IELTS Academic Reading gives you 60 minutes for 3 passages and 40 questions: 2,150 to 2,750 words of text. General Training also has 40 questions in 60 minutes, but its first 2 sections are made of several shorter texts. The minute plan below is built for Academic; the routine for finding answers works in both. IDP adds that the passages get harder from the first to the third and that there is no extra time to transfer answers. So the test rewards 3 things more than reading every word:
- A time plan that protects Passage 3.
- One routine for finding answers by meaning, not by matching words.
- Practice aimed at your weakest question types.
Below: GoPrep mock data on where answers are lost, a practice passage and a guide for each hard question type. To turn a score out of 40 into a band, see the Reading band score guide.
How to split the 60 minutes
60 minutes for 40 questions is about 1.5 minutes a question, reading time included. IDP suggests 15 to 20 minutes for Passage 1, 20 for Passage 2 and 20 to 25 for Passage 3. A starting plan for Academic Reading is 17, 20 and 23 minutes: move briskly through the easiest text and hand the saved minutes to the hardest one. Try it on 2 or 3 timed practice tests and adjust it to where you actually run short.
GoPrep mock data shows why the last passage needs protecting. The further into the test, the more answers score 0 and the more are left empty.
| Passage | Answers that scored 0 | Answers left blank | Starting plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passage 1 (questions 1-13) | 38% | 7% | 17 minutes |
| Passage 2 (questions 14-26) | 50% | 19% | 20 minutes |
| Passage 3 (questions 27-40) | 59% | 27% | 23 minutes |
Passage 3 had 4 times as many blanks as Passage 1, and in 3 in 10 mocks, 5 or more Passage 3 questions were left empty (1,861 of 6,165). Whether the time ran out or the test taker gave up, a blank scores 0. Three habits keep the clock under control:
- Write each answer on the answer sheet as you go. On paper there is no transfer time, and an answer left on the question paper scores nothing. IELTS is moving all tests to computer from mid-2026, dates vary by country; on computer you type each answer straight into the box. How the Reading screen works is in our computer-delivered IELTS guide.
- Give one question about 90 seconds. No evidence yet? Write your best answer, mark the number and move on. A stuck question costs 1 mark; never reaching the last 5 costs 5.
- Check the clock at the end of each passage. If Passage 1 took 22 minutes, take the time back from Passage 2, not from Passage 3.
One routine for every question type
IELTS uses 11 question types in Reading. Almost all of them reward the same move: the question says an idea in other words (a paraphrase), and you find the part of the passage that says the same idea. Matching the same word is the trap. The right answer usually uses a synonym, and the exact passage word often sits inside a wrong option.
Run this routine on every question:
- Find the key idea of the question and one word that is easy to scan for: a name, a number, a technical term.
- Predict the paraphrase. Cheaper may become lower cost; more people may become a rise in numbers.
- Scan to the spot: move your eyes quickly over the text, looking only for your scan word or its synonym. Within an ordered question set, scan forward from the previous answer. When you start a new set, check the passage again: its first answer may be earlier.
- Close-read and find the evidence: read those lines slowly. The evidence may span more than one sentence. No evidence after about 90 seconds? Guess, mark it, move on.
Two types work differently. In matching headings, the evidence is the main idea of the whole paragraph, not one line that shares a word with a heading. In NOT GIVEN, the evidence is an absence: the passage neither confirms nor contradicts the statement, so there is no sentence to point to.
Order matters too. True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given, multiple choice, sentence completion, sentence endings and short answers usually follow the order of the text within their set. Matching information (which paragraph contains...) jumps around, so leave it until last. Matching headings usually comes first, because you answer it by skimming each paragraph (reading fast for the main idea).
Practice: one passage, 4 question types
We wrote this passage for the guide: practice material, not from a real test, with simplified details. Give yourself 6 minutes, use the routine and write your answers down before you read the key.
The return of the night train
A For much of the 20th century, sleeper trains linked Europe's major cities, but by the early 2000s many routes had closed. Low-cost airlines could carry passengers between capitals in two hours, and rail operators found that sleeping carriages, which hold far fewer people than ordinary seats, rarely paid for themselves.
B Over the past decade, several operators have brought overnight services back. Surveys of passengers suggest two reasons. Some travellers want to avoid flying for environmental reasons, while others value arriving in a city centre early in the morning, as most of these trains do, without paying for a hotel. Operators have also redesigned carriages, replacing six-bed compartments with smaller cabins that offer more privacy.
