What are the IELTS Reading question types, and how do you approach each?
The short answer
IELTS Reading is forty questions in sixty minutes across three passages, with no extra time to transfer answers, and every question is one of about ten types. The types split into two groups that need opposite methods. Location questions (True/False/Not Given, sentence completion, short answer, matching information) follow the order of the passage or can be scanned for, so you find the sentence and check it against the statement word by word. Global questions (matching headings, multiple choice on the whole text, the writer's purpose) need the paragraph's main idea, not a keyword. The single biggest loss of marks is Not Given: a statement the passage neither confirms nor contradicts, which candidates mark False because it sounds wrong. Band 7 on Academic needs roughly thirty of forty, so timing and the Not Given rule together are worth more than vocabulary.
What is the format, and how should you split the time?
| Academic | General Training | |
|---|---|---|
| Passages | Three long texts from journals, books and newspapers, increasing in difficulty. | Sections 1 and 2 are short everyday texts (notices, adverts, workplace documents); section 3 is one long passage. |
| Questions | 40 | 40 |
| Time | 60 minutes, no transfer time | 60 minutes, no transfer time |
| Approximate band 7 | Around 30 correct | Around 34 correct; the scale is stricter because the texts are easier. |
- Twenty minutes per passage is wrong. Passage 1 is easiest; take fifteen there, twenty on passage 2, twenty-five on passage 3.
- Write answers straight onto the answer sheet on the paper test. There is no transfer time and running out is the commonest way to lose five easy marks.
- Do not read the passage first. Read the questions for a type, then go to the passage with something to look for.
True, False, Not Given: how do you decide?
The statement is compared with the passage. True means the passage says the same thing, possibly in other words. False means the passage says the opposite or contradicts it. Not Given means the passage does not say, even if the statement is plausible or you know it to be true from outside.
| Passage says | Statement | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The bridge, completed in 1932, was at the time the longest of its kind in the southern hemisphere." | The bridge was finished in 1932. | True | Same fact, different word (completed / finished). |
| Same | The bridge was the longest in the world when built. | False | The passage limits the claim to the southern hemisphere; "in the world" contradicts it. |
| Same | The bridge took eight years to build. | Not Given | Nothing about how long construction took. Plausible, but absent. |
- Answers come in passage order. Find the first, and the next is further down.
- Look for the qualifier that changes the claim: only, all, most, first, always, in the south. False is usually a qualifier, not a whole sentence.
- If you cannot find it after two careful looks, it is Not Given. Not Given is not a guess; it is the correct answer when the fact is absent.
- Yes/No/Not Given is the same test applied to the writer's opinions rather than facts. Look for "the writer argues" and for evaluative words.
Matching headings: why do keywords fail?
- The heading is the main idea of the paragraph, not a phrase from it. Distractor headings are built from words that appear in the paragraph but are not its point.
- Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph, then the middle only if the two disagree. The main idea usually lives at one end.
- Do the easy paragraphs first and cross out used headings. There are always more headings than paragraphs, so process of elimination is real.
- Do this type first for its passage, because it leaves you with a map of the passage that makes every other type faster.
Matching information, sentence completion and summaries
| Type | What it asks | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Matching information | Which paragraph contains a specific detail (a reason, an example, a comparison). | Not in order. Underline the kind of information (a cause, a number, a date), then scan each paragraph for it. A paragraph may be used twice or not at all if the instructions say so. |
| Matching features | Match statements to names, dates or theories listed. | Scan the passage for the names first and mark them; then match statements to what is said near each. |
| Sentence completion | Finish a sentence with words from the passage, within a word limit. | In order. Predict the grammar of the missing part (a noun? a number?), find the sentence, copy the exact words. Never change the form. |
| Summary, note, table or flow-chart completion | Fill gaps in a summary of part of the passage, from the text or from a box of options. | Find where the summary begins in the passage; it usually covers a continuous section. With a box, eliminate by grammar first. |
| Short answer | Answer a question in a set number of words. | In order. The answer is words from the passage. Check the word limit before writing; "no more than two words" includes articles. |
Word limits and spelling
An answer over the word limit is wrong, however correct the content. So is a misspelled word copied from the passage. Count, and copy letter for letter. Hyphenated words count as one; numbers as one.
Multiple choice and the writer's purpose
- Read the question stem and locate its place in the passage before reading the options. Options are written to sound right; the passage decides.
- Eliminate the option that overstates ("all", "never", "the only") and the one that is true but does not answer the question.
- For "the writer's main purpose" or "the best title", the answer covers the whole text, not one paragraph. An option that is true of paragraph 3 only is a distractor.
How do you improve from 6 to 7?
Diagnose by question type, not by passage
Do a full timed test, then count wrong answers per type. Most 6.0 candidates lose to Not Given and to matching headings, and those two are method problems that fix in a fortnight.
Practise Not Given in isolation
Take twenty statements and for each write which words in the passage confirm, contradict or are absent. The discipline of pointing at the evidence is what stops plausible-sounding statements being marked False.
Time every passage
Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five. Move on when the clock says so; an unanswered question is worth the same as a wrong one, and passage 3's last questions are often easier than passage 2's hardest.
Build reading stamina with real texts
One long article a day from a serious publication, read for the main idea of each paragraph. That is the skill matching headings tests, and it cannot be built from practice tests alone.
Learn the paraphrase habit
Every correct answer is a paraphrase of the passage. Keep a list of the synonym pairs you missed (rose / climbed, some / a minority of, rarely / seldom); they recur.
Listening uses the same paraphrase trick with the added problem of hearing it once; the traps are in IELTS Listening traps.