What the Reading test looks like
You get 60 minutes, three passages and 40 questions. There is no extra time to transfer answers on paper, so whatever you write in the hour is final.
- Academic Reading: three long passages from books, journals and magazines, often on science, history or social topics. They get harder as you go.
- General Training Reading: shorter everyday texts (notices, advertisements), then workplace texts (contracts, staff guidelines), then one longer general passage.
For band 7, Academic candidates typically need about 30 correct answers out of 40. General Training needs more correct answers for the same band, because the texts are considered easier.
The question types, and what each really tests
- TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (and YES / NO / NOT GIVEN for opinions): tests whether you can tell what the text says from what it does not say.
- Matching Headings: tests whether you can find the main idea of a paragraph, not just a matching word.
- Matching Information: asks which paragraph contains a detail, in any order. Often the slowest question type.
- Summary completion with a word box: tests paraphrase recognition and grammar; the word must fit the sentence.
- Sentence and note completion: watch the word limit, such as "NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS".
- Multiple choice: distractors often use words from the passage in a slightly wrong way.
The traps that catch good readers
NOT GIVEN
Students from engineering and science backgrounds, including many at IIT Kanpur and HBTU, are trained to reason. That habit hurts here. If the passage says a factory was founded in 1890 and the statement says it was the first in the region, you may think "probably true". But the passage does not say so. The answer is NOT GIVEN. Answer only from what is on the page, never from what is logical or what you know.
Matching Headings
The trap is the "word match". A heading contains "leather" and so does the paragraph, so you choose it. But the paragraph might be about export markets, with leather mentioned once. Read the first two sentences and the last sentence of the paragraph, decide its main idea in your own words, then look at the headings.
Spending too long on one question
Some students read every word of passage 1 slowly and then race through passage 3. On a computer-delivered test, use the flag for review and move on. Come back if time allows.
A timing strategy that works
- About 17 minutes for passage 1, 20 for passage 2 and 23 for passage 3 in Academic. The last passage is longest and hardest.
- Read the questions first, then skim the passage for structure before scanning for answers.
- Most question types follow the passage order. Matching Information and Matching Headings are the main exceptions.
- Never leave a blank. There is no negative marking.
General Training candidates should move quickly through the short texts in section 1 to save time for the longer section 3 passage.
Reading practice for Kanpur students
Kanpur has a strong Hindi reading culture: many students grow up with Hindi newspapers, and even English-medium students often read more in Hindi outside school. That is not a disadvantage, but it does mean English reading speed may lag behind comprehension. If you read Hindi fluently and quickly, but English slowly and word by word, the fix is volume and timed practice, not more grammar.
A few practical ideas that fit a Kanpur routine:
- Read one long English article a day, from a quality newspaper or science magazine, on your phone during the commute or in a gap between lectures. Time yourself.
- Students at CSJMU or HBTU can use the university library's English journals, which are close in style to Academic passages.
- For General Training candidates working in export firms, the English contracts, product specifications and buyer emails you see at work are good practice for section 2 texts.
How to practise on IELTS Learning
There are 52 Reading sets for both Academic and General Training, each with explanations that show where in the passage the answer is and why the other options are wrong. The screen works like the computer-delivered test, with highlighting, notes, flagging and drag-and-drop for headings and word-box summaries.
- Start untimed for two or three sets to learn the question types.
- Then go timed, one passage at a time, and finally full 60-minute sets.
- Review in the Mistake Notebook, where every wrong answer is saved automatically. Look for patterns: if most errors are NOT GIVEN, that is what to practise next.
- Move to Charged sets once you are scoring 30 or more consistently. These are harder Reading sets built for band 7+ targets, with denser passages and closer distractors.
Free sample Reading sets are available without a card on the practice tests page. Full Access, at ₹999 for 2 months, unlocks every set and mock. You can register here.