"Do you have effective tips or strategies to solve the IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions?"

You might have heard IELTS aspirants ask this question to either their tutors or other candidates preparing for the exam. Or you might be the one who have asked this question if you are involved in IELTS Test preparation.

Multiple Choice Questions is quite a common yet challenging question type asked in IELTS Academic & General Training Reading tests. To ace this task and win a Band 7 or more in the module, it is crucial that you have a proper understanding regarding this question type.

A close look on IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple Choice Questions will be asked in either of the following two forms in your IELTS Test:

1. Complete the sentence
2. Answer a given question

These Multiple Choice Questions are of three different types. You may be asked any one type from the following:

1. Choose 1 out of 4 alternatives
2. Choose 2 out of 5 alternatives
3. Choose 3 out of 7 alternatives

Thus, it is essential to read and understand the given instructions carefully before you select the best suitable answer from the given options. Further, the questions are asked in the same order as the information provided in the sentence or passage.

This question type particularly aims to determine your ability to understand the central idea of the passage and locate the information asked in the question.

Sounds simple, right?

But, why do test takers lose their marks in this question type?

Here are some common mistakes that candidates usually make!

1. Reading the passage blindly

Without knowing what questions are asked, candidates start reading the passage. While reading, they are unaware of what they are looking for. So, they first complete reading the passage and then read the questions. Then, they re-read the passage to search the answer. This wastes time and they might not be able to complete the task in given time.

2. Answering just by reading first half of the sentence

While reading the text, it happens that candidates read half of the sentence and locates the information he/she is looking for. They assume that part of the sentence to be correct and write their answer without further reading the sentence. But, there are possibilities that the second half of the sentence might change the meaning and the answer written turns out to be wrong.

Usually, words like 'but', 'however' and more change the meaning of the whole text. So, examiners trick the candidates by using such words and thus altering the sense of the sentence.

3. Reading the text in a hurry

One cannot understand the given text in context while reading in a hurry. When a candidate reads the text hurriedly, there are chances that he/she might overlook the correct answers. So, wherever candidates find the keyword or its synonym while reading the passage, they consider it to be correct and note it as their answer. Answers selected in this way proves to be incorrect many a times and the candidate ends up losing marks.

4. Falling in the trap of an Examiner

Examiners are well aware of the 'distractors' that can trick candidates in the exam. What are these distractors? Well, distractors are actually wrong answers that appear right.

All the possible answers for a given question will have at least one synonym or keyword that matches the given text. These are kept to confuse the candidate. If the text is not read properly, a candidate chooses these distractors as their answer and loses marks.

To get rid of these mistakes and to ensure that you consistently get all your answers right, it requires you to develop a specific strategy. Here, we have shared some of the proven tips and strategies that aspirants have used in their actual IELTS Test and achieved their desired score.

• Read the instructions carefully. Check whether it demands you to select one, two or more correct answers from the given alternatives.
• Read and understand the questions properly. You can read the given text to find the correct answer
• Skim the text so as to obtain the central idea
• Underline the keywords while reading the text so that you can find the answers easily
• Locate the part of the text with either the keywords or their synonyms, read it carefully, understand it in context and then decide if it fits as the answer to the question asked
• If you locate keywords in more than one part of the text, read them properly and understand the difference in their meaning. Then, you can choose the best suitable answer.
• Make sure that you crosscheck the question, re-read the text where you found the answer and then finalize which option is correct
• Eliminating wrong options is also one of the ways to find the correct answer
• If you are running out of time or are unable to find the right answer, make a guess. You will not lose marks if the answer is wrong. So, it is better to write something than nothing.

Attempt free IELTS Practice Tests at IELTS Tutorials and ensure that you don't lose marks in this highly scoring question type. Seek advice from experts and improve your performance. Besides, one of the important skills required to easily ace the IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions is Skimming and Scanning.

Multiple Choice questions in the IELTS Reading test can be tricky. But, you need not worry, our tips and tricks will help you get better. Why not, try these tips in your next practice test. You can access a great number of IELTS Practice Tests and become an expert in the Multiple Choice question types!