Short answer: True / False / Not Given asks whether a statement agrees with the information in the passage: facts, figures, events. Yes / No / Not Given asks whether a statement agrees with the views or claims of the writer: opinions, judgements, predictions. The method is the same in both, one claim at a time, compared with one sentence of the passage, and Not Given means the same thing in both: the passage neither confirms nor contradicts the statement. What changes is what you are looking for, a fact in the first case, the writer's position in the second. Below: a comparison table, the method in steps, six one-line examples with the answer hidden, False against Not Given and No against Not Given, the qualifying words, a real question from a practice passage on this site, and the five mistakes that cost the most.
Candidates treat these two question types as one, and most of the time that works, because the technique is identical. The difference shows up in the traps. A True / False / Not Given statement that repeats the writer's opinion as if it were a fact, or a Yes / No / Not Given statement that quotes a fact the writer reports without endorsing, is where the mark is lost. Knowing which type you are answering tells you which sentence in the passage counts.
The difference in one table
| True / False / Not Given | Yes / No / Not Given | |
|---|---|---|
| What it tests | Facts: what happened, when, how much, what something is made of, what a study found. | The writer's views and claims: what the writer believes, recommends, predicts, criticises or defends. |
| The instruction wording | "Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?" | "Do the following statements agree with the claims (or views) of the writer?" |
| Where you find it | Descriptive and explanatory passages: a history, a process, a piece of science reporting. Often Passage 1 or 2. | Argumentative passages where the writer takes a position: an essay, an opinion piece, a review. Often Passage 3. |
| The sentence you compare with | Any sentence that states the fact, whoever it is attributed to. | A sentence where the writer speaks in their own voice: "I believe", "it is clear that", "the evidence suggests", "this is a mistake", "ought to". |
| What the middle answer means | FALSE: the passage states the opposite or a different value. | NO: the writer holds the opposite view. |
| What the last answer means | NOT GIVEN: the passage does not say. | NOT GIVEN: the writer does not express a view, even if the passage reports what other people think. |
| The answer words | TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN | YES, NO, NOT GIVEN |
The row that matters most is the fourth one. In a Yes / No / Not Given group, the passage may say "some economists argue that the tax should be scrapped" and the statement may say "the tax should be scrapped". If the writer then disagrees with those economists, the answer is NO; if the writer reports their view and moves on without taking sides, it is NOT GIVEN. The words are in the passage in both cases. What decides the answer is whose view they are.
The method, in five steps
- Read the instruction line and write the three answer words at the top of the group. If it says "information", you are looking for facts. If it says "views" or "claims of the writer", you are looking for the writer's position, and a sentence that reports someone else's opinion does not count.
- Underline the claim in the statement. Every statement has one part that can be confirmed or denied: a qualifier ("only", "all", "the first", "exactly"), a comparison ("more than", "less common"), a cause ("because", "led to"), or, in the Yes / No type, an attitude ("should", "is a mistake", "will fail"). That part is what you check. The rest is there to help you find the place.
- Find the place. Statements follow the order of the passage. Scan for a word that cannot be paraphrased (a name, a date, a technical term), starting from where the previous answer was. Read the whole sentence you land on, and the one before or after it if the claim is not settled.
- Compare the claim with the sentence, and only the claim. Same meaning in other words: TRUE or YES. The sentence says the opposite, or gives a different value, or the writer holds the opposite view: FALSE or NO. Nothing in the sentence, or anywhere nearby, that could settle it: NOT GIVEN.
- When you cannot decide between the last two, ask one question. "Can I point at the words that say the opposite?" If yes, FALSE or NO. If you can only point at words that are about the same topic, NOT GIVEN. Then write the answer and move on; the next statement is waiting a little further down the passage.
Six one-line examples
Each example gives one sentence of passage, one statement, and the answer under a click. The first three are True / False / Not Given, the last three are Yes / No / Not Given. Notice that the technique does not change; what changes is whether you are checking a fact or a view.
True / False / Not Given
Passage: The bridge, completed in the spring, was the first in the region to be built entirely of steel.
Statement: The bridge was the region's first steel bridge.
