在考官宣布阅读考试正式开始后，考生应快速浏览一下三篇文章，了解以下信息：每篇文章的标题，所涉及的专业领域或话题，文章的长度，文章后是否附有生词表，文章中是否有图示，表格等非文字信息等，确定阅读顺序。一般建议考生首先选择对其背景知识较了解的文章。对于无法在60分钟内阅读完三篇文章的考生，建议仔细阅读两篇文章，保证较高的答题正确率，然后在剩余的时间利用一些应急性的技巧完成第三篇文章中较容易找到答案的那部分问题。
每读一篇文章之前应该先浏览该篇文章所附的问题，了解以下内容：有什么题型，各题的大致内容，并且记住排列在最前面的几道题。如果时间短于20分钟，则应将注意力放在较容易回答的题型或问题上。注意雅思阅读考试中考生没有充足的时间仔细阅读每篇文章，考生必须有效地使用有限的时间找到问题的答案，故而考生的目的主要是了解问题并在文章中找出相关信息，确定正确答案。雅思考试大多数题型内问题的顺序与文章自然顺序一致，但每完成一种题型都可能需要回到文章开头寻找下一题型的问题的答案。
因为雅思考试不倒扣分，考生可以猜测答案。考试当日的第一项考试是听力考试，磁带播放完毕后考生有10分钟时间誊写答案，但是紧接下来的阅读考试没有这10分钟誊写答案的时间，所以考生务必在答题的过程中随题用铅笔将答案写在答题卡上。
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