C The revival faces practical limits. Many new services rely on older carriages bought second-hand, because few factories still build sleeping cars and new ones take years to deliver. Crossing borders adds further cost: each country sets its own track charges, and a train may need a different locomotive or crew at a frontier. Supporters argue that governments should cut these charges, although critics point out that night trains will always carry fewer passengers than day trains using the same track.
Question 1 (matching headings). Choose the correct heading for paragraph C.
- i. Why passengers are coming back
- ii. Problems that slow the revival
- iii. A new generation of train factories
Question 2 (True/False/Not Given). Most passengers on the new night trains choose them for environmental reasons.
Question 3 (sentence completion, ONE WORD ONLY from the passage). Arriving in a city centre early in the morning means passengers do not have to pay for a ______.
Question 4 (multiple choice). What do critics say about night trains?
- A. Governments should lower their track charges.
- B. They will always carry fewer passengers than day trains on the same track.
- C. They are worse for the environment than flights.
| Question | Answer | Evidence in the passage | Tempting wrong answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ii. Problems that slow the revival | Main idea of the whole paragraph: "The revival faces practical limits", then old carriages and border costs | iii: factories appears, but few factories still build sleeping cars |
| 2 | NOT GIVEN | None: B says "Some travellers want to avoid flying for environmental reasons" but never how many | TRUE: the passage mentions some travellers but not whether they are most. It neither confirms nor contradicts most |
| 3 | hotel | "without paying for a hotel" (do not have to pay = without paying) | hotel room: 2 words, and room is not in the passage |
| 4 | B | "critics point out that night trains will always carry fewer passengers than day trains" | A: that is what supporters argue, not critics. Ask whose opinion it is |
Every answer came from evidence found through a paraphrase, not a matching word. For the heading, the evidence was the main idea of paragraph C. For NOT GIVEN, it was missing information: no line says how many travellers choose the train for the environment. Every tempting answer used a word or idea that is in the passage but doesn't prove the statement. One routine covers all 4 types; what changes is where the trap sits.
The line most often crossed is the one between FALSE and NOT GIVEN. FALSE needs a line that says the opposite; NOT GIVEN means the passage says nothing either way. Here are 3 statements about the same passage, one of each kind.
| Statement | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Some travellers take night trains to avoid flying. | TRUE | B confirms it: some travellers want to avoid flying |
| Night train passengers arrive in the city centre late in the evening. | FALSE | B says the opposite: they arrive early in the morning |
| A night train ticket costs less than a flight. | NOT GIVEN | A mentions low-cost airlines, but the passage never compares ticket prices |
Which question types lose the most marks
Some question types are harder, and some simply appear more often. Here is how each type did in GoPrep Reading mocks (scored 0 means wrong or blank).
| Question type | Scored 0 | Left blank | Share of all lost answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matching sentence endings | 62% | 17% | 4% |
| Matching headings | 59% | 18% | 5% |
| Sentence completion | 57% | 26% | 7% |
| Summary completion | 53% | 29% | 17% |
| Yes/No/Not Given | 51% | 15% | 8% |
| Multiple choice | 51% | 11% | 9% |
| Matching information | 50% | 13% | 11% |
| Matching features | 50% | 17% | 10% |
| Choose 2 or 3 answers | 45% | 14% | 4% |
| True/False/Not Given | 42% | 8% | 15% |
| Table completion | 40% | 13% | 9% |
| All types | 49% | 16% | 100% |
Short answers, diagram labels and flow charts were rare in the sample and are left out. Read the table in 2 ways:
- Hardest per question: matching sentence endings and matching headings, where most answers scored 0.
- Most marks overall: summary completion and True/False/Not Given. They are not the hardest, but they appear so often in GoPrep mocks that together they made up 1 in 3 lost answers (60,230 of 189,832). These shares reflect the GoPrep mock bank; how often each type appears in your exam may differ.
Blanks differ too: more than a quarter of summary and sentence completion answers were left empty, against 8% in True/False/Not Given, where every line has only 3 possible answers. One line per type, same period:
- True/False/Not Given and Yes/No/Not Given. When the answer was NOT GIVEN, test takers chose TRUE or FALSE 37% of the time (7,082 of 19,069 answers). When the answer was NO, 1 in 4 chose YES (2,621 of 10,323 answers). The True/False/Not Given guide shows how to tell NOT GIVEN from FALSE and how Yes/No/Not Given differs.
