Short Answer Questions
Many students find short answer questions amongst the easiest to answer. You have to read a text and answer a set of questions about it in one to three words.
Because this type of IELTS Reading question is generally not too difficult, it’s tempting to try to rush through the questions. This results in silly mistakes being made. Be careful not to lose valuable marks this way.
To help you get the best score possible, and avoid these mistakes, I’m going to cover the following things on this page:
Skills needed
Key tips
Strategy to use
Example & model answers
Skills needed
Short answer questions test your ability to:
Quickly skim the text for the general meaning.
Identify key words.
Scan for specific information.
Recognise synonyms and paraphrasing.
Key tips
1) Read the questions first, then the text. It’s important that you understand what is being asked in the questions before looking at the text. You will then know the main ideas to look out for as you skim read.
2) The answers will be in order in the text. So, once you've found the answer to question 1, you’ll know that the answer to question 2 will come soon after, and so on.
3) Don’t go over the word limit stated for your answers, for example, ‘NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER.’
If you do, your answer will be marked ‘wrong’ even if the information you give is correct.
4) Use only the actual words from the text for your answer. You may need to change the tense of any verbs you use to ensure your answer is grammatically correct.
5) Most questions will contain synonyms or paraphrasing of the text, that is, the meaning will be the same but the wording slightly different.
Strategy
Follow this strategy for answering short answer questions in your IELTS Reading test.
# 1 Reading the instructions very carefully taking particular note of the word limit for your answers.
# 2 Read the questions and try to understand what is being asked.
# 3 Underline key words in the questions. Also, think about possible synonyms for them. Don’t worry if there are unfamiliar words. If they also appear in the text, you may be able to work them out in context. Alternatively, synonyms that you do understand may have been used.
# 4 Skim read the text. Be alert for the keywords and synonyms you identified but don’t read in detail. Read the first sentence of each paragraph in a little more detail than the rest of the text as this will introduce the main idea of the paragraph.
# 5 Go back and re-read question 1, then scan the first paragraph, maybe the second as well, until you find the location of the answer. Then read in detail to find the exact word or words you need to answer the question.
# 6 Repeat this process for each of the questions.
Source: ieltsjacky
