R09: Stop reading every word

If you read every word of every passage carefully before looking at the questions, you won't finish IELTS Reading. It's simple maths. And yet this is how most of us were taught to read in school. This lesson explains why it fails in IELTS, and what to do instead.

Why this matters

Let's do the maths. The three passages together have up to about 2,750 words. If you read carefully at around 150 words per minute, that's about 18 minutes just for one careful read. Then you still need to answer 40 questions, and you'll need to read parts again to find answers. You'll run out of time.

Why we read every word

• School habit. We were taught to read and understand the whole text before answering.
• Fear. "What if the answer is in the part I skipped?"
• Not trusting ourselves. We feel we need to understand everything to answer anything.

All of these are normal. None of them help in IELTS.

What strong readers do instead

1. Read the questions first. Know what you're looking for before you start.
2. Skim the passage. Two minutes. Main idea of each paragraph only (R06).
3. Scan for each answer. Use names, numbers and keywords to find the right place.
4. Read only that part carefully. Two or three sentences, not the whole page.

This way, you read most of the passage once, fast. You read only small parts carefully. That's how you finish on time.

But what if I miss something?

You will miss things, and that's fine. Most of a passage isn't tested. Around 13 questions test a small number of sentences. The rest is background. You don't need it.

A quick experiment

Read only the first sentence of each paragraph below. Then answer the question.

A Coffee was first grown in Ethiopia, according to most historians. Legend says a goat herder noticed his goats became energetic after eating the berries.

B From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Yemen. By the fifteenth century, it was being grown in the Arab world.

C In the seventeenth century, coffee reached Europe. Coffee houses became popular places for business and discussion.

Which paragraph talks about coffee arriving in Europe?

How to train yourself

• Use a timer. Give yourself 2 minutes to skim each passage. When time's up, stop.
• Read first sentences only. Practise writing the main idea of each paragraph from its first sentence.
• Answer one question at a time. Read a question, find its place, answer, then move to the next.

Honest note

In Passage 3, especially with opinion questions, you may need to read more carefully. Skimming isn't magic. It's a way to spend your careful reading where it matters.

Your task today

Take one passage. Skim it in 2 minutes. Then answer the questions without reading the whole passage again. Check your score.