IELTS Reading: True, False, Not Given Tips & Tricks

True, False, Not Given is considered one of the trickiest parts of the IELTS reading section. The difference between FALSE and NOT GIVEN is particularly confusing. Only reading between the lines can help you locate the right answer. Additionally, the Yes, No, Not Given questions are quite similar to True, False, Not Given. Ergo, when you finish reading this article, you will also be able to tackle the Yes, No, Not Given questions. Refer to the following table to understand the difference between True, False, and Not Given.

The IELTS reading section consists of three passages and the order of difficulty rises from the first text to the last. True, False, Not Given questions usually find their place in the first two sections while Yes, No, Not Given, in the third section. 

Tip: True, False, Not Given is all about factual information and the answers to these questions can be usually found in a single sentence. Yes, No, Not Given deals with the writer's opinion and solving it requires comprehending more than a line. 

Listed below are super-effective techniques to deal with the True, False, Not Given questions -

Find Keywords

...The work by the Eigg Heritage Trust to reduce energy use has resulted in significant reductions in carbon emissions from the island’s households and businesses.

Q. Eigg's carbon emissions are now much lower than before

Immediately after reading the question, highlight keywords like names, timeframes, and comparisons alongside locating them in the passage. In order to find the information that you need, developing skimming and scanning skills is extremely important. 

Tip: Always read the question statement first and spend time analyzing it.

Speculate Possible Paraphrasing

 A novel is limited to a single channel of information - writing. But within that restriction, it is the most versatile of narrative forms.

Paraphrased Version: The communication constraints of a novel to limit itself to writing unravels the best of story-telling in black and white.

Paraphrasing is a powerful tool to improve your comprehension of a sentence as well as locate the line inside the passage that is similar to the question statement. Strengthen your vocabulary to get better with paraphrasing skills.

Look out for common traps

...The number of known coronavirus cases in Louisiana jumped over 2,000 on 26th March.

Q. About 2000 people were tested positive for coronavirus in Louisiana.

When you identify comparative words like most, about, some, majority, and all in the question statement, look for it in the matching sentence inside the passage. In the above example, the statement is true because about means approximately 2000 cases in this context which can mean both over or below 2000. Since the statement is neither the opposite of the sentence in the passage nor consists of incomplete information, it is true. 

Lifelines for times of confusion

If you encounter a very complicated question, follow these suggestions instead of wasting your valuable time on it -

a) Just Mark NOT GIVEN and move on

b) Don't overthink, go for the first answer that comes to your mind

c) Generally, the answers are evenly distributed in True, False, Not Given Questions. If there are a total of five questions and three of your answers are Not Given, and two are False; it is highly likely that the last one might be True. 

Strike off irrelevant information

A recent cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, was caused by a novel betacoronavirus, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). We report the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics and treatment and clinical outcomes of these patients. By Jan 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection.

Q. Majority of the hospitals in Wuhan had patients with laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection. 

Unimportant information that elongates the text is purely meant to confuse you and steal your time. Don't fall for this and omit such nuisances. The answer to the above question is NOT GIVEN since we cannot determine if the majority of the hospitals had coronavirus infected patients from the text. 

Don't rely on General Knowledge

Even if you know for a fact that 'COVID-19 spilled over from bats to humans through intermediate hosts like pangolins', do not mark the statement true if no evidence is provided in the given passage. This is not a test of your general knowledge, it is the International English Language Testing System!

Practice! 

Reading the tips and tricks are pointless unless and until you apply them. Practice the techniques mentioned above to get a high band score in the IELTS reading section. Sign Up to get free IELTS Reading Practice Tests and Study Material to boost your preparation!

Must Read: How to get Band 8 in IELTS Reading?