Show the answer
TRUE. "The first in the region to be built entirely of steel" and "the region's first steel bridge" make the same claim in different words. The season it was completed is not part of the claim.
Passage: Most of the workers on the project came from nearby villages, although the engineers were recruited abroad.
Statement: The engineers on the project were recruited locally.
Show the answer
FALSE. The passage says the engineers were recruited abroad, which is the opposite of locally. The workers were local, and a candidate who matches "nearby villages" to "locally" without checking who it refers to writes TRUE.
Passage: The library opened its doors in the autumn and quickly became the busiest building on the campus.
Statement: The library was the most expensive building on the campus.
Show the answer
NOT GIVEN. The passage says busiest, the statement says most expensive. Nothing in the sentence says anything about cost, in either direction, so there is nothing to contradict. Busy and expensive are on the same topic, the library, which is why the trap works.
Yes / No / Not Given
Passage: In my view, the decision to close the smaller branches was a mistake that the company will come to regret.
Statement: The writer believes that closing the smaller branches was an error.
Show the answer
YES. "In my view" marks the writer's own position, and "a mistake" is "an error" in other words. This is the writer's claim, not a reported one, so it counts.
Passage: Critics called the reform rushed, but I think it was, if anything, long overdue.
Statement: The writer agrees that the reform was introduced too quickly.
Show the answer
NO. "Rushed" is in the passage, but it is the critics' word. The writer's own view comes after "but I think": long overdue, which is the opposite of too quickly. A candidate who stops reading at "rushed" writes YES.
Passage: I have no doubt that the new timetable will be unpopular with parents.
Statement: The writer thinks the new timetable will improve exam results.
Show the answer
NOT GIVEN. The writer gives a firm view about how parents will react, and no view at all about results. A strong opinion on the same topic is not an opinion on the claim in the statement.
False against Not Given, No against Not Given
Almost every lost mark on these two types is one of two confusions, and they are the same confusion in two costumes. FALSE and NO both need something in the passage that says the opposite. NOT GIVEN is what you write when you cannot find it.
| FALSE (facts) | NO (views) | NOT GIVEN (both) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the passage must contain | A sentence that contradicts the statement: a different number, a different cause, "never" against "often", "abroad" against "locally". | A sentence where the writer takes the opposite position: "I disagree", "this is unlikely", "the opposite is true", or a judgement that cannot coexist with the statement. | Nothing that settles the claim. The topic may be there; the claim is not. |
| The typical trap | A statement that sounds wrong from general knowledge, when the passage simply does not discuss it. | A statement that repeats an opinion the passage reports (a critic, a study, "some people") and treats it as the writer's. | A statement that sounds right, or that the writer would probably agree with, when nothing in the text says so. |
| The test to apply | "Point at the words that say the opposite." If you can, FALSE. | "Point at the words where the writer says the opposite, in their own voice." If you can, NO. | If you can only point at words on the same topic, NOT GIVEN. |
The rule that follows from the table: never write FALSE or NO because the statement seems unlikely, and never write TRUE or YES because it seems reasonable. Both answers need a sentence you can quote. If there is no sentence, the passage has not given you the information, and that is exactly what the third answer says.
The qualifying words
Statements are written by test writers who know which small words change a claim. When one of these appears in a statement, it is the claim to check, and it usually decides between the middle answer and NOT GIVEN.
| Words | What they claim | What the passage must say for TRUE or YES |
|---|---|---|
| all, every, always, never, only | A rule with no exceptions | The same absolute, in some form. A passage that says "most" or "usually" makes the statement FALSE if it gives an exception, NOT GIVEN if it does not. |
| most, the majority, mainly | More than half | "Most", "typically", "the majority", "largely", or a figure that is clearly more than half. |
| the first, the largest, the only | A ranking | The same ranking. A passage that says "one of the first" does not confirm "the first". |
| because, led to, caused | A cause | The same causal link. Two facts mentioned side by side are not a cause. |
| should, must, ought to (Yes / No only) | A recommendation by the writer | The writer recommending it, not a person the writer quotes. |
| will, is likely to, is bound to (Yes / No only) | A prediction by the writer | The writer predicting it, with the same degree of certainty or stronger. |
A real question, from a practice passage
The four Reading tests on this site each open with a True / False / Not Given group. Here is paragraph 5 of The History of Glass, from Reading Test 3, as it appears in the test, followed by question 5 of that passage.
