IELTS Reading Question Types: True/False/Not Given and More

Reading is the section where candidates most often say "my English is fine, I just ran out of time". Both halves of that sentence point at the same cause: reading the whole passage carefully before looking at the questions, then hunting for each answer without knowing what kind of answer the question wants. The fix is to know the question types well enough that you read the questions first, know what to look for, and read the passage only as much as the questions require.

The format

Raw score to band, Academic

Two things to read in this table. The steps are not even: 23 correct answers give band 6.0, 30 give band 7.0, so a full band sits in seven questions, which is roughly the number of questions in one question group. And the General Training table, which you can see next to this one on the band score calculator, gives a band about one step lower for the same raw score.

The question types, with a method for each

The list below covers the types you will meet in the exam. Five of them appear on the twelve passages on this site, and the example under each of those five is a real question from a real passage, with the answer and the place in the passage where it is found. The other four are explained without an example, because the site does not have that type yet; the method still applies.

True / False / Not Given

Statements about facts in the passage. The Yes / No / Not Given variant asks about the writer's opinions rather than facts, and the method is the same. The differences between the two, with six one-line examples, are in True/False/Not Given vs Yes/No/Not Given: The Difference. This type produces more lost marks than any other, and almost all of them are False written where Not Given was right, or the reverse.

1. Read the statement and mark the part that makes a claim: usually a subject plus a qualifier ("exactly", "only", "all", "the first", "more than").
2. Scan the passage for a word from the statement that cannot be paraphrased: a name, a number, a technical term. The statements follow the order of the passage, so start where the previous answer was found.
3. Compare the claim, and only the claim, with the sentence you found. Same meaning: TRUE. The passage says the opposite, or gives a different value: FALSE. The passage says nothing either way: NOT GIVEN.
4. If you cannot find the sentence after a minute, ask what the qualifier would need the passage to say. If nothing in the passage could confirm or deny it, write NOT GIVEN and move on.
5. Never answer from what you know about the topic. Only from the passage.

Show the answer

FALSE. Paragraph 2: "between seven and nine hours of sleep per night". The passage gives a range, and the statement gives an exact figure inside that range. "Exactly" is the claim, and the passage contradicts it. A candidate who reads "eight hours" as roughly matching "seven to nine" writes TRUE and loses the mark.

Multiple choice

A question or an unfinished sentence with four options, A to D (sometimes more options and more than one answer to choose). Wrong options are built from words that do appear in the passage, attached to a meaning that does not.

1. Read the question stem before the options and decide what kind of answer it wants: a reason, a purpose, a definition, a difference.
2. Locate the part of the passage the stem refers to. Multiple choice questions also follow the order of the passage.
3. Read that part properly, then read the options. Cross out any option that contradicts the passage, and any option that uses a word from the passage but changes the claim.
4. Between two remaining options, prefer the one that paraphrases the passage over the one that copies a phrase from it: copied phrases are usually the trap.
5. Check the answer against the stem once more; an option can be true according to the passage and still not answer the question.

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C. Paragraph 5: "made it possible to produce large sheets of flawless glass". Options A, B and D each contain an idea the passage mentions somewhere (skill, clarity, energy) without stating it as the advantage of this process.

Sentence completion

Sentences with a gap to fill with words taken from the passage, under a word limit written in the instructions ("NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS", "ONE WORD ONLY", "NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER"). The words must come from the passage and must be spelled as in the passage.

1. Read the word limit and write it at the top of the group. A correct answer with one word too many scores nothing.
2. Read the sentence and predict the grammar of the missing part: a noun, a verb, a plural, a number.
3. Scan for the words around the gap, which are usually paraphrased, and for any name or number in the sentence, which is not.
4. Copy the exact word from the passage. Do not change its form, even when your own grammar would.
5. Read the completed sentence once. If it does not read as a sentence, the word or the form is wrong.

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BIOMAGNIFICATION. Paragraph 3: "in a process known as biomagnification". One word, copied letter for letter: "biomagnifying" or "bio-magnification" would not score.

Summary completion

A paragraph that summarises part of the passage, with several gaps. Two forms exist: the words come from the passage (with a word limit), or the words come from a box of options, in which case the box holds more words than gaps. The summary follows the passage in order but paraphrases almost everything.

