Reading course

Mastering Reading Strategies

• Learn - Slow practice - Feedback - Fast Practice - Test: Develop the strategy slowly

• Feedback: Am I doing everything right? Why am I making mistakes while using the strategy?

• Fast Practice: Trying to use the strategy under exam conditions

Learning from your mistakes

• Go slow and then Follow Chris’ strategy step by step (you can use your notes)

• Analyse your mistakes to discover your weakness

• Improve your weakness

• Ask yourself: Why I chose the incorrect answer?

• If you made a mistake by not knowing a word, then you should improve your vocabulary.

• Troubles with vocabulary — Follow vocabulary course

• Troubles with Reading — Reading course

• Only practice under timed conditions when you can get the score you need

• Use practice tests to check your progress

• Don’t use CAMBRIDGE IELTS tests to improve your general reading

• Don’t expect your scores to improve until you’ve reacted to the mistakes

Short answer

• Common problems: Lack of awareness of synonyms and paraphrasing (vocabulary); You should find balance between understanding the meaning and reading fast while skimming and scanning

• Look and understand the questions first, before you start reading the text

• Key words in the question will normally be nouns or noun phrases

• When you find key words, think of synonyms and paraphrases

Matching Headings

• Skimming: looking at certain parts of parapgraph, so you can understand the general meaning

• Try to sum up the general meaning of the paragraph in one or two words

• Read the first one or two sentences and the last sentences of the paragraph. You can also briefly look at the rest of the paragraph

• You actually need some time to understand what these headings actually mean

• Remove the heading that is already matched before you

• Read enough so you can understand the main idea

• The first sentence (the topic sentence) is the most important one

• Pay attention to some words that might tell a lot about the whole paragraph

• You can keep in mind two possible headings and look up again the paragraph

• If there’re two heading that look suitable, then try to look up for synonymous words.

• It’s a good idea to use the topics sentence to quickly understand the general idea, but pay attention to the incoming sentences

• You can name your heading using one or two words

Multiple choice

• Always read the questions first

• Be aware of distractors: Some people like pizza vs All people like pizza

• Try to predict the answer before looking at the text

• You can exclude other options of the correct answer isn’t obvious or if it is, then choose the answer

• Don’t make your own assumptions, the answer should written clearly

• Pay attention to qualifaying words (all, only)

• Mistake I made: Be attentive towards the answer in the text (Because it can be too exact to be the correct one); You need to have an exact reason why you assumed one of the answers wrong; Instead of writing “adding at the right moment” they might say: adding before smth and after smth, so you should understand the meaning.

• The signs that the answer is wrong are gonna be written

True/False/Not given

• Common mistake: Focusing on keywords instead of understanding what the statement as a whole means

• Read the statements first, trying to understand what the whole sentence means

• Try to think of the synonyms

• Locate the area — Go back to the statement — Look at the area again, read it and make a decision

• Probably future mistake: There will be no direct synonym given to you. (No “some” written as in the statement)

• If there’s a fast transition between questions 5 and 7, probably the 6 one is NOT GIVEN.

• Mistake I made: Fewer means less(Vocabulary); Try to check every paragraph, because 90% chance that in each of them there’s an answer (Check the paragraph till the end, don’t abandon it). If there’s a paragraph that doesn’t clearly say the answer (You clearly found NG), then use it to navigate.; I didn’t know what mammals mean, so I was confused; I wasn’t attentive, so I couldn’t understand the full sentence clearly; Often doesn’t mean in majority of cases!! Some things can occur more often, so it doesn’t say a lot.

Labelling a diagram

• The answers do not always come in the same order

• 1. Stone bridge

• 2. East Ditch

• 3. Prominent Chimneys (Wrong) Mistake: If you’re unsure of smth, double check it!!!

• 4. Mortimer Tower

• 5. Granary

• 6. Kitchen

• 7. Western Pikehead

• 8. The Great hall

• 9. Armourer’s Tower

• 10. Chapel

• Other mIstakes:

• Pay attention to the main entrance, everything will start there (if it is a map)

• The way you read: You should pay attention to every sentence, unlike the matching headings. where you look at the topic sentence and the last sentence.

• Don’t assume for no reason the location of an object

Matching names

• Common mistake: Reading the whole text and trying to find the names that way.

• Focus on easy questions first

• Some examples can be shortened, instead of John Jones it may be writtent just John

• Look for synonyms, as always

• The questions do not follow the order of the text, so use your scanning skills

• Try some reverse engeneering (Appreciating how the test was created, what skills it tests)

Mistakes I made:

1. Didn’t follow the instructions : Should have just underlined the names, Didn’t read the question. Didn’t look for names that appear only once

2. Vocabulary: pledging to revitalize (don’t assume the answer out of your mind. you did good!); Distinguish the word by the context, it might be an answer!!

