Matching Sentence Endings: An Academic-Only Type That Follows the Text

You get the first half of a sentence, based on information in the text. You choose the best way to complete it from a list of possible endings. There are more endings than beginnings, so you will not use all of them source: ielts.org.

The order rule

Four Reading types follow the order of the text: multiple choice, matching sentence endings, sentence completion and short-answer questions source: ielts.org. The other types do not say this.

So you move forward through the passage once, instead of searching the whole passage for each question. Suppose you found sentence 2 in the third paragraph. Then sentence 3 is somewhere after it. If your ending for sentence 3 comes from earlier in the passage than sentence 2, one of the two answers is wrong.

Main ideas, not details

This type tests your ability to understand the main ideas in the text source: ielts.org.

That is a warning, because the endings look like details. They are short, and they contain concrete nouns. The obvious method is to hunt for one of those nouns in the passage. That leads you to endings that reuse the passage's words but do not say what the passage says.

So compare the whole completed sentence with what the passage claims. An ending that makes a correct sentence out of words you recognise is not proof of anything.

A worked example

Here is a short passage written for this page, with three sentence beginnings and six endings.

The answers are B, C and E. They come from the passage in that order.

Ending D is true of many places, but this passage never says it. The passage says iron was the material he had, not that it was cheaper.

Ending F is a trap built from the first sentence. The passage says the first cast-iron bridge over the gorge. That is not the same as the first structure of its kind in the world.

Ending A contradicts the passage, which says the bridge was never modified. It is there for anyone who did not read the last sentence of the passage.

Matching sentence endings vs multiple choice

Multiple choice can also give you the first half of a sentence with four possible endings source: ielts.org. So the two types look alike on the page. They differ in two ways.

Multiple choice gives four endings for each question. Matching sentence endings gives one list for the whole set, and the list is longer than the number of questions.

Multiple choice can test detailed understanding of specific points, or the main points of the text source: ielts.org. Matching sentence endings tests the main ideas only.

How to answer matching sentence endings questions

If you are stuck, move on and come back. Once the sentences either side are settled, the order rule narrows the search.

Answer every question before the time runs out. A wrong answer loses only the mark for that question.

Which paper this is on

Matching sentence endings is on the Academic paper source: ielts.org.

It is not one of the eight types on the General Training Reading format page. If you are taking General Training, you will not meet it. The closest thing you will meet is multiple choice in its sentence-ending form.

Two other Reading types are Academic only. One is Yes, No, Not Given. The other is sentence completion.

On General Training, sentences are one form of the wider completion type, not a type of their own source: ielts.org.

Marks and scoring

The number of questions of each type is "variable" source: ielts.org.

Each correct answer gets one mark. On Academic Reading, band 7 takes 30 marks out of 40 on average source: ielts.org. So you can lose about ten marks across the whole paper, and one set of these questions can take a third of them.

IELTS Reading raw score to band score works through the conversion, and the Reading band score converter turns a practice raw score into a band. IELTS Reading question types lists all eleven types and what each one tests.

The Reading improvement plan lists this type in its band 7 to 8 step.

The task description, the order rule, the skill tested and the absence of this type from the General Training paper come from the IELTS Academic and General Training Reading format pages on ielts.org, last checked on 28 September 2026. The average marks for band 7 come from its IELTS scoring in detail page, checked the same day. The example passage, its sentence beginnings and its endings were written for this page and are not from any test.