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IELTS Reading
True, False, Not Given
Questions

True, False, Not Given questions come up

regularly in the IELTS Reading test.

Many students fear this type of question and

I’ll explain why in a minute. However, if you
learn the tips and practice the strategy on this
page, you’ll soon improve your skill at
answering them.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

Explanation

The big challenge

Difference between T/F/NG & Y/N/NG

questions

8 Top tips

Proven strategy

Examples & model answers

Explanation
For True/False/Not Given questions, you will
be given a set of statements and a text. Your
task is to decide which of the following applies
to the information in each statement:

it agrees with the information in the text –

TRUE (T)

it disagrees with it or contradicts it –

FALSE (F)

it is not mentioned in the text – NOT

GIVEN (NG)

Here’s a set of sample instructions &

questions from a real past IELTS Reading test
paper for illustration.

So, you need to do two things:

1) Understand the information in the

statements.

2) Decide if it is True, False or Not Given

according to the text.

The big challenge

The challenge with a T/F/NG type question is
that for some statements, the NOT GIVEN
ones, you will be searching for information
that’s not there.

This is the first reason why some people fear

it.

It’s very easy to waste a huge amount of time

going over and over the text to check that you
haven’t missed the information.

The second challenge is the unfamiliarity of

this type of question. Most people will have
looked for TRUE & FALSE statements in a text
back in their school days but may have no
experience of NG statements.

Hence, it’s extra important to have a strategy

that gives you the confidence to make your
decision and move swiftly on.

Difference between True/False/Not

Given & Yes/No/Not Given questions
Some students get confused between
True/False/Not Given questions and
Yes/No/Not Given questions so I’ll quickly
explain the difference.

It’s all about the type of information contained

in the text.

True/False/Not Given – the text will

contain factual information about a topic.

Yes/No/Not Given – the text will contain

the opinions, views or beliefs of the writer or
other people who are mentioned.

8 Top tips

1) The answers appear in the same order in

the text as the order of the statements.

2) You don’t need to read the whole text. First,

you will scan for keywords and then you’ll read
in detail the section in which they're located for
the answer.

3) There will be at least one of each answer

type – True, False, Not Given. So, if you don’t
have at least one of each when you’ve
completed the question, you’ve made a
mistake.

4) Watch out for distractors. Be aware that the

test setters love to use ‘distractors’ to really
test you. A prime example is qualifying words
such as:

every a few

all always

some often

most occasionally

These single words can completely change

the meaning of a sentence.

E.g. Tiantian often meets up with her

friends after work.

Tiantian occasionally meets up with

her friends after work.

In T/F/NG questions, the meaning of the

statement must be an exact match with the
information in the text to be TRUE.

5) Also be on the lookout for qualifying words

that express possibility or doubt such as:

seem claim

suggest possibly

believe probably

Again, they can totally alter the meaning of a

statement.

E.g. Scientists now claim that several

different species of humans evolved on the
earth.

Scientists now know that several

different species of humans evolved on the
earth.

6) The statements won’t be a word-for-word

match to the information in the text. They will
contain synonyms and paraphrasing. It’s the
meaning that you are trying to match.

7) The test is not an assessment of your

knowledge of the topic but only of your ability
to read and understand the specific
information in the text. So, if you happen to
know from your own knowledge that a
particular statement is correct, i.e. TRUE, but
this is not stated in the text, your answer must
be NOT GIVEN.

8) Remember that at least one answer will be

NG. This means that you will be searching for
information that is not there.

As already mentioned, it’s easy to waste time

searching and searching for information you’re
never going to find because it isn’t there. Use
the strategy I’m about to show you to quickly
come to a decision about each statement and
move on.

The Strategy

# 1 Read the instructions carefully. Double-

check whether it is a TRUE/FALSE/NOT
GIVEN or a YES/NO/NOT GIVEN question.

# 2 Read the statements and try to

understand the meaning of each. Do this
before reading the text.

# 3 Think about possible synonyms that might

appear in the text and note any qualifying
words in the statements such as, all, some,
always, often. This will make your brain alerts
for them when you scan the text.

# 4 Underline keywords. You won’t

necessarily find the exact words in the text
due to the extensive use of synonyms and
paraphrasing in T/F/NG questions but enough
will be present to make doing this worthwhile.

# 5 Re-read statement 1 and scan the first

paragraph, maybe two, for the keywords or
synonyms of them. Scanning will locate where
the answer is but detailed reading of this
section of the text is now needed to decide if
the specific information you’re looking for is
TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.

# 6 Make your decision. Remember to

consider these three things:

To be TRUE, the information must

exactly match even if the words are
different.

Look carefully for qualifying words

that might change the meaning.

If you are struggling to find the answer

it’s probably because it isn’t there, i.e.
it’s NOT GIVEN.

# 7 Repeat this process for the remaining

questions.

Example with answers

Please note that this example is not from a

real IELTS Reading test paper. I have created
it myself to demonstrate the strategy I’ve just
outlined and to give you an opportunity to
practice it.

The text in your test will be longer and

probably have 5 or 6 statements.

