Sentence Completion: Words From the Text, Inside the Word Limit

Each question is a sentence with a gap in it. The words that fill the gap are in the text, and you type them in source: ielts.org. The type tests your ability to find detail or specific information source: ielts.org.

Which paper lists it

Sentence completion is a type of its own on the Academic paper source: ielts.org.

On the General Training paper, several sentences are one form of the completion type, called "sentences" in the instructions source: ielts.org. The General Training format page does not list sentence completion on its own.

So a General Training candidate meets this task under a different heading. It still asks you to complete sentences with words from the text. The order rule differs between the papers.

The order rule on Academic

Four Academic Reading types follow the order of the text: multiple choice, matching sentence endings, sentence completion and short-answer questions source: ielts.org.

So you can work down the questions and down the text together. Read question 1, find its place and answer it. Then read on from that point for question 2. You will read most of the text once.

The order also lets you check yourself. Suppose your answer to question 5 comes from above your answer to question 4. Then one of the two is wrong, and you know it before you reread anything.

The order rule on General Training

On General Training, the completion type includes sentences, and its answers may not come in the same order as in the text. However, they will usually come from one part of the text rather than the whole text source: ielts.org.

So on General Training, do not expect the answers in order. Find the part of the text the sentences come from, then answer by meaning. Summary completion explains that method.

What you may write

Answers are words taken from the text. The instructions print a word limit, for example "NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER". It changes from task to task. You lose the mark for writing more than the limit source: ielts.org.

Contracted words such as "they're" will not be tested. Hyphenated words such as "check-in" count as single words source: ielts.org.

The words must come from the text, so a synonym cannot be right. A right answer with one extra word scores nothing.

In Reading, a word with a spelling error is marked as incorrect source: IDP. On General Training, you also lose marks for incorrect grammar source: ielts.org.

Check the grammar

The finished sentence must work as a sentence. That is a quick way to catch a wrong answer.

For the General Training completion type, you need to think about the type of word that will fit a gap. For example, decide whether a noun is needed or a verb source: ielts.org.

Ask what the gap needs: a noun, a verb or an adjective. If your words do not fit that gap, you have found the right sentence and taken the wrong words from it.

Watch singular and plural too. The text may give a plural where the sentence needs one item.

A worked example

Here is a short passage written for this page, with three sentences to complete. The limit is two words and/or a number.

The answers are spring, lift and mobile network. On Academic, they appear in the text in that order.

Question 1 is "spring". The year has to be worked out: the keeper left the spring after 1978, which is 1979. The gap asks for the season, and the season is one word from the text.

Question 2 is "lift". The question says "price", but the answer keeps the text's word, "lift".

Question 3 is "mobile network". The word "a" is already printed before the gap, so "a mobile network" would repeat it and run to three words.

Marks and scoring

The number of questions is "variable", and each correct answer receives one mark source: ielts.org. On average, band 7 takes 30 marks out of 40 on Academic Reading and 35 on General Training source: ielts.org.

So on General Training the average band 7 leaves room for about five lost marks. Three wrong sentences use most of them. Do not leave a gap blank.

IELTS Reading raw score to band score works through the conversion. The Reading band score converter turns a practice raw score into a band. Read the sentences on the General Training paper as part of summary completion, and see diagram label completion for the third completion type. IELTS Reading question types lists all eleven types and what each one tests.

The Reading improvement plan lists this type in its band 5 to 6 step.

The task description, the two order rules, the word limit rules, the advice on word type and the difference in how the two papers list the type come from the IELTS Academic and General Training Reading format pages on ielts.org, last checked on 29 September 2026. The average marks for band 7 come from its IELTS scoring in detail page, checked the same day. The statement on spelling comes from IDP, one of the three organisations that own IELTS, in its spelling guide, also checked the same day. The example passage and its sentences were written for this page and are not from any test.