IELTS Academic Reading practice by task type
IELTS Academic5 topics200 questions
The Academic Reading paper is sixty minutes, three passages and forty questions, with no extra time for copying answers. What separates candidates at this level is rarely vocabulary; it is knowing what each task type rewards and how long to give it. These five pages take the task types one at a time.
What this paper asks of you
- Reading three passages of roughly 700 to 1000 words each in an hour.
- Working to a budget of about twenty minutes per passage, transfer included.
- Telling a contradiction from an absence of information on True/False/Not Given.
- Finding the main idea of a paragraph for matching headings, and one buried detail for matching information.
- Obeying word limits and copying spelling exactly on completion tasks.
- Rejecting multiple-choice options that are true but answer a different question.
- Recognising paraphrase, since questions almost never reuse the passage's own wording.
- Using passage order where it exists and ignoring it where it does not.
- Guessing rather than leaving blanks, since nothing is deducted for a wrong answer.
Task types, one page each
- True / False / Not GivenIELTS Academic True/False/Not Given practice: learn the difference between False and Not Given, spot paraphrase and hedging, and try forty original questions.40 questions
- Matching headingsIELTS Academic matching headings practice: find the main idea of a paragraph, reject headings built on one detail, and work through forty original questions.40 questions
- Matching informationIELTS Academic matching information practice: find which paragraph contains a definition, an example or a comparison, and work through forty original questions.40 questions
- Summary & sentence completionIELTS Academic summary and sentence completion practice: obey the word limit, predict the part of speech and copy spelling exactly, across forty original questions.40 questions
- Multiple choice & timingIELTS Academic multiple choice practice plus the timing plan: twenty minutes a passage, skim then scan, reject part-true options. Forty original questions.40 questions
Note
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