IELTS Preparation : Tips, Strategy & Guide

In the True, False & Not Given kind of question you must read the text to understand whether you should write True, False or Not Given for the answer. To tackle this question type and getting a high band score you need to be aware of the following IELTS Reading Tips:

• Read the questions carefully before trying to answer them.
• Do not write yes instead of true and no instead of false.

This type of question tests your ability to:

1.Ability to Comprehend the passages.

2.Ability to paraphrase the statement.

3.Good Repertoire of Vocabulary.

These are a few important IELTS Reading Tips followed by the candidates to get a high band score in true, false and not given questions. Following a proper strategy is crucial for handling tricky questions like these. tips as well.

1.Read the question carefully: This tip will help you to find the keywords and locate them. Also read the sentences carefully.

2.Go to the passage and find the location with the help of keywords: Just remember that in most cases you will not get the keywords. Try to paraphrase and find words with similar meanings.

3.A single word can change the entire meaning of the sentence: An extra attention is needed in case you see words like often, occasionally, some, never, all, etc.

4.Read this portion of the text carefully and understand the meaning: If the meaning in the text exactly matches with the meaning in the question, then the question is True. If the question contradicts in meaning with the sentence, then it is False. And if you do not find any information regarding the question in the text then it is not given.

5.The questions follow the order of the passage: This is called the progressive order of the questions.This tip is also required in IELTS Listening tips.

6.Do not apply your knowledge about the passage: The answers should be solely based on the information provided by the passage.

7.Follow the instructions: Do not write yes in place of true and no in place of false.

8.Avoid overthinking the question: This may lead you to overthink and add your own knowledge about the question and affect your answer in a negative way. This tip can be applied for IELTS Writing Tips as well.

9.Paraphrase the statement in the question: Paraphrasing helps you to understand the meaning and significance of the sentence in a precise manner. This makes the task easier to solve.

10.Mark the keywords in the paragraph and focus on them: Keywords navigate you to locate the answers easily in the text.

11.Skim the passage well: Skimming or looking at the paper quickly will help you to note down how many and what kind of answers you need for your questions.

12.After skimming focus on scanning: Scanning or the ability to locate individual words or short phrases will help you to locate answers easily in the passage.

13.Not given means no meaning of the sentence is found in the passage: Keywords might be there, but not the full meaning of the sentence. Therefore, it is always advisable to crosscheck whenever an answer is not given.

Also Read: IELTS Speaking Tips

Here are a few sample questions and answers provided for you to understand these questions better. (The passage for the below questions has been provided before the questions.)

A Secret Well Kept

Political leaders in the days before the internet and 24-hour cable news were not subjected to the intense media scrutiny that their modern counterparts face. It was possible to rise to power and stay in office despite having skeletons in the closet that would now see one disgraced in a scandal. One of the best examples of keeping damaging secrets from the public was Canadian Prime Minister, Lyon Mackenzie King, (almost always referred to as Mackenzie King).

Mackenzie King was born in 1874 with the proverbial silver spoon. He accumulated five university degrees, including a PhD from Harvard in economics, a subject he went on to teach at that institute. In addition to being a professor and an economist, King was a lawyer and a journalist. He was also a civil servant and was appointed as Canada's first Minister of Labour. He was elected to Parliament as a Liberal and would go on to become Canada’s, and the Commonwealth's longest-serving prime minister, serving for nearly 22 years.

Mackenzie King cut his political teeth as a labour negotiator. He was successful in part because he mastered the art of conciliation. Conciliation, along with half measures, would become his trademark. "Do nothing by halves that can be done by quarters,” one detractor wrote of him. And so, King sought the middle ground in order to keep the country’s many factions together. He would go out of his way to avoid debate and was fond of saying "Parliament will decide," when pressed for an answer. He was pudgy, plodding, wooden and cold, and his speeches were slumber-inducing. Unloved, but practical and astute, he has been called Canada's greatest prime minister. He created old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and family allowance, and he left the country in much better shape than when he inherited it.

Mackenzie King died in 1950, thus passing into the mildly-interesting annals of Canadian history. Then, during the seventies, his diaries (all 30,000 pages of them) were published, and millions of Canadian jaws dropped. It turns out that King, that monotonous embodiment of Presbyterian morals, was a dedicated occultist who communicated with the dead, including his mother (who he revered), former President Roosevelt, Leonardo da Vinci, and his dogs. And he did this almost every evening for the last 25 years of his life.

King used a Ouija board and owned a crystal ball. He read tea leaves. He employed mediums and consulted a psychic. He visited palmists. He was a numerologist, always sensitive to what the numbers 7 and 17 were attempting to reveal to him. He thought that when he looked at the clock and found both hands in alignment, someone from the other side must have been watching over him. King was careful not to reveal any of his "psychical research" to the public, his departed mother having warned him that people wouldn't understand.

Questions 1-5

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage?

Write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage

1.Mackenzie King came from a privileged background.

2.He taught economics at Harvard University.

3.Mackenzie King was known for his stubbornness and extreme political views.

4.Mackenzie was not liked by his people and did nothing for their welfare.

5.His diaries were published when he was in his seventies.

Answers:

Not Given

Explanation: Paragraph 1 states that researchers often insert a gene or two into an organ to make it do something unique, but there is no mention of whether that includes an or not.

True

Explanation: Paragraph 1 - For example, researchers inserted the insulin gene into bacteria to make them produce human insulin.

True

Explanation: Paragraph 3 - The JCVI researchers also included several "watermarks" in synthetic genome...Thus, by using the amino acid "alphabet," the JCVI researchers were to insert sequences of DNA that were specifically designed to spell out the names of study authors, project contributors, …

True

Explanation: Paragraph 3 - These amino acids are designated by single alphabetical; For example, tryptophan is designated by the letter W.

Not Given

Explanation: Paragraphs 5 and 6 give information about the production of biofuel from genetically altered algae, but there is no mention regarding the world's energy problems.

This article will help you to perform well in your Identifying Information questions in IELTS Reading exam by following IELTS Reading Tips. Revise these tips to boost up your score in True,False,Not Given and gain better bands as these can be challenging to solve. You can also amplify your score by watching IELTS FREE Online Videos on our Youtube channel.