IELTS Reading has 40 questions in 60 minutes, and every question belongs to one of a fixed set of types. On its Academic format page, ielts.org lists 11 question types. Type 9 covers four formats: summary, note, table and flow chart completion. Count those separately and you get the 14 types this guide covers (other guides also say 14, but their lists differ):
- Judge a statement: True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given.
- Choose a letter or number: multiple choice, matching information, matching headings, matching features, matching sentence endings.
- Fill gaps or give short answers: sentence, summary, note, table and flow-chart completion, diagram label completion, short-answer questions.
Each correct answer gets 1 mark, whatever the type. The General Training format page lists 8 types: it puts sentence completion in the same group as summary, note, table and flow-chart completion, and has no separate entry for Yes/No/Not Given or matching sentence endings. The table below covers all 14, with one technique for each and a link to the full guide.
All 14 question types at a glance
| Question type | What you do | One technique | Full guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice | Choose 1 answer from 4 options, or 2 or 3 answers from a longer list | Find the lines first, then cross out every option the text does not state | Multiple choice |
| True/False/Not Given | Decide if a statement agrees with the information in the text | FALSE: the text says the opposite. NOT GIVEN: the text says neither | TFNG and YNNG |
| Yes/No/Not Given | Decide if a statement agrees with the writer's views or claims | Judge the writer's opinion, not the facts: look for words like should or wrongly | TFNG and YNNG |
| Matching information | Find the paragraph that contains a detail: a reason, an example, a comparison | Note what kind of detail you need, then scan for it, not for the topic | Matching information and features |
| Matching headings | Match a heading to the main idea of each paragraph | Sum up the paragraph in about 5 words before you read the list | Matching headings |
| Matching features | Match statements to a list of options, such as researchers or dates | Find and mark every option in the text first, then read around each one | Matching information and features |
| Matching sentence endings | Choose the ending that completes each sentence beginning | Grammar rules some endings out; meaning decides between the rest | Matching sentence endings |
| Sentence completion | Fill a gap in a sentence with words from the text | Read the word limit first; the words around the gap tell you the word type | Sentence completion |
| Summary completion | Fill gaps in a summary of one part of the text, from the text or a word list | Find the part of the text the summary covers before you fill any gap | Summary completion |
| Note completion | Fill gaps in notes on one part of the text | Use the note headings to find the right part of the text | Note, table and flow chart |
| Table completion | Fill empty cells in a table | Row and column headings tell you what each answer must be | Note, table and flow chart |
| Flow-chart completion | Fill gaps in steps linked by arrows | Follow the process in the text, step by step | Note, table and flow chart |
| Diagram label completion | Label parts of a diagram from a description in the text | Match place words in the text (above, inside) to the picture | Note, table and flow chart |
| Short-answer questions | Answer questions about facts with words or numbers from the text | The question word (when, how many) tells you what to look for | Short-answer questions |
Rules that change from type to type
Two rules decide how you work through a set: whether the answers follow the order of the text, and whether you copy words from it.
Word limits. When you write words from the passage, in a gap or a short answer, the instructions give a limit, for example NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER. IELTS is clear: you will lose the mark for writing more than the word limit. A hyphenated word such as check-in counts as one word, and contracted words such as they're are not tested. In short answers, numbers can be written as figures or as words. Some summary completion tasks give you a list of words instead: then you choose from the list.
Order. Here is what official sources say about the order of answers:
| Question types | Do answers follow the text? | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice, sentence completion, matching sentence endings, short-answer questions | Yes | ielts.org: "in the same order as the information in the text" |
| True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given | Usually | IDP: "The answers usually appear in order in the text" |
| Summary, note, table and flow-chart completion, diagram label completion | Not always | ielts.org: "may not come in the same order as in the text", but "usually come from one part of the text" |
| Matching information, headings and features | Not stated | The ielts.org format page does not say |
Which question types have the highest error rates at your band
We checked every answer in 6,750 full GoPrep Reading mocks. Scored 0 means the answer was wrong or left blank. Across all question types, 50% of answers scored 0, but the hardest type is not the same at every level:
| Question type | Scored 0 | Left blank | Scored 0 at band 6.0 to 6.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matching sentence endings | 62% | 23% | 49% |
| Matching headings | 60% | 23% | 42% |
| Sentence completion | 55% | 27% | 37% |
| Short-answer questions | 55% | 24% | 35% |
| Yes/No/Not Given | 55% | 21% | 42% |
| Multiple choice (one answer) | 54% | 19% | 43% |
| Summary completion | 52% | 32% | 28% |
| Matching information | 52% | 17% | 35% |
| Matching features | 52% | 22% | 38% |
| Diagram label completion | 51% | 18% | Too few answers |
| Choose two or three | 48% | 18% | 34% |
| Flow-chart completion | 47% | 28% | Too few answers |
| True/False/Not Given | 42% | 11% | 30% |
| Table completion | 37% | 13% | 25% |
| All question types | 50% | 20% | 35% |
Note completion has no separate tag in the GoPrep mock bank. Diagram labels (1,126 answers) and flow charts (684) were too rare to split by band. How often each type appears reflects our mock bank, not the real exam.