1. Read the whole summary first, so that you know which part of the passage it covers. It often covers one or two paragraphs only.
2. For each gap, predict the type of word and, if there is a box, cross out the options that are grammatically impossible.
3. Find the sentence in the passage that says the same thing as the sentence around the gap.
4. Take the word from the passage (or the option that matches the passage word), and check the word limit.
5. Reread the summary at the end. A summary that no longer makes sense has a wrong word in it.

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SHOEBOX. Paragraph 3: "The older is the shoebox: a tall, narrow rectangle". The summary says "narrow" where the passage says "tall, narrow rectangle", and the name of the form sits right after the colon.

Matching headings

A list of headings, each a short phrase, to match to the paragraphs of the passage (labelled A, B, C ...). There are more headings than paragraphs. This type asks for the main idea of a paragraph, not for a detail in it, which is exactly why scanning fails here. A complete exercise on a full passage, with every heading explained, is in IELTS Reading Matching Headings: A 5-Step Method.

1. Read the list of headings first and underline the key idea in each: a contrast, a cause, a criticism, a history, an example.
2. Read one paragraph at a time, first and last sentences carefully, the middle quickly, and say in your own words what the paragraph does.
3. Choose the heading that matches what the paragraph does, not a heading that shares a word with the paragraph. A paragraph that mentions "cost" once is not necessarily about cost.
4. Cross out each heading you use; the leftover headings are there to fit a detail of some paragraph, not its main idea.
5. Do the easiest paragraphs first and come back to the two you hesitate on with fewer headings left.

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C. Paragraph E: "has run some way ahead of the evidence". The paragraph is about the gap between what is claimed and what is shown, which is what heading C says in other words. Headings G and H match nothing in the passage: they are the spare headings.

Matching information (no example on this site)

Statements to match to the paragraph that contains the information ("Which paragraph contains a reference to a change in government policy?"). The difference from matching headings is that you are looking for a detail, so scanning works, but the detail is paraphrased: "a change in government policy" may appear as "ministers reversed the decision". Read the statements, turn each into two or three words you could find, and scan every paragraph for them; the answers do not follow the order of the passage, and a paragraph can be used twice when the instructions say so.

Matching features (no example on this site)

A list of statements to match to a list of names, usually researchers, countries or dates ("Which researcher claimed that ..."). Scan for the names first, they cannot be paraphrased, then read around each name and match the statements to what that name is credited with. One name can be used more than once, and some names are not used at all.

Diagram labelling (no example on this site)

A drawing, a plan or a process with numbered parts to name, using words from the passage under a word limit. Find the paragraph that describes the diagram (it is usually one paragraph), read it slowly, and follow the description part by part. The order of the labels rarely matches the order of the paragraph, so use the structure of the diagram to guide you: what is at the top, what connects to what.

Short answer (no example on this site)

Direct questions ("What was the first material used to ...?") answered with words from the passage under a word limit. Treat them as sentence completion: predict the type of answer, scan for the question's names and numbers, copy the words exactly, check the limit. Articles ("a", "the") count as words, and a number written in digits counts as one word.

False against Not Given, on four one-line examples

Take one real sentence from The Psychology of Sleep, paragraph 2: "Adults typically require between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, though this varies with age, lifestyle, and individual biology." Four statements about it, and the answer to each.

The rule that separates the last three: FALSE needs a sentence in the passage that says the opposite. If you cannot point at that sentence, the answer is NOT GIVEN, however unlikely the statement sounds.

The qualifying words

Most Not Given traps are built with one small word. When you see one of these in a statement, that word is the claim to check.

The time budget: 20 minutes per passage

Sixty minutes for three passages gives 20 minutes each, and the third passage is the hardest, so the honest budget is closer to 17, 20 and 23. Inside a passage, spend the first two minutes on the questions, not on the text: read the instructions of each group, note the word limits, underline the names and numbers you will scan for. Then read the passage once, quickly, to know where things are (this is the skimming below). Then answer group by group.

When the budget for a passage is gone and questions are left, do three things in this order. Write a guess for every unanswered question of that passage now, because there is no negative marking and a guessed True / False / Not Given or multiple choice answer has a real chance. Mark the question numbers you guessed. Move to the next passage on time, and come back to the marked questions only if minutes are left at the end. A candidate who spends 30 minutes on passage 1 to get 13 out of 13 and then rushes passages 2 and 3 typically scores lower than one who takes 11 out of 13 three times.

