IELTS Reading time management: a 60-minute plan that gets you to the last question

If you regularly leave questions blank at the end of IELTS Reading, your band is being limited by time, not by your English. Of all the problems in IELTS, this is one of the easiest to fix.

The 60-minute plan

Passage 1 is usually the easiest, so bank a few minutes there. Look at the clock when you finish each passage. If you are more than three minutes behind, speed up on the next one rather than hoping to catch up at the end.

For each passage

1. Skim (2–3 minutes). Read the title, any subheading, the first sentence of each paragraph and the last paragraph. You want a map of the passage, not the details.
2. Read the questions in a set. Underline the key words, especially names, numbers, dates and technical terms that will be easy to find.
3. Scan, then read closely. Find the part of the passage the question refers to, then read two or three sentences around it carefully.
4. Answer and move on.

Most questions follow the order of the passage. Matching headings, matching information and some multiple choice may not.

Matching headings

This is the question type that takes the most time if you get the approach wrong.

• Do it first for that passage. It forces you to understand each paragraph, which helps with the other questions.
• Read the whole paragraph, not just the first sentence. Topic sentences can be misleading.
• Look for the main idea, not a detail. A heading that matches one sentence is usually a distractor.
• Cross off headings as you use them. There are always more headings than paragraphs.

When you get stuck

Set yourself a rule: if you have spent about 90 seconds on a question and you're no closer, pick the most likely answer, flag it and move on. On computer, use the review flag in the navigation bar. On paper, put a small mark next to it.

Why? Two easier questions later in the test are worth more than one hard question now, and there is no penalty for wrong answers.

Speed comes from reading, not tricks

Tips help, but the main reason people run out of time is slow reading of academic English. Twenty minutes a day of reading longer articles from sources like The Conversation, New Scientist or the science pages of a newspaper builds speed faster than any technique. Read for gist first, then go back to unfamiliar words.

A note for General Training

GT Section 1 and 2 texts are short, and many candidates finish them quickly and then spend too long on Section 3, which is one long article. Aim to start Section 3 with at least 22 minutes left.

Practise under real timing

Doing a passage without a timer teaches you to read; doing a full 60-minute test teaches you to manage the time. The AIL practice tests run the full 60 minutes with a countdown and show you, afterwards, which passage your wrong and blank answers came from.