The Reading test at a glance
You have 60 minutes for 40 questions across three sections. There is no extra time to transfer answers on the computer test, and on paper you write answers directly on the answer sheet within the hour.
- Academic Reading: three long passages from books, journals, magazines and newspapers, written for a general but educated reader.
- General Training Reading: shorter everyday texts (notices, advertisements, timetables), then workplace texts (job descriptions, staff policies), then one longer general passage.
The difficulty rises through the test, so Passage 3 or Section 3 is usually where time runs out.
Question types you will meet
- TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (factual statements) and YES / NO / NOT GIVEN (the writer's opinions).
- Matching Headings: choose a heading for each paragraph.
- Matching Information: find which paragraph contains a detail.
- Summary, sentence, note and table completion, sometimes with a word box.
- Multiple choice, single or multiple answers.
- Matching features (for example, researchers to findings) and sentence endings.
- Diagram labelling and short answers.
Each type rewards a slightly different approach. Completion questions usually follow the order of the text; Matching Headings and Matching Information do not.
A timing plan for 60 minutes
- About 17 minutes for Passage 1, the easiest.
- About 20 minutes for Passage 2.
- About 23 minutes for Passage 3, the hardest.
Never leave a blank: there is no penalty for wrong answers. If a question is taking more than about 90 seconds, flag it, guess, and move on. On our computer-style screens you can flag a question and return to it from the navigator, just as in the real test.
The traps that cost the most marks
NOT GIVEN versus FALSE
This is the classic Reading trap. FALSE means the passage says the opposite. NOT GIVEN means the passage does not say enough to decide. Students often choose FALSE because the statement "feels wrong" from their own knowledge. Your knowledge does not count; only the passage counts.
Matching Headings
Headings test the main idea of a paragraph, not a detail in it. A heading that repeats a word from the paragraph is often a distractor. Read the first two sentences and the last sentence of each paragraph, then decide what the whole paragraph is for.
Word limits and spelling
"NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS" means a three-word answer is wrong, even if the meaning is right. Copy spelling exactly from the passage.
Paraphrase
The question rarely uses the passage's words. "Fewer visitors" might appear as "a decline in tourist numbers". Train yourself to look for meaning, not matching words.
Reading practice for students in Pokhara
Many students here come through schools where English was the medium but reading meant memorising textbook answers for exams. IELTS asks for something different: fast, flexible reading of unfamiliar texts. Students from Prithvi Narayan Campus and Pokhara University who read English journal articles for their degree often find Academic Reading easier than expected, while those who left formal study some years ago may need more time to rebuild speed.
If you work in tourism, you already read a lot of practical English: bookings, trekking permits information, emails from guests. That is excellent preparation for General Training Sections 1 and 2. The step up is Section 3, a long descriptive or argumentative text, so practise that section in particular.
How to practise Reading properly
IELTS Learning has 52 Reading practice sets for Academic and General Training, each with explanations that show where in the passage the answer sits and why the other options are wrong.
- Start untimed for a week to learn each question type.
- Then time single passages using the plan above.
- Review every mistake in your Mistake Notebook and label it: paraphrase missed, NOT GIVEN confusion, word limit, or time.
- Every two or three weeks, do a full Reading section inside a mock test.
Charged sets for band 7 and above
Once you are scoring around 30 out of 40 consistently, ordinary practice stops stretching you. Our Charged Reading sets use denser passages and closer distractors, aimed at students targeting band 7 and beyond. Remember that General Training Reading needs more correct answers than Academic for the same band.
Try a free Reading set now: register free, or browse practice tests. Full Access unlocks all sets for $12 for 2 months, and you can check how a raw score converts using the Band Score Calculator.