Catching main idea in reading is also important. You must have known that skimming and scanning are 2 essential tools in reading. Both rely on understand main ideas. Therefore, if you can’t catch main ideas in short time, you will suffer. But how to practice getting main ideas in brief time? I must say that reading various articles in this case is helpful (even though I’ve never done so). But I tried to do reading tests every day, and tried to understand the main idea of every passages.
Another way to practice Reading is Speed Reading. I have known this method at English centers but to many people, maybe this is still a strange way. You choose a short easy passage (about 500 words) and then read quickly (for both main idea and details). Please note that the passage you choose must be easy. If there are more than 5 words that completely new to you, perhaps it is not the good one for speed reading. in addition, read as quickly as possible is NOT the key. If you read so fast that you have to read again, there are no benefits gained from this practice. The key here is main ideas, and next is details. Besides understanding all main points, you should try to remember as much details as you can. In speed reading exercises, there are 10 true/false question for you to do in the back. These questions will measure your accurate comprehension.

Besides skimming and scanning, I found that reading intensively is also important in IELTS test, especially to understand tough questions. Some questions or particular sentences, you need to read and try to understand every single word. Especially with true/false/not given (or yes/no/not given) questions, only one word can change the whole meaning.

After doing reading practice test, you MUST check all wrong answers, try to explain why you wrong (you may need someone which has good level of English to help you) and think of another way to answer faster those questions. You will gain necessary experience by doing this before the real test.

In brief, guessing is the key for reading. You must guess logically and academically. Pay time to practice reading, you will see that your reading skill will improve in just a short period of time.”