IELTS Reading True, False or Not Given, Decisively

One test, asked once

Every question of this type reduces to a single question about the passage: does it support the statement, contradict it, or say nothing at all?

That is the whole distinction. Everything candidates get wrong comes from treating FALSE and NOT GIVEN as a judgement call when they are a factual one, and from looking for the answer instead of checking for the evidence.

Worked examples

Passage: *"The company was founded in 1995 and maintains offices in London and Paris."*

• "The company was established in 1995." → TRUE. Founded and established are the same fact.
• "The company has offices in London, Paris and Berlin." → FALSE. The passage gives London and Paris. Berlin is not there, so the statement is contradicted, not merely unsupported.
• "The company employs 500 people." → NOT GIVEN. Nothing about staffing appears.

The third is the one worth dwelling on. The passage does not say the company has fewer than 500 staff, and it does not say it has more. There is no contradiction. Silence is the answer.

The mistake that costs the most

The classic error is a statement that adds something the passage never mentions, marked FALSE because it feels wrong.

Passage: *"The museum opens at 10 am on weekdays."*
Statement: *"The museum opens at 9 am at weekends."*

A candidate hears "10 am", sees "9 am", and marks FALSE. But the passage says nothing about weekends. Weekend opening hours could be 9 am, 10 am or closed.

The answer is NOT GIVEN, because there is no contradiction to point at. To mark FALSE you must be able to quote something that makes the statement wrong.

The evidence test

Here is the rule that settles nearly every question:

> If you cannot point to a sentence in the passage that settles it, the answer is NOT GIVEN.

TRUE and FALSE both require a line. A line that agrees gives TRUE. A line that disagrees gives FALSE. No line gives NOT GIVEN.

The discipline this imposes is what makes the type stop being confusing. Most candidates hesitate because they are asking "does this feel true?" rather than "where is the evidence?".

Four traps

Adding information. The statement includes something the passage does not cover, even if the rest of it is true. That is NOT GIVEN, not FALSE.

Generalising. The passage says "some researchers" and the statement says "all researchers". "All" contradicts "some", so that is FALSE.

Reversing. The passage says the practice reduced costs; the statement says it increased them. Directly contradicted, so FALSE.

Changing scope or time. The passage describes a proposal; the statement describes something already done. That is usually FALSE if the passage is clear about the proposal not having happened, and NOT GIVEN if the passage simply does not get that far. Read the surrounding sentence before deciding, because this one genuinely depends on the passage.

That last one is the only place where careful reading beats a rule, and it is rare. In every other case the evidence test is decisive.

Why NOT GIVEN exists

The examiners need a way to test whether you read the passage or whether you reasoned about the world. If you mark NOT GIVEN whenever the passage is silent, you are being asked exactly the question the type is designed to ask.

Candidates who default to FALSE score below candidates who default to NOT GIVEN, and candidates who use the evidence test score above both.

A practice routine that builds the judgement

The skill is not memory of the rule, it is applying it under time pressure. So practise the procedure, not the theory.

For every True/False/Not Given question:

• Locate the sentence the question is about.
• Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.
• For every answer, write the reason in three words. "Says London Paris" or "No mention".
• If you cannot write the reason, you have not decided yet.

Step three is the one that matters and the one everyone skips. Writing the reason forces you to actually check the passage, and it exposes the moment you realise you were deciding from a feeling.

Review the wrong answers afterwards by finding the sentence. The error is usually one of two: you missed a line that was there, or you invented a contradiction that was not.

Time

These questions take longer than multiple choice and candidates spend too long on them. A useful limit is ninety seconds per question. Past that, make the call you can support and move, because an unanswered question and a wrong answer score the same and cost the same time.

What this looks like when it is working

You are not thinking "is this true or false?" You are asking "where is the line?" and the answer follows from what is or is not there.

That reframing is the entire post. The type is not a memory test, it is an evidence test, and treating it as an evidence test removes the confusion that made it famous.

Use the IELTS Practice Portal for timed Reading practice, where the cost of a wrong call shows up directly in the band.

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