The twentieth century saw arguably the most significant advance in flat glass production: the float glass process, developed by Sir Alastair Pilkington of the Pilkington Brothers company in 1952. In this process, molten glass is poured onto a bed of molten tin, on which it floats and spreads, creating a perfectly flat and uniform surface as it cools. This technique made it possible to produce large sheets of flawless glass economically, and it remains the dominant method of flat glass production globally.
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.
5. Several glass manufacturers had unsuccessfully attempted the float glass process before Pilkington.
Show the answer
NOT GIVEN. The claim is "several manufacturers had unsuccessfully attempted" the process before 1952. The paragraph names Pilkington, gives the date and explains the process, and says nothing about anyone trying before him, successfully or not. It sounds plausible, which is the point: a candidate who reasons "a major invention usually has failed predecessors" writes TRUE from general knowledge, and a candidate who reasons "the passage credits Pilkington, so nobody else tried" writes FALSE. Neither can point at a sentence. The answer key for this passage marks it as not stated in the passage.
Two things to take from this question. The word that cannot be paraphrased is "Pilkington", so the place is found in seconds; the time goes into the decision, not the search. And the statement is built from the topic of the paragraph (the float glass process, its inventor, its date) with one claim added that the paragraph does not touch. That is how most NOT GIVEN statements are made.
The five mistakes that cost the most
- Answering from what you know. The statement is true in the world, so you write TRUE. The question asks what this passage says. If you cannot find the sentence, the answer is NOT GIVEN however sure you are.
- Matching words instead of claims. "Rushed" is in the passage and in the statement, so you write YES. The word was a critic's, and the writer disagreed. Read to the end of the sentence, and in the Yes / No type, find out whose opinion it is.
- Treating a reported view as the writer's. "Some researchers argue", "it has been suggested", "supporters claim": these introduce other people's views. In a Yes / No / Not Given group, a statement that repeats one of them is NOT GIVEN unless the writer takes a side.
- Writing FALSE or NO for "probably not". The statement seems unlikely given the tone of the passage, so you write NO. Unlikely is not contradicted. Point at the words or write NOT GIVEN.
- Mixing the two answer sets. YES on a True / False question, or TRUE on a Yes / No question, scores nothing even when the reasoning was right. Write the three words at the top of the group before you start, and copy them.
The two types reward the same habit: slow down at the moment of decision, not at the moment of searching. Finding the sentence is fast once you scan for the unparaphrasable word. Deciding whether it confirms, contradicts or ignores the claim is where the mark is, and it takes a full reading of one sentence, sometimes two.
Quick answers
Is Not Given the same in both?
Yes. In both types, NOT GIVEN means that the passage does not settle the claim: nothing confirms it and nothing contradicts it. The only difference is what would have had to be there. In True / False / Not Given, a fact is missing. In Yes / No / Not Given, the writer's own opinion is missing, and the passage can report other people's opinions on the claim and still give you NOT GIVEN.
Can I write T instead of True?
Write what the instructions show. The instruction line uses TRUE, FALSE and NOT GIVEN (or YES, NO and NOT GIVEN), and writing the full word removes any doubt. Teachers widely report that T, F and NG are accepted, but the wording of the instructions on the day is the only guarantee, so read it. What is marked wrong is mixing the sets: YES for a True / False statement, or TRUE for a Yes / No statement. In the practice tests on this site the answer is a click on one of three buttons, so the question does not arise there.
Do they appear in General Training?
Yes. Both types appear in Academic and in General Training Reading; the passages differ, the question types do not. In General Training, True / False / Not Given is common on the everyday texts of Section 1 and 2, and Yes / No / Not Given is more likely on the longer text of Section 3, where a writer argues a point. The twelve practice passages on this site are Academic texts, and their True / False / Not Given groups work the same way.
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.
The short version: read the instruction line, underline the one claim in each statement, find the sentence, and write FALSE or NO only when you can point at the words that say the opposite. Everything else you cannot find is NOT GIVEN.