The Many Ways In Which Reading Mock Tests Are Useful
Taking an IELTS mock test is useful for the obvious reasons in that it can help you to gauge your current level, and it can help you determine if all of your hard work and preparation have been put to good use, by helping determine if you have improved your original level of reading proficiency. However, there are other ways in which you can benefit from taking the heading practice tests.
Improved Time Management
The more tests you take, you will find that you can complete them in a much faster manner. You will also get used to the various tricks and distractors that examiners use to throw candidates off.
Improving Vocabulary And Grammar
Another useful purpose for going through reading practice test passages is that they a packed with loads of useful vocabulary and phrases, that you can use for the reading test, and you can also learn the meaning of these words so that you can use them for both the speaking and writing tests. When you read the test passages, you will naturally come across new words or phrases. You also get the added benefit of seeing how these words are used naturally in different grammatical contexts. Doing this will give you a better understanding of how a word should be used and you can try and work out what they mean from the context in which you read them. Improving your vocabulary is useful for both the writing and speaking tests. Since one of the main criteria for achieving a band 7 in both writing and speaking involves the use of uncommon vocabulary.
Helps You To Practice Essential Reading Skills
Whenever you take a reading mock test, you can also use the passages to practice the skill of skimming. Skimming refers to the ability to go through a reading passage in order to get a general idea about it, without reading in detail. This helps one to quickly understand the layout of the passage, which is useful for when you have to scan the text in order to locate specific information required for questions in the IELTS reading test.
When you are going through a passage highlight what you think are the main points in the piece. This way you train yourself to identify the main points more quickly. When you are presented with a large chunk of text on test day, your eyes and brain will already be accustomed to sorting out the central themes and main points
Helps to get accustomed to the types of topics that you might be asked about during the speaking and writing tests.
Although it has never officially been mentioned, I’ve often noticed a striking overlap between the topics that appear in the reading passages and the questions that are asked during the speaking interview and the writing essay, which makes sense since the reading passages are usually sourced from actual academic texts. This means that instead of searching far and wide for suitable material to improve your topic specific vocabulary for the speaking and writing tests, you could kill two birds with one stone when you practice for the ielts reading test.