True/False/Not Given is the IELTS Academic reading task that punishes guesswork hardest, because two of the three answers feel almost identical. FALSE means the passage says the opposite; NOT GIVEN means the passage does not deal with the claim at all. This page trains that single decision, then drills it on forty original statements.
Take one statement at a time. Read the whole passage first and you will have forgotten the wording by the time you need it.
Names, dates, numbers and technical nouns rarely get paraphrased. They are your anchors for finding the right lines.
Separately mark the quantifier or verb that makes the claim: all, only, first, caused, proved. This is usually where TRUE turns into FALSE.
Run your eye down the passage for the anchor words. Only slow to full reading speed once you have found them.
Answers appear in passage order. Start searching from where the previous answer was found, not from the top.
Once you have the lines, ask a single question: does the passage assert this claim, contradict it, or say nothing about it?
If the topic is there but the claim is not, choose NOT GIVEN. If neither is there, you may have searched the wrong part of the passage: check the statements either side of it.
About a minute per item. If you are still torn between FALSE and NOT GIVEN, pick NOT GIVEN, mark the number and move on.
Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN. Y, N, T, F or a tick are not safe answers on this task.
Not thisAnswering FALSE because the passage never mentions the idea.
ThisAnswering NOT GIVEN.
FALSE requires the passage to state something incompatible with the statement. Silence is not contradiction.
Not thisAnswering TRUE because the statement is true in real life.
ThisAnswering from the passage only.
The task tests reading, not general knowledge. A well-known fact that the passage omits is still NOT GIVEN.
Not thisPassage: 'Most students finished early.' Statement: 'All students finished early.' Answered TRUE.
ThisFALSE.
Most excludes all. The quantifier is the whole question.
Not thisPassage: 'Researchers believe the site is Roman.' Statement: 'The site is definitely Roman.' Answered TRUE.
ThisFALSE.
A hedged claim is contradicted by a certainty claim. Believe is not proof.
Not thisAnswering NOT GIVEN because the statement uses different words from the passage.
ThisChecking whether the different words mean the same thing.
Paraphrase is the norm in IELTS. Different wording with the same meaning is TRUE.
Not thisWriting T, F and NG in the answer boxes.
ThisWriting TRUE, FALSE and NOT GIVEN.
Abbreviations are not reliably accepted, and one rejected abbreviation costs a whole set.
Not thisReading the entire passage carefully before looking at the statements.
ThisSkimming for structure, then working statement by statement.
You have roughly twenty minutes per passage. A careful first read leaves no time for the other task types.
Not thisLeaving an item blank because you could not decide.
ThisChoosing the more likely label and moving on.
Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so a blank is a guaranteed zero.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
1Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
6Complete the sentence.
7In one sentence, explain the difference between FALSE and NOT GIVEN.
One good answer
FALSE means the passage says something that conflicts with the statement, while NOT GIVEN means the passage says nothing either way about the claim.
9Complete the sentence.
11Complete the sentence.
14Complete the sentence.
15Read this sentence: 'The factory, which opened in 1998, employs 300 people.' Write one statement about it whose answer would be NOT GIVEN.
One good answer
The factory employs more women than men. The passage gives the opening year and the number of employees but says nothing about who they are.
17Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
24Rewrite this sentence as a statement whose answer would be TRUE: 'Rainfall in the region declined steadily between 1990 and 2010.'
One good answer
The region became drier over a twenty-year period. The meaning is the same as the passage even though almost every word has changed.
26Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
30Complete the sentence.
31You have found two paragraphs that both seem to deal with a statement. What do you do?
One good answer
Use the numbering: check which paragraph sits between the answers to the statements before and after it, then read only that one closely, because the answers run in passage order.
33Complete the sentence.
36Complete the sentence.
38Complete the sentence.
40Summarise the three-step decision you make on every True/False/Not Given item.
One good answer
Find the lines in the passage that deal with the statement; ask whether they assert the claim, deny it or ignore it; then write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN accordingly and move on.
Note
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No. The three labels are mixed through a set and no distribution is guaranteed, so do not answer NOT GIVEN simply because you have written few of them. Decide each item on the lines in front of you.
Yes. A claim is sometimes only contradicted when you combine a fact in one sentence with a limit stated in the next. If a single sentence seems to leave the question open, read on one more sentence before choosing NOT GIVEN.
The decision is the same; the target changes. TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN deals with factual information in the passage, while YES/NO/NOT GIVEN deals with the writer's opinions or claims. Use whichever set of labels the instructions give.
Skim it: read the title, the first line of each paragraph and any subheadings so you know where each subject sits. That takes two or three minutes and makes scanning far faster than reading every word would.
Usually because the statement sounds unlikely. Ask yourself which exact words in the passage make it impossible. If you cannot point at them, the answer is NOT GIVEN.
A passage carries around thirteen or fourteen questions in about twenty minutes, so a set of six True/False/Not Given items deserves roughly eight minutes including the time spent finding the right part of the text.