True / False / Not Given: Why 70% of Students Get It Wrong

Ask any IELTS teacher in Bangladesh which Reading question type causes the most tears, and you will get the same answer: True, False, Not Given. Students who read English confidently, who finish novels and follow BBC articles, still crash on this question type. The reason is not weak English. The reason is that they are answering the wrong question.

Here is the rule in one sentence: you are comparing the statement with the passage, not with reality, not with logic, and not with your own knowledge. True means the passage says the same thing as the statement. False means the passage says the opposite of the statement. Not Given means the passage simply does not tell you either way.

The trap that catches most students is the difference between False and Not Given. False does not mean 'I could not find this in the text.' False means the text actively contradicts the statement. If the statement says 'The factory opened in 1985' and the passage says 'The factory began production in 1992,' that is False, because the two directly conflict. But if the passage never mentions when the factory opened at all, the answer is Not Given, even if the statement sounds unlikely.

Let us try a homely example. Suppose a passage says: 'Rina travels from Uttara to her office in Motijheel every morning.' Now judge this statement: 'Rina enjoys her morning commute.' Many students mark this False, thinking, nobody enjoys Dhaka traffic! But the passage says nothing about her feelings. Your life experience is screaming an answer, and that is exactly the trap. The correct answer is Not Given.

Now judge a second statement: 'Rina works in Uttara.' This time the passage does contradict it, because it clearly says her office is in Motijheel. That is False. Feel the difference: False requires evidence of contradiction, Not Given is the absence of evidence.

The second big trap is extreme words. IELTS statements love words like 'all,' 'only,' 'always,' 'never,' 'most,' and 'the first.' If the passage says 'many scientists agree' and the statement says 'all scientists agree,' the answer is usually False or Not Given depending on the exact wording, because 'many' is not 'all.' Train yourself to circle these extreme words in every statement before you touch the passage. They are where the examiners hide the test.

The third trap is matching words instead of matching meaning. Students see 'climate' in the statement, spot 'climate' in paragraph three, and assume they have found the answer. But IELTS deliberately reuses vocabulary in misleading places. The sentence that actually answers the question often uses a paraphrase: the statement says 'inexpensive,' the passage says 'cost very little.' Locate the right part of the passage using names, numbers, and dates first, because those are hard to paraphrase, then read that section slowly.

Here is a reliable four-step method. Step one: read the statement and identify the exact claim, including any extreme words. Step two: scan the passage for the location, remembering that answers to this question type come in passage order. Step three: read the relevant sentences carefully and ask, does the text confirm the claim, contradict it, or stay silent? Step four: if you genuinely cannot find any relevant information after a fair search, the answer is probably Not Given. Do not spend four minutes hunting for something the writers never put there.

A word about Yes, No, Not Given, which looks identical but appears with opinion-based passages. The logic is the same, except you are testing the writer's claims and opinions rather than facts. 'Yes' means the writer expresses this view; 'No' means the writer expresses the opposite view; 'Not Given' means the writer never takes a position on it.

How common is Not Given? In a typical set of six statements, expect one to three Not Given answers. If you have marked five statements Not Given, you are probably falling into the 'I could not find it quickly, so it must be Not Given' habit. Equally, if you never choose Not Given, you are probably forcing every statement into True or False using your imagination.

Practice this with intention. After every practice set, do not just check your score. For each wrong answer, find the exact sentence in the passage and write one line explaining why the correct answer is correct. Within ten passages of this kind of review, the fog around this question type lifts, and what once cost you a full band starts feeling like the easiest points in the Reading test.

Remember: the examiners are not testing whether you are clever. They are testing whether you can be disciplined enough to trust only the text. Be a judge who convicts only on evidence, and True, False, Not Given becomes a question type you look forward to.