Interesting Concept of Keywords in IELTS Exam Reading Module

Last Updated on April 17, 2024 by Ali Hamza

For many individuals, IELTS reading is demanding and confounding. If so, reading this article might help soothe your fears and worries about the reading portion of the IELTS exam. Some individuals hold to the misguided assumption that passing the IELTS exam with only writing and speaking scores is sufficient. They believe that putting up a lot of energy in each of these segments will be adequate to earn them a high band score. But this thought process is wildly incorrect. The IELTS exam so requires consistent efforts for every module. Additionally, your individual performance in the modules will determine your band score overall. As a result, you must give the reading segment your whole attention.

You know you have got limited time to read the passage and give the answers. So, use your time very wisely. An effective technique to do well in the reading module is to look for the vital keywords in the passage. Now locating keywords might seem challenging to new learners. Hence this article will help you know how to locate keywords from the passage. If you want to prepare for the IELTS exam in the most effective manner then join the top IELTS institute in Jalandhar.

Keep reading the article to understand the concept of keywords in an effective manner for the reading module in the IELTS Exam

Locating the keywords 

Finding keywords isn’t too difficult. Most of the time the keywords are associated with the date, time, name of a personality, town, or any other object. Sometimes statistical data or any other numerical information can also be your keyword. Basically, any such relevant fact which will help you in finding the answers to the given questions will be your keyword.

Many of you must be thinking that there will be several keywords in the passage. Does this imply that they will have to highlight each and every word? Well to avoid this we advise you to read the questions thoroughly and then proceed towards the passage. You will then have an idea about those specific keywords that will help you find the answer. You can keep going back to the questions even while reading the passage. So to locate the keywords in your IELTS exam, you should read all the questions carefully before you begin reading the passage.

How is it beneficial?

We’ll make you understand the importance of locating keywords with the help of an example.  So let’s say that there is a question related to some historical date then you can simply go to the passage and find the highlighted keyword ( the date). You can then read those particular lines and thus get the relevant information for your answer.

Now if you didn’t have highlighted the keyword then you will have to go through the passage again to find out where that date has been mentioned. It would waste a significant amount of time. But locating the keywords earlier enabled you to quickly get to your answer within a few seconds. Hence it helps you save lots of time and reduce your stress. Now make sure you write the correct spellings while copying the information from the passage. Often students make silly spelling mistakes that lower their scores on the IELTS exam. 

Keywords and questions can differ

If you have understood the method and benefit of locating the keywords then you should pay attention to an important concept. See it is not always necessary that the question and the keyword will be the same. You might have to look for the synonyms of the words stated in the question. This is done to check if the student possesses a good vocabulary. See if you have a good vocabulary and knowledge of the common synonyms and antonyms then you can easily understand them. Well, this can sound quite confusing to you. We will make it easier for you with the help of the below example- 

Question- 

Why was she flabbergasted by the betrayal of her acquaintances? 

Passage statement 

She didn’t have a friendly relationship with her colleagues. But still, she was left astonished by their backstabbing. The reasons for her shock were multifold………………………………………………….

Now observe the above example closely. All the keywords mentioned in the passage are synonyms of the ones in the question. So in the question, the words flabbergasted, betrayal, and acquaintances are mentioned. You start reading the passage to locate any of these three keywords in your passage. But you fail to find any of them. Your mind starts spinning into confusion and anxiety. And ultimately you fail to answer the question. But all this could have been avoided if you had a good vocabulary.

A student who has good knowledge of common synonyms and antonyms could immediately make out that all these three words of the question are present in their synonyms forms in the passage. He will highlight the words and thus answer the question easily. 

Now, this was an easy example to make the concept clear to you. But in the IELTS Exam, you might get complicated questions. So the crux is to build your vocabulary.  Preparing for the IELTS exam through self-study can be a herculean task. Join the best IELTS Institute in Ludhiana and get all the required guidance.

Wrapping it up

As a result, many students aiming to pass the IELTS exam have found reading to be a difficult subject. In the reading portion, they do poorly. As a result, many test-takers lose out on the opportunity to receive a high band score. To ace the reading module of the IELTS Exam, you can use specific strategies. Searching for and underlining keywords is one of them. Therefore, carefully read the text above to get the significance, meaning, and use of keywords.