IELTS Reading Tips - True False Not-Given Question Types

I've examined some of the most critical questions in IELTS Reading, like True, False, Not given, and Yes, No, Not given. I've taken the official IELTS practice tests for the last three years and I've done all the questions of these types to find any patterns or any tricks that will help you find answers more easily. And I have found some and that's what I'm going to talk about here. I will talk to you through some example questions too. So let's get started.

What have I found out well first of all almost all tests have them, unfortunately. Usually true, false, not given I used to get in the first passage which is the easiest, or sometimes in the second. And yes, no, not given comes usually in the third passage which is the most difficult or sometimes in the second.

This ideas is really easy but it's very powerful and I was so excited when I discovered that.

• Basically, you always need to use all three answers, or sometimes you have four questions in a set or sometimes five.
• Let's say you have four, so one is going to be true, one is false, one is not given and the last one is one of the three.
• However, if you have five questions, it's still not likely that three of them are going to be true or three of them are going to be not given.
• Answers are usually evenly distributed. So if the answers to the first four questions are like that what do you think the fifth answer should be my bet is it's Not-Given.

However, IELTS may change that in the future. I would say don't change your answer because of this tip but use it to help decide what answer you should go for or to guess the answer if you can't find it.

The first thing you need to do is to locate the correct bit of the text which contains the answer. The good thing is you'll find answers in the same order as questions are asked. 

So what I usually do is I read the first statement and then I start scanning the text until I feel that the answer is somewhere here. Then I slow down to read the statement and re-read the bit of the text and locate the answer.

Read the second statement continue scanning the text and so on. It's really helpful when you know that you don't need to go backward in the text to look for your answers, you only need to go forward it's true in probably 95% of cases.

But occasionally, when you have yes, no, and not given questions in the passage three at the very end of it. Questions may not be in order. But in most tests they are.

If you want to know all the question types which come in order and which don't come in order. Read Here: it's called How to Find Reading Answers

Other things which will help you to locate the answer, are names and dates. Whenever you see the name of a theory or a name of a person or a date highlight it straight away. It will help you locate the correct bit of the text. Look for synonyms once you read the statement, you know that you're not going to find exactly the same words in the text. They do it on purpose. They always paraphrase. So look for this paraphrasing. 

For example, your text statement may say:

• Bilingual children and in the text.
• You will read children who speak more than two languages or who speak two or more languages, which is a definition of being bilingual.

How to find the answer: True, False, Not-Given

1. Once you've located the correct bit of the passage which contains the answer, How do you decide which answer you should go for? Let's have a look at true, false, not given questions.

First what I want to say is in this type of question, the answer is usually located in a single sentence. I'm going to show you an example of the statement:

From 1887 onwards, glass creation created from the customary mouth-blowing to a self-loader process, after plant. HM Ashkey, factory owner began a machine equipped for delivering 200 glasses for every hour in Castleford, Yorkshire, England - multiple occasions faster than any past creation association.

True, False, or Not-Given?

Q. In 1887, HM Ashkey had the fastest bottle-producing machine that exists at the same time.

Explanation:

In IELTS often the devil is in detail you really have to check everything pays attention to words like at that time. Mostly hardly they will affect if the answer is true, false, or not given. So pay attention to every word.

Tip: They give you too much information sentences are long, words are complex. They're trying to confuse you. Your goal is to stay focused and to simply look for the answer without trying to understand everything. That's going on because it may not be possible unless your English is really advanced. So we're looking for relevant bits and irrelevant bits.

Let's read the statement with me: 

• From 1987 onwards: okay! the date matches glassmaking that's what we're looking for.
• glass creation created from the customary mouth-blowing to a self-loader process: Do we care about it? No just cross it out.
• HM Ashkey, factory owner began a machine equipped for delivering 200 jugs for every hour: We don't care about how many bottles 

He produced them more than three times quicker than any previous production method: That means, that it was the fastest bottle producing machine at the time. And so the statement is true.

2. Let's have a look at the next example. The statement is: 

As less energy is needed to melt recycled glass than to meltdown raw materials, this also saves fuel and production costs.

True, False, Not-Given?

Q. Producing recycled glass is more expensive than to manufacture new glass.

Explanation:

Let's have a look at the statement:  

• As less energy is needed to melt recycled glass than to melt down raw materials: So raw materials are needed to produce a new glass and we know that less energy is needed to melt recycled glass. 
• This also saves fuel and production costs. Costs mean the costs are lower. So it's cheaper to produce recycled glass.

But the statement says it's more expensive. There is a direct contradiction and the answer is false.

3. One more example is here: Let's Read the statement:

Modern glass plants are equipped for making a large number of glass containers a day.  in a wide range of colors, with green-brown colored and clear remaining the most well known. 

True, False, Not-Given?

Q. Nowadays, most glass is delivered by huge global producers.

Explanation: I am going to rephrase the question first.

• Nowadays that means at the present moment that's important.
• a large number of glasses, not just glass, not all glass but most glass more than 50 percent that's important.
• is produced by huge global producers: So producers should be hug and global.

Read the statement now:

• modern glass plants if they're modern it means it's happening at the present moment or nowadays.  So that's correct.
• are equipped for making a large number of glass containers a day.  in a wide range of colours. Then they talk about colors. We don't care about colors at all.so just cross it out.

