What the Reading test looks like
You get 60 minutes for 40 questions across three passages. There is no extra time to transfer answers, so whatever you write in that hour is final. The passages get harder as you go, and the third usually carries the most difficult questions.
Common question types include:
- TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (or YES / NO / NOT GIVEN for opinions)
- Matching Headings to paragraphs
- Matching Information: which paragraph contains a detail
- Summary completion, sometimes with a word box
- Multiple choice, sentence completion and short answers
- Diagram, table or flow-chart labelling
Academic or General Training: two different tests
- Academic Reading uses three long texts from books, journals and magazines, written for a general but educated reader. Topics range from archaeology to economics.
- General Training Reading starts with short everyday texts (notices, adverts, timetables), moves to workplace texts (job descriptions, staff policies) and ends with one longer general passage.
The question types overlap, but the scoring does not. For band 7, Academic usually needs around 30 correct answers out of 40, while General Training needs more. GT is not "easy Reading"; it simply measures differently.
A 60-minute plan that works
- Passage 1: about 17 minutes. Work steadily and bank these marks.
- Passage 2: about 20 minutes.
- Passage 3: about 23 minutes. It is the hardest, so give it the most time.
Inside each passage, read the questions first, skim the passage for its structure, then scan for the answers. Use the highlighter on names, dates and numbers. If a question is taking longer than about 90 seconds, flag it and move on: an unanswered easy question later costs you more than a guessed hard one now.
The two traps behind most lost marks
NOT GIVEN
Students often choose FALSE when the passage simply does not say. FALSE means the passage contradicts the statement. NOT GIVEN means the passage does not address it, even if the statement sounds sensible. The test checks what the text says, not what you know. Engineers and science graduates, who are trained to reason, sometimes fall into this trap by filling gaps with logic.
Matching Headings
The trap is matching words instead of ideas. A heading that repeats a word from the paragraph is often a distractor. Read the first and last sentences of each paragraph to find its main point, then choose the heading that sums up that point. Do the paragraphs you are confident about first, so fewer headings remain for the difficult ones.
Reading habits for Patiala students
Patiala's students arrive at IELTS Reading from very different backgrounds, and each has its own strengths.
- Punjabi University humanities and law students are often comfortable with long arguments and nuance, but may read too slowly and carefully for a 60-minute test. Practise skimming a passage in under three minutes.
- Thapar engineering students are usually quick scanners but can rush past qualifying words such as some, usually or rarely, which decide many TRUE/FALSE answers.
- Students from Punjabi-medium schools sometimes translate mentally. The fix is volume: read a short English article every day, perhaps an editorial in an English newspaper, and push yourself to understand it without translating.
- Working adults in government offices or banks read English documents all day but rarely against a clock. Timed sets matter more for you than extra reading.
Whichever describes you, keep a notebook of paraphrase pairs you meet, such as rose sharply / increased dramatically. Recognising paraphrase is the core skill of IELTS Reading.
How to practise with our sets
IELTS Learning has 52 Reading 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.
- Weeks 1–2: practise by question type. Do several NOT GIVEN sets in a row until the logic feels natural.
- Weeks 3–4: do full passages with the 17/20/23-minute timing.
- After that: full Reading sections inside complete mocks.
Every wrong answer goes into your Mistake Notebook automatically. Review it every Sunday. You can start with the free Reading sets.
Charged sets for band 7 and above
Once you are scoring around 30 correctly, ordinary sets stop stretching you. Charged sets are harder Reading passages with denser vocabulary, closer distractors and trickier paraphrase, built for students aiming at 7+. Use them once a week alongside normal practice, not instead of it. They are included in Full Access, ₹999 for 2 months, along with everything else on the platform. Create your account when you are ready.