelling and grammar.
13. Do not repeat words from the questions when undertaking sentence
completion exercises.
14. Always use a pencil to mark a text rather than a highlighter.
15. ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005

Taken from the Exams section in www.onestopenglish.com
 Marking an Academic Reading Test for IELTS

Some reading tests are easier than others. Therefore, the number of
correct answers required to achieve a particular band differs in each exam.

Generally speaking, to achieve a grade of band 7 under exam conditions,

candidates should aim to have 28-31 correct answers.

In this particular reading test candidates would require approximately 28

correct answers under exam conditions to achieve a grade of band 7.

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005

Taken from the Exams section in www.onestopenglish.com