- Matching headings. 59% scored 0 (15,972 answers). The matching headings guide shows how to write your own heading before you read the list.
- Matching sentence endings. The hardest type: 62% scored 0 (11,013 answers). Grammar rules endings out; only meaning picks one. See the sentence endings guide.
- Summary completion. 29% of answers were blank, more than half of all mistakes in this type (60,972 answers). The summary completion guide covers the word limit and the word box.
How to get from 6 to 7 or 7.5
Work backwards from the target. In Academic Reading, IDP's table puts band 6.5 at 27 correct answers out of 40, band 7 at 30 and band 7.5 at 33. General Training needs 32, 34 and 36 (full table in the band score guide). So in Academic, 6.5 to 7 can be just 3 more correct answers.
Where those answers come from changes with level. In the latest full mock of 1,362 GoPrep students (28 August to 26 September 2026), blanks were 17% of lost answers at band 5 to 5.5 and 4% at 7 to 7.5. At 7 to 7.5 the most-missed types were matching sentence endings (32% scored 0), Yes/No/Not Given (30%) and multiple choice (26%).
- Below 6: finish the test. Use the 17, 20 and 23 minute plan, the 90-second rule and a guess on every line.
- 6 to 6.5: sort your wrong answers by question type and drill the 2 types that cost you the most.
- 7 and above: work on the fine distinctions: NOT GIVEN versus FALSE, whose opinion it is in Yes/No/Not Given, options that repeat passage words. And build vocabulary: you can't spot a paraphrase of a word you don't know.
How to practise so your score moves
A score tells you how many answers were wrong, not why, so test after test alone teaches little. Practise in 3 stages:
- One question type, no clock. Find the evidence for every answer; for NOT GIVEN, name what is missing.
- Same type, with a clock: about 90 seconds per question.
- Full timed tests: 60 minutes, 17, 20 and 23 for the passages. For test material, see which Cambridge IELTS books to buy.
After each test, fix your own mistakes before you open the key: go back and change any answer you can now prove. Then, for every miss, write down the evidence (or what was missing) and the synonym pair that linked question and passage (youngsters and children, cut and reduce). After a few tests, this log shows how IELTS rewords ideas and which type to drill next.
Book the real test when you score about half a band above your target on new, timed tests several times in a row, not once. To place these stages in your calendar, see IELTS study plans for 4, 8 and 12 weeks.
FAQ
How can I solve IELTS Reading easily?
Don't read every word. For each question, find the key idea, scan to the part of the text that paraphrases it and read only those sentences closely. In Academic Reading, start with about 17, 20 and 23 minutes for the 3 passages and guess any question that takes longer than about 90 seconds.
What is the best strategy for IELTS Reading?
Answer by meaning, not by matching words: the correct answer usually paraphrases the passage, while wrong options often repeat its words. Within each question set that follows the text, move forward from your previous answer, and leave matching information until last.
How can I get 6.5, 7 or 7.5 in IELTS Reading?
In Academic Reading you need about 27 correct answers out of 40 for band 6.5, about 30 for band 7 and about 33 for band 7.5; in General Training, about 32, 34 and 36. Up to band 7, finish the test without blanks and practise the 2 question types that cost you the most answers. At 7.5 most lost marks are wrong answers rather than blanks, so work on fine distinctions such as NOT GIVEN versus FALSE, and build vocabulary for paraphrases.
Should I read the questions or the passage first?
IDP recommends reading the questions before the text, so you know what to look for. Don't read the whole passage slowly first: a quick skim for the main idea of each paragraph is enough.
Is the real IELTS harder than Cambridge practice books?
It shouldn't be: Cambridge, one of the IELTS partners, calls the tests in its Cambridge IELTS books authentic examination papers, and IELTS says every test version is pretested to be of comparable difficulty, with the marks needed for each band varying slightly between versions. Still, many test-takers say the real Reading felt harder, often putting it down to nerves and unfamiliar topics. Practise on passages you haven't seen, always under a 60-minute timer, and book the test when you score about half a band above your target several times in a row.
Your next step
You have a time plan, one routine for every question type and a way to find your costliest types. The next step is a plan with dates. Tell the quiz your target score, your exam date and the part of IELTS you find hardest, and GoPrep will build a study plan around your answers.
GoPrep Team
GoPrep guide authors
We write about IELTS preparation using platform data and official exam materials.
All articles by GoPrep Team