13 Tips IELTS Speed Reading - How To Read Fast 2021

How much time will it take you to read three texts and also answer 40 questions? You will say more than one hour.

That's why today I'm gonna give you 13 Tips on speed reading that will help you to deal with those long passages quickly and efficiently. Let's get started.

How To Read Fast

Tip 1. Read Extensively

My tip number one is to read extensively. There are two ways to read in a foreign language:

1. Read intensively 
2. Read extensively 

When we learned English, we're typically taught to read slowly to try to understand. Everything you read to write down. The words you don't know and translate them into the dictionary. That's an intensive reading and it's very slow. However, there is a good chance that you've developed a habit of reading like that in English.

What's the alternative? It is to read extensively trying to understand the general idea behind the text without paying attention to words you don't know of things, you don't understand. It's much much faster.

Tip 2. Quit Re-Reading

Stop rereading. Re-reading sentences is one of the biggest time sucks in IELTS reading. Most likely you will read the sentence again. You will spend time. But you will not gain much comprehension. Only re-read the sentence, if you know that it contains an answer to a certain question. Never re-read anything. Simply to gain more understanding.

Tip 3. Skim

Skimming is a must-know tactic for IELTS reading. That's when you quickly look through the text, trying to understand what information is there.

In normal life with skim newspapers to find out what's happened and to find interesting news to read. We also skim a new book to decide if we want to buy it or not. When you're skimming an IELTS  reading text, look for dates, surname,s any other specific names or concepts and highlight all these keywords. When you're looking for an answer, you'll be able to navigate this text much more quickly.

Tip 4. Read Topic Sentences 

Another way of skimming is to read topic sentences in any well-written academic text, like those used in the IELTS exam. As the first sentence of each paragraph tells you what this paragraph is about. These are called topic sentences and if you read all topic sentences you get a decent understanding of what the whole text is about.

Tip 5. Scan

Scanning is what you do when you're looking for a specific word in the text, offer an answer to a specific IELTS question. This skill requires you to concentrate on what you're looking for and ignore all the irrelevant and confusing information of which you will find plenty in IELTS reading. If you've highlighted all the keywords while skimming the text you'll be able to scan it more quickly.

Tip 6. Turn Off The Voice In Your Head

Tip number six turn off the voice in your head. Most of us read by pronouncing words in our head. This loves down your reading to your speaking speed. And we speak quite slowly. Our eyes and brain are actually able to process information much faster, During the IELTS exam try not to pronounce all the words in your head. It will speed you up but when you're trying to better understand the question or when you found a sentence as it contains an answer and you're trying to understand what the sensories do. 

Tip 7. Read Phrases - Not Words

Read phrases, not words, that's a skill that needs to be learned before it can be used effectively. Basically, our eyes span is one and a half-inch. It means we can read up to nine words at a time at least. We can definitely read three words at a time.

But most people read every word and we slowly move our eyes, reading all the prepositions and articles and it takes time. You could move your eyes to the second word in the line, then to the 5th, to the 7th by jumping a bit. You will still read as a whole line but you'll be able to read more quickly as I told you it needs to be practiced.

Few Psychological Tips That Effect Your Reading Skill

Tip 1. Positive Attitude

The first one is to start reading with a positive attitude. So, I see this all the time, students don't look happy while doing the reading. They look like they're sad or depressed or they're going to make a lot of mistakes. When you do that it's really hard to be positive and get the right answers. Do your reading like you're going to understand what you're reading. Don't think, oh! I won't understand anything. Because that will become true. 

So, you think, ok! this looks like an easy text. I can do this. My English is good enough. I can find the answers. I can understand the main ideas. I know what to do. Be positive. If you feel lazy or negative whenever you do anything you don't do it very well.

For Instance: if you go out for a run and you want to run around the block. But, if you're feeling sad and negative you're not going to run very well. Your feeling would be like that I'm not going to run quickly. It's not going to feel good the same with your reading. If you think it's tough, it will be tough. If you think you will make mistakes, you will make more mistakes. Have a positive attitude think what is possible, I won't get them all but I can get most of these answers. 

 

Tip 2. Clear Goal

Have a clear goal before you start reading. Reading is not something, we do just, in general. We generally have a purpose. We have a reason, why we are reading in IELTS or if that purpose is very clear:

•  I'm reading to find the answer to this question 
• I'm scanning to find the date that the question asks 
• I'm scanning for a name 
• I'm skimming for the main idea of the paragraph

You have a clear purpose. Don't just read and then oh! I don't know what to remember. You need to have a purpose:

• It might be to skim and get a general understanding 
• It might be to scan and find specific information
• It might be to learn new vocabulary or for enjoyment 

But in IELTS it is usually skimming and scanning looking for the answers, looking for keywords, matching to the questions. Why are you reading this paragraph or this sentence? You have to have a purpose you have to know what you are looking for.

 

Tip 3. Use A Guide To Control Your Eye

Use a guide to control your eyes this might sound a bit strange. Why guide? I mean your finger or a ruler or a pencil that you can use to move along the line. So your eyes know what to follow. They can follow along with this, which helps you to read faster because you can start moving your pencil faster. It helps you stay focused instead of getting lost on the page, especially for a big paragraph. So it can help you the thinner or the more narrow.

The guide is better because you don't want to get in the way like I am unable to see the words, so use something that you can just use to help you increase your speed. It will help you stay focused.

Tip 4. Don't Move Your Mouth

Another tip for increasing reading speed is, don't move your mouth. So you are reading for understanding and you are thinking of the ideas. Your brain and your eyes work much faster than your mouth. You are not reading out loud or you're not speaking to somebody. So, don't move your mouth when you are reading. It could be silly advice but try and practice. I am sure you will get results. Even just beside like don't do it, don't move your mouth you can go much faster.

Tip 5. Put Yourself Under Time Pressure

Put yourself under time, In order to improve, do it while you're practicing IELTS reading. You get one hour to complete three passages and solve 40 questions. Don't just practice doing one passage in 20 minutes and get that down. 

If you can be faster in reading, you have more chairs, more time to transfer, more time to check for mistakes, more time to be careful. So, try to in 19 minutes and the next time 17 minutes and then the next time trying to get your time down. But keep the points or you'll score the same or improved. 

Having a clock there, which you will have in the exam, watching the minutes tick down that helps you move more quickly, it stops you from getting distracted. So, using time pressure is a good way to improve reading speed.

Bottom Line

Hope you enjoyed my tips on speed reading. I have another article regarding tips on How to Find Reading Answer Click Here.

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