What should I read for attempting short answers type questions in IELTS reading?
A very common question of IELTS aspirants do I need to read every word of the passage for attempting short answers type questions in IELTS reading?
Short answer questions are perhaps the easiest questions in IELTS reading examination. In these questions, you need to give your answers in just one or two words and/or number. The another thing about these questions is that you are able to find the answers easily as compared to the other type of questions.
Let’s see some worthwhile tips about solving short answer type of questions.
*Mark keywords in the question – The best strategy to solve any type of Question in IELTS reading is to underline keywords in it. The striking and important words in the question that assist you to determine its meaning should be underlined.
These are usually nouns, verbs, etc. avoiding other words in the question such as prepositions, articles etc.
To cite an example:-
Which programming language is used for designing DNA circuit?
How long was the biological structure that Michael had designed?
In the above two short answer questions, the main keywords have been highlighted which you can prefer underlining in order to understand the question well and also, with the help of these keywords, you can find out one paragraph from the passage where you can find its reference.
*Identify focus in the question:-
Now, other than underlining the important keywords in the question, you need to identify focus or stem of the question. Here, in short answer questions, you also require to keep your concentration on words such as “What”, “where”, “when”, “which”, “how long” etc. so that you can predict whether your answers should be a word or a number, a noun or an adjective etc.
Such words are important to avoid making silly errors as it is often seen that IELTS candidates do such mistakes in IELTS. For instance, in the above 2 short answer questions, focus has been identified as follows: which programming language is used for designing DNA circuit?
How long was the biological structure that Michael had designed?
Pay attention to nearby words in passage
While seeking out answers from the reading passage, you can pay attention to words which are the same as you find in questions and which can aid you to identify your answers. For example, in the above question, “is used for” is the best phrase that you may find written in the passage also. Similarly, prepositions such as “in”, “had”, “have”, “at”, “into”, “for” etc. are also such you can look for to be the same between question and your IELTS reading passage.
Write answers as per the instructions.
A very fundamental tip for short answer questions is to always consider word instruction in your mind when you are locating your answers in the reading passage. Sometimes you also have to write article such as “a”, “an”, or “the” along with your answer. So, you should always be careful about the word instruction. Another thing to be always attentive about is that you should never be having your answer written in more than three words in the IELTS reading.
For more tips for solving short answer questions click here.
THANK YOU:)
attempting short answers type questions
attempting short answers type questions