True False Not Given in IELTS Reading: Rules and Tricks

True False Not Given questions rarely go wrong because the English is hard. They go wrong because students mix up "False" and "Not Given", or answer from what they already know instead of what the passage says. This guide explains what each answer means, how it differs from Yes/No/Not Given, a five-step method, six common traps, and a worked example with reasons.

Quick answer: choose True if the passage confirms the statement, False if the passage says the opposite, and Not Given if the passage does not give enough information to confirm or contradict it.

IELTS Reading in brief

The Reading test lasts 60 minutes and has 3 sections with 40 questions in total, based on between 2,150 and 2,750 words of text (Academic). True/False/Not Given (TFNG) is one of eleven Academic Reading question types, and it also appears in General Training Reading. For timings of every section and a full study plan, see our complete IELTS preparation guide.

True False Not Given: what each answer means

The three options are not judgements about the real world. They describe only the relationship between the statement and the passage in front of you.

The key distinction is between False and Not Given. False needs evidence of the opposite. Not Given means the evidence simply is not there. If you cannot point to a phrase that clearly rules the statement out, it is not False.

Tip: Ask yourself, "Can I underline the words that prove this?" Proof that it agrees means True. Proof that it disagrees means False. If you cannot underline anything decisive, it is Not Given.

True/False/Not Given vs Yes/No/Not Given

Yes/No/Not Given (YNNG) works in exactly the same way logically, but it asks about something different. TFNG checks factual information. YNNG checks the writer's views or claims: what the author believes, argues or recommends.

The practical point: read the instruction and write the right set of words. Writing "True" for a Yes/No/Not Given question can be marked wrong, even if your reasoning was correct.

A 5-step True False Not Given strategy

Use the same routine for every statement until it becomes automatic.

1. Read the statement and mark the keywords. Underline names, dates, numbers and the main idea. Then circle any qualifier: words like "all", "some", "only", "always", "usually", "more than", "first". Qualifiers decide a large share of these answers.
2. Predict the paraphrase. Think of one or two ways the passage might express the same idea. "Became popular" might appear as "spread quickly" or "grew in popularity". This helps you recognise the right sentence when you reach it.
3. Locate the relevant part of the passage. In standard teaching, TFNG statements follow the order of the passage, so the answer to statement 4 is normally after the answer to statement 3. Scan for names, numbers and proper nouns first, because they rarely get paraphrased.
4. Read the sentence before and after carefully. Do not decide on a single matching word. Read the full sentence, plus its neighbours, and compare it with every part of the statement, including the qualifier you circled.
5. Decide, write the answer and move on. Agrees fully: True. Clearly contradicts: False. Neither: Not Given. If you are stuck after about a minute, choose your best answer, mark the question number and return only if time allows.

Practise this now: try a free IELTS Academic Reading test and apply the five steps to every TFNG question, then check which step broke down on the ones you missed.

6 True False Not Given traps

1. Word matching instead of meaning matching

The statement repeats a word from the passage, so it feels True, but the sentence around that word may say something different. Match ideas, not vocabulary.

2. Ignoring qualifiers

"Some scientists believe" and "Scientists believe" are not the same claim. If the passage says "some" and the statement says "all" or "most", the answer is usually False if the passage makes clear others disagree, or Not Given if it says nothing about the rest. Always check words like "only", "never", "always", "mainly" and "the first".

3. Using your own knowledge

If a statement is true in real life but the passage does not say it, the answer is Not Given. This is the trap that catches strong students most often, especially on science and history passages where they already know the topic. Pretend you know nothing beyond the text.

4. Half-true statements

A statement can combine one accurate detail with one unsupported detail. For example, the passage may confirm that a project started in 2010 but say nothing about who funded it. "The government-funded project started in 2010" is then Not Given, not True. Every part of the statement has to be supported for True.

5. Comparisons and superlatives

Statements with "more than", "less than", "the largest" or "faster" need a comparison in the passage. If the passage describes two things but never compares them, the answer is Not Given. Students often infer a comparison that the writer never made.

