How to solve True, False and Not Given for IELTS Reading

 In this module, we will learn about:

• Difference between Yes, No & Not Given
• Understanding the difference between True, False and Not Given Answers
• Finally we will give you the top tips to increase your marks

What kind of questions are these and what do you need to do?

You will be given a passage and answer the question with the option True, False & Not Given.

These questions are all about facts given in the passage which must be held true.

How to find out if an answer is  True : Read the information in the passage and if you find the same information in the passage your answer is  true. The statement should agree with the information in the passage.

How to find out if an answer is  False : If the information in the passage directly contradicts the question in the statement of your answer  False . The statement contradicts the information in the passage.

How to find out if you’re answer is Not Given: If, after reading the entire passage, you are unable to find any information on the question your answer is Not Given. The statement in the question does not have adequate information on the topic.

What is the Yes, No and Not Given question and how is it different from True, False and Not Given ?

The key difference here is that Yes, No, Not Given question depends on the opinion of the writer not the facts. The key requirement in this topic is to read between the lines and understand what the writer is trying to tell you in their opinion.

The techniques for True False Not Given and Yes No Not Given are the same.

If the answer is Yes, the state agrees with the claims of the writer.

If the answer is No, the state contradicts the claims of the writer.

When you write Not given it means that it is impossible to ascertain the information from the given passage.

How to look at these types questions with examples.

1. Excerpt from the Passage

The majority of students who graduated university found it difficult to get a job.

Question

After finishing their tertiary education, all people had difficulties in finding employment.

Explanation

As you can see from the above example, that most of the information is matching and a lot of students get excited and mark the answer as True, however the trick in this task is to ensure that all of the meaning of the statement matches the information given in the passage. Here the statement clearly says that 100% of students had difficulties in finding a job. The passage talks about the “majority of the students” which can be anything but 100% of it; therefore the answer in this case is FALSE.

1. Excerpt from passage

The charity raises money to pay for healthcare and the daily needs of poor people.

Question

The charity spends majority of the money raised on the medical needs for poor people rather than spend it on their basic requirements.

Explanation

From the above passage, it is clear that despite there being a lot of similarities there is no connection in regards to the manner of spending of the charity money. Therefore the student should write NOT GIVEN as the answer.

1. Excerpt from the passage

Just over 600 million acres of land is being used for building schools in America.

Question

At present, in America, about 600 million acres of land is allocated for schools.

Explanation

This is actually a tricky question once we get into it, firstly the amount of land being discussed is the same as ‘just over’ is the same as ‘about’. However the tricky art of the question is that the question talks about ‘at present’, which means that the statement is in the present tense. However, the excerpt does not talk about the timing of the when the land is used.   The terms “being used” implies present tense, and therefore the answer is TRUE. Keep a look out for the tenses used in the sentence as they are indicative of the timeline.

TIPS

• All students of Hurray are encouraged to write the full word [True, False & Not Given/ Yes, No & Not Given].
• Spend time reading and analysing the entire question and not just the key points that you think will point you in the right direction. By reading the question too fast you may miss out on a seemingly irrelevant point that will be the key to your answer.
• You should know that you are not trying to match the key points but instead are trying to match the total meaning of the statement with the question.
• IELTS gives a lot of importance to paraphrasing which can be present in the listening as well as reading section. The student should be able to understand exactly what the question wants.
• Look out for common traps set by the examiner. If the question talks about a comparison then the same must be present in the question, otherwise the answer will be not given [example 2]. Also, terms like all/some/majority sound the same but are not. Be careful when you read these words, as they give you an exact meaning of these words.
• Answers come in order: All answers will usually come in descending order of information in the passage, so start with Question Number 1.
• Many times because an answer is not given, students spend too much time in looking for an answer. The answer will usually be below the information of the previous question.
• Many students think that an answer is False/ No if the information in the question and the passage does not match. That is not the
• box; the answer is false / no only if the information given in the question is opposite to the statement in the question.

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