📘 IELTS Academic Reading: Complete Guide

🧩 Overview

• Duration: 60 minutes
• Number of Questions: 40
• Sections: 3 long texts (from books, journals, newspapers, magazines)
• Question Types: Multiple Choice, True/False/Not Given, Matching Headings, Sentence Completion, Summary Completion, and more.

🎯 Main Goals

• Assess reading comprehension skills.
• Understand main ideas, details, opinions, arguments, and implied meaning.

🔍 Types of Questions (With Strategies)

1. Multiple Choice

• Task: Choose the best answer from 3 or 4 options.
• Strategy:
  • Read the question and options.
  • Skim the passage for keywords.
  • Eliminate obviously wrong answers.
  • Beware of distractors.

2. True / False / Not Given

• Task: Identify whether the statement agrees with the text (True), contradicts it (False), or is not mentioned (Not Given).
• Strategy:
  • Focus only on what's stated in the text.
  • Look for absolute words ("always", "never")—they’re often False or Not Given.
  • Don’t use your background knowledge.

3. Matching Headings

• Task: Match paragraph summaries (headings) to paragraphs.
• Strategy:
  • Read headings first.
  • Skim each paragraph and identify main idea.
  • Don’t get lost in examples or details.

4. Matching Information

• Task: Match information to the correct paragraph.
• Strategy:
  • Skim for names, numbers, or keywords.
  • A paragraph may have more than one match.

5. Matching Features

• Task: Match people/theories with opinions or facts.
• Strategy:
  • Look for names/titles in the passage.
  • Match ideas, not just words.

6. Sentence / Summary Completion

• Task: Complete a sentence or summary with a word from the text.
• Strategy:
  • Focus on grammar and meaning.
  • Pay attention to word limit (e.g., "NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS").

7. Diagram / Table / Flow-chart Completion

• Task: Fill in missing information from visuals using the passage.
• Strategy:
  • Understand the process/structure shown.
  • Scan the passage for matching information.

8. Yes / No / Not Given

• Task: Similar to T/F/NG, but used for opinions.
• Strategy:
  • Yes = the writer agrees.
  • No = the writer disagrees.
  • Not Given = no clear opinion expressed.

🧠 Core Reading Skills to Practice

• Skimming: Get the general idea (for headings, main ideas).
• Scanning: Find specific info quickly (names, numbers, keywords).
• Close Reading: Understand sentence-level meaning (for T/F/NG, summary).
• Paraphrasing Recognition: Understand how the question and passage express the same idea in different words.

🛠️ General Strategies

1. Don’t read the whole passage in detail first — read the questions first.
2. Underline keywords in both questions and passages.
3. Manage time: 20 minutes per section, 1.5 minutes per question on average.
4. Guess if unsure — no penalty for wrong answers.
5. Answer every question — even if unsure.
6. Practice paraphrasing daily.

✅ Tips & Tricks

✍️ Example Practice (with answers)

📝 Interactive Quiz (with Excerpts)