6. Confusing "not mentioned" with "opposite"

This is the False versus Not Given problem in its purest form. If the statement says "The council banned the event" and the passage only says the council discussed the event, that is Not Given unless the passage tells you the event went ahead. False requires the passage to rule the statement out.

True False Not Given practice: worked examples

Read this short original passage, then try the six statements before you look at the answers.

Rooftop beekeeping has spread quickly in several European capitals since the early 2000s. Hives now sit on the roofs of offices, hotels and public buildings, and many city councils have encouraged the trend, presenting it as a sign of a healthy urban environment. However, some ecologists are less enthusiastic. They point out that honeybees feed on the same flowers as wild bee species, and where hive numbers grow faster than new planting, wild bees may struggle to find enough food. One study in a large city found that the amount of pollen available to each hive had fallen as the total number of hives increased. Supporters of urban beekeeping reply that rooftop hives help people understand the importance of pollinators. Most researchers now agree that the solution is not to remove urban hives but to plant more flowering species alongside them, so that both honeybees and wild bees can feed.

Statements

1. Rooftop beekeeping became more common in some European capitals after 2000.
2. City councils have generally tried to discourage rooftop hives.
3. Ecologists agree that urban beekeeping benefits the environment.
4. Wild bees are more effective pollinators than honeybees.
5. Research has linked a rise in hive numbers to less pollen per hive.
6. Supporters claim that honey from rooftop hives is of higher quality than rural honey.

Answers and reasons

Notice that the answers follow passage order, and that both Not Given statements reuse real words from the text. That is what makes them tricky.

Tip: When you review practice tests, write a one-line reason for every TFNG answer, including the ones you got right. No reason means you were guessing, and guesses are not reliable on test day.

Reading scores for band 6, 7 and 8

In Academic Reading, about 23 correct answers out of 40 is band 6, about 30 is band 7 and about 35 is band 8, though cut-offs vary slightly by test version. General Training needs more correct answers for the same band: the official ielts.org example is 35 correct for band 7. For the full conversions and how Reading combines with your other three skills, see the IELTS Reading band score chart. Still deciding which module to sit? Our comparison of IELTS Academic vs General Training explains how the Reading sections differ in text types and difficulty.

Building the habit

The skill behind TFNG is careful matching of a statement against evidence, without adding anything of your own. That same discipline helps in Listening, where you need to check exactly what the speaker said rather than what you expected to hear. Our IELTS Listening tips for band 8 cover how to apply it under audio conditions, where the recording is played only once.

• Do one full timed Reading test each week.
• Keep an error log of TFNG and YNNG mistakes, noting which trap caught you.
• Write one True, one False and one Not Given statement about a passage you have finished. It shows you how the traps are built.

Checked in October 2026 against the official IELTS Academic Reading format page.

Test yourself under real conditions: sit one of our full IELTS mock tests with the full timed Reading section, then use your error log to see whether your TFNG accuracy holds up across all three sections.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between False and Not Given?

False means the passage says the opposite of the statement, so you can point to words that contradict it. Not Given means the passage does not contain enough information to confirm or contradict the statement, even if the topic is mentioned.

Are True/False/Not Given answers in order in the passage?

Yes, in standard teaching the statements follow the order of the information in the passage. Use this to narrow your search: the evidence for each statement usually lies after the evidence for the previous one.

Can I write T/F/NG instead of full words?

To be safe, write the full word: True, False or Not Given. Abbreviations can cause problems if letters are unclear or misread, and writing the full word removes that risk entirely.

How long should I spend on each True/False/Not Given question?

Aim for about a minute per statement. Still stuck after that? Choose your best answer, mark the question number and come back only if time allows.

How do I stop overthinking Not Given answers?

Set a simple rule: if you cannot underline words that clearly confirm or clearly contradict the statement, choose Not Given and move on. Do not use outside knowledge or build long chains of inference to force a True or False answer.