IELTS Reading: True, False, Not Given (The Complete Method)

Every True/False/Not Given question gives you a statement. Your job is to decide how that statement relates to the passage, using three, and only three, verdicts.

• True: the passage says the same thing as the statement, even if it uses different words.
• False: the passage says the opposite of the statement, or directly contradicts it.
• Not Given: the passage neither confirms nor contradicts the statement. The information is simply absent.

The entire difficulty of this question type lives in that third option. Most students can tell True from False. Where bands are lost is in confusing False with Not Given, and the difference is precise: False needs the text to actively contradict the statement. Not Given means the text is silent on it.

One rule sits above all others: answer only from the passage. If a statement says "Solar power is cheaper than coal" and you happen to know that is true in real life, but the passage never compares their costs, the answer is Not Given, not True. Your knowledge is irrelevant. Only the text counts.

There are two reasons Not Given trips people up.

First, it feels like giving up. When you cannot find information that confirms or contradicts a statement, the natural instinct is to assume you missed it and keep hunting. But in this question type, not finding the information is the finding. If you have read the relevant part of the passage carefully and it does not address the statement, the answer is Not Given. Confidence in that is a skill, not a shortcut.

Second, your own knowledge leaks in. The passage might discuss a scientist's early career, and the statement might say "She won an award for her research." If the passage never mentions an award, it is Not Given, even if it is a famous fact that she did. Test writers deliberately choose statements that sound plausible or that a knowledgeable student might assume, precisely to catch people who answer from memory instead of from the text.

Here is the method that works under exam pressure. Follow it in order.

1. Confirm the instruction. Check whether it is True/False/Not Given (which tests facts) or Yes/No/Not Given (which tests the writer's opinion). They look identical but the second asks you to judge a viewpoint, not a fact.
2. Read the whole statement for meaning. Do not just grab keywords. A single word like some, all, only, never, or mainly can flip the answer. "All students improved" and "some students improved" are completely different claims.
3. Underline the locating keywords. These are the names, dates, numbers, or specific nouns that will help you find the right spot in the passage. They are usually harder to paraphrase, so they anchor your search.
4. Find the matching section. The answers appear in the same order as the passage, so once you have located question 1, question 2 is below it, not above. This alone saves minutes.
5. Read that section closely. Now read for the whole meaning, watching for synonyms and paraphrasing. The passage will almost never repeat the statement's exact words.
6. Decide. Does the text confirm the statement (True), contradict it (False), or say nothing about it (Not Given)?
7. If you cannot find it, mark Not Given and move on. Do not spend two minutes proving a negative. A reasonable, careful search that turns up nothing is the evidence for Not Given.

Read this short passage:

Honeybees communicate the location of food through a movement known as the waggle dance. The angle of the dance relative to the vertical indicates the direction of the food source, while the duration of the waggle signals its distance. Researchers first documented this behaviour in the 1940s. Today, it remains one of the most studied forms of animal communication.

Now decide True, False, or Not Given for each statement.

Notice the difference between statements 2 and 3. Statement 2 is False because the passage gives a conflicting fact. Statement 3 is Not Given because the passage gives no fact to conflict with. That is the whole game.

Avoid these five and your accuracy jumps.

• Treating Not Given as False. False needs a contradiction in the text. If there is no contradiction, only silence, it is Not Given.
• Using what you already know. The answer lives in the passage, not in your head. A statement can be true in real life and still be Not Given.
• Keyword matching instead of meaning matching. Seeing the same word in the passage and the statement does not make it True. The passage often reuses a word while saying something different about it.
• Overthinking a clear answer. If the text plainly confirms or contradicts the statement, trust it. Students talk themselves out of correct answers by inventing hidden meanings.
• Hunting too long. If a careful search finds nothing, that is your Not Given. Mark it, move on, and protect your time for the questions that are actually answerable.