Strategies and tips to improve your chances of doing well on the Short Answers section of the IELTS reading exam. For more English tutorials, please visit: https://www.thelecturette.com

1. Reading: Tips & Strategy
Short Answer Questions

2. Reading
• Content
• Skills Tested
• Example Questions
• Common Problems
• Tips and Advice
• Strategy

3. Reading
• Skills Tested
• The ability to skim a text quickly and
understand the overall meaning.
• The ability to scan for specific information.
• Understanding the question being asked.
• Identifying keywords.
• Thinking of possible synonyms and
paraphrases of keywords.

4. Reading
• Example

5. Reading
• Common Problems
• Some students look for words in the text
that directly match those in the questions
instead of for synonyms and paraphrases.
This wastes a lot of time.
• Students get answers wrong because they
write more than the stated word limit.
• Students write full sentences. Your
answers don’t need to be grammatically
correct, so, again, stay within the word
limit.

6. Reading
• More Common Problems
• Students read every word of the text while
these questions test the ability to skim and
scan for specific information. There is no
time to read every word.
• Students see a word that they don’t
understand in the question or the text and
spend too much time thinking about the
meaning.

7. Reading
• Tips
• The answers appear in the same order as
the text.
• Look at and understand the questions first,
before reading the text. What is the
question actually asking?
• Make sure you stay within the word limit.
• Give short, concise answers. Your
answers do not need to be grammatically
correct.

8. Reading
• More Tips
• Don’t give your opinion. Use the answer in
the text.
• Keywords in the question will normally be
nouns or noun phrases.
• When you find keywords always think
about synonyms and paraphrases.

9. Reading
• Strategy
• Read the questions carefully and note the
word limit.
• Read and understand the questions
carefully. Think about the information you
will need to find.
• Underline the keywords in the question.
• Think about synonyms and paraphrases
for these keywords.

10. Reading
• More Strategy
• Find the part of the text the question
relates to.
• Read the question again.
• Read the section containing the answer
carefully and identify the answer.
• Continue with the next question and
repeat until finished.