The ‘True, False, Not Given’ question requires you to determine whether the information is true or not. In IELTS reading band 8.0, this is the type that you need to practice a lot!

There will be a list of affirmative questions about the article. Your task will be to determine if the information is correct by taking information from the article.

This is the most difficult type of question in the IELTS reading test.

The article will:

• Provide exam format;
• List some problems that candidates often face;
• Define ‘True’, ‘False’ and ‘Not Given’
• Provide you with test-taking tips;
• Tactics for homework;

Format of the exam

You will decide whether to answer yes, no, or “not given”.

Problems students often face

The problem candidates often face is the “Not given” option because the candidate does not know where the information to look for is located.

Candidates often do not understand the exact meaning of the sentence. Besides, you focus more on keywords instead of trying to understand the general meaning of the whole sentence.

A common mistake is that after you identify keywords, you try to find the right words in the article. However, of course not because the test only traps “synonyms”.

Candidates sometimes do not understand the true meaning of “true, false, not given”.

So what do TRUE, FALSE and NOT GIVEN mean?

• If the passage contains information and affirms that information, then the answer is TRUE
• If the passage contains completely opposite information, the answer is FALSE
• If information is not available or cannot be determined, the answer is NOT GIVEN

True means the same. If the meaning is similar, it means FALSE. Remember that we are looking for only fact information because there will be no room for similar or nearly the same.

Very important- not because the answer is NOT GIVEN no means that none of the words in the answer are in the reading passage. This will confuse candidates because if the word is in the passage the answer should be TRUE or FALSE huh? It’s really not because the information in the answer is not enough to answer.

Important tips

1. Don’t guess. Based on the text to do.
2. Find key vocabulary to identify the information of the question. Examples of words “some, all, mainly, often, always and occasionally.” These words can completely change the meaning of the whole sentence. For example ‘Coca-Cola has always made its drinks in the USA’ will have a different meaning than ‘Coca-Cola has mainly made its drinks in the USA’
3. Be careful with important verbs in questions like “suggest, claim, believe and know”. For example, ‘The man claimhe was a British citizen,’ and ‘The man is a British citizen’ are two different meanings.
4. Do not skim and scan the article to find the final answer. You must carefully read the section containing the answer.
5. Do not find words that are exactly the same as keywords in the text. You have to find synonyms – synonyms. Remember that you are matching meaning, not words.
6. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, then the answer is ‘not given’. Don’t waste time looking for something you don’t have.
7. The answers are in the order in which they appear in the passage.
8. Question YES/NO/NOT GIVEN is different from TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN because YES/NO/NOT

GIVEN refers to “opinion – personal opinion of the author; TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN refers to “facts – facts contained in the article”

Tactics for homework

1. Always read the instructions carefully;
2. Read all the questions carefully, trying to understand the whole sentence instead of looking for keywords. Notice important words like some or always.
3. Try to think of synonyms – synonyms in the text. This will help you determine the exact part that contains the answer;
4. Match the answer with the information contained in the text;
5. Focus on the question again and read the information to determine the answer. Remember that the meaning should exactly match the information in the text;
6. Underline words that contain information to help you choose an answer. This also makes it easier for you to check back;
7. If no information is found, mark ‘not given’ and go to the next sentence;
8. If you are not really sure of the answer or can’t find it, mark it as ‘not given’.

Hope this article helps you a lot in this type of article. Let’s practice some exercises like this on IELTS-fighter and look forward to the article “Instructions on applying TRUE, FALSE and NOT GIVEN tactics in the next article!