Skimming and scanning, shown on a real paragraph

Skimming is reading to know what a paragraph is about; scanning is looking for one thing without reading. Here is paragraph 4 of The Psychology of Sleep, as it appears in the test.

One increasingly recognised factor affecting sleep quality is the exposure to blue light emitted by smartphones, tablets, and computer screens. Blue light suppresses the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for signalling to the body that it is time to sleep. Many sleep scientists recommend avoiding screens for at least one hour before bedtime as a simple but effective strategy to improve sleep onset.

Skimming. Read the first sentence and the first words of the others: "factor affecting sleep quality ... blue light ... screens", "Blue light suppresses", "scientists recommend avoiding screens". In five seconds you know this paragraph is about screens and sleep, and that if a question mentions screens, phones or melatonin, this is where the answer lives. A matching headings question for this paragraph would want something like "a modern cause of poor sleep, and a remedy".

Scanning. Now take question 6 of the same passage: "Exposure to screen light before bedtime can delay the body's production of melatonin." The word that cannot be paraphrased is "melatonin". Run your eyes over the paragraph for that word only; it is in the second sentence. Read that sentence: "suppresses the production of melatonin". Compare the claim: "can delay the production" against "suppresses the production".

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TRUE. "Suppresses" covers "can delay": the passage says blue light reduces the production of the hormone that tells the body it is time to sleep, which is what the statement says in softer words. Note that "before bedtime" is also there, in the third sentence, but the claim to check was about melatonin.

The five Reading mistakes that cost the most

1. Reading the passage first, slowly. Ten minutes gone before the first answer, and most of what you read was not asked about. Read the questions first, skim the passage once, then read closely only where a question sends you.
2. Answering from general knowledge. The statement sounds right, so it must be TRUE. The test is about what this passage says, and the writers know what sounds right.
3. Choosing the option that copies the passage. In multiple choice and matching, the option that reuses three words from the text is the one built to catch you. The correct answer is usually a paraphrase.
4. Ignoring the word limit, or changing the word. "NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS" with three words, "letters" written as "letter", "shoebox" written as "shoe box": all zero. Copy exactly, count the words.
5. Leaving blanks. No negative marking means a blank is the one answer guaranteed to score nothing. At the end of each passage, every box has something in it.

Practice tests with answers

The Reading practice tests with answers page lists the four full tests on this site, three passages and 40 questions each, with a page per test and a page per passage where you can read the text in full and check the answer key afterwards:

• Reading Practice Test 1: The Psychology of Sleep, The Rise of Urban Farming, The History of the Printing Press.
• Reading Practice Test 2: The Evolution of Renewable Energy, Urbanisation and Water Scarcity, The Science of Memory Consolidation.
• Reading Practice Test 3: The History of Glass, Microplastics in the Global Food Chain, The Psychology of Consumer Decision-Making.
• Reading Practice Test 4: The Navigation of Migratory Birds, The Hidden Networks Beneath Forests, The Acoustics of Concert Halls.

Each test runs on the 60-minute clock, is scored the moment you submit, and shows for each wrong answer the place in the passage where the answer was, which is the fastest way to find out which question type is costing you marks.

Quick answers

Is there transfer time in Reading?

No. Listening gives 10 minutes on paper to copy answers to the answer sheet; Reading does not. The 60 minutes include writing your answers, so on paper you write on the answer sheet as you go, and on computer you type them directly. Budget about 20 minutes per passage and leave a few minutes at the end for the questions you marked.

Academic or General Training?

The twelve passages on this site are Academic texts, and the band is calculated with the Academic table above. Listening, Writing Task 2 and Speaking are the same test for both variants, so the methods in this guide apply to both. If you sit General Training, you can tick it before a test here; the result then carries a note that the real General Training scale gives a band about one step lower at the same raw score, and the full General Training table is on the band score calculator.

How is the Reading band calculated?

One mark per correct answer, no negative marking, and the raw score out of 40 is converted to a band with a fixed table, the Academic one above or the General Training one. There are no descriptors and no examiner judgement in Reading: 30 correct answers on the Academic scale is band 7.0 whatever the passages were.

Is the band official?

No. The band shown after a practice test here is an estimate from the official-style conversion table, on passages written for practice, to track your progress. Only the real exam gives an official IELTS band. This site is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge English.