Follow steps 1-7 of the strategy and see if you

can work out if each statement is TRUE,
FALSE or NOT GIVEN. Then read my notes
below which contain the answers.

Download the PDF of this text – Reducing

Stress in the Classroom

Download the PDF of these instructions –

Reducing Stress in the Classroom -
Statements

Notes on how I answered the

questions

1) Having read the instructions and tried to

understand the meaning of the statements, I
now focus in on the first statement.

1. Raising levels of literacy was the main

theme of the conference.

The keyword I select to scan for is

conference. I’m fairly sure I’ll find this or a
synonym because it has an article word in
front of it (the) which makes it the subject of
the sentence.

I will then need to search the text to see if

‘raising levels of literacy’ really was the main
theme of this conference.

I scan the first main paragraph and find

‘conference’ twice. I read both sentences that
contain it in detail.

Sir Anthony was speaking at

a conference about the need to improve young
people's sense of wellbeing. The University of
Buckingham's Ultimate Wellbeing in
Education Conference examined how to
respond to the stresses and anxieties facing
young people.

It is very clear that the conference was about

the wellbeing of the pupils, not their level of
literacy. The answer is therefore FALSE.

2) Next, I read the second statement and

decide to scan for words connected to the
internet as this is what the statement is about.

2. Online platforms such as Facebook and

Twitter can have a negative effect on young
people’s lives.

I continue scanning from the location of the

last answer. Remember, the information will
come in order in the text.

I quickly spot the words ‘social media’ which

appear twice. I read the two sentences in
detail to look for any matching words or
phrases. I also see the word ‘teenagers’ which
is a synonym of ‘young people’. This is
another clue that there is a match of
information.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds told the

conference that the relentless presence
of social media made growing up "more
pressurised". He said this could be all-
pervasive for teenagers, making them
compare their own experiences with the
“perfect lives” on social media.

However, I now need to decide if the specific

information in the text matches that of the
statement.

The wording is very different but the text

definitely states that social media, of which
Facebook and Twitter are a major part, can
have a negative effect on young people’s lives.

So, the statement is TRUE.

3) Moving on to statement 3, I re-read it to

ensure I understand the meaning and then
choose my keywords, in this case, ‘pets’ and
‘mental health’. I then scan for these.

3. There is evidence that the presence of pets

in schools helps kids with mental health
issues.

I easily find ‘mental health’ but there is no

mention of 'pets' in this part of the text. I do,
however, spot the words ‘animals’ and ‘dog’
which might have been used to paraphrase
‘pets’.

I read in detail to get the meaning of the text.

But Sir Anthony suggested another more low-

tech approach to reducing anxiety - the
soothing presence of animals such as dogs.
"The quickest and biggest hit that we can
make to improve mental health in our schools
and to make them feel safe for children, is to
have at least one dog in every single school in
the country," said Sir Anthony. "Because
children can relate to animals when they are
hurt and anxious and sad in a way that they
can't always with human beings. It will be a
powerfully cost-effective way of helping
children feel more secure at schools”, he
added.

It seems to match the information in the

sentence but there is another very important
keyword in the statement that I need to
consider – ‘evidence’. This means proof of the
idea being suggested.

While the ideas match, there is no direct

evidence stated so I mark the answer NOT
GIVEN.

You can see why NG answers can be

challenging.

4) Moving on to the last statement, I select

‘government minister’ and ‘national scheme’
as my keywords and continue scanning the
rest of the text for them. In this case, this
means the final paragraph.

4. The government minister may introduce a

national scheme promoting wellbeing dogs in
schools.

I don’t find either of these phrases in the text

so need to think about possible synonyms.
Even if I know little about politics, I can guess
that the ‘education secretary’ is a ‘government
minister’. So that’s a start.

The education secretary said that his visits to

schools had certainly shown him how common
‘wellbeing dogs’ were becoming. "This is one
of those things that wasn't around when I was
at school," said Mr Hinds. "I hadn't really
realised the incidence of it until I
was education secretary”. He said that he’d
been surprised at the idea at first but saw for
himself that many children found the
experience really uplifting, particularly those
that have different ways of expressing
themselves and coming out of themselves. He
did, however, stated that although the dogs
can really help, there were no plans for a
"central dog policy".

I scan again looking out for any other words

related to government and politics and in the
final sentence I also spot the word ‘policy’.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what

this word means. All that matters is that you
can work out from the context of the sentence
that this word is probably relevant and
indicates where the answer is located.

I make an educated guess that a ‘central dog

policy’ is a match for a ‘national scheme
promoting wellbeing dogs in schools’, and re-
read the sentence to find my answer.

The sentence states that there are ‘no plans

for a central dog policy’, so the answer is
FALSE.

Answers

1 FALSE

2 TRUE

3 NOT GIVEN

4 FALSE

IELTS Reading – How To Ans…

Want to watch the video of this page? Click here.

I hope you’ve found this page helpful. You are

now ready to practice this strategy with past
test papers. Once you get the hang of
answering T/F/NG questions, you’ll be able to
tackle them with confidence in your IELTS