Abstract This study focused on identifying Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ perception of their challenges in doing the IELTS reading test and corresponding strategies to cope with these challenges. The study involved eighty-nine English majors at Can Tho University, and data were collected via a questionnaire administered to all participants and interviews conducted with 10 random students. The results showed that Vietnamese EFL students encountered a number of challenges in doing IELTS reading tests, among which lack of vocabulary and time constraint for the tests were two most noticeable difficulties. The results also revealed that the students in the study frequently employed text related, question related, and general practical strategies for doing the reading test in IELTS. Based on the findings, more opportunities to expose students to tests as well as an integration of instruction on test-taking strategies were suggested.