Hi guys, today it’s very nice to share you some tips for the type of YES- NO- NOT GIVEN OR TRUE- FALES- NOT GIVEN questions. A type of IELTS reading which Vietnamese students often get trouble with!



So, before practising your IELTS reading skills, please notice that the Academic Reading Module takes 60 minutes. There are 40 questions. There are three reading passages with a total of 1500 to 2000 words.



Tests are taken from magazines, journals, books, and newspapers. At least one text contains detailed logical argument. One text may contain non-verbal materials such as diagrams, graphs or illustration.



PART 1: YES- NO- NOT GIVEN/ TRUE- FALSE- NOT GIVEN



These tasks either ask you to identify the writer’s views or claims in the text or identify information in the text. You will be given a list of statements which are either opinions or facts and you have to decide for:



• Type 1: if they are opinions, whether they are the opinions of the writer or
not or not given
in the text.


• Type 2: If they are
facts
, whether they are
true, false or not given
in the text.



For type 1 the writers views may not be directly stated, so you may have to work out what is implied. The questions will be in the same order as the text.



For example:


Type 1: Questions 1-4


Do the following statements agree with the views in the passage? Write:



YES if the statement agrees with the views in the passage


NO if the statement contradicts the views in the passage


NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this



Example: Advertisements displayed in school libraries are especially harmful to children.



1 Young kids do not recognise the main purpose of an ad.


2 Feeling a part of a group is unimportant for young adolescents.


3 TV commercials which target children in their teens should not be allowed.



Type 2: Questions 4-6


Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? In boxes 4-6 on your answer sheet write



• TRUE if the statement is true according to the passage


• FALSE if the statement is false according to the passage


• NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage



Example:


1. Most people spend about two hours a day traveling to and from work.


2. The problems of road rage have doubled in the last 10 years.


3. More road accidents happen where drivers are familiar with the road



Some practical tips


1. Read the whole question. Do NOT focus on key words. Think about the meaning of the question.


2. Be especially careful with words such as “often” and “some”. They can change the meaning of the question dramatically.


3. Be careful with questions beginning “The writer says”: here you need to think about the writer’s opinions and not about facts.


4. The questions will follow the order of the text: if you can’t find answer 12, you know it must be somewhere between 11 and 13.


5. Do not spend too long on any one question. If the answer is “Not Given”, there may be nothing for you to find.


6. One possibility is to mark all the “True” answers and all the “False” answers and then guess “Not Given” for the others.


7. Read the instructions carefully and note whether you are being asked to look for facts or opinions.


8. Look at all the questions and see what topics they ask about. You may note key words here, but only to identify the correct part of the text to read.


9. Skim the text to identify which paragraphs you need to read more closely. Note that the questions will follow the order of the text and so the answer to question 10 will follow the answer to question 11


10. Mark on the question paper which paragraphs relate to which question: eg, write 11 against paragraph E


11. Refocus on the question and read the whole question: be careful with tricky words like “usually”


12. Underline the words in the text that give you the answer. This helps you concentrate and also allows you to change your mind, if you find a better answer later.



A suggested procedure



A variation is to mark the “True” answers first as they tend to be the easiest and then go back to the “False” and “Not given” later.



To be continued!!