The Reading test at a glance
You have 60 minutes for 40 questions across three passages. On the computer-delivered test there is no extra time for transferring answers; you type as you go. On paper, you write directly on the answer sheet within the same hour. Each correct answer is worth one mark, and the total is converted to a band.
The question types you will meet include:
- TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (or YES / NO / NOT GIVEN for opinions)
- Matching Headings to paragraphs
- Matching Information, features or sentence endings
- Summary, note, table or flow-chart completion, sometimes with a word box
- Multiple choice with one or more answers
- Short-answer questions and diagram labelling
Academic or General Training Reading
The question types are similar, but the texts are not.
- Academic Reading has three long passages from books, journals and magazines, often on science, history or social topics. The challenge is dense vocabulary and long, complex sentences.
- General Training Reading starts with short everyday texts such as notices and advertisements, moves to workplace texts like policies and job information, and finishes with one longer general passage. The texts are easier, but you need more correct answers for the same band.
Students preparing for General Training in Doha sometimes underestimate it because Section 1 looks easy. Do not; with fewer marks to spare, small slips count heavily.
A timing plan for 60 minutes
Passages usually get harder as the test goes on, so do not split the hour evenly.
- Passage 1: about 17 minutes.
- Passage 2: about 20 minutes.
- Passage 3: about 23 minutes.
If a question is taking more than two minutes, flag it, guess, and move on. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so never leave a blank. On the computer test, the question navigator shows unanswered questions clearly; check it before time runs out.
The traps that cost the most marks
NOT GIVEN versus FALSE
This is the classic problem. FALSE means the passage says the opposite. NOT GIVEN means the passage simply does not say. Students who know a topic well, for example a pharmacist reading about medicines or an engineer reading about desalination, often answer from their own knowledge. Answer only from the text in front of you.
Matching Headings
Headings test the main idea of a whole paragraph, not one interesting sentence in it. A heading that matches a single detail is usually a distractor. Read the first and last sentences of the paragraph, decide its overall purpose, then choose.
Word limits
"NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS" means exactly that. Three correct words still scores zero.
Synonyms
The passage rarely repeats the question's words. If the question says "costly", look for "expensive" or "a significant financial burden".
Practising reading in Doha
Doha gives you a lot of English to read if you look for it. English-language newspapers, museum information panels, notices in malls and Metro stations, and hospital or company policy documents at work are all close to the kinds of texts you will see, particularly in General Training.
For Academic Reading, students at Qatar University and the Education City campuses already read academic English every week; use your course reading to practise skimming for structure. Professionals who rarely read long texts should build up gradually with one passage a day.
Your commute is ideal for this. A single passage on your phone between Msheireb and Education City is roughly the right length for focused practice. Keep longer timed sets for a quiet evening.
Practise with explanations, then go harder
IELTS Learning has 52 Reading practice sets for both Academic and General Training. Every answer comes with an explanation that shows where in the passage the answer is and why the distractors are wrong. Use the highlighter and notes just as you would in the computer-delivered test. Wrong answers are saved automatically to your Mistake Notebook so you can revisit them a week later.
Try to review each set the following day, not straight away; spotting why an answer was wrong a day later shows whether you have really understood the trap.
Once you are scoring around 30 out of 40 consistently, move on to the Charged sets: harder passages and closer distractors designed for students aiming at band 7 and above. They are uncomfortable on purpose.
You can try free sample Reading sets on the practice tests page without a card. Full Access unlocks every set for $12 for 2 months.