Format at a glance
Both versions of the Reading test have 3 sections, 40 questions and 60 minutes. Each correct answer earns one mark, and nothing is taken away for a wrong answer. The British Council describes each section as harder than the one before.
IELTS does not fix how many questions of each type appear. In the official familiarisation test, the questions are split 13, 13 and 14 across the three parts, with two or three question types in each part. Treat that as typical, not as a rule.
On computer, the text and the questions scroll independently. You click to choose True / False / Not Given answers, type gap-fill answers into boxes, and answer some matching questions by dragging an option into place.
Exam rule: 60 minutes means 60 minutes
There is no extra time to check or transfer answers, and the section closes when the clock reaches zero. You manage the hour yourself: nobody tells you when to move to the next section.
Academic and General Training texts
| Item | Academic | General Training |
|---|---|---|
| Total length | 2,150–2,750 words | 2,150–2,375 words |
| Section 1 | One long text | “Social survival”: two or three short texts, or several shorter ones, such as notices, advertisements and timetables |
| Section 2 | One long text | “Workplace survival”: two texts, such as job descriptions, contracts and training material |
| Section 3 | One long text | “General reading”: one longer, more complex text on a topic of general interest |
| Sources and style | Books, journals, magazines, newspapers and online sources, written for non-specialists. Styles range from descriptive to argumentative. | Everyday and workplace documents in Sections 1 and 2. Newspapers, magazines, books and online sources in Section 3, usually descriptive or narrative. |
In Academic Reading, at least one text contains a detailed logical argument. Texts may include diagrams or graphs, and a technical term is given a simple dictionary definition. You never need specialist knowledge.
The question types are the same family in both versions. Official lists for General Training are inconsistent about whether Yes / No / Not Given and matching sentence endings appear, so it is safest to prepare for all of them.
Every question type
For each type, the most useful thing to know is whether the questions follow the order of the text. When they do, the answer to question 5 lies between the answers to questions 4 and 6, which saves a great deal of searching.
Multiple choice
- Answer:
- a letter; one of four options, or two or three from a longer list
- Order:
- follows the text
How it works. You answer a question or complete a sentence by choosing from options A to D. In another version you choose two or three answers from a longer list, and each correct letter earns one mark.
Strategy. Read the question stem, not the options, and find the relevant part of the text. Read that part carefully and decide on your own answer. Only then compare it with the options. Wrong options are usually built from real words in the text, combined into a claim the text does not make. The right option tends to paraphrase.
Watch out. An option can be true according to the text and still be wrong, because it does not answer this question. Check the option against the stem, not just against the passage.
True / False / Not Given
- Answer:
- TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN
- Order:
- usually follows the text
How it works. You judge statements against the facts in the text. TRUE means the text agrees with the statement. FALSE means the text contradicts it. NOT GIVEN means the text neither agrees nor contradicts. Only the text counts: your own knowledge of the topic is irrelevant.
Strategy. Ask one question: can I point to words in the text that make this statement impossible? If you can, the answer is FALSE. If the text confirms every part of the statement, it is TRUE. If the text discusses the topic but is silent on one part of the claim, it is NOT GIVEN. The missing part is usually a comparison, a cause, a number, a time or a frequency. IDP’s guidance puts it clearly: all of the information in the statement has to be covered by the text, not just one or two words. IDP also suggests deciding between TRUE and FALSE first and using NOT GIVEN only when neither can be supported.
| Statement | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The bridge opened to traffic in 1932. | TRUE | The text says the same thing in different words. |
| The bridge opened before 1930. | FALSE | The text gives 1932, so this cannot be right. |
| The bridge was the longest in the country when it opened. | NOT GIVEN | The text never compares it with other bridges. It may be true in real life, but the text is silent. |
Watch out. Words that set a limit change everything: all, most, only, always, never, may versus will. If the text says “some researchers” and the statement says “researchers agree”, that is a contradiction, not a match.
Yes / No / Not Given
- Answer:
- YES, NO or NOT GIVEN
- Order:
- usually follows the text
How it works. The logic is the same as True / False / Not Given, but you are judging the writer’s views or claims, not facts. YES means the statement agrees with what the writer thinks. NO means it contradicts the writer.
Strategy. Look for the writer’s own voice: evaluative words such as unfortunately, fails to, the most convincing, it is doubtful that. Separate it from opinions the writer only reports. “Critics argue that…” tells you what critics think, not what the writer thinks.
Watch out. Reported opinions are the usual distractor. The statement matches what somebody in the text believes, but not what the writer believes.
Matching information
- Answer:
- the letter of a paragraph
- Order:
- does not follow the text
How it works. Each question describes a piece of information: a reason, an example, a comparison, a description of a method. You decide which lettered paragraph contains it. Some paragraphs may not be used at all. A paragraph can be used more than once only if the instructions say so.
