 IELTS reading is actually quite simple, but what students find really frustrating is there's so many different types of reading question. So what I decided to do was put together a video that shows you the 12 main types of IELTS question. I'm gonna show you exactly what those questions look like, go over the key problems that students face and then help you solve all of those problems and simplify everything for you by giving you the same step-by-step strategies that have helped thousands of my students get a seven, eight, and even nine. In fact, these are the exact same strategies that helped me get a band nine when I did the test myself. But the thing was I was able to get a band nine in just 20 minutes because I understood exactly what questions were coming up and I had a strategy that ensured I found the answer to each question as quickly as possible. So that's exactly what I'm gonna do for you guys in this video. So without further ado, let's jump into it. So there are 12 different types of IELTS reading question. We're gonna go through each of the 12 types. First of all, I'm gonna show you exactly what the questions look like and then I'm gonna show you key problems that students face and a strategy for each type of question. So this is an example of a sentence completion question. So for sentence completion, you will have sentences. They will be incomplete and you need to complete them with a word or words from the text. So you would be looking at the text here and then you would be completing these sentences with words from the text. So for sentence completion questions, the two key problems are not reading the instructions, especially about the number of words and poor spelling. So not reading the instructions. This is just something that lots of students have a problem with and it's an easy fix. It is getting into the habit of really paying attention to the instructions, understanding what the instructions are saying and then following that information. And then poor spelling, this is because this is one of the types of questions that you are not picking like A, B, C or D. You actually have to take words from the text and write them out. So if one letter is wrong, the whole answer is wrong. So make sure that you are paying attention to spelling. So my advice for sentence completion is number one, read the instructions carefully as we've already said. Read incomplete sentence first. All right, so you're going to be given a list of incomplete sentences. Do not read the text first. Read the incomplete sentences first to understand them. Then again, don't look at the text. Predict the answers. What do you think the type of words, the type of content, what type of words, what content is probably going to come up? Even if your predictions are wrong, that doesn't matter because what you're doing is priming your brain to receive the correct information. It really does help. And often when you make a prediction, the exact thing that you predicted will come up or something very, very similar. Now at four sentence completion, there might be synonyms. So again, this is why we make predictions. Think of the different synonyms that might come up related to your predictions. But also you're going to next scan for the location of the correct answer. There's a principle I want you to learn first, which is where before what. So during the reading test, you're going to be looking for where the answer is first before you think about what is the correct answer. So you're scanning for the correct location first. Where in the text is it? And then you're only going to read the section carefully. Think about what the correct answer is and decide the correct answer, but be very careful with your spelling. Here we have an example of a summary completion question. So it will normally say complete the summary below. So here is the summary and there's some missing information here. And in this particular question, it says no more than two words. It might say no more than one word or one word only, but it will show you a summary and you have to complete that summary with words from the text. So for summary completion, very similar to sentence completion, not reading instructions. You will be told only write one word or two words. Pay attention to that. Spelling is also an issue for summary completion, but grammar is more of an issue here. This is because when we are predicting, we're going to be thinking about is this going to be a noun or verb or an adjective? So good grammar helps us with that, but it also helps us complete the summary in a way that makes sense. So I'll look at that in a little bit more detail in a second. So let's go through my advice here. Number one, read the instructions carefully. You're going to hear me saying that a lot here. Read the summary text first. It's imperative that you do this first. Don't look at the text. Don't look at the reading text. Look at the summary first, the question. Then predict, but also think, not only what content might be there, but what type of words might come up? Is it going to be a noun? Is it going to be a verb or is it going to be an adjective? If your grammar is strong, that will be very, very obvious and will help you find the correct answer. Then scan for location. Be aware of synodems. Remember where before what? Once you find the location, then you can read the section carefully. Check if the answer makes sense. So going back to grammar, if you are expecting an adjective and only an adjective will do, and you think the correct answer is a noun, that doesn't make any sense. So you need to go back, check it, and that will help you find the correct answer. And then decide on the correct answer, put it in, and that's you done. So