Skip to main content
How to Do Short Answer Type of Questions in IELTS Reading?

How to Do Short Answer Type of Questions in IELTS Reading?

3.4
(56 votes)

56,248

11/07/2018

Short answer questions are perhaps the easiest questions in IELTS reading exam. In these questions, you are to give your answers in one word and/or a number, at least two words and/or a number or at least three words and/or a number. Another thing about these questions is that you are able to find the answers easily as compared to the other type of questions. Let us see some useful tips about solving short answer type of questions.

Underline Keywords in the Question

 

The best strategy to solve any type of question in IELTS reading is to underline keywords in it. The main and important words in the question that help you to determine its meaning should be underlined. These are usually nouns, verbs etc. avoiding other words in the question such as prepositions, articles etc. For example,

 

Which programming language is used for designing DNA circuit?

 

How long was the biological structure that Voigt had designed?

 

In the above two short answer questions, the main keywords have been highlighted which you can prefer underlining in order to understand the question well and also, with the help of these keywords, you can find out one paragraph from the passage where you can find its reference.

 

 

Identify Focus in the Question

 

Now, other than underlining the important keywords in the question, you need to identify focus or stem of the question. Here, in short answer questions, you also need to keep your focus on words such as “what”, “where”, “when”, “which”, “how long” etc. so that you can predict whether your answer should be a word or a number, a noun or an adjective etc. Such words are important to avoid making silly mistakes as it is often seen that IELTS candidates do such mistakes in IELTS. For instance, in the above short answer questions, focus has been identified as follows:

 

Which programming language is used for designing DNA circuit?

 

How long was the biological structure that Voigt had designed?

 

Pay Attention to Nearby Words in Passage

 

While finding out answers from the reading passage, you can pay attention to words which are the same as you find in questions and which can help you to identify your answers. For example, in the above question, “is used for” is the phrase that you may find written in the passage also. Similarly, prepositions such as “in”, “had”, “have”, “at”, “into”, “for” etc. are also such you can look for to be the same between question and your IELTS reading passage.

 

Write Answers as per Word Instructions

 

A very basic yet important tip for short answer question is to always consider word instruction in your mind when you are locating your answers in the reading passage. Sometimes, you also have to write article such as “a”, “an” or “the” along with your answer. So, you should always be careful about the word instruction. Another thing to be always careful about is that you should never be having your answer written in more than three words in IELTS reading. – See more at: http://ieltsninja.com/short-answer-type-questions-ielts-reading/

Comments:

Related IELTS tips

Refresh

Time management is the key to a high band score in IELTS Reading

So before you start, try to imagine that you only have 50 minutes to complete

Reading Tips9,126

Free IELTS practice tests

The practice tests in the website below will offer you the opportunity to

Reading Tips9,379

How to Do Matching Heading Type of Questions in IELTS Reading?

Task description Headings are short sentences that summarise the information

Reading Tips31,844

Introduction of IELTS Reading

You have 60 minutes in which to read the three passages and answer 40 questions

Reading Tips16,936

Skimming and scanning in IELTS reading

Skimming Skimming is when you very quickly look though a text looking for a

Reading Tips22,701

Most popular IELTS tips

Refresh

IELTS Reading Tips (Previewing & Skimming)

There are a few main skills that you will need in order to do well in the IELTS

Reading Tips90,623

What to do when retaking the IELTS test

Mental Preparation Stress can be your worst enemy in exams if you do not know

Reading Tips18,733

How to solve the question type "Diagram/Flow Chart Completion" in IELTS Reading

Task description You are presented with a diagram/Flow Chart which shows some

Reading Tips57,036

How to Do Yes No Not Given Questions in IELTS Reading?

Be Careful About Instructions You should read the instructions well whether

Reading Tips61,665

30 Words That Can Be Confusing Even To Native Speakers

The famous British journalist Harold Evans has written down a vocabulary

Reading Tips114,486
Notifications
Messages