True, False, Not Given: How to Tell False From Not Given

The mistake to avoid is mixing up False and Not Given. A statement feels wrong, or you happen to know it is wrong, so you mark it False. But if the passage never mentions it, the answer is Not Given.

The official name for this question type is "Identifying information". You get a list of statements and one question about them: "Do the following statements agree with the information in the text?" For each statement, you answer True, False or Not Given source: ielts.org.

The three answers, defined

True means the statement agrees with the information in the passage. The wording will almost never match. The statement paraphrases the passage, and your job is to decide whether it says the same thing.

For False, the passage has to say something that cannot be true at the same time as the statement. Suppose the statement says the bridge opened in 1932, and the passage says 1935. The answer is False.

Here is a second False. The statement says the bridge was the longest in Britain, and the passage says it was the second longest in Britain. The two cannot both be true, so the answer is False.

For Not Given, the passage may talk about the same topic and use the same words. The sentence about that topic may even sit exactly where you expected the answer. It can still say nothing about whether the statement is true.

A worked example

Here is a short passage written for this page, followed by three statements.

Statement 1 is False. The passage says the library moved in 1950. So it has not been on one site since 1904.

Statement 2 is False. The passage says the brewer refused to have his name on the building. That is the opposite of the statement.

Statement 3 is Not Given. The passage says the riverside site was purpose-built, but not who designed it. The word "local" does appear in the passage, but it describes the brewer. A shared word like this pulls a reader toward True or False. The passage does not mention an architect at all, so it cannot agree or disagree.

Why Not Given is the one that costs marks

A Not Given answer is harder to be sure of than a False. For False, you can point to the sentence in the passage that the statement contradicts. For Not Given, you are looking for something that is not there.

You will always feel pushed toward True or False. The topic is there and the words are there, so it feels as if the answer must be there too.

Two habits cause wrong answers here. The first is using what you know. If you know a statement is untrue in the real world, it is tempting to mark it False, but the passage is the only source. The official warning is about exactly this habit.

The second habit is adding a detail the passage never gave. A statement may add a reason or a comparison that the passage never made. Then it is Not Given, even if the rest of it matches. "The library moved because the chapel was damp" is Not Given, because the passage only says the collection outgrew the chapel.

If you cannot name the sentence that makes the statement impossible, you have not found a False. You have found a Not Given, or a True you misread.

Where the statements are in the passage

The statements often follow the order of the passage, but nothing on the format page promises it.

The answers do follow the order of the passage for four other question types: multiple choice, matching sentence endings, sentence completion and short-answer questions source: ielts.org.

So use the order to search. Once you have found statement 3, look for statement 4 further on.

Do not let the order decide your answer. If the evidence is not where you expected, that does not make the statement Not Given. The evidence may sit a paragraph later, or be split across two sentences.

To call a statement Not Given, read the part of the passage it is about. It is Not Given only if that part does not answer the statement.

How to answer True, False, Not Given questions

Use this order for every statement.

Qualifiers often decide the answer. A passage that says most residents supported the plan does not agree with a statement that all of them did. It does not contradict it either.

Answer every statement. A wrong answer only costs you the mark for that question, so a guess is always better than a blank.

How much this type is worth

The number of questions for each type is "variable" source: ielts.org. So a paper may have four of these questions, or twelve.

Each question is one mark. On Academic Reading, the average score for band 7 is 30 out of 40 source: ielts.org. On average, that leaves ten marks to lose. So a set of six True, False, Not Given questions that costs you three marks has used three of those ten.

These are averages. The exact number varies a little between test versions. Between the pins there is no official figure.

Source: ielts.org, IELTS scoring in detail

Show the data

Academic Reading: average marks out of 40 for each band

Band	Average marks out of 40
8	35
7	30
6	23
5	15

IELTS Reading raw score to band score works through the conversion for both papers. The Reading band score converter turns a practice score into a band.

This question type is on the General Training paper as well as the Academic one source: ielts.org.

Yes, No, Not Given is on the Academic paper only. It asks the same question about the writer's views instead of the facts. The two differ enough to be worth reading together. IELTS Reading question types lists all eleven types and what each one tests.

The Reading improvement plan lists this type in its band 6 to 7 step.

The definitions of the three answers, the question wording and the warning about prior knowledge come from the IELTS Academic and General Training Reading format pages on ielts.org, last checked on 27 September 2026. The average mark for band 7 comes from its IELTS scoring in detail page, checked the same day. The example passage was written for this page and is not from any test.