How the Reading test is built
You get 60 minutes for 40 questions across three passages. There is no extra time to transfer answers on the computer-delivered test, and on paper you write your answers straight onto the answer sheet within the hour.
- Academic Reading uses three long texts of the kind you might meet at university: research summaries, history, science and social topics.
- General Training Reading starts with short everyday texts (notices, adverts, timetables), moves to workplace texts (job descriptions, training guides), and ends with one longer general passage.
The difficulty usually rises through the test, so the third passage deserves the most time.
Question types that decide your band
You will meet a mix of these:
- TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (and YES / NO / NOT GIVEN for opinions)
- Matching Headings to paragraphs
- Matching Information: which paragraph contains a given detail
- Summary completion, sometimes with a word box
- Multiple choice
- Sentence, table, note and diagram completion
- Matching features such as people to opinions
The NOT GIVEN trap
The most common mistake is answering FALSE when the passage simply does not say. FALSE means the text states the opposite. NOT GIVEN means you cannot know from the text. If you find yourself using your own knowledge of tea, tourism or anything else to decide, it is probably NOT GIVEN.
The headings trap
Matching Headings rewards the main idea of a paragraph, not a word that matches. A heading that repeats a word from the first sentence is often a distractor. Read the whole paragraph quickly, decide its purpose in a few words of your own, then choose.
Timing: 60 minutes, three passages
A simple plan many students use:
- Passage 1: about 17 minutes.
- Passage 2: about 20 minutes.
- Passage 3: about 23 minutes.
Do not get stuck. If a question takes more than about a minute and a half, flag it and move on. On our sets, the flag and navigator work as they do on the computer-delivered test, so you can practise the habit of returning to flagged questions in the last minutes.
Academic or General Training reading for Siliguri students
Students in Siliguri often split clearly between the two tracks.
If you are a graduate of the University of North Bengal or a local college heading for a master's abroad, or a nurse from the hills applying for registration, you are probably taking Academic. The passages can be dense, and readers whose daily reading is mostly in Bengali, Nepali or Hindi sometimes find the sheer length tiring at first. Build up by reading one long English article a day, such as a science or environment feature, and summarising each paragraph in a single line.
If you work in tourism, hotels or the tea trade and are applying for work or migration, you are probably taking General Training. The language is more familiar, but you need more correct answers for the same band, so careless errors cost more. Accuracy with dates, prices and small details in notices matters.
Check which version your university, employer or authority requires before you book.
How to practise, and when to move to Charged sets
IELTS Learning has 52 Academic and General Training sets, each with explanations that show where in the passage the answer is and why the other options are wrong. A useful cycle:
- Untimed set on one question type you find hard, reading every explanation.
- Timed single passage with the highlighter and notes tools.
- Full timed test under exam conditions once a week.
- Mistake Notebook review two or three days later.
When you are consistently scoring around 30 out of 40 in Academic Reading, which is roughly band 7, move on to the Charged sets. These are harder passages and trickier distractors, built for students aiming at 7 and above. General Training candidates need more correct answers for band 7, so aim higher before switching.
Keep a short list of paraphrases you missed. If the question said "rose sharply" and the passage said "climbed steeply", write the pair down. Recognising paraphrase quickly is the single skill that separates band 6 readers from band 7 readers.
For vocabulary that turns up in passages, use the free Daily Vocabulary and the spaced-repetition flashcards.
Start practising
Try the free sample Reading sets to see how the screens work. If they help, register for Full Access at ₹999 for 2 months and continue your IELTS Reading practice from anywhere in Siliguri, on your laptop or phone.