Welcome to this presentation about the reading section of the IBT Test. As mentioned the reading section is designed to measure your ability to read and understand academic texts. You also had a chance to see some sample questions. Now, we are going to learn more about what you can expect and how we can get ready for these questions. The three reading passages are about 700 words long and have about 10 questions each. You have about 54-72 minutes to read and answer the questions. These passages are taken from university-level, textbooks and are hardly modified. That means they are not edited for the test purpose too much. As you can see, the reading passage will appear on the right side of the screen and questions on the left side. As you saw in the last slide, there is a very useful feature called the review button. By clicking on the "Review" button on the top toolbar, you can see a list of all the questions to help you check if you answered all the questions or skipped some. Also, by clicking on the question on the list you can locate it in the passage. If you want to leave the review and return to the place where you were working in the test, click on the "Return" button. In this picture, you can see what the screen looks like once you click on the "Review" button. Before we continue, let's review the question types briefly. As you can see, there are nine different types of questions in each passage and there are various question types in each set or the entire reading section. There are one, factual questions 2-3 questions per set. Two, negative factual questions 0-2 questions per set, three, vocabulary questions 3-4 questions per set. Four, rhetorical purpose questions 1-2 questions per set. Five, inference questions 1-2 questions per set. Six, sentence simplification questions. None or one question. Seven, insert text questions, one question per set. Eight, summary questions, one question per set. Nine, fill in a table one question per set. If the passage has difficult or technical vocabulary or words data are usually used only for specific topics, the vocabulary will be glossed. These words or phrases will be underlined in blue and if you click on them, you will get a short definition. There may be up to 2-3 glossed expressions per passage. The ETS website has multiple short videos about each question. If you have never taken the test before and need to see what the questions look like check out this link. However, the next presentation will show you the specific link to each type of question. Now, before we learn how to approach each question, there are a few steps you can take to prepare yourself for the reading section. First, take sampled reading tests to find out what questions you may need to practice more. For example, you may do well on factual questions, but may need to practice inference questions. You can find some great sample tests on the ETS website. Second, find out what type of question you're looking at. This will help you know how to find the right answer. If you look at this strategy in the second presentation. Third, skim passages for about 2-3 minutes to get the general impression of the main idea. Fourth, practice frequently to increase the speed of reading. You can do so by choosing any academic text that you're interested in. Finally, consistently add to your academic vocabulary. You will learn more about vocabulary in module 4. In the next presentation, we will explore each question type in detail.