Strategy. Notice that each question names a kind of information. Label it: is this an example, a cause, a criticism, a prediction? Then scan for that function, not for matching vocabulary. Because these questions are out of order, do them after the other questions on the same text, when you already know what each paragraph contains.
Watch out. Assuming one answer per paragraph. If the instructions say you may choose any paragraph more than once, at least one paragraph probably holds two answers.
Matching headings
- Answer:
- a roman numeral (i, ii, iii…) for each paragraph or section
- Order:
- paragraphs are in order; the list of headings is jumbled
How it works. You choose the heading that best sums up each paragraph or section. There are always more headings than you need, and no heading is used twice. One or two paragraphs may already be done as an example.
Strategy. A heading captures the main idea of the whole paragraph, not a detail inside it. Read the opening sentences and the last sentence, decide in your own words what the paragraph is for, and only then look at the list. Cross out headings as you use them. If two headings seem to fit, ask which one covers the entire paragraph and which covers only one sentence.
Watch out. Wrong headings often reuse a striking word from the paragraph. Treat matching vocabulary as a warning sign, not as evidence.
Matching features
- Answer:
- a letter from a list of options
- Order:
- does not follow the text
How it works. You match statements to a list of options, typically people, places, theories or periods of time. A common version asks which researcher made each finding. Some options may not be used, and an option can be reused if the instructions allow it.
Strategy. Scan the text for the options first, because names and dates are easy to spot, and mark every place each one appears. A person may be mentioned in more than one paragraph. Then read around each mention and match the idea to the statements. Expect the statement to paraphrase what the person said.
Watch out. A finding that sits next to a name in the text does not always belong to that person. Check who the sentence really credits.
Matching sentence endings
- Answer:
- a letter from a list of endings
- Order:
- sentence beginnings follow the text
How it works. You are given the first half of a sentence and choose the ending that completes it according to the text. There are more endings than beginnings.
Strategy. Work from the beginnings, which come in text order. Find the part of the text that each one refers to, read it, and predict how the sentence should end before you look at the list. Then choose the ending that matches the meaning of the text.
Watch out. Most of the endings fit grammatically, so grammar will not rescue you. An ending can produce a sensible, true-sounding sentence that the text never states.
Sentence, summary, note, table, flow-chart and diagram completion
- Answer:
- words and/or a number copied from the text, or a letter from a word bank
- Order:
- sentence completion follows the text; the other kinds may not, but they usually draw on one part of it
How it works. You fill gaps in sentences, a summary, notes, a table, a flow-chart or the labels of a diagram. In one version you take the words directly from the text, within a limit such as ONE WORD ONLY or NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER. In the other you choose from a box of words. A summary usually covers one part of the text, not all of it.
Strategy. First predict the grammar of each gap: a noun, a verb, an adjective, a number? Use the title of the summary or diagram, and names and numbers around the gap, to find the right part of the text. The sentence around the gap paraphrases the text, but the answer itself is copied word for word. Do not change its form. Then read the completed sentence. If it is not grammatical, you have copied the wrong words.
Watch out. Going over the word limit, turning a plural into a singular, or misspelling a word that is printed in front of you. Copy the spelling letter by letter.
Short-answer questions
- Answer:
- words and/or a number copied from the text, within a word limit
- Order:
- follows the text
How it works. You answer factual questions, usually beginning with what, where, when, who or how many, using words taken from the text. A number can be written as a figure or as a word.
Strategy. The question word tells you what kind of answer to look for: a place, a date, a person, a quantity. Scan for that kind of detail, then read the sentence around it to confirm that it answers this question. Give only the words needed, with no sentence around them.
The two skills behind every question
Skimming and scanning: finding the place
Nobody has time to read 2,500 words carefully and then answer 40 questions. Strong candidates read in two different ways.
- Skim first. Spend two or three minutes on the title, any subheading, and the first sentence or two of each paragraph. The aim is a mental map: which paragraph is about what. You are not trying to understand everything.
- Then scan for each question. Pick something in the question that is easy to find: a name, a date, a number, a technical term, a word in capitals or italics. Move your eyes quickly over the text looking only for that. When you find it, stop and read the sentences around it slowly.
Use the order rules. For question types that follow the text, the previous answer tells you where to start looking. On computer, highlight each answer location as you find it. It makes later questions faster and checking easier.
Paraphrase: matching meaning, not words
Questions are written to avoid the wording of the text. If the text says “the population fell sharply”, the question may say “a rapid decline in numbers”. If you search only for the exact word in the question, you will either find nothing, or find the distractor that was placed there for you.
Paraphrase in IELTS usually takes one of these forms:
- Synonyms: rise becomes increase, children becomes young people.