these two are quite similar, so that's why we put them together. Here are some multiple choice questions. I'm sure you're familiar with multiple choice questions. Normally it will be a direct question like here, and then it will give you three or four different options. You have to choose the correct option. A completely different type of question are multiple choice questions. Now the key problems here is not really understanding the difference between the different options. So you will get A, B, C, D. There will be slight variations in meaning between these three or four options. You need to understand the difference between these in order to answer the question properly. So there needs to be a lot of focus on the difference between these on top of reading the text and understanding the text. So the first thing you're gonna do is read the questions, read the options carefully first and understand the difference between those. That's why we put carefully here. Then we're going to look at the text, but we're not going to read it in detail. What we're gonna do is we're gonna skim the text, we're gonna read it quite quickly with the intention of understanding the general meaning of the text. Then we're gonna go back and think about the difference in the different options. I've put this here twice because this is the most important thing and we want to be strategic and focus on the most important thing. Then we're going to take each question and we're going to locate the section of the text being aware of synonyms for that particular question. So if it's question 24, you're gonna look at question 24, look at the information in there, look at the text and decide, okay, this is where the correct answer is. I haven't decided the correct answer, but I know the location of the correct answer. Read that section carefully. So we've found the area, then we're gonna read that section carefully. This is going to save us a huge amount of time because we're not reading the whole text. There might be six or seven paragraphs. We're just focusing in on one of those paragraphs to answer that particular question. So it's being very strategic with thought, with intention and with time. If you are confused, think about not what is the correct answer, but which options are definitely wrong. So going back to our original thing here, let's say this one you know is definitely wrong and D is definitely wrong. That leaves you with two options, B or C. Then you can focus in on B and C and think what is the big difference between B and C? And then check the text again, oh, it is C. So finally read the question and make the final choice. Short answer questions are actually quite rare, but you should be aware of them. These are similar to comprehension questions that you would have got when you were in school, where they ask you a direct question and you have to answer the direct question. So short answer questions, these are normal straightforward comprehension questions. And the big problem here is that students will rush through the questions and not really think about what the question is asking them. So the big problem, not understanding the questions. It doesn't matter how good your reading skills are. If you don't focus in and understand the question, you'll never be able to answer it. And then not understanding a lot of words, phrases within the text. So if you don't understand the question and then you don't understand a lot of the words within the text, it's pretty much impossible for you to answer the questions. So how can we solve that? So read and understand the questions first. Don't get lost in the reading text. Read and just focus in on the questions, understand what they are asking you. Within the questions, underline any keywords. These are normally going to be nouns and noun phrases. People, places, objects, things, things like that, nouns. Think of synonyms for those nouns and that is going to help you scan for the location of the answer. Remember where, before what. Once we understand the location, we can read the section carefully. Read the question again because our big problem is not understanding the question. Decide answer and write it in. Now you might be thinking, I have given similar strategies for a few of these first four question types. Don't make the mistake a lot of students make which is, oh, they're all the same and I'll just approach them all the same and I'll skip the video and I won't really think about it. That is a huge mistake because very different questions are coming up now. Here's an example of a labeling a diagram question. Normally you will be given a diagram, sometimes a map, but most of the time a diagram and there will normally be arrows relating to different parts of the diagram. It is your job to complete these parts. So labeling a diagram. The first key problem is an inability to cope with the unfamiliar. Not every student, but a fair number of students will look at a diagram and think, I know nothing about this thing. So the example we gave you was something to do with ships. So we're like, I know nothing about ships. They're not testing your knowledge of ships. They're testing your ability to look at an unfamiliar diagram, understand it and relate it to the reading text. Why do they do this? Is it to be mean? No, it's because you will be doing this every day in your new country. You'll be looking at unfamiliar things and you will have to interpret those in English. All right, and also not reading the instructions. Often it will say, only use one word or two words or one word and a number or something like that. You need to pay attention to this. So of course, read instructions carefully. Look at diagram to understand the diagram and don't panic. Look