📖 Notes
LESSON 08 OF 20
True / False / Not Given — The Hardest Type
Where Most Points Are Lost
True/False/Not Given punishes assumptions more than any other IELTS question type. The fix isn't more vocabulary — it's a stricter process for telling "contradicted" apart from "simply not mentioned."
The Three Labels
TRUE, FALSE, or NOT GIVEN
✅
TRUE
The statement agrees with what the passage says.
❌
FALSE
The statement contradicts the passage directly.
❔
NOT GIVEN
The passage simply doesn't mention it — NOT GIVEN is never the same as FALSE.
🚫
Ignore Background Knowledge
Base your answer on the text only, even if you personally know the statement is true or false.
The Process
1
Read the statement
Understand exactly what claim is being made.
2
Scan for key words
Find the relevant section of the passage.
3
Read that section carefully
Don't skim this part — this is where mistakes happen.
4
Compare meaning
Same meaning → TRUE. Opposite → FALSE. Not mentioned → NOT GIVEN.
Common Traps
- Part true, part false → mark the whole statement FALSE
- Related information but not specific → NOT GIVEN
- Logic suggests it's true, but the text doesn't say so → NOT GIVEN
- Your own background knowledge → ignore it entirely
⚠️
NOT GIVEN ≠ FALSE
This is the single most common scoring mistake on this question type. If the passage never addresses the claim at all, the answer is NOT GIVEN — even if the claim happens to be false in real life.