hi there it's asiya and this is an updated video about true false not given questions
in ielts reading i'm gonna share with you my strategy for solving these questions
and we'll also discuss different tips and tricks that can help you
we'll have a look at some practice questions too okay let's get started
well almost all ielts tests have at least one set of true false note given or yes no
not given questions and sometimes you just have one set but sometimes you have a set of these
questions in each section of your test so you have three sets it really depends but it seems
that true false not given questions are usually in the first or second sections of your test
and yes no not given is usually in the third or sometimes in the second section
now let's talk about the answer formats and what i'm about to say will surprise you
okay if you need to answer true false not given you can write four words and you can write them
in small letters in capital letters or capitalize the first letter it really doesn't matter but
if the answer is true and by mistake you're right yes it will be counted as a correct answer even if
you answer just why instead of true it's still a correct answer and i found this information
in the official ielts video i know that many of you are surprised to hear that so i will link this
video in the description and i'm also not saying that you should answer why instead of true i'm
just saying if you make this silly error it won't affect your score but yes it is safer to just
write true or false and of course all that is only for those who take the paper-based exam because if
you take the computer-based test you simply click on true or false you don't need to type anything
another tip for you is that you will likely use all three answers true false not given questions
usually come in sets of four or five questions sometimes up to nine questions and it seems that
at least one will be true one will be false and one will be not given
in the last test i took i had six questions two were true two or false two are not given of course
i can't guarantee that you will have the same distribution it may not be the case in your test
but there is a good probability that you will use all three answers for example you have five
questions two are true two are false what do you think the fifth answer is i would say there is a
very good chance it's not given in order to answer true false not given questions first of all you
should locate the answer you need to find that sentence or sentences which contain your answer
okay so first of all you read the question the good thing is that true false not given questions
come in order you can read the first question you start reading the passage then you find
your answer you read the next question you resume reading the passage and so on so many questions in
ielts reading actually come in order some don't but many do and i have a separate video about it
i will link it below you can do it with true false not given questions almost all of them
but not those that come at the very end of their test these are questions number 38 39 40 sometimes
you have several true false not given or yes no not given questions so those may not come
in order all others usually do okay so you read the first question you need to underline keywords
to remember what you're actually looking for if you have any names surnames dates that's great
they will help you locate the answer but even if you have a surname i still think that you should
read the whole passage you just don't need to read it slowly trying to understand everything you can
read it fast looking for your answer but you will still get the general idea of what it's about
okay when you find where the answer is you slow down and you look for your
answer sometimes you can find the exact keyword in the question and in the text
but quite often those are paraphrased so don't look for exact keywords look for paraphrasing
once you've located the correct bit of the passage you need to answer your question
and how easy or difficult it is to answer your question depends on where in the test you found
it questions in the first section are usually the easiest and quite often you can find your answer
in a single sentence those in the second section are more difficult and sometimes you need to read
two or even three sentences to answer and those in the third section are the hardest and you may need
to read the whole paragraph to answer a single question be prepared for that now i've prepared
for you several practice questions but before we begin i just want to give you several tips
the first one is remember that the devil is in detail you really need to be very careful and
compare each part of your question and answer to make sure that the meaning is exactly the same
cross out irrelevant bits don't rush make sure it's all correct if it's false there should be
a direct contradiction and it should be quite strong not some tiny thing like a few people
and several people like that's the same there should be a strong contradiction
and if you've been looking for your answer and you really can't find it perhaps it's not given
okay i have several practice questions of different level of difficulty
please count how many you answer correctly and then post your result in the comments below
let's dive in let's begin with some questions from the first section
first of all you should read the title why we need to protect polar bears
now we know that the whole passage is about polar bears here is the first question now
please pause this video and try to find the answer yourself and then resume once you're ready
ready let's have a look together in this question we have a surname leo and it would definitely help
us to locate the correct sentences in the passage here they are now we should carefully compare each
part of the statement with that in the passage to see if the meaning is the same and the answer is
true or if there is a direct contradiction and the answer is false or we simply don't
have the information to say if this statement is true or false and the answer is not given
let's have a look at the question the study done by leo and his colleagues compared different
groups of polar bears so i've highlighted the key parts now let's read the passage a 2014 study by
shipping liu and his colleagues sheds light on this mystery okay we have the same study
they compared here we have the same word they compared the genetic structure of polar bears
with that of their closest relatives from a warmer climate the brown bears if you don't understand
some of the words it's okay just try to understand the meaning and try to find the key words so they
compared polar bears with brown bears but the question says that they compared different groups
of polar bears so what's the answer the answer is false because we have a direct contradiction
here is the next question please pause the video and try to find the answer
ready to continue let's read the question first so i split it into several parts the polar bears
mechanism for increasing bone density so polar bears have a certain mechanism that increases