at the continuing to look at the diagram, highlight any key words. Look at the spaces that you have to complete and predict the answer just like you were predicting before. Scan to find the location, read in detail and choose the correct answer and be careful with your spelling. Here's the dreaded true false not given very common question on the IELTS reading test. What it asks you to do is read these question statements and then say in relation to the text, are these statements true or are they false or are they not given? Okay, so there are lots of problems with true false not given. Number one, misinformation. This is the question that most students worry about. Therefore, this is the question that produces the most unbind of content online. Like there's pretty much zero videos on YouTube about short answer questions because most students are unaware of them. There are hundreds or maybe even thousands of videos on true false not given. Most of the teachers making these videos are not examiners, they're not highly qualified teachers. That means there's a huge amount of confusion and misinformation. Another big problem is not really understanding what not given mean. And that leads to people searching for not given and really they're searching for something that is not there. It's like searching for something that isn't there in a room. You are not going to find it. And if you spend a huge amount of time looking for something that is not there, then it jeopardizes, it affects, the other questions that are going to be asked. Because if you have less time to spend on these questions, you've not only messed up true false not given, but you've messed up the other questions as well. So what we're going to do is give you the confidence to look for not given and quickly establish, I can't find this, this is not given and put not given as your answer. Another big problem is a failure to understand what the whole sentence means. This is a problem because many teachers and YouTubers use a strategy that is what we would call a keyword strategy. Everything that they teach about IELTS reading is keywords, keywords, keywords. Now sometimes keywords are important, but most of the time they're not. It depends on the question being asked. So if you focus in on keywords, you will not understand what the question statements actually mean because you are focused on a tiny part of the question statement. Instead of looking at the entire sentence, look at the entire sentence, what does the entire sentence mean? Because if you are just focusing in on keywords, you won't understand the sentence, which means you will never be able to say if it's false or true or not given. And that brings us onto our last key problem, focus on keywords. Not only will it mean you don't understand the sentence, it will mean that you get lost in the text and you waste a lot of time. So what should you do instead? So for true, false, not given, read the whole statements first. Look at the statements, read them, don't focus in on keywords, think about what the whole statement means. Then looking at the statements, once you've understood them, think of synonym. What might be said in the text in a different way? So for example, if the question statement was talking about a pen, it might mention a writing instrument in the text. So if you're really focusing on pen, pen, pen, pen, pen, you will miss writing instrument or writing utensil or something crazy like that. And you'll never be able to move on to this part, which is match the statement with the correct part, the location of the text. Because the statement says pen, the text says writing utensil or something like that. If you are thinking about synonyms and you're open to seeing them, then you're gonna find them much quicker. So once you find the location, read the statement again. So go back to the statement. So you find your part of the text, you have your statement, and then read the text section carefully. So don't just find the part of the text and look at the statement and then immediately go like, oh, that's true or that's not given. Calm down, read the whole section carefully. And then you're gonna look at the statement and look at that part of the text and think, does the meaning match? If the meaning matches, this pen is purple, then it's true. If the text says this pen is yellow and the statement says this pen is purple, it's false. If the statement says this pen is purple and the text says nothing about the color or it talks about it is a very good pen or it is a very expensive pen, then we've no idea and it's don't know, so put not given. Keep it very, very simple. Similar to true, false, not given are yes, no, not given. Again, you have to look at the text and then look at the question statements and say whether the question statements are yes, no, or not given. The main difference is we're not talking about fact here, we're talking about the writer's opinion. So if the statement agrees with the views of the writer, contradicts the views of the writer, or there's no information for you to really judge what the writer thinks about these statements. So same, same, but different, yes, no, not given, true, false, not given. Keep problems, students get confused about the difference between true, false, not given and yes, no, not given. True, false, not given is about fact. This pen is purple, that is a fact. Yes, no, not given is about the writer's opinion. I believe purple pens are better than blue pens. That isn't a fact, that is just my opinion. So what you're doing is saying, yes, the text agrees with the writer's opinion, or no, the text doesn't agree with the writer's opinion. So that brings us on to our second problem, not understanding the writer's