True / False / Not Given — the decision tree
Three labels, and only one of them is a judgement
- TRUE — the passage says it. The wording will differ; the meaning will not.
- FALSE — the passage says the opposite. There is a specific sentence that contradicts the statement.
- NOT GIVEN — the passage does not say, either way.
- ⚠ NOT GIVEN does not mean "probably false". It may be obviously true in the real world. It may be something the writer would certainly agree with. None of that matters.
- Yes / No / Not Given is the same task applied to the writer's opinion rather than to facts.
NOT GIVEN is not a hiding place for answers you did not have time to find.
The passage says nothing at all about a statement, but the statement is obviously true in the real world. What is the answer?
The task tests the passage, not the world. If the passage neither states nor contradicts it, the answer is NOT GIVEN however true it is.
The decision tree
- Find the part of the passage the statement is about. The questions follow the passage in order, so question 8 is below question 7.
- Ask: is there a sentence here that contradicts the statement? → FALSE.
- If not: is there a sentence here that states it? → TRUE.
- Neither? → NOT GIVEN. Stop. Do not reason further.
- The commonest error is skipping step 4: the passage does not say this, so it must be false. That is exactly what NOT GIVEN means.
Put the decision steps in order.
Checking for a contradiction FIRST is what stops you talking yourself into TRUE on a statement the passage argues against.
Qualifiers decide more items than vocabulary does
- Watch for all, always, never, only, the main, most, must.
- Passage: Overfishing was one cause of the decline. Statement: Overfishing was the main cause. → NOT GIVEN. It might have been the main cause; the passage does not tell us.
- Passage: Overfishing contributed to the decline, but habitat loss was the main cause. The same statement is now FALSE: the passage explicitly names a different main cause.
- Underline the qualifier in the statement before you go looking. It is usually the whole question.
Passage: 'One cause of the decline was overfishing.' Statement: 'The main cause of the decline was overfishing.'
NOT GIVEN. One cause could be the main cause, but the passage does not say whether it is. FALSE would require a contradiction, such as naming another main cause.
What the passage "says" without using the words
- The passage will almost never repeat the statement's wording. It will paraphrase.
- Numbers fell steeply after 1990 and there was a sharp decline in the population from 1990 are the same claim → TRUE.
- ⚠ A statement that repeats the passage's own words is often a trap: the words match and the meaning has been changed by one qualifier.
- So read for meaning and check the qualifier, not for matching words.
A statement that repeats several of the passage's own words is more likely to be TRUE.
Often the opposite. The passage paraphrases a true statement, and a word-for-word match is frequently a trap in which one qualifier has been changed.
Writing the answer
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Use the labels requested in the instructions: TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN. Do not substitute your own wording.
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Use the right set: TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN for facts, YES/NO/NOT GIVEN for the writer's views. Using the wrong set costs the mark.
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Never leave one blank. There are three options and no penalty, so a guess is worth a third of a mark on average and a blank is worth nothing.
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Do not change an answer just because several neighbouring answers are the same. Check each one against its own evidence.
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Source checked on 23 September 2026: official IELTS Academic Reading guide.
For a question about the WRITER'S OPINION, the three answers are YES, NO and ___.
Yes / No / Not Given for views, True / False / Not Given for facts. Using the wrong set costs the mark even when the judgement was right.