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IELTS General Reading

In a Nutshell
The Reading test starts with the distribution of question paper and the answer sheet. The Reading question paper has a variety of questions based on some textual information which is divided into different sections. The candidates have to keep track of the time themselves and there is no extra time given for transferring the answers from the question paper to the answer sheet.

Duration: 60 minutes.

Number of questions: 40

Number of sections: 3

Types of questions: There can be different types of questions in the reading test, for example, fill in the blanks, multiple choice questions, matching headings with paragraphs, True/False etc.

  1. Multiple choice questions: In this category of questions, either a complete sentence is given and the candidate has to find its answer from a group of options, or a part of the sentence is given and the candidate has to complete the sentence by selecting an option out of the given multiple options. In this category, the questions are given in the same order as that of the text in the passage. So, a candidate can work on them in a sequence.
  2. True/False/Not Given – The candidate is expected to identify whether a given sentence agrees with the information given in the passage or not. These questions may also take the form of Yes/No/Not Given, so, the candidate needs to be very careful in writing the answers as writing “True” in place of “Yes” is not acceptable. In this category, the questions are given in the same order as that of the text in the passage. So, a candidate can work on them in a sequence.
  3. Matching

     Matching Headings-  The candidates are given:

    – a list of headings numbered as i, ii, iii etc,

    – paragraphs, which are marked alphabetically,

    – a list of questions having alphabetic order of the questions,

    The number of headings is always more than the number of paragraphs; so, some of the headings will never be used. The candidate cannot use a heading more than once. Sometimes, a paragraph and a heading are already matched as an example.

     

    Matching other information- There are other variations of matching in which:

     

    – Matching information – The candidates are given alphabetically ordered paragraphs and a list of statements containing some information. The candidate is expected to find that which paragraph contains the information given in the sentence. The questions do not follow the same order as the information in the text.

    – Matching Sentence Endings – In some set of questions, the candidates are given first half of the sentences based on some text and the candidate is expected to complete the sentences by choosing from a list of options. The number of options is always more than the number of question. These questions are given in the same sequence as that of the text.

    – Matching Features – In some other questions, the candidate is given an alphabetically ordered list of paragraphs and based on these paragraphs; the candidate has to match the question sentences with some given features. For instance, let us suppose, the paragraphs are based on books and the feature list includes names of 3 authors. Also, there are some questions that include the statements spoken by different authors. The candidates have to match that which author said a particular statement based on the text.

  4. Fill in the blanks – In IELTS Reading, this category may take a variety of forms as follows: sentence completion, summary completion, table completion, note completion, flow-chart completion, diagram label completion etc. In most of the above types of gap-fills, the questions are asked from a section of text rather than the entire text.
  5. Short-answer questions – In this category, questions are asked based on a passage. The candidate is expected to write short answers by taking words from the passage. An instruction specifies that how many words can be written in the answers. The questions are given in the same order as the information given in the text.