Band 6 Reading: The “Detective” Strategy Guide

Goal: Understand the “Map” of the text in 2 minutes.

• Read the Title and Subheadings.
• Read the First Sentence of every paragraph.
• Ignore the details.
• Result: Now you know that Paragraph A is about History, B is about Problems, and C is about Solutions.

Goal: Locate a specific piece of information.

• Look for Keywords from the question (Names, Dates, Numbers, Capital Letters).
• Don’t read the sentences. Let your eyes “hop” over the text until you hit the keyword.
• Result: You found “1994” or “Professor Smith” in 5 seconds.

The Strategy:

1. Read the Headings first and underline keywords.
2. Go to the shortest paragraph first.
3. Read the first and last sentence of that paragraph.
4. Match it. If you are stuck between two headings, move on and come back later.
5. Cross out headings as you use them.

Ted’s Golden Rule: If you spend more than 2 minutes searching for one answer and can’t find it, it is probably NOT GIVEN.

The Strategy:

1. Check the Word Limit (if it says ONE word, and you write TWO, you get zero).
2. Predict the Type of Word (Is it a name? A number? An adjective?).
3. Scan the text for the keywords near the gap.
4. Check your spelling! If you copy the word from the text but spell it wrong, you lose the mark.

Action: Start a “Synonym Diary.” Every time you get a reading question wrong, write down the word in the question and the word they used in the text. Review this diary weekly!

1. Don’t Panic. The examiner puts hard words there to scare you.
2. Look at the “Neighbors.” Read the words around it. Is the sentence happy or sad?
3. Ignore it. Often, the hard word is just an extra detail. You can usually find the answer without knowing exactly what it means.

• The “All” Trap: The question says “All students,” but the text says “Most students.” The answer is FALSE.
• The “Frequency” Trap: Watch out for words like always, often, sometimes, rarely. They change the whole meaning.
• The “Names” Trap: Sometimes two people are mentioned in one paragraph. Make sure you are looking at the right person’s opinion!