Tertiary Comparison Guide Reading Answers Ielts

: Staff-to-student ratios, research output, and graduate employability.

| Question No. | Answer | Explanation & Key Location (Paragraph/Line) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | (Accurate) | Location: Paragraph 3, Lines 2-4. The author states, "It is wiser to look first at the overall characteristics and reputation of a university, and then at the faculty or discipline desired." This directly supports the statement. | | 2 | I (Inaccurate) | Location: Paragraph 6, Lines 2-3. The passage notes that the Quality Review Committee's first ranking "has drawn much criticism" and includes details of its limitations, indicating it was not "well-received." | | 3 | I (Inaccurate) | Location: Paragraph 6, Lines 1-2. The text explicitly states the ranking was "based on what universities spent on research, and not on the quality of teaching," contradicting the statement that it was based on tuition quality. | | 4 | A (Accurate) | Location: Paragraph 6, Line 7. The Committee's next step will be to "assess the teaching record of universities," which is a review of how they spend on teaching, not research spending. | | 5 | A (Accurate) | Location: Paragraph 7, Lines 4-5. The DEET document "is designed to assist students to make informed comparisons," confirming the statement. | | 6 | A (Accurate) | Location: Paragraph 8, Lines 1-9. The DEET data for graduate outcomes shows the top 5 out of 11 listed universities have rates above 75% (UTS: 83.2%, ANU: 83.5%, Sydney: 79.8%, Charles Sturt: 75.5%). This is more than a third of the listed universities. | | 7 | A (Accurate) | Location: Paragraph 10, Lines 5-6. A survey found "a quarter of employers...chose not to rank universities because they said there was no correlation between the university and performance," which supports the claim. | | 8 | A (Accurate) | Location: Paragraph 3, Lines 4-5. The author says "to do this one must have access to quality data for each discipline," which directly supports the statement. | | 9 | ACADEMIC CONTROVERSY | Location: Paragraph 2, Lines 5-6. The two official guides not comparing courses was a direct cause of "academic controversy." | | 10 | SIX QUALITY BANDS | Location: Paragraph 5, Lines 1-2. The Committee "divided the 35 universities in Australia into six quality bands..." | | 11 | PERFORMANCE TABLE | Location: Paragraph 9, Lines 1-2. Professor Gannicort "has developed his own 'performance table', ranking Australian universities using some of the DEET data..." | | 12 | GRADUATE OUTCOMES | Location: Paragraph 7, Lines 6-7. The key indicator of success used was "positive graduate outcomes." In the following sentence, ANU is mentioned as a leader, scoring 83.5%. | | 13 | LACK COMMUNICATION SKILLS | Location: Paragraph 10, Lines 2-3. "Those graduates who lack communication skills...are at a big disadvantage," meaning employers are unlikely to hire them. |

Here is an example of a Tertiary Comparison Guide question: Tertiary Comparison Guide Reading Answers Ielts

Enhance your lexical resource by learning these high-yield academic words used in the text: Meaning in Context IELTS Synonym Education at a college or university level. Higher education, post-secondary Metric A system or standard of measurement. Criteria, indicator, gauge Anomalies Something that deviates from what is standard or expected. Irregularities, inconsistencies Prestige Widespread respect and admiration felt for an institution. Reputation, status, renown Flawed Having fundamental weaknesses or mistakes. Defective, imperfect, inaccurate

: Rated as Medium to High . The passage requires high-level skimming and scanning to locate specific numerical data and comparison words. Critical Insights The author states, "It is wiser to look

: A government-appointed body that initially ranked universities into six quality bands .

On one hand, supporters of comparison guides argue that they provide much-needed transparency. By evaluating data such as "positive graduate outcomes" and employer satisfaction, these rankings can highlight which universities best prepare students for the professional world. For instance, institutions like the Australian National University (ANU) have historically scored high when success is measured by the immediate employment of their graduates. These guides allow prospective students to compare disparate factors—such as tuition costs, staff-to-student ratios, and facility quality—using a standardized metric. The text explicitly states the ranking was "based

Do not read the entire passage word-for-word first. Read the questions, highlight the unique keywords (like specific numbers, institution names, or technical terms), and scan the text to find where those words appear. Beware the "Not Given" Trap