Improving vocabulary for the IELTS Reading Test.

Today's best IELTS tip is about improving your vocabulary for the Reading Test.

OK, first of all, you should read everything you can.  The ideal situation (if you usually read in your own language) would be to constantly have a book in English 'on the go').  In any case, aside from reading English for pleasure, you need to be reading intensively in English for 10/15 minutes a day.  So what do I mean, 'intensively'?  Well, you need to take note of how the author uses cohesive devices, both within and between sentences, how the grammatical structures are formed, what verb tense is used and why, which prepositons are used and if certain verbs are always followed by that preposition etc.  This intensive reading will improve both your reading and your writing for the Writing Tes.

So, now on to the title of this post; 'Improving your vocabulary for the IELTS Reading Test'.  You need to train yourself to work out or guess the meaning of words rather than immediately reaching for the dicionary (you can always use the dictionary to confirm later).  You should be taking into account any prefixes or suffixes and how these change the root of a word.  This will help you to prepare for the Reading Test in which you are not allowed to refer to a dictionary.

When noting down new vocabulary, it should note it down in 'famillies'; note down related words and how the word is used in context.  You should also note down the different parts of speech of the word; for example, if the word is a noun, what is it's verbal or adjectival form

For speaking test tips, why not download my free IELTS Speaking report; Speaking Test Tips from an IELTS Tutor.  I'm sure you'll find it useful!

If you're enjoying my best IELTS tips, why not look me up on 'youtube'.  My channel is 'bestieltsonline'.

 

Alanna