IELTS Reading Sample (Academic) #29

You have one hour to answer questions in three sections so divide up your time, carefully. The sections become increasingly difficult so allocate perhaps 15 minutes for the first section, 20 minutes for the second and 25 minutes for the third section.

Start each reading section by finding out what information you are looking for. Read the questions first. You will waste precious time if you try to read and understand everything.

• Read the heading. This will give you a good general idea of what the passage is about. Read through the questions quickly. How many are there? What sort of questions are they (sentence completion, diagram completion etc.)? This will help you focus when you read the text as you will have some ideas of what to look for.
• Scan and skim the text. You do not need to understand every detail. This is to get a general understanding of the passage. Turn back to the questions and begin to work through them, referring back to the passage as you need to and reading the important sections carefully and slowly.
• If you cannot answer a question, or it is taking you a long time, leave it and come back to it at the end.

When completing the practice tests, remember to write your answers straight onto the Answer Sheet. DO NOT write your answers on the question pages because in the real IELTS test all answers must be written on the Answer Sheet.