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Answer all questions. There is no negative marking for incorrect answers. The reading test is considered by many to be the most difficult part of IELTS. And with some justification. You have to read 3 long sections, each with multiple paragraphs, and answer 40 questions . Unlike the listening test, no extra time is given at the end to transfer your answers to the answer sheet. Time can be a major constraint since you only have an hour to finish the test. Start by reading the How to prepare for IELTS - Reading test manual at the Hong Kong City University site to familiarize yourself with the test, the types of questions that are asked and strategies for answering them. The key to doing well in this part is practice. Read newspapers, magazines and books. Try and improve your reading skills and speed. Do the practice tests in Cambridge IELTS 3. The most important thing to understand is that the test does NOT assess your comprehension of the paragraphs. It does NOT test how well you have understood the passage. It tests specific skills called Scanning and Skimming. Scanning is what one does, for example, when looking for a phone number in a directory. You know the specific information you are looking for and you go down the page quickly to find it. This technique is used when answering questions such as multiple-choice and matching. You scan the passage to quickly find the information mentioned in the question. Once you find it, you get the answer from the passage and write it against the question. | 