opinion. Because if you are just looking for facts and you haven't trained yourself to look for what the writer is saying or what the writer believes, then you're never going to be able to decide if it is yes, no, not given. Similarly to true, false, not given, too much time looking for something that's not there. And then finally, confusing writer's opinions with other people's opinions. So the text will give you the writer's opinions, but it might also give you other people's opinions. So it might say Chris believes this, but Jason believes this. And you get confused between those two. Or if the text is talking about pens and it's just Jason talking about pens and Chris doesn't mention it at all, then that would be not given because you don't know. So my advice, do it exactly the same as true, false, not given, but just focus in on the writer's opinion, not on fact. Matching sentences, this is another quite rare question, but you might get it and you should be aware of it. And it is sometimes called matching sentence endings. And what will happen is you will get the beginning of a sentence and then you'll be given a list of sentence endings and you have to match the beginning of the sentence with the end of the sentence. So matching sentences, this is quite a rare question, but you should be aware of it anyway. Key problem is using logic or grammar. So you'll be given the beginning of a sentence and what people do is they, instead of looking at the text, they will use their own logic. So before they even look at the text, they'll look at the sentence endings and think that's logical that those two go together. They're trying to find the answer without taking the time to actually look at the text or they think this is grammatically correct, so I'll just use that type of logic. Everything should be based on what it says in the text, not what you think logically or grammatically works. So my advice is to read the first part of the sentences first, read those and understand those, predict the endings before checking, then and only then read the endings and match the obvious ones. Are there any ones that are just, that has to be it and it will be extremely obvious if that's the case. Then eliminate obviously wrong endings and then match endings you think might match, so you might have one or two different options. Locate the part of the text where the correct answer is and then read that part carefully and choose the correct answer. Here we have a matching names question. As you can see, there's a list of names here and what it asks you to do is look at the text and then match the people's names here with the statements here. So people are more trusting, when affected by oxytocin, who said that. So matching names, key problems there are, writing names immediately without considering text in detail. So I find that this type of question comes more towards the end, not always, but it often comes towards the end because it's normally linked to like research findings, scientists, researchers, academics, things like that and people are stressed, they're running out of time, they're tired and they just see names and start to match them up without taking the time to actually read and consider the text. So how can we overcome those problems? Well, we scan for the names in the text and underline. So you'll be given different names, look at the name that you wanna focus on, scan the text and underline where that name comes up because that is gonna save us a lot of time and it is going to help us focus in on the area where the correct answer is. And focus on the names that are mentioned once first. So some of the names will be mentioned two, three, four times, some of the names will only be mentioned once. The ones that are mentioned once, try to find the answer to those first. So take those names that are only mentioned once and read their research in detail. So if they're only mentioned once, it will only be in a small part of the reading text. So you've located that already. Match with the question statements and then delete that statement. So the one that you have matched, delete that. That is just gonna make it much easier for you to differentiate between the different statements. And then move on. Is there another one with just one? Move on to that one next. If not, is there a name that is just mentioned in two times or two parts, then you can focus in on that and then just keep using that strategy until you match them all. Here is a matching information question. So which paragraph contains the following information? So you have to read the information and then match it to the appropriate paragraph in the text. Matching information to paragraphs, key problem here is you must consider the whole text. There's a huge amount of information to digest here. So the thing that we ask our students to do is do this question last. So if it is part one of the reading test and this question comes up first, skip it, finish the other questions within that part of the reading test and then go back. Because what you will be doing by doing the other questions, you will be familiarizing yourself with the text. You will understand the text more, which will make this question far easier because you will have less information to consume and to understand. So you're doing this one last. My advice, read the questions first and think of synonyms. Again, understand the questions, think of synonyms because this is going to help you later on. Skim the text first. You have a huge amount of information to consume. So it is a good idea, even if you're doing this question last, to read the whole text quickly to understand it. Then read the questions again and think about location. So you've read the questions, you