Introduction to IELTS ACADEMIC READING MODULE

The Academic Reading Test spreads over 3 sections containing 40 questions in total. You are given a total of 60 minutes to answer these questions.

Unlike IELTS listening, you are not provided with additional time to transfer your answers to a separate answer sheet. That means your answering will be an on-going process.

Once you have found an answer to a particular question it’s always advisable to transfer immediately so as to save time and to avoid mistakes. Some candidates prefer to do this in the last five or ten minutes but most of them hardly ever succeed. They are also prone to make a plenty of mistakes in terms of spelling, grammar and capitalization. So beware of the mistakes as you will always be penalized for doing so.

So, how are each section organized?

All the three sections are organized similar to one another in terms of comprehension passages. But the question types may vary. Each section has a 900-950 words long text followed by 13-15 questions.

What type of questions will I get?

Well, you will be getting a variety of question types such as , matching headings with paragraphs, matching information with paragraphs, multiple choice questions, yes/no/not given questions, true/false/not given questions, fill in the blanks, labeling a diagram etc.

Here is a short official video from the British Council - introducing the Reading Module along with some useful tips.

What’s the difference between IELTS Academic Reading Test and IELTS General Reading Test?

Even though the academic and general speaking and listening tests are graded in the same manner, the reading and the writing tests are graded differently. This is because of the difference that generally relies on the type of texts that candidates get and the way the marks are scaled. Check out the band score scaling for Academic and General Reading Tests.

IELTS academic candidates will be getting more advance texts related to academic topics designed for non-specialist audience. Which means the reading passages are usually taken form authentic sources like newspapers, magazines, books, website articles etc.

For your information, IELTS general reading test takers need to score more out of 40 questions in order to receive a higher band score. This is due to the questions which are generally based on short, day-to-day authentic materials such as, journals, advertisements, periodicals, magazines, official documents, and newspapers etc. which are commonly considered to be easier in vocabulary and complexity than that of academic reading passages.

Any queries on the Academic Reading Module can be dealt with in the Discussion room.