IELTS READING QUESTIONS & TIPS

In general, you have to:

Read through the text (first and last sentences of paragraphs) to understand the main
ideas and have an overview of the text
Read the questions, understand key words and do the exercises
Remember that questions follow the order of the text
QUESTION TYPES

Multiple choice

TIPS

Gap-fill (summary)

Gap-fill (diagram/ flow chart/

table completion)

Sentence completion

Note that the questions follow the order of the reading

text
Read the questions and the options carefully to see
whether they asks for main ideas or details of the text
Note the key words in the questions -> to locate the area
of the text where you will find the answers
Read the text carefully to decide the correct answers
Read through the summary at normal speed so that you
have a fair idea of what it is about.
Check the instructions: you can use a maximum of two
words for each answer and these words must be taken
from the reading passage. If you use more than two
words or words that are not in the passage, the answer
will be marked wrong.
Read the sentences and underline the key words.
Skim the passage and find out where the part that has
been summarized begins.
Read the text around each gap carefully. See if you
can predict the answer or the kind of word(s) that you
are looking for.
Select the best word from the text for each gap
Re-read the summary, with the words you have
selected for each gap, to make sure that it makes sense
both grammatically and in terms of meaning.
Check the instructions for the questions to see how
many words (often only TWO) and these words must
be taken from the reading passage. If you use more
than the maximum number of words or words that
are not in the passage, the answer will be marked
wrong.
Skim/scan the passage until you come to the section
that describes the two types of bridge.
Read this part very carefully and select the words in
the passage that fit the labels.
The questions follow the order of information in the
passage.
Check the instructions: usually you can use a maximum
of three words for each answer and these words must be
taken from the reading passage. If you use more than
three words or words that are not in the passage, the
answer will be marked wrong.
Read the sentences and underline the key words.

QUESTION TYPES

TIPS

Short-answer questions (NO

MORE THAN THREE
WORDS)

Matching

Read the words around each gap carefully. See if you

can predict the answer or the kind of word(s) that you are
looking for.
Scan or skim the passage until you come to the part that
is relevant.
Re-read the sentence with the word you have chosen for
the gap to check that it makes sense both grammatically
and in terms of meaning.
Read the questions and underline key words
Understand what the questions ask for (who name,
title, relationship; what thing, action, when time,
where place, why reason (noun phrase), how
means, manner, quality (adv, adj, V-ing, noun phrase)
Read the text, locate the area where you can find the
answers
Read carefully to decide which phrase to choose as the
answer
1. Matching headings
Read the headings carefully, underline key words to
understand the main idea of each heading
Read the topic and concluding sentences of each
paragraph (if the paragraph is longer, more than 6
sentences); read the whole paragraph if it is short
Match the headings with paragraphs of the same
main ideas
2. Matching opinions with the speaker/ writer

Read the opinions. Underline key words

Locate the place where key words appear in the text
Read carefully to find the names of the speaker/
writer
3. Matching each statement with the best ending

YES/NO/NOT GIVEN

Note that the part-statements or questions follow the

order of information in the passage.
There may be more endings than statements, so
there are some unused
Note the endings that fit the statements
grammatically, often two or three endings for each,
but this is good as an exclusion
Guess the answers if you have read the through the
text and remember some information
Underline the keywords in each statement, then scan
the text for these words. When you find the relevant
part of the text, read it very carefully.
Select the option that best completes each sentence.
Re-read the completed sentence and compare this
for meaning with the appropriate section of the
passage
The questions follow the order of information in the
passage.

QUESTION TYPES
TRUE/ FALSE/ NOT GIVEN

TIPS

Identification of the authors

views/ claims

From Thy Vinh IELTS with love ^^

ielts.vinh@gmail.com

Start with the first question and note the key words.
Pay attention to adjs, advs, and numbers
Skim or scan the passage until you come to the part
where the writer is discussing his/her views on the
topic or idea presented in the question. If you cannot
find any information on this, the answer may be 'not
given'. Check this carefully.
If you do find some information, decide whether the
writer's views are the same or the opposite of those
given in the question.
This is often a multiple choice question
Note that the options which are too specific (many
details) usually are not the answer
The answer should be a sentence that is GENERAL
ENOUGH. A too broad one cannot be accepted.
Depend yourself on the main ideas of paragraphs
and on your understanding of the text