IELTS Reading Section

IELTS Reading section assesses a candidate’s ability to synthesize information that has been read. Other major skills tested include: being able to identify the main idea or theme of the text, judging which information is important and which isn’t, being able to decipher the author’s opinion, understanding which statements help in the making of an argument, and being able to understand implicit meaning.

IELTS Reading Test Structure

  • The Reading part of the test extends for a total time of 60 minutes and consists of 40 questions divided into three sections in all.
  • Even here, there are many different types of question types like multiple-choice, information identification, matching, sentence and summary completions.
  • All the questions are posed based upon the texts that each section consists of.
  • The Academic module of IELTS exams consists of one long text for each section followed by questions.
  • The first section of the General Training module consists of three short passage texts, second section consists of two short texts and the third section consists of one long text.

ExamFocus’ Practice Support

Ensure that you have practiced this section well before you decide to take the test. After all, a perfect score can be achieved only if you practice and prepare well. Use ExamFocus’ General sample practice questions and Academic sample practice questions to get yourself ready for the IELTS Reading section.

Testing & Scoring Scheme

  • The Reading test is divided into three sections, each of which contains a long text.
  • Forty questions are based on these three texts and they are to be completed within sixty minutes.
  • These Reading texts or passages are picked up from varied sources. These include newspapers, magazines, journals, periodicals, etc.
  • All of them have some academic value but are based on topics that can be easily understood by an average reader.
  • Each correct answer scores one mark. Thus, the total score is the total number of correct answers out of a maximum score of forty. This constitutes the raw score. As IELTS scores are reported on a band scale of 1 to 9, the raw score is converted into a band score.