What the table shows:
- Below band 5.0, blanks are the first problem. 73% of summary completion answers and 57% of sentence completion answers were left empty, against 28% for True/False/Not Given. Summary completion went from 91% scored 0 below band 5.0 to 53% at 5.0 to 5.5 and 28% at 6.0 to 6.5.
- At bands 6.0 to 6.5, meaning and opinion types lead. Matching sentence endings (49%), multiple choice (43%), matching headings and Yes/No/Not Given (42% each) had the highest error rates. Table completion (25%) and summary completion (28%) had the lowest.
- Yes/No/Not Given scored 0 more often than True/False/Not Given in every band group: 55% against 42% overall. The rules are the same, but you judge the writer's opinion instead of a fact.
- In True/False/Not Given, FALSE statements were the hardest. 46% of answers to FALSE statements scored 0, against 44% for NOT GIVEN and 37% for TRUE. The single most common wrong answer was TRUE for a FALSE statement: 3,344 of 14,307 wrong answers that were not blank (23%). Mixing up TRUE and FALSE made up 42% of those wrong answers, so NOT GIVEN is not the only trap.
These are averages, so check them against your own mocks. As a starting point: below 5.0, fill every gap and practise finding the right part of the text. At 6.0 to 6.5, the types that test opinion and meaning had the most wrong answers, so they are a good place to spend practice time.
How to practise question types
- Name the type before you read. The instruction line tells you: Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer? means Yes/No/Not Given; Which paragraph contains… means matching information.
- One type at a time, no clock. For every answer, find the words in the text that prove it. For NOT GIVEN, name what the text does not say.
- Same type, with a clock. 60 minutes for 40 questions is about 90 seconds per question on average, including reading the text and checking. Time the whole set, not each question.
- Full tests, then sort your mistakes by type. The type with the most lost marks is next week's focus.
For a plan for the whole 60 minutes, see our IELTS Reading tips.
Try 3 question types on one short text
One text, four questions of three types. Notice how the job changes: judge a statement, copy an exact word, find the right paragraph. Here you pick from options; in the real sentence completion task you type the word yourself.
FAQ
What are the 14 question types in IELTS Reading?
Multiple choice, True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given, matching information, matching headings, matching features, matching sentence endings, sentence completion, summary completion, note completion, table completion, flow-chart completion, diagram label completion and short-answer questions. ielts.org counts summary, note, table and flow-chart completion as one type, so its official list has 11.
Are the question types the same in Academic and General Training Reading?
The types work the same way and the marking is the same: 1 mark per correct answer. The texts differ, and the General Training format page lists fewer types, with sentence completion grouped together with summary, note, table and flow-chart completion.
Which IELTS Reading question type is the hardest?
There is no single hardest type for every learner, and IELTS does not rank them. Types that test the writer's opinion or the meaning of a sentence, such as Yes/No/Not Given and matching sentence endings, often cause wrong answers even at higher bands. Completion types need the right words, exact spelling and the word limit.
Do IELTS Reading answers come in the same order as the text?
For multiple choice, sentence completion, matching sentence endings and short-answer questions, yes. True/False/Not Given and Yes/No/Not Given answers usually do. Summary, note, table, flow-chart and diagram answers may not follow the text order, but usually come from one part of it.
What is 27 out of 40 in IELTS Reading?
In Academic Reading, 27 correct answers is usually band 6.5. In General Training, it is usually band 5.5, because General Training needs more correct answers for the same band.
How do I get 9 in IELTS Reading?
Typical conversion tables put band 9 at 39 to 40 correct answers in Academic Reading and 40 in General Training, and the exact cut-offs can vary slightly between tests. That means no blanks, no word-limit slips and exact spelling in every gap.
What to practise next
Start with the type that costs you the most marks, then work through the others with the guides in the table above. To see how many correct answers your target band needs, use the IELTS Reading band score chart.
For a plan with dates, tell the quiz your target score, your exam date and the part of IELTS you find hardest. GoPrep will build a personal study plan around your answers.
P.S. The GoPrep course has a lesson with traps and a drill for every question type in this guide.
GoPrep Team
GoPrep guide authors
We write about IELTS preparation using platform data and official exam materials.
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