IELTS Reading Summary Completion
Among the different question types that you can see in the IELTS reading test, summary completion is a very important one. You will notice that this question type is given both for the IELTS academic test as well as for the IELTS general training test.
In this article, we shall understand how to complete the summary by following certain tips and strategies. We will also analyze why the test takers usually lose marks in this section and how to prevent that from happening.
The different types of questions that are commonly seen in the IELTS reading test are as follows:
1. IELTS reading – summary completion
2. Note completion
3. Table completion
5. Sentence completion
7. Matching the endings of sentences
8. Matching the nouns with the information
9. Matching the paragraph containing the information
11. Multiple choice questions in which one option has to be selected
12. Multiple choice questions in which two options need to be selected
13. True/ false/ not given
14. Yes/ no/ not given
15. Short answer questions
What is the specialty of summary completion and how to complete this?
First of all, it is very important to understand that summary completion falls under the category of fill in the blanks, which is a compulsory part of the reading test both for academic as well as a general training module. Having said that, the first step in completing the summary is to identify the type of summary.
What are the two kinds of summary completion question types?
1. Summary completion without options:
In some of the question types that ask you to complete the summary, you will notice that a paragraph will be given with some blank spaces which need to be completed by you after referring to the text.
In this scenario, you will just notice that a paragraph is given without any options to choose from. Hence, you need to refer to the paragraph, read it carefully predict what could be the right answer and then finalize it. This is a pretty direct method just like any other type of fill in the blanks.
2. Summary completion with options :
This is the second variation of summary completion questions in which you will find that below the summary paragraph, some options are given to you to choose from. Note that if options are given, then you have two forms of writing the answers which will depend on what you see in the instructions.
Case 1: Summary completion which contains good options
Sometimes, below the paragraph of summary completion, you will notice that there are several options that are given in the form of words. These words are usually taken from the paragraph, however, not in all cases are the words similar to what you see in the text.
For some of these question types, you will notice that the synonyms of the answers will be given as options. You should be aware of this fact and the proper synonym and write that word what is given as options as the answer.
For example, the answer to a particular question could be ‘purchase’ wild that you find in the options could be ‘buy’. You should recognize that these words are synonyms and you should write the term ‘buy’ ask the answer.
Case 2: Summary completion with alphabetical options:
At times, you will notice that options will be given with alphabets. In this case, you must realize that the answer should be written only as alphabets and not in the form of words. If you do not read the instructions for this properly and you write the answer in the form of words, it would be considered as an error and marks would not be awarded for that. Hence, it is highly advisable for all the test takers to first focus on reading the instructions on whether you have to write the answer in the form of words or alphabets.
The process to be followed while completing the summary:
Ideally, the test takers follow various tips and strategies while answering summary completion, but we do recommend this process to be followed.
Step 1: Begin by identifying this question type. You will notice that the heading of this question type will read as ‘complete the summary below’. This is a clear indication that it belongs to the summary completion type of questions. Followed by this is the word instruction. There are different types of word instructions like
1. Use one word only
2. Write the answer in one word and/or a number
3. No more than two words
4. No more than three words.
Following these words, instructions are the paragraphs for which you need to pick the right answers.
Step 2: In some summary completion questions, you will notice that there will be a heading for the summary which will be a perfect guide for all the test takers to go to the right part of the text to find the answer. You should start by underlining the keywords in the followed by those keywords in the sentence.
Step 3: This is a very important part of completing the summary. It is advisable for all the test takers to know that for this particular question type, the answers may not be in a sequence always. Sometimes, the context may relate to a different part of the paragraph. So, you need to be very careful and read the entire context before confirming the answer.
Step 4: Finally, you should predict what the answer could be, based on the keywords that you underline in the question and then you need to confirm the answer. In most cases, the answers what you are looking for might be nouns. Hence, pay close attention to the keywords and mark them properly so that you get to understand what exactly you are looking for and this makes the whole process of summary completion much easier and helps to gain the perfect score that you are looking for.
