IELTS Reading True / False / Not Given: A Decision Method

True / False / Not Given is consistently the question type IELTS candidates find hardest. The difficulty is not the reading — it is the decision, and specifically the line between False and Not Given.

The good news is that the decision follows a rule, and once the rule is clear the question type becomes mechanical.

The three answers, precisely

• True — the passage states the same thing as the statement, in different words.
• False — the passage states something that contradicts the statement.
• Not Given — the passage does not address the statement, or addresses it without confirming or contradicting.

The critical word in the False definition is contradicts. For False, the passage must actively say the opposite. Silence is not contradiction.

The test that resolves False vs Not Given

Ask yourself one question:

Can I point to the specific words in the passage that make this statement wrong?

If you can quote them, it is False. If you are reasoning from absence — "the passage never says they did it, so presumably they didn't" — it is Not Given.

Worked example. Passage:

Alderman's expedition of 1904 reached the northern glacier in early June and mapped its eastern face over the following six weeks. The party returned to base before the autumn storms.

The last one is the classic trap. It feels implied, but implication is not statement.

A three-step method

Step 1 — read the statement and identify the claim. What exactly is being asserted? Underline the part that could be right or wrong, particularly any qualifier: all, some, only, never, always, most, first, more than.

Step 2 — find the matching part of the passage. The statements follow the order of the passage, so you never need to search the whole text. Scan for names, numbers, dates, and technical terms — these are rarely paraphrased.

Step 3 — compare, then apply the test. Same claim? True. Contradicted claim? False. Nothing to compare against? Not Given.

The traps

Qualifier changes. A single word flips the answer.

Passage: "Many of the volunteers reported improved sleep." Statement: "All of the volunteers reported improved sleep." → False.

Passage: "The technique is used in several European hospitals." Statement: "The technique is used in every European hospital." → False.

Your own knowledge. A statement can be perfectly true in reality and still be Not Given because the passage does not discuss it. Answer from the text alone.

Comparison out of nowhere. If the statement compares two things and the passage discusses only one, it is Not Given.

Passage: "The 2011 survey recorded 4,200 nesting pairs." Statement: "There were more nesting pairs in 2011 than in 2001." → Not Given, unless 2001 appears.

Cause and correlation. The passage says two things happened; the statement says one caused the other. Not Given unless causation is stated.

Opinion attributed to the wrong person. In Yes/No/Not Given tasks, check whether a view belongs to the writer or to someone the writer is quoting. They are not the same.

Yes / No / Not Given

Same method, different subject matter. True/False/Not Given asks about factual information in the passage; Yes/No/Not Given asks about the writer's claims and opinions. The decision process is identical — just use the labels the instructions give you, because using the wrong set loses the marks even when the reasoning was right.

Practical rules for the exam

• Answer in order. The statements follow the passage sequence, so once you have located statement 4, statement 5 is below it.
• Do not leave blanks. There is no penalty for a wrong answer.
• Watch your Not Given count. Two or three in a set of eight is typical. Seven means something has gone wrong in your method.
• Do not over-think a True. If the passage clearly restates the claim, mark True and move on. The trap is usually in the False/Not Given pair, not in the True answers.
• Budget your time. These questions reward decisiveness. Spending four minutes on one statement costs you two easier questions elsewhere.

How to practise

Do sets of eight to ten statements and, for every answer, write down the words from the passage that justified it. If you cannot quote a justification for a False, it was probably Not Given.

That habit — always quoting the evidence — is what converts this question type from a guessing exercise into a reliable source of marks.