How IELTS Reading is assessed and marked

Marking and Assessment

The Reading test contains 40 questions and each correct answer is given one mark.

However, because the texts in the Academic Reading Test are more challenging overall than those in the General Training Test, more questions need to be answered correctly on a General Training Test to receive the same grade.

Any answer which is above the word limit specified for the task will not receive a mark, so it is important to read the instructions carefully.

For questions where you have to write letters or Roman numbers, write only the number of answers required.

For questions where you have to complete a gap, write only the missing word(s) on the answer sheet.

Make sure you answer the questions asked. It might help to read the questions before you read the passage.
Manage your time. Do not spend too much time on a question you find difficult. Answer the others and then come back to it.
Look at visuals and subtitles to get a general idea of what the passage is about.
Identify the topic sentence in each paragraph. This will give you a clue to the answers.
Use reading strategies such as skimming and scanning to help you find the answers. Don’t worry if you do not know the meaning of every single word in the text. Try to guess the meaning of the words you don’t know from the context.
Correct grammar and spelling are important.
Make sure you go through your answers to check if they are relevant to the questions asked and if the language used is correct.

I’m Jonathan

I’ve taught IELTS and University English in more than a dozen universities and schools around the world.

I’m a parent, traveller and passionate about language teaching and helping students achieve their dreams.

Whilst living in Austria or working in Asia, I run IELTS courses to help students get to where they want to be.

If you are serious about IELTS, connect with me to see how I can help you.