Understanding the IELTS Academic Reading test format

What is the format of the IELTS Academic Reading Test?

This article is for the IELTS Academic. If you are looking for the General Training Reading test, please click here.

IELTS Academic Reading Test Format

The IELTS Academic Reading test is for one hour. The reading test has three passages and each of the passages have 12-16 questions. The test has a total of 40 questions.

Passage Types

The IELTS academic reading test is designed to test your ability to read and understand passages of different topics and nature and be able to answer the questions asked. These passages are drawn from books, journals, magazines and newspapers. The topics are of general interest. IELTS will not try to challenge you with topics or texts that are highly technical in nature or do not hold any immense interest in the public domain. IELTS is not a test of your scientific or general knowledge. It is a test of your ability to communicate in English. The tone of the passages could be narrative, descriptive or argumentative. A narrative text may share what is found on the floor of the ocean. A descriptive text may describe how a particular research was done while an argumentative text may discuss the benefits and side effects of a particular practice. Of the 3 passages at least one text will present a logical argument. One or more of the of the passages may also contain diagrams, graphs or illustrations. In the event a text contains one or more technical term a glossary will be provided. A glossary is a table of words with their meanings.

Question Types

In the IELTS Academic Reading test you will come across 11 different question types. Worry not. The numbers may sound huge and may give you a cause of worry but none of the question types are something you would not have come across. In fact, most of them are very easy to approach and answer.

Multiple Choice questions ask you to choose the best answer from the given list of options. You need to choose the answer that you think is the best suited to the question. In certain cases, you may have to choose more than 1.

True-False-Not Given Questions ask you to identify information in the text. If the statement made in the question says the same as the text the answer is true but if it does not convey the exact same meaning then it is false. If the discussed information in the statement is not present in the text the answer is not given.

Yes-No-Not Given questions ask you to check for the author’s views. If the statement says the exact same thing as what the author says well then, the answer is yes. If the meaning is different then the answer is no and if the discussed information is not in the text the answer is not given.

Matching Information questions require that you to match information asked in the question with the paragraph that contains that information. For example, in a text discussing the harmful effects of smoking the question may ask you to identify the paragraph that discusses the long-term impact of passive smoking.

Matching Headings questions provide you with a list of headings. You now need to identify the paragraph to which the heading matches. There may be more options on the list than the paragraphs. In such cases there is only one correct answer.

Matching Features questions provide small pieces of information. You need to match these pieces to the correct options. For example, if the text discusses people you will be given information about these people and then you need to match the information to the correct person.

Matching Sentence Endings Questions will provide you half a sentence and a list of options. You need to match the two. The sentences are provided in the same order as the information is provided in the text.

Sentence Completion questions ask you to complete a partial sentence that has been presented as a question. You need to find the information required from the text to answer the question.

Summary/Text/Note/Flow Chart completion questions ask you to fill out the correct information in the blanks provided. There will be no accompanying list of options instead you will find the correct information in the text and fill in the blanks.

Diagram labelling requires you to fill in the blanks in the given diagram. Once again you will find the correct information in the text and fill in the blanks.

Short Answer questions You will be presented with a question and you need to identify the answer from the text. Now please note that these are not answers where you write full sentences or paragraphs. These answers will be no more than three words and/or a number. Nowhere in the IELTS Academic Reading test will you come across a question that allows you to write more than three words and/or a number.

I would like to a add a few things here. For most of the questions, except the matching questions and True/False/Not Given and Yes/No/Not Given, the questions will be in the same order as the information in the text. Which means that the answers to the 1^st question will be before the answer to the 2^nd question in the text. Also, every question comes with a set of instructions that you need to follow without fail. Failure to do so will lead to the answer being marked wrong.

To know what type of questions to expect on the other 3 modules, you can read the following articles: 

- What to expect on the Speaking Test ?

- What to expect on the Listening Test?

- What to expect on the Academic Writing Test?

- Understanding the IELTS Test format - Paper based Test

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