understand them, you've skimmed the text and you're going to go back to the questions and some of the locations will already be very, very obvious to you and that will help you scan to find the location and if you find the location, underline it. Next, we're going to check the question statement again and mark correct if possible. Some of them will be easier than others. Some of them will be very, very obvious so you can save time just by thinking quite quickly about those and thinking, okay, that's the correct answer. But if you cannot find the correct answer quite quickly, this is one of the types of questions where students get lost and spend a huge amount of time on them and again, that's why we say do these last. So if you cannot find the correct information, move to a different paragraph quite quickly because often the answer will present itself in the next paragraph. Don't spend five minutes reading one paragraph going, it has to be here, it has to be here, it has to move on quite quickly. Have the confidence, just like the confidence to write not given, have the confidence to say it's not this paragraph, move on to the next one and the answer will probably present itself quite easily for you and then just follow that system again. Here's an example of table completion or flow chart completion. Table completion is more common on the academic paper, flow chart is very common on the general training paper but the principles are exactly the same. You have missing information here in the flow chart. You have a few different options here and you have to look at the options, read the text and then add the options in here to complete the flow chart or complete the table. Table completion, key problem here is not reading instructions. This is again one of these questions where it says one word or one word on a number, you need to really understand what those mean and follow them on test day. So my advice for these is read the instructions carefully, scan text to locate the correct paragraph, read that section carefully. Don't just skim it, read it carefully and then transfer the words exactly as they are to the gap and check spelling. Very, very common that students find the correct answer but spell it incorrectly. There's really no excuse for this because you're copying the exact letters but be very careful with these. Matching headings, this is a very common question and I think this is actually more challenging and more difficult for most students than true false not given but it's not if you follow the strategy that we're gonna teach you but they always look the same. They will give you a list of headings here and there are always more headings than there are paragraphs to make it more difficult and then it gives you a list of paragraphs and then you simply have to match the paragraphs with the list of headings by referring to the text of course. Finally, the most difficult question, matching headings. Key problem here is there's lots of information to process. Most of the time you're going to be reading the entire text to complete matching headings questions effectively. Another common problem is a lot of students just read like the first part of the first sentence on the last sentence or they focus in on keywords. That is the opposite of what you're trying to do. What you're trying to do with matching headings and what it's testing is can you understand the general meaning of the whole paragraph? Not keywords within the paragraph. Because there's so much information to process and you have to skim and understand the whole text basically a lot of people don't spend enough time focusing in on the different options, the question statements. You cannot find the correct answer if you don't understand the statements. So here's what I get my students to do. Do this question first. Why? Because it's going to make the other questions easier. Because you have to read the whole text, you may as well do this first. Instead of reading parts of the question, parts of the text of other questions, do this first as it's far more efficient and strategic. So you're not going to look at the question statements first. You're going to ignore the question statements entirely. What you're going to do first is read each paragraph with the intention of writing your own heading. So you're going to read the paragraph and write your own heading. This forces you to understand the meaning of the whole paragraph, which is what they're testing. Then and only then look at the headings. And what you will find is your titles, the titles that you came up with, often they will match exactly with the question statements. So focus on understanding the difference of meaning between the different headings and then match any obvious one. So if your title matches exactly what the question statement is or very, very close, then that's the answer. So let's say there are six questions and two of your titles match exactly. Okay, you've got two questions, right? That leaves four. Those four, okay, didn't match exactly. For those, you need to read the paragraph carefully, not just skimming it, really read it carefully and choose the correct option based on what the text is saying and the difference of meaning between the headings. Hope that you enjoyed that video. Now you know all the different types of questions and you know the different strategies for those questions but that's just the first step. The most powerful method for improving your reading is understanding your own personal weaknesses and then improving those weaknesses. That is the most powerful strategy that I know of to improve students to even abandon mine. If you want to know how to do that, just click this link and I've made a new video for you.