In summary completion, you get a short summary of one part of the passage with gaps in it. You fill each gap in one of two ways: with words copied from the passage, or by choosing from a box of words. Each gap is worth 1 mark, like every one of the 40 Reading questions.
The two versions look alike but follow different rules, and most marks here are not lost where people expect. In GoPrep Reading mocks, blank gaps made up more than half of the lost marks on this task, and only about 6% of wrong written answers were the key with a word added, a word missing or a changed plural ending. Both findings point to a fix, and you can practise it on a passage below.
Two kinds of summary completion
Read the instruction line before the summary: it tells you which kind you have. ielts.org describes both. The summary covers "a part of the text", and you either select words from the text or choose from a list of words. The same page warns that the number of words you may use "can change" from task to task, so read the limit every time.
| What changes | From the passage | From a word box |
|---|---|---|
| Typical instruction | Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer | Complete the summary using the list of words, A-G, below |
| What you write | Words copied from the passage | A letter, as the instruction asks |
| Word limit | Yes. Over the limit scores 0 | No: you write one letter |
| Spelling | Must match the passage | Not an issue |
| How the answer relates to the passage | The same words, found through a paraphrase in the summary | A synonym, an antonym or the passage's own word |
Two rules from ielts.org matter most for the passage version: "You will lose the mark for writing more than the word limit", and a hyphenated word such as check-in counts as one word. The rule for the box version comes from IDP's guide to this task: the options "can be synonyms", "antonyms" or words "taken directly from the text". In IDP's example, the box has 7 words for 4 gaps, so some options are never used.
The limit decides how much of a phrase you may copy. Small words such as a and the count, a hyphenated word counts as one, and AND/OR A NUMBER means your answer can also be, or include, a number. Here is how three common instructions treat words from the practice passage below.
| Instruction | Fits the limit | Over the limit |
|---|---|---|
| ONE WORD ONLY | sawdust | the sawdust (2 words) |
| NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS | horse-drawn cutter (2 words: the hyphenated word counts as one) | a horse-drawn cutter (3 words) |
| NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER | 1806, four months | the early twentieth century (4 words) |
Where summary completion marks are lost
In GoPrep Reading mocks, 29% of summary completion answers were left blank (17,428 of 60,972 answers, 28 August to 26 September 2026). Blanks made up 54% of all the lost marks on this question type.
Near misses of the key were rare. Of 11,713 wrong, non-blank answers in the passage version, about 6% were the key with an extra word, a missing word or a changed plural ending. The other 94% did not match the key in any of these ways. This count does not show why those answers were wrong, and spelling slips were not checked.
Here is how the two versions compare at three levels.
| Band of the mock | From the passage: wrong / blank | From a word box: wrong / blank |
|---|---|---|
| 5.0-5.5 | 56% / 22% | 68% / 10% |
| 6.0-6.5 | 29% / 7% | 40% / 5% |
| 7.0 and above | 12% / 2% | 16% / 2% |
Three things stand out.
- Blanks fall fast as the score rises. At 5.0 to 5.5, 1 in 5 passage gaps was empty. At 7.0 and above, 1 in 50.
- The word box is not the easy version. Box sets sat mostly in Passage 3 (78% of box answers), so the table above mixes the version with the passage. Compare like with like: in Passage 3 of the same mocks, both versions had the same error rate: 58%. What differs is how the mark goes. From the passage, 41% of Passage 3 gaps were left blank. With a box, 24% were blank and 34% got the wrong letter.
- Blanks are not only a Passage 3 problem. Even in Passage 1, 13% of passage summary gaps were left blank (2,872 answers), about twice the rate for all Passage 1 questions (7%).
So the fix has 2 parts: a reliable way to find the right sentence, and a rule for gaps that will not come. If you want to turn your mock score into a band first, see the IELTS Reading band score guide.
How to answer summary completion in 4 steps
- Read the instruction and note the limit. Passage or box? If it is the passage, write the limit as a number next to the task: 2 for NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.
- Read the whole summary and find its zone. The answers "usually come from one part of the text rather than the whole text", says ielts.org. Use the first sentence of the summary and any names, dates or numbers to find where that part starts and ends. The same page warns that the answers "may not come in the same order as in the text", so if a gap does not fit where you expect, look a little earlier or later inside the zone.
- Predict each gap. Decide the word type from the whole phrase, not one word: a ___ material needs an adjective, while a layer of ___ usually needs a noun. After to in an infinitive, as in tried to ___ the ice, you need a verb. Note whether it must be singular or plural, and what kind of meaning fits.
- Find the idea, not the word. The summary rewrites the passage, so search for the same meaning in other words. When you find a candidate, run the gap test below before you write it.
The 3-check gap test
An answer goes on the line only if it passes all 3 checks:
- Grammar. Does it fit the words around the gap? Check a / an, singular or plural, and the verb form.
- Meaning. Does the passage sentence say the same thing as the summary sentence, including who does what? A word can fit the grammar and still come from a sentence about something else. Only 6% of wrong written answers in the data above were near misses of the key, so checking the limit and the endings alone will not rescue most of them.
- Rule. From the passage: copied letter by letter and within the limit. From a box: a letter, and the option means what the gap needs, not just what the passage mentions.
What to do when a gap will not come
A blank always scores 0, and there is no negative marking, so a wrong guess costs nothing. Give each gap about 90 seconds. If it still will not come:
- From the passage: go back to the zone and write the word that passes the Grammar check and sits closest to the idea. A reasoned guess can score. A blank cannot.
- From a box: cross out the options that fail the Grammar check, then choose by meaning from what is left.
