Introduction

Who is this book for?

Get Ready for IELTS Reading has been written for learners with a band score of 3 or 4 who want to achieve a higher score. Using this book will help you improve your pre-intermediate reading skills for the IELTS Academic Reading test.

You can use Get Ready for IELTS Reading:

• as a self-study course. We recommend that you work systematically through the 12 units in order to benefit from its progressive structure.
• as a supplementary reading skills course for IELTS preparation classes. The book provides enough material for approximately 50 hours of classroom activity.

Get Ready for IELTS Reading

• This book consists of 12 units. Each unit focuses on a different topic and these topics are ones that often appear in the IELTS exam.
• After every three units, there is a Review unit which helps you to revise the language and skills covered in the previous units.
• At the end of the book the Practice test gives you the opportunity to take an IELTS-style test under test conditions.
• There is also a full Answer key at the back of the book so you can check your answers. Here you will find suggested answers for more open-ended questions and model answers for the exam practice questions in Part 3 of the unit.
• The Glossary at the back of the book lists the useful words from each unit with their Cobuild dictionary definitions.

Unit structure

Part 1: Language development provides exercises on vocabulary related to the topic as well as any relevant grammar points related to the IELTS Task covered in the unit. Clear structures are provided.

Part 2: Skills development provides information and practice on the task types you will come across in the IELTS Reading test. An explanation of each task type is followed by exercises of increasing difficulty. These exercises give you the opportunity to practise the skills that are needed to complete the task, and they help you to develop strategies for completing these tasks in the test.

Part 3: Exam practice provides realistic exam practice questions for the tasks you have been practising, in a format that follows the actual exam. You can use this to check your progress towards being ready for the test.

Finally, a checklist summarises the key points covered in the unit.

Other features

Exam information boxes in each unit provide key background information about the IELTS Reading exam.

Exam tip boxes provide essential exam techniques and strategies.

Watch out! boxes highlight common errors in the exam.

Study tips

• Each unit contains approximately three hours of study material.

• Try to answer the questions without looking at a dictionary to develop the skill of guessing the meaning of unknown words from context. This is important because dictionaries cannot be used during the actual exam.

• Use a pencil to complete the exercises, so that you can erase your first answers and do the exercises again for revision.

• Try to revise what you have learnt in Parts 1 and 2 before doing the practice IELT S questions in Part 3. This will improve the quality of your answers, and using the new language will help you to remember it.

• It's recommended that you try and complete all questions in the unit as the skills needed to do well at the IELT S test can only be improved through extensive practice.

• Read the answer key carefully as this provides information on what kind of answer is awarded high marks.

• In Part 3 you are given the opportunity to put the strategies that you have learnt in Part 2 into practice. Remember to read the question carefully and complete the task in the exact way you have been asked. Do not assume that you know a particular task because you have practised similar ones in the past. There may be slight variations in the tasks in the actual IELT S test.

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