What we should know is glass plants or glass producers capable of making a lot of glass but do they produce most glass we don't know. Are they international or global? we have no idea we haven't read anything about that at all. It means the answer is Not-Given.

 A general tip is if you can't find an answer to a certain question mark it not given. Usually, you can't find it because it's not given. Wasting much time on any single question is foolishness. just mark it not given and move on.

 

How to Find the Answer: Yes, No, Not-Given

Now let's read at yes, no, not given questions. Those are usually given in the third passage where the text is the most difficult and it will be harder to find answers. 

• In true, false, and not given questions, we deal with facts that we need to say if the statement is true or it's false.
• In cases of yes, no, not-given questions, we deal with the opinions of the writer. There we need to say if the statement matches claims of the writer or his opinion.
• Yes it matches or no it doesn't match or not given the information is not provided.
• We simply can't say if it's a yes or if it's a no.
• There is another difference in true, false, and not given questions. The answers are usually in a single sentence.
• Here you have to read several sentences usually two sentences to find your answer. So, be prepared for that. 

1. I show you the first example:

In the past few decades, Bilingual or multilingual children were judged to be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers. From the last few decades, because of technological progressions have allowed requests to look more deeply at how bilingualism communicates with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems, through identifying many clear benefits of being bilingual from earlier years.

Yes, No, Not-Given?

Q: Opinions towards bilingualism have changed in recent years.

Explanation:

Question rephrasing examples are:

• Opinions towards bilingualism: not facts but opinions have changed.
• in recent years: not some long time ago but in recent years.

Let's have a look one more at the statement:

• In the past few decades, Bilingual or multilingual children were judged to be at a disadvantage: the attitude was bad over the past few decades. 
• technological advancements have allowed inquiries to look more deeply at how bilingualism communicates with and so on: We are really not interested in whatever searches looked at right that's not what the question is about so cross it out.
• distinguishing several clear benefits of being bilingual from past years: the disadvantage over the past few decades clear benefits so is it fair to say opinions have changed in recent years. 

So the answer is Yes.

In this type of question, likely, you're not going to know all the words sentences, are long trying to analyze the sentence structure to understand. What this bit of text is talking about and then determine if it's relevant or it's irrelevant. You don't care about it altogether. Quite often the answer depends on simple words which you know and as long as you can stay focused and you simply understand how different words are related to each other. You can still find the answer even if you can't understand everything.

2. The Next Example:

Read Statement:

Identifying more than one language can make the speaker name pictures more slowly and can increase 'tip of the tongue states', when you can most, but not truly bring a word to mind.

Yes, No, Not-Given?

Q: Bilingual people frequently name pictures faster than monolingual people.  

Explanation:

Question Statement paraphrasing: The statement bilingual people frequently: frequently means always regularly named images faster.

Looking at the statement text again: Identifying more than one language: it means being bilingual can make speakers name pictures more slowly: So there is a direct contradiction.

The question statement says bilingual people name pictures faster: but the text says bilingual people name pictures more slowly. So the answer is No.

What I want to say is yes no not given and true false not given questions are quite similar. You have to pay attention to what sort of question you're answering. Because if you mark it as false instead of no. It will be an incorrect answer.

3. Ready for one more question? I'm going to give you some extra tips after. Let get started and read the text statement first:

When we listen to a word, we don't listen to the complete word all at once. the sounds arrive in sequential order. Long before the words finished. the brain's system begins to guess what that word might be. if you hear 'can' you will likely to activate words like candy or candle as well. During the earlier stages of word identification. For bilingual people, this activation is not restricted to monolingual people; acoustic input activates corresponding words despite the language to which they belong.

Yes, No, Not-Given?

Q: bilingual people are better than monolingual at imagining correctly what is before they are finished.

Explanation: 

Bilingual people are better than monolingual at imagining correctly: They're better and imagining correctly what words are that's what we're looking for.

We read this long bit of text statement Here:

It's almost a paragraph but all we know is that bilingual people guess words in several languages but we don't know if they are better or if they're worse. But we know that the correct bit of the text because it's about guessing words: So the answer is not given 

It often happens to many people that I keep on looking for the answer and it can't find it because it's not given. So don't waste too much time if you can't find an answer. Probably it's not given.

 

ExtraTips

When you're answering questions. Don't rely on your common knowledge. Use only the information you can read. Sometimes it's really hard to decide between: 

• True - Not Given
• False - Not Given
• Yes - Not Given
•  No  Not Given. 

1. You shouldn't really hesitate between true and false or yes and no. If you ever do try re-reading it you probably missed something.
2. But when you're hesitating between yes or not given, for example, then it's more difficult and I can't tell you how to answer it because it really depends on the question. But from analyzing my answers I've noticed that I usually get into trouble if I start overthinking.
3. Go for the first answer once you've found it. Once you start thinking like ''if I dig deeper maybe there is a hidden meaning here and if I look from that angle'' that's really too much. Just go for the first most obvious answer.

Bottom Line

I think you have enough examples now. How many questions could you answer correctly? Tell me in the comments below.  Also, tell me what types of reading questions do you find most difficult? and I try to Write about them.

Thank you for Reading!