- Mark the question and move on. Come back if time is left, but make sure every line has an answer before the end.
If the problem is Passage 3 in general, plan your 60 minutes first: our IELTS Reading tips cover timing across the 3 passages.
Practice: the frozen water trade
We wrote this passage for the guide. It is practice material, not a text from an IELTS test.
The frozen water trade
In 1806, a Boston merchant named Frederic Tudor sent a ship loaded with ice to the Caribbean island of Martinique. Most people in Boston thought the plan was foolish, and for years it lost money. Much of the cargo melted before it could be sold, and buyers in hot countries, who had never used ice, could not see why they should pay for it.
Tudor's first problem was keeping the ice frozen. After experimenting with different materials, he settled on sawdust. Sawdust was a waste product of the timber mills of New England, so it cost almost nothing, and a thick layer of it around the blocks slowed melting on long voyages.
His second problem was demand. In the ports he supplied, Tudor gave ice free of charge to bar owners and showed them that customers would pay more for chilled drinks. Once people had tasted cold drinks in summer, they wanted them every day.
Harvesting improved too. In the 1820s, a horse-drawn cutter came into use that marked the frozen surface of a lake in a grid, so workers could lift out blocks of identical size. These blocks fitted together tightly, leaving little air in the gaps, so they lost less of their cold.
By the 1830s, ice from New England was reaching India, a voyage of about four months. The trade lasted until the early twentieth century, when machines that produced ice locally made shipping it across oceans unnecessary.
Questions 1-4. Complete the summary. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Tudor's ice business was a failure at first. A large part of each (1) ______ melted before it could be sold. Tudor protected the ice with sawdust, a material that the local (2) ______ threw away. To create demand, he gave ice free to (3) ______, who found that customers would pay more for chilled drinks. Later, blocks were cut to the same size, so they could be stacked with less (4) ______ between them.
Answer all 4, then check the table. Each row shows the answer that is easy to write and the check it fails.
| Gap | Answer | Tempting wrong answer | Which check it fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cargo | ship | Meaning: much of the cargo melted. The ship did not melt |
| 2 | timber mills (or mills) | timber mills of New England | Rule: 5 words, and the limit is 2. The meaning is right, the mark is 0 |
| 3 | bar owners | customers | Meaning: the free ice went to bar owners. Customers paid for the drinks |
| 4 | air | gaps | Grammar: less gaps does not work, because gaps is countable. The passage says little air in the gaps |
| 4 | air | space | Rule: space has the right meaning but is not in the passage |
Notice two things. First, gaps 1 and 3 fail on Meaning, not on English: ship and customers are real words from the passage, they fit the grammar, and they are wrong. A check for extra words or endings would never catch them, because they are nothing like the key. Second, none of the answers needed a word you had to know in advance. Each one was in the passage, 1 or 2 words long, next to a phrase the summary had rewritten: much of became a large part of, waste product became threw away, free of charge became free.
Summaries with a word box
With a box, the word limit and spelling disappear, and a different risk takes their place: an option that looks right because you have seen it in the passage.
- Write the letter. IDP's example instruction reads "Write the correct letter, A-G". Follow the instruction on your paper exactly.
- Expect spare options. In IDP's example, 7 words fill 4 gaps. The spare options are there to be tempting.
- Start with grammar. Put each option into the gap and cross out the ones that do not fit. Often only 2 or 3 remain.
- Then decide by meaning. The right option can be a synonym or an antonym of the passage, or its own word (IDP). A passage word in the box is not automatically wrong, and not automatically right: check what the passage says about it.
In the Passage 3 data above, box gaps were left blank less often than passage gaps (24% vs 41%), but 34% got the wrong letter. The Meaning check is where those marks come back.
Check yourself: the same passage with a word box
Complete the summary about the ice trade with words from the box: A profit, B insulation, C demand, D production, E waste, F distance. Two words are not used. In this practice, click the word. In an exam task that asks for letters, write its letter. Use the passage in the test or the one above.
FAQ
How do you answer summary completion questions in IELTS Reading?
Read the instruction to see whether you copy words from the passage or choose from a word box, and note the word limit. Find the part of the passage the summary covers, predict the word type for each gap, then look for the same idea in other words and check that your answer fits the grammar and the meaning.
Are summary completion answers in the same order as the passage?
Not always. According to ielts.org, the answers may not come in the same order as in the text, but they usually come from one part of the text rather than the whole passage.
Can I use my own words in summary completion?
No. When the instruction says to choose words from the passage, copy them exactly and stay within the word limit. When there is a word box, choose one of the options given.
What happens if I write more words than the limit?
The answer scores 0, even if the meaning is correct. A hyphenated word such as check-in counts as one word.
Do I write the word or the letter when there is a word box?
Follow the instruction on the paper. It usually asks for the correct letter, for example A to G, not the word itself.
Does spelling count in summary completion?
Yes. A misspelled answer loses the mark, so copy words from the passage letter by letter.
Is summary completion with a word box easier?
Not necessarily. You cannot break a word limit, but the options are often paraphrases of the passage and the spare options are written to look right. Check each option against the grammar of the gap and the meaning of the passage.
Your next summary completion set
On your next Reading mock, count two numbers for summary completion: how many gaps you left blank, and how many written answers failed the Meaning check. The first number falls with a rule: every line gets an answer. The second falls with the 3-check gap test. A study plan helps you fit that practice in before your exam: tell the quiz your target score, your exam date and the part of IELTS you find hardest, and GoPrep will build a personal plan around your answers.
GoPrep Team
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