Two quick tips for when you need to guess IELTS Reading true, false or not given questions
If you’re really stuck with a question in the IELTS Reading test, it’s important that you don’t spend too long thinking about your answer and that you take a guess instead. If you have to guess the answer to a TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN question, here are two quick tips to give you a better chance of guessing right.
Tip 1: Don’t guess the answer based on your own knowledge
If you think you know that an answer is true or false because you have read it somewhere else, you shouldn’t use this knowledge to answer the question.
To show you what I mean, here are two TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN questions taken from a test in the book Cambridge IELTS 8:
Do the following statements agree with the information in the text?
Write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information given
29. Most New Zealanders believe it is good to teach children a second language
30. Chinese is the most common foreign language in New Zealand
If I had to guess the answers to these questions based on my own knowledge, I would answer TRUE for both. The answers in the test, however, are NOT GIVEN because the information isn’t stated directly in the text.
Tip 2: Guess the answer based on the answers in previous IELTS Reading tests
In all of the published versions of official IELTS Reading tests that I’ve looked at (both Academic and General Training), there’s almost always at least one answer that is true, one that is false and one that is not given in any set of TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN questions.
What this means is that if you are confident with all of your answers except one, you should choose the answer that you haven’t used yet. If there are four questions, for example, and you are confident that the first three answers are TRUE, TRUE and FALSE, then it would be a good idea to choose NOT GIVEN for the fourth answer.
Of course, whether your guess is right or not depends on whether the answers that you are confident with are actually correct.
Have a good weekend,
Pete
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In the true false question we write true for t and false for f is it right or wrong?
Hi Sandhya,
In answer to your question:
Best wishes,
Pete
Dear Pete,
Thank you for the two tips. I liked them. I came to this page while I was tired of searching if I could write T, instead of True on my answer script. From your response here, it seems to be ok.
However, another website does not support this. Does IELTS org have any formal announcement on that? Please let me know if you are absolutely certain about this. I found that I can save at least five minutes of my time if I do so.
Kind regards,
Anu
Hi Anu,
As far as I know, this information isn’t on the official IELTS website and isn’t publicly available officially. However, we have spoken to our local IELTS test centre who have confirmed that it’s okay to write ‘T’ or ‘t’ instead of ‘True’.
I hope that puts your mind at rest,
Pete
Hi Pete
Thanks very much for your response. Yesterday I found a discussion thread on this in Cambridge ESOL examination website. You are right. Here is the link of the discussion if anyone is interested: http://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/forums?q=/posts/list/16402.page
Cheers,
Anu
Hi Pete I have written T instead of true and F instead of false and NG instead of not given in my exam, will they award marks for sure? I’m a bit scared about this please answer as soon as possible……
Don’t worry, Naveen, it’s okay to write ‘T’ instead of ‘True’, ‘F’ instead of ‘False’ and ‘NG’ instead of ‘Not given’.
Have a look at the link that Anu left above.
Pete
Thank you very much Pete and also Anu for your link ……..
Hi Pete, I’ve a doubt regarding bands in writing. If I want to go get 6.5 in academic module, how many answers of me should be correct?
Sorry I want to ask about reading. How many answers of me should be correct?
Hi Naveen,
You can see how many correct answers you need to get a band score 6.0 or 7.0 by reading ‘How is reading assessed in IELTS?‘.
As far as I know, the number of correct answers needed to get a band score 6.5 is not publicly available.
Pete
Hi
I want some tips for reading as sometimes I can’t complete reading in 60 minutes so some questions left by me.
So any tips for Improving my speed for completing it before 60 minutes.
Thanks
&
Regards
Rajendra
You’re not alone, Rajendra; a lot of IELTS candidates find it difficult to finish the IELTS Reading test in the given time.
For some tips about how to manage your time in the reading test, have a look at our blog posts ‘Don’t get stuck on the difficult questions‘ and ‘Where to start?‘.
