IELTS Academic Reading test: format, 11 question types and scoring

IELTS Academic Reading is one hour, three passages and 40 questions, and the questions come in eleven types that ask for different skills. Knowing which type you are facing before you read the passage is half of the method. This page is the map: the format, each of the eleven types in a short paragraph, how marks become a band, and where to go for a closer look at each type.

The format in numbers

IELTS.org’s Academic Reading format page states the basics plainly: 60 minutes, three sections, 40 questions, and texts that total 2,150 to 2,750 words. The page says the texts come from books, journals, magazines, newspapers and online resources, are written for a non-specialist audience, and deal with topics of general interest to students at undergraduate or postgraduate level. They can be narrative, descriptive or discursive and argumentative, and they may include diagrams, graphs or illustrations.

Each correct answer receives one mark, and a wrong answer costs nothing. IDP’s advice on time management says to make an educated guess rather than leave a question blank. Your final score is a band from 1 to 9 in whole or half bands.

What IELTS does not publish matters as much. There are no figures for how many questions of each type a paper holds, and none for how the 40 questions divide between the three sections. A site that tells you “Section 1 is always True/False/Not Given” is describing the papers it has seen. Prepare every type.

IDP recommends spending no more than 20 minutes on each part, because the parts tend to get harder and time saved early helps later. That is advice, not a rule of the test. The full method is in how to finish IELTS Reading in 60 minutes, and the answers on how long the Reading test is and how many questions it has give the short version.

The eleven question types

IELTS.org lists the types in a fixed order, and so does this page. Each one has a different job, so each needs a different method.

Multiple choice

You choose the best answer or answers from a list of options. Wrong options often use details that appear in the passage but answer a different question, so a matching word is not proof. IELTS.org notes that answers to multiple choice questions follow the order of the text. See multiple choice and short-answer questions.

Identifying information and the writer’s views

Identifying information (True/False/Not Given) asks whether a statement agrees with the facts in the text. IELTS.org says “False” means the statement contradicts the information, and “Not given” means it neither agrees with nor contradicts it.

Identifying writer’s views or claims (Yes/No/Not Given) works the same way but tests opinions. “No” means the statement contradicts the writer’s view or claim. Both types are covered in how to answer True/False/Not Given.

Matching tasks

Matching information asks which paragraph contains a given piece of information. You are matching a statement to a place in the text, not choosing a heading. IELTS.org says some paragraphs or sections may be used more than once.

Matching headings gives you a list of headings and asks you to choose one for each paragraph or section. IELTS.org states there will always be more headings than paragraphs and that no heading may be used more than once. See matching headings tips.

Matching features links statements to a list such as people, dates or theories. IELTS.org says some options may not be used and others may be used more than once.

Matching sentence endings gives you the first half of a sentence and a list of possible endings. IELTS.org says there are more endings than beginnings, and that the beginnings are in the same order as the information in the text. Matching information, features and sentence endings share one page: matching information, features and sentence endings.

Completion and short-answer tasks

Sentence completion asks you to finish a sentence with words from the passage. IELTS.org notes the answers follow the order of the text.

Summary, note, table or flow-chart completion asks you to fill gaps in a condensed version of part of the passage. IELTS.org warns that these answers may not come in the same order as in the text, so you cannot simply move down the page.

Diagram label completion asks you to label a diagram using words from the text.

Short-answer questions ask a direct question that you answer in a few words taken from the passage.

For all written answers the word limit is binding. IELTS.org says you will lose the mark for writing more than the word limit, that hyphenated words count as single words, and that contracted words are not tested. A typical instruction reads “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER”. The four written-answer types are covered in completion questions and the word limit.

How 40 marks become a band

Reading is scored by counting. IELTS.org’s scoring page says each correct answer is awarded one mark, scores out of 40 are converted to the nine-band scale, and scores are reported in whole and half bands. It publishes four rows for each version of the test.

IELTS.org adds that the precise number of marks needed varies slightly from test version to test version. It publishes no other rows, so there is no published mark for a band 6.5 or a band 7.5, and any table that gives one is an estimate. Use the four rows as landmarks and aim to clear the next one with a margin.

Your Reading band is reported as a whole or half band and then joins the other three. IELTS.org states that the overall band is the average of the four section bands rounded to the nearest half band, with an average ending in .25 going up to the next half band and one ending in .75 going up to the next whole band. The band score calculator lets you test what a Reading result does to your overall number, and the answer on how the Reading score is calculated works through the same table. If you are aiming at the next band, getting from band 6 to band 7 in Reading looks at what separates the two.

Academic or General Training

The two versions share a length, 60 minutes and 40 questions, and they differ in almost everything else. Academic texts are chosen for students, as described above. IELTS.org’s General Training format page describes three sections of increasing difficulty: everyday texts such as notices, advertisements and timetables, then work-related texts such as job descriptions and contracts, then one longer text of general interest. The total is 2,150 to 2,375 words.

General Training lists eight question types, not eleven, and Yes/No/Not Given is not among them. It also converts marks differently, as the table above shows: 30 marks is band 7 in Academic but band 6 in General Training. Always judge a practice score against the table for your own version. Which version you sit depends on what the organisation you are applying to asks for, so confirm that before you book.

Paper and computer

IELTS.org’s update of 5 March 2026 says paper-based IELTS is being withdrawn from mid-2026, market by market. Plan your practice around the computer-delivered test, and ask your test centre what it currently offers.

Practising the format

Because the types are mixed inside one paper, practise in two ways. Drill one type at a time until the method is automatic, then sit full three-passage papers against the clock so the types arrive in the mixture the real test gives you. After each paper, sort your wrong answers by type rather than by passage: a pattern of lost marks on one type is a specific, fixable problem. The answer on how to improve your IELTS Reading score explains how to read those patterns, and the comparison of IELTS Reading practice apps lists what to look for in a tool that runs the real layout.