3. You were looking for an answer. but it was written exactly

Matching information to paragraphs

• Just find the specific information the paragraph (no need to understand the whole one)

• Common problem: The answers might not be the main idea of each paragraph

• Do this type of question last

• Common advice: look for names, numbers, these are easier to find. There might be synonyms

• You can find an answer in one sentence

• Skimming, scanning and close reading works perfectly here

• You repeated your mistake: The answer should exactly respond to the question

• another mistake: You may think that after skimming a paragraph the answer is there, but read other paragraphs as well, understand the meaning of an unknown word. Read till you’ll understand the overall meaning of a paragraph

Table Completion

• Undertsand what the table is about

• Note the heading of the table so that you know what type of information you need.

• Predict the types of words you have to include based on the information already there

• Look for clues

• Basically it’s all about predictions here

• Basically it’s a scanning exercise

• Read the first sentence to understand where to scan for

• Mistakes I made: Before 3rd step look at the flowchart; The former, The latter - The first, the Last

• Scan the table for the words that can’t be paraphrased

• Headings will help you to navigate through the text

• Important one: Check if the answer consisting of several words matches the sentence!! You can get a sentence with synonymous words from the table, but keep reading, because the answer might come up later!! If you cannot find the answer, it may be not in a sequencial order!!

• You are scanning through the whole text using the headings to navigate

• Try to come up with synonyms

Yes/No/Not given

• The questions are in the same order

• If the statement is “No” the statement will clearly contradict the writer’s opinion

• You SHOULD NOT care about the other writers’ opinion, just the writer’s opinion

• Look out when the writer gives their opinion, using phrases such as “In my opinion” or using comparative, superlative

• Try to understand what the WHOLE sentence mean

• of course, as always you should FIND SYNONYMS

Mistakes I Made:

• A slip: You changed the meaning of the statment in your mind

• Reading style, not a mistake: You just scan the text for synonyms or words that cannot be paraphrased

• If it is not given, then it won’t directly answer the sentence, will be just bullshitting!!! And it should be given a direct reason for a writer’s view to state that the sentence is YES or NO.

• In order to get an answer you may need to read the half of the paragraph

Summary completion

• Scanning and correct use of grammar is essential here

• Now, You know that it is necessary to PREDICT the answer

• IF you get A LIST of words think about the ones that cannot be correct because of MEANING or GRAMMAR: try to guess 2 or 3 possible words

• You only scan the text

• As always: you do close reading when you found where the answer is.

• If you’re confused, try to find synonyms of words!!

Mistakes I made:

• Don’t spend too much time on reading the whole summary, just skim it, and then read carefully the first sentence step-by-step.

• Don’t be in a rush, even if you think that the answer is correct, make sure that the meaning of a summary MATCHES the sentence in the text. (keep reading if the assumed answer doesn’t make any sence)

Matching sentences

• PREDICTION is the king here

• You need to interpretate the main idea of the text and apply it to the sentence

• Start with incomplete sentences

• Spend more time on the FIRST QUESTION

• As always, synonyms and paraphrases

• the second part of a sentence may be written FAR WAY DIFFERENTLY. F.e. instead of a direct answer, an example or a situation could be put there

Sentence completion

• It’s a vocabulary test

• SYNONYMS and PARAPHRASING skills are especiallt required here

• If it says “ using the words from the text” then do NOT changet them at all

• words should GRAMATICALLY correct

• PREDICT what words and its forms can be used in the text

• Don’t worry if you don’t know the synonyms, just be aware of the meaning

• Be aware of two words to scan the location

Why is my score not increasing?

• The 4 tires system:

• 1) Strategy for each question type: You have to master the strategy, so you’ll be able to explain it automatically

• 2) Practice tests: Mastering strategies – doing the test with unlimited time;

• Doing the test under exam conditions and analyse you weak areas

• 3) Mistake analysis:

• Spelling

• Vocabulary

• Skills

• Strategy

• Particular type of question.

• 4) Work on your mistakes:

How to skim and scan?

• What kind of information – means What the paragraph is talking about

• You’re moving your eyes either from left to right by jumping through the words or just by going down.

• Get curious what kind of information do you expect to find?

• Depending on a genre or a context you may anticipate some information

• While scanning move your eyes in a zigzag pattern

• Instantly you should recognize the paraphrased information

• Kind of information: List of photography techniques

• You’ll certainly know that the list will consist of nouns and prolonged sentences

• And lists of things are often balanced