MAKS BELA International IELTS Reading- True, False, Not Given Tips and Strategy
MAKS BELA INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION PRIVATE LIMITED
www.belachennai.com
+91 7708607400, +91 9600901055

‘True, False, Not Given’ questions requires you to identify if information in a text is true or not.

You will be given a number of factual statements and you have to check in the text if they are true or not.

This is probably the most difficult question on the reading paper.

This post will:

look at example questions
discuss common problems
define ‘True’, ‘False’ and ‘Not Given’
give you tips and advice
provide you with a strategy to use on exam day

In this article when I refer to ‘statements’ I am talking about the questions, not the text in the main reading article.

Example True, False, Not Given Question
ielts-true-false-not-given-example IELTS Reading- True, False, Not Given Tips and Strategy

As you can see above, you will be given a number of factual statements and asked to look at the text and decide if the statement is true, false or not given.

MAKS BELA Top 10 Tips

1. Ignore anything you already know about the topic and don’t make assumptions. Base your answers on the text only.
2. Identify any words that qualify the statement, for example some, all, mainly, often, always and occasionally. These words are there to test if you have read the whole statement because they can change the meaning. For example, ‘Coca-Cola has always made its drinks in the U.S.A.’ has a different meaning from ‘Coca-Cola has mainly made its drinks in the U.S.A.’
3. Be careful when you see verbs that qualify statements, such as suggest, claim, believe and know. For example, ‘The man claimed he was a British citizen,’ and ‘The man is a British citizen’ mean two different things.
4. There will be at least one of all three answers. If you don’t have at least one ‘true’, ‘false’ or ‘not given’ you have at least one answer wrong.
5. Don’t skim and scan the text to find the final answer. You will have to read the appropriate part of the text very carefully in order to understand what the author means.
6. Don’t look for words that exactly match those in the statements. You should also look for synonyms. Remember that you are matching meaning, not words.
7. If you can’t find the information you are looking for, then it is probably ‘not given’. Don’t waste time looking for something that is not there.
8. If you have no idea what the answer is put ‘not given’. You probably have no idea because the answer is not there.
9. Answers are in the same order they appear in the text. Do not waste time going back. Keep on reading.
10. YES/NO/NOT GIVEN questions are slightly different because they deal with opinion. TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN questions deal with facts.