- A change of word class: they decided becomes their decision.
- A change of structure: active becomes passive, or a cause and its effect are swapped around because, led to or resulted from.
- A general word for a specific one: wheat and rice becomes crops.
- A negative for its opposite: rare becomes not common.
Build the habit while you review
After every practice test, write down the phrase in the question and the phrase in the text for each answer you got wrong. A notebook of these pairs is the most useful vocabulary list you can make for IELTS Reading.
Marking rules: spelling and word limits
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| One mark per question | Every question is marked right or wrong. There is no partial credit and no penalty for a wrong answer. |
| Word limit | An answer longer than the limit scores zero, even if it contains the right word. |
| Hyphenated words | A hyphenated word counts as one word. In the official familiarisation test, “first-time user” is a two-word answer. |
| Words from the text | When the instructions say to use words from the text, copy them without changing their form. |
| Spelling and grammar | Incorrect spelling or grammar loses the mark. British and American spellings are both accepted. |
| Capital letters | Not marked. You may type in lower case or in capitals. |
| Numbers | In short-answer questions a number can be a figure or a word. |
Exam rule: read the word limit on every set of questions
The limit changes from one set of questions to the next. ONE WORD ONLY, NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS and NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER can all appear in the same test. Check the instruction line before each set.
Common traps
- Word matching. Choosing an answer because it repeats words from the text. Distractors repeat words, and correct answers paraphrase.
- Using what you know. If you happen to know the topic, be extra careful. Only the text counts, which matters most in True / False / Not Given.
- Partial matches. A statement where half is confirmed and half is never mentioned is NOT GIVEN, not TRUE.
- A detail chosen as a heading. The heading must fit the whole paragraph.
- Spending too long on the first section. It is the easiest, so it should take the least time.
- Leaving blanks. A guess in True / False / Not Given has a one-in-three chance. A blank has none.
Time management: a plan for the 60 minutes
The sections get harder, so equal time for each is not the best plan. The British Council suggests about 15 minutes for Section 1, 20 for Section 2 and 25 for Section 3.
- Set checkpoints. With the clock counting down from 60, aim to start Section 2 with 45 minutes left and Section 3 with 25 minutes left.
- Give each question a limit. If a question has taken more than about a minute and a half, choose your best guess, flag it and move on. Every question is worth one mark, and the next one may take ten seconds.
- Choose your order inside a text. Do the question types that follow the text first, such as completion, short answer and True / False / Not Given. They teach you the text. Leave matching information and matching headings until the end of that text.
- Keep the last two minutes. Fill every blank and check spellings and word limits.
Common trap: perfectionism in Section 1
Candidates who aim for band 6 or 7 often spend 25 minutes making Section 1 perfect, then guess through half of Section 3. Section 3 carries as many marks as Section 1, so protect its time.
How Reading is scored
Your mark out of 40 is converted to a band from 1 to 9. Academic and General Training use different conversions: IELTS notes that General Training usually needs more correct answers for the same band. The figures IELTS publishes are averages, and the exact marks needed vary slightly from one test version to another.
| Band | Academic Reading | General Training Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 9.0 | 39–40 (published by IDP) | 40 (published by IDP) |
| 8.5 | 37–38 (published by IDP) | 39 (published by IDP) |
| 8.0 | 35–36 (lower bound published by ielts.org) | 37–38 (published by IDP) |
| 7.5 | 33–34 (published by IDP) | 36 (published by IDP) |
| 7.0 | 30–32 (lower bound published by ielts.org) | 34–35 (published by IDP) |
| 6.5 | 27–29 (published by IDP) | 32–33 (published by IDP) |
| 6.0 | 23–26 (lower bound published by ielts.org) | 30–31 (lower bound published by ielts.org) |
| 5.5 | 19–22 (published by IDP) | 27–29 (published by IDP) |
| 5.0 | 15–18 (lower bound published by ielts.org) | 23–26 (lower bound published by ielts.org) |
| 4.5 | 13–14 (published by IDP) | 19–22 (published by IDP) |
| 4.0 | 10–12 (published by IDP) | 15–18 (lower bound published by ielts.org) |
| 3.5 | 8–9 (published by IDP) | 12–14 (published by IDP) |
| 3.0 | 6–7 (published by IDP) | 9–11 (published by IDP) |
| 2.5 | 4–5 (published by IDP) | 6–8 (approximate, not published) |
| 2.0 | 2–3 (approximate, not published) | 3–5 (approximate, not published) |
| 1.0 | 1 (approximate, not published) | 1–2 (approximate, not published) |
One detail is worth knowing. For General Training band 7, ielts.org currently shows 35, while its earlier pages and IDP’s table show 34. Bandwise uses 34. Try your own numbers in the band calculator, or read How scoring works for the full picture.