Many of my students struggle to complete either part A or part B of the reading for a

number of reasons. Part A requires you to be able to quickly skim read and pick out key

words that will guide you to the answer, while Part B is a test of your reading

comprehension and will highlight a need to improve general vocabulary and understanding

of the written language. Below are some of my suggestions on how to improve your reading

at home.

1. Get into the habit of reading every day. Whether it is an English novel, the

newspaper or a magazine it is very important to read something every day, or as

regularly as possible to improve your reading speed and comprehension. For the OET

in particular it would be a good idea to read scientific journal articles online from

wites such as Medline, EBSCO and PubMed, or read information on https://levitralab.com medical websites

such as the BMJ (British Medical Journal).

2. Following on from the above suggestion, when you find a word that you do not

understand while you are reading, copy it down into a book with the dictionary

definition for future reference. I find that a lot of my students miss out on choosing

the correct answer in Reading Part A and B because they come across a word that

forms part of the answer but they do not know what it means. Therefore, it is

extremely important to read regularly and write down new words when you come

across them. To really improve your vocabulary put some time aside in your day to

also revisit the new words you have written down so that you learn them for the

future.

3. Finally be smart about what you read and try to summarise the meaning to test

how well you understand the text. This is an exercise you can do to see how well

you are able to understand what you have read. While you are reading a

book/newspaper/magazine pick a page, or a few paragraphs and read them, then try

to summarise what you have just read either verbally or by writing a small summary.

Hopefully these small tips will help improve your reading skills immensely. Best of luck in the future with the OET!

Nadishi Athulathmudali, OET Teacher