Best wishes,
Pete
Hi…I took my ielts idp exam on Sep 6th 2012….in reading test I answerd as T/F/NG instead of true/false/not given…I heard that computer valuates the omr sheet…My question is my answers are correct or invalid?…plz reply me
Don’t worry, Chaitanya, it’s okay to write T, F or NG instead of true, false or not given on the reading answer sheet.
A clerical marker (who is a real person) marks the reading question paper and decides if each answer is correct or incorrect. All the computer does is add up the number of answers that the clerical marker has marked as correct.
I hope you get the IELTS band score you need when you get your results next week.
Pete
Dear Sir,
Please let me know your views about the Cambridge IELTS Books! There are books from IELTS 1 to IELTS 9, and is it necessary to follow all the books? Or what are the best books of this series to be followed! Please advise me!
Good Luck!
Hi Bimal,
If you want to do some IELTS practice tests as part of your IELTS preparation, the Cambridge IELTS series of books are good ones to use; the tests in the books are official practice tests produced by Cambridge ESOL Examinations.
I recommend using Cambridge IELTS 5, 6, 7 or 8 as these are the most recently published. The tests in Cambridge IELTS 1, 2, 3 and 4 are quite old now and include types of question that are no longer used in IELTS tests.
Cambridge IELTS 9 is due to be released in February 2013.
Pete
Hi thank you so much for your best tips.
Well , I am not greedy, I just want to get 5.5 in reading as the lowest skill in my result to join in master. You know the difficult skills is READING .. I have taken IELTS for four times and the last one I got 5 in reading and every things are OK.. so, can you give me the gold tip :(
I AM WAITING YOUR TIPS..THANKS
Hi Kate,
I’m glad you like our tips and I hope they can help you improve your IELTS Reading band score from a 5.0 to a 5.5.
To see all of our blog posts that include tips for the IELTS Reading test, click on the blog category called ‘IELTS reading tips‘.
Best wishes,
Pete
Hi Pete,
I want to score 8 in each band. Could you please help me, with some reliable tips?
Thank you,
Deepika
Hi Deepika,
For some advice about how to get a band score 8.0 in each skill, have a look at the series of IELTS band score 8.0 videos on our Youtube channel.
If you’d like some individual help with you writing and /or speaking, check out the tutoring options on the IELTS tutoring page of our website.
Best wishes,
Pete
I want reading tips because I having too much problems in reading, actually how to get answers easily from passages.
Please help me.
Hi Mohsin, I’m sorry to hear that you’re finding the IELTS Reading test difficult.
There are lots of tips for the IELTS Reading test in our blog category called ‘IELTS reading tips‘.
You should also read our blog post called ‘The opinion of Professor Savulescu‘ as it includes a tip for finding answers to a particular type of IELTS Reading question.
Pete
I have a problem with my reading part of ielts especially in the chose the answers. I am stuck with it in ielts cambridge ielts 8, passage 2, task 3. How am I suppose do that? Please help and please send me the tips for that.
Hi Srikanth,
I’m not sure which type of IELTS Reading question you are referring to because there are four IELTS Academic Reading tests and two IELTS General Training Reading texts in the book Cambridge IELTS 8 (and each test has a passage or section 2).
For some tips on how to answer different kinds of IELTS Reading question, have a look though the posts in our blog category called ‘IELTS Reading tips‘.
Pete
Hi sir,
What will be my overall band score if I get 6.5 for Writing, 6.5 for Listening, 6.0 for Speaking and 6.5 for Reading. Expecting your reply soon.
Hi Bhaskar,
With those individual band scores, your overall band score will be 6.5. For an explanation of how the overall band score is calculated, have a look at ‘How are IELTS band scores calculated?‘.
Pete
Your overall band will be 6.5
Hello sir,
I’m trying to solve t,f,ng questions but whatever is written in the text I feel true is just opposite to it in the answer. I’m practising it since so many days and still I’m not able to go through all the correct answers. I don’t think I will be able to clear reading exam. I am extraordinary good at listening, writing and speaking, only reading is not coming my way :(
Hi Kaushal,
I’m sorry to hear you’re finding ‘True, false or not given’ questions difficult. For some more advice, have a look at our blog post ‘Is it true, false or not given?‘.
Pete