IELTS reading practice and tests
Sunday, May 17, 2009 Posted by Dominic
There are any number of resources for reading for IELTS on the internet. As always, however, not everything you find is of the highest quality, so I have selected the best resources here. Some of these resources are IELTS specific, others are more general. The IELTS resources will help you with your exam skills, while the more general reading resources will help you by boosting your vocabulary and general language skills. It would be a mistake to practise one without the other, as you will likely need both.
British Council - top recommendation
British Council have excellent practice resources for reading on their website with practice texts and exam papers
Edict
Edict is particularly good on reading with practice exercises and explanations for gapfill, matching and word completion exercises. Highly recommended.
Holmesglen
Holmesglen - another highly recommended site. Practice exercises with specific advice on how to approach different types of questions including: summary completion, matching headings to paragraphs, multiple choice, selecting factors, table completion, sentence completion and short answer questions
IELTS Self Access
IELTS Self Access 1 - a lesson on summary and table completion
IELTS Self Access 2 - a lesson in multiple choice format
IELTS Self Access 3 - a lesson with true, false, not given questions
Canadavisa
test 1: a complete general IELTS practice test
test 2: another complete general IELTS practice test
Exam English
Exam English 1
Exam English 2
Exam English 3
IELTS HELP NOW
Ieltshelpnow - one exercise with summary completion
One Stop English
One Stop English - not in IELTS format, but a large variety of useful reading tests based on the Guardian Weekly - high quality.
ELC IELTS
ELC IELTS - excellent advice on different exercise types: the exercises may not open, but the following links should.
Timed exercise 1
Timed exercise 2
Timed exercise 3
IELTS Worldwide
IELTS worldwide - short sample reading test in multiple choice format.
General reading resources and skills
UEfAP
UEfAP reading - general introduction
Efficient reading skills: very highly recommended
Sample academic texts: also highly recommended: academic texts broken down into subject areas- excellent reading practice.
Newspapers
Words in the news from the BBC is an excellent resource for you to improve your reading and vocabulary skills.
RSS feeds
RSS feeds are an excellent free way to practise your reading for the IELTS exam. I have organised these feeds into the main topic areas for the exam.
Reading is definitely a skill you need to practise, but it is important you try and do it in the right way. There are a variety of reading skills you need to practise:
Gist reading and reading quickly
Reading for speed: this is not quite the same as gist reading, it's just what it says. It's a skill you need because you have to read and process a lot of information very quickly in the exam.
British Council - top recommendation
British Council have excellent practice resources for reading on their website with practice texts and exam papers
Edict
Edict is particularly good on reading with practice exercises and explanations for gapfill, matching and word completion exercises. Highly recommended.
Holmesglen
Holmesglen - another highly recommended site. Practice exercises with specific advice on how to approach different types of questions including: summary completion, matching headings to paragraphs, multiple choice, selecting factors, table completion, sentence completion and short answer questions
IELTS Self Access
IELTS Self Access 1 - a lesson on summary and table completion
IELTS Self Access 2 - a lesson in multiple choice format
IELTS Self Access 3 - a lesson with true, false, not given questions
Canadavisa
test 1: a complete general IELTS practice test
test 2: another complete general IELTS practice test
Exam English
Exam English 1
Exam English 2
Exam English 3
IELTS HELP NOW
Ieltshelpnow - one exercise with summary completion
One Stop English
One Stop English - not in IELTS format, but a large variety of useful reading tests based on the Guardian Weekly - high quality.
ELC IELTS
ELC IELTS - excellent advice on different exercise types: the exercises may not open, but the following links should.
Timed exercise 1
Timed exercise 2
Timed exercise 3
IELTS Worldwide
IELTS worldwide - short sample reading test in multiple choice format.
General reading resources and skills
UEfAP
UEfAP reading - general introduction
Efficient reading skills: very highly recommended
Sample academic texts: also highly recommended: academic texts broken down into subject areas- excellent reading practice.
Newspapers
Newspapers are a great free resource where you can practise your English on a daily basis
Words in the news from the BBC is an excellent resource for you to improve your reading and vocabulary skills.
RSS feeds
RSS feeds are an excellent free way to practise your reading for the IELTS exam. I have organised these feeds into the main topic areas for the exam.
Reading skills
Reading is definitely a skill you need to practise, but it is important you try and do it in the right way. There are a variety of reading skills you need to practise:
Gist reading and reading quickly
Reading for speed: this is not quite the same as gist reading, it's just what it says. It's a skill you need because you have to read and process a lot of information very quickly in the exam.
19 May 2009 at 07:10
I found the practice papers on IELTS particularly helpful. I think the key is to find the right amount of balance between general studies and IELTS specific approaches. I also feel that it is much better to go for a comprehensive preparation on all topics rather than focusing on a few areas of interest or concern.
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