something in bones even if you don't know the word density you can still deal with the question
so this mechanism could also be used by people one day let's read the passage what's in the passage
is the mechanism of bone remodeling in polar bears so some words match mechanism and bone
and we can see that it's a mechanism of something that's happening in bear's bones so it's safe to
say that they're talking about the same mechanism if this mechanism can be understood many bad
ridden humans and even astronauts okay humans and astronauts are people could potentially benefit
could benefit is the same as could also be used and potentially means one day so both are talking
about a possibility in the future this means that the meaning of the statement is exactly the same
as the meaning of the sentence in the passage so the answer is true now let's have a look
at some more difficult questions from section three the title is how to make wise decisions
here is a question please pause the video and try to find the answer
ready to continue
first of all we need to locate where the answer is in the passage so let's read the statement
students participating in the job prospects experiment
okay so we are looking for some information about the job prospects experiment let's read
this paragraph for example in one experiment okay so they are talking about an experiment
that took place during the peak of a recent economic recession
graduating college seniors okay graduating college seniors are still students right let's read on
they were asked to reflect on their job prospects okay job prospects and we're looking for some
information about job prospects experiment that's good so that's the passage that we need now let's
find the answer let's read the statement again to understand what the actual question is students
participating in the job prospects experiment could choose one of two perspectives to take
so this means that there were two perspectives whatever those are and they can choose one of them
so let's continue reading the passage students were instructed to imagine their career either as
if they were a distant observer or before their own eyes as if they were right there okay so
these are the two perspectives they are talking about in the question in the question they say
that they could choose one of the two perspectives but here so far we've read that they were
instructed to imagine but we don't know if they were told what to imagine or if they could choose
so let's continue reading further participants in the group assigned to the distant observer
here they were assigned to this group this means they were allocated they couldn't choose
so this is a direct contradiction and this means that the answer is false
okay here is the fourth question please pause the video and try to find the answer ready to continue
let's have a look at our statement first what are we looking for in the couple's experiments
the length of the couple's relationships had an impact on the results
so in the passage we are looking for some information about experiments with couples
let's have a look at the paragraph in another study couples okay so this is about an experiment
with couples so this is the correct paragraph now what's the question let's have a look at the
statement again in the couple's experiments the length of the couple's relationships
had an impact on the results okay so the statement says that depending on whether couples have been
together for a long time or they just met recently they had different results in the experiment let's
read the paragraph and find out if it's true or not in another study couples in long-term romantic
relationships were instructed to visualize and so on okay so they are talking about relationships
but actually they are saying that in this experiment all couples were in long-term
romantic relationships they've been together for a long time and if you finish reading this paragraph
you will find out that this is the only mention of the length of relationships there is nothing
about couples in short-term relationships so the statement says that the length of relationships
had an impact on the results but what's the answer well we don't know if couples who met each other
recently had any different results because they were not part of this experiment the answer is
not given you know quite often if you can't find the answer anywhere this means that it's not given
here is the next question let's read it together in both experiments the participants
who looked at the situation from a more detached viewpoint tended to make wiser decisions
they are talking about the two experiments we just read about with students and couples can
you answer this question straight away if the answer is no and you would like to read the
two paragraphs again here they are please pause the video and try to find the answer
okay let's continue let's have a look at this statement again in both experiments
the participants who looked at the situation from a more detached viewpoint tended to make
wiser decisions okay so those who looked from a more detached viewpoint they looked from the side
they made wiser or better decisions now let's have a look if that's the case
in the first paragraph we can find that participants in the group assigned to the
distant observer so distant observer is someone with a more detached viewpoint they displayed
more wisdom-related reasoning or in simple terms they made better decisions they made
wiser decisions okay let's have a look at the next paragraph
couples in the other's eyes condition so they have a more detached viewpoint
they were significantly more likely to rely on wise reasoning or they tended to make
wiser decisions so what's the answer okay the answer is true in both experiments participants
who looked from a more detached viewpoint tended to make wiser decisions
there was a lot to read but could you perhaps answer this question straight away without reading
the two paragraphs again i guess some of you could and that's why i suggest reading all the passages
in your ielts reading test and not just scanning for the keywords if you get the main idea of the
passage you're more likely to answer questions like that straight away and save a lot of time
and don't worry you're not gonna get many questions of this level of difficulty this one
comes at the end of the third section so this is one of the most difficult questions in the ielts
reading test we can say it's a band 9 question ok how many questions could you answer correctly
please tell me in the comments and if you couldn't answer some of them please also tell me what was
the problem i'd like to know what difficulties you face and also how well my strategies work for you
if you remember i mentioned that true false not given questions or answers come in order in the
same order as questions are asked similarly answers to many other types of questions
come in order too but some don't and i shared my exact ielts reading strategy
and all the types of tasks which come in order and which don't come in order in this video here
thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye