The A to Z of IELTS: K is for Keywords

Summary: Master the skill of finding keywords in IELTS Writing and Reading to ensure relevant answers, faster location of information, and higher accuracy in your responses.

Writing

In the IELTS Writing test, it is important to be able to identify the keywords in the question to make sure your answer is completely on-topic. The danger of making an error here can mean you lose marks for not answering the question properly.

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Let’s look at the following sample question:

When analysing the question, you may find that some of the detail is for background information, while there are other parts to this prompt that include the main idea of what you should be discussing.

If you had to choose the two most important keywords from the prompt, which of the following would they be?

1. technology

2. education

3. teachers

4. students

5. negative

6. relationship

Before answering this question, let’s look at the following sentences and decide which one is that is on topic the most:

• Technology has been very useful in education because it makes the teaching and learning process easier.

• The use of social media devices means that the teacher is more contactable, so students are able to resolve their issues more easily.

• Because of the use of technological gadgets to communicate directly with students individually, the teacher is able to form a more personal connection with the learners.

First of all, the keyword for the prompt would be in the sentence that contains the opinion rather than the one with background information.

This sentence provides background information:

It is quite common these days to find more technology integrated into education programmes, where both teachers and students have access to various gadgets and the Internet.

And this one contains an opinion:

Some people think this trend has had a negative effect on the relationship between the teacher and the student.

Therefore, you need to discuss whether the trend of technology in education has a positive OR a negative effect on the relationship between the two groups of people (teachers and students).

So, to answer the questions from above:

If you had to choose the two most important keywords from the prompt, which of the following would they be?

1. technology

2. education

3. teachers

4. students

5. negative

6. relationship

Before answering this question, let’s look at the following sentences and decide which one is that is on topic the most:

• Technology has been very useful in education because it makes the teaching and learning process easier. (This is off-topic as it does not mention any positive or negative effect on the relationship.)

• The use of social media devices means that the teacher is more contactable, so students are able to resolve their issues more easily. (This does not directly answer the question and could potentially be off-topic. However, you could relate it to the question by adding: “Because of this added interaction, it has the potential to build a rapport between them.”)

• Because of the use of technological gadgets to communicate directly with students individually, the teacher is able to form a more personal connection with the learners. (This is on-topic as “personal connection” is related to the main idea in the question).

Reading

One of the reasons why the IELTS Reading test can be challenging is due to the time limit to complete all the tasks. Therefore, being able to identify keywords is a useful way to save time.

Let’s look at True, False and Not Given questions as an example:

Do the following statements agree with the information in the passage?

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. When Smith was discussing her research, she challenged the standard theory.

2. The evidence scientists collected in Finland was reliable.

3. The weather during the winter months was unusually cold for that time of year.

4. Few of the attendees were able to arrive on time for the presentation.

5. The report from the conference was sent to the Brisbane office before the publication of the research.

First of all, when dealing with True, False or Not Given questions, remember that the answers usually appear in order in the text. Therefore, it is best to start with the questions that are easy to locate in the passage first. In this case, you could start with Questions 1, 2 or 5 because the words “Smith”, “Finland” and “Brisbane” are easy to scan and find in the article. Questions 3 and 4 can be tackled later as they would appear somewhere between Questions 2 and 5. So, basically use the names of people or places to help locate the answer in the text. Other nouns are useful too, such as “winter months”, “attendees” and “presentation” but are not as easy to locate compared to the others.

Once you have found the approximate location of the answer, it is then useful to look at the keywords which can help decide the answer. These keywords can include:

• Verbs

• Adjectives

• Adverbs

• Proportion words

• Prepositions

Look at the 5 questions again and see if you can identify the keywords. Remember that a ‘True’ answer and a ‘False’ answer are opposite, so look for words that you can easily make opposite to each other.

Here are the keywords which can help decide the answer:

1. When Smith was discussing her research, she challenged the standard theory.

Smith either challenged the theory (True) or supported the theory (False).

2. The evidence scientists collected in Finland was reliable.

The evidence was either reliable (True) or unreliable (False).

3. The weather during the winter months was unusually cold for that time of year.

The weather was either unusually cold (True) or typically cold (False).

4. Few of the attendees were able to arrive on time for the presentation.

Either few of them arrived on time (True) or many/most/all of them arrived on time (False).

5. The report from the conference was sent to the Brisbane office before the publication of the research.

It was sent to the Brisbane office either before the publication(True) or after the publication (False).

Of course, you would use ‘Not Given’ as an option only when you can’t find evidence to support or contradict these keywords.

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