IELTS Reading

Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple choice questions appear regularly in both the Academic and General IELTS
Reading tests. They are fairly simple to complete but it’s easy to get tricked into picking
the wrong answer.
The information and strategy on this page will help you to avoid common errors and to
gain high marks. They will also save you time in your test.
Here’s what’s included:

 Explanation of this question type

 Key tips

 The strategy

 Examples from real test papers

 Step-by-step instructions & model answer

The aim of this type of question is to test if you can:

 Understand the main idea of each paragraph

 Scan for specific information

 Use detailed reading to differentiate between several possible answers

The Task
You will be asked to:
1) Read the first half of a sentence, a statement or a question about the text.
2) Choose the most appropriate sentence ending, response or answer from a choice of
a number of options (usually 4). Only one is correct although several could appear to
be the right one on first reading, so beware.
Here’s an example of how the instructions and questions will be set out. It's part of a
question taken from a past test paper. 
Source: IDP – Past test paper

Key Tips

 Read the questions first. If you do this, you’ll know what you’re looking for when
you read the text which will save you loads of time.

 The answers will be in order. It’s very helpful to know that the answers come in
order in the text which isn’t the case with all question types. This makes it easier
to find them. So, if you’ve found answer 1 in paragraph 1 and answer 2 in
paragraph 3, you’ll know that answer 3 won’t be too much further on in the text.

 Read in detail. For some question types, you’ll be mostly skimming and

scanning the text for the answers. You’ll need these skills here too but with
multiple choice questions, the detail is important.
  Watch out for distractors. Be aware that the test setters love to include
‘distractors’ in the answer options to try and catch you out. A prime example is
qualifying words such as every, all, most, a few. They are only small words but
they can completely change the meaning of a sentence.

              E.g. Everyone who ate the prawn sandwiches at the party was ill.

                     Most people who ate the prawn sandwiches at the party were ill.

 Don’t leave any blank answers. If you really can’t decide which answer is right,
then guess. There’s at least a chance that you’ll guess correctly and get the
mark. If you don’t put an answer, the question will be marked ‘wrong’ by the
examiner.

False Answers
It’s also useful to know the types of incorrect answers that might be included. Be alert
for answers that give:
1) Almost the correct information. (Watch out for those distractors.)
2)The opposite information. (It’s easy to be fooled by these.)
3) Information that’s included in the same paragraph as the true answer but not
relevant to the question.
4) Information related to the question which is not included in the text.

Strategy For Answering Multiple Choice Questions

I’ll show you how to apply this strategy in the example below but first, you need to
understand it. Follow these steps.

1) Read the questions

Carefully read the questions. Don’t worry if there are words you don’t understand. If
they appear in the text, you may be able to work them out in context. Alternatively,
synonyms that you do understand may have been used.
If unfamiliar words appear in incorrect answer options, they don’t matter so much,
although you’ll need to make an educated guess at them in order to eliminate the
answer.
2) Skim read the text
On this first reading of the text, you are aiming to get just the general meaning.

3) Identify key words

Return to the questions and underline key words in them. These will help you find the
location of the correct answer in the text. I’ve underlined them in question 1 below as
an example.
This is question 1 from the sample test we'll be working on in a minute.
In the text, synonyms will almost certainly be used for some of them, so think about
what these might be as you pick out the key words.

4) Think about meaning

Your other task while looking at the answer options is to try and work out the difference
in meaning between them. Two may be very similar. Don’t spend too much time on this
but doing it will save you precious minutes in the next step.

5) Predict the correct answer

From your general understanding of the text, you may be able to make a reasonable
prediction of the right answer to some of the questions. Put a mark next to your
prediction in pencil. You may not be right, but this will help you to narrow down the
options.

6) Read the text again

Now re-read the text a paragraph at a time, particularly scanning for the key words you
identified and likely synonyms. Remember that the answers will be in order so you can
expect the first one to be in paragraphs 1 or 2.
In our sample test paper, the first question helpfully states that the answer is in
paragraph 1:

1  In paragraph one, the writer suggests that companies could consider

Once you’ve located the section of text containing the answer, read in detail to fully
understand it. Now go back and read the answer options again.
Usually, one or two options will clearly be wrong. Cross them out to eliminate them
once you are sure they’re incorrect.
Continue to study the detail in the remaining answers until you've identified the right
one.
If one answer jumps out at you as obviously correct, double-check it in case the
examiner has succeeded in tricking you in the way I suggested in my key tips. It’s also
worth going through the process of eliminate the other answers before finally deciding
just to be sure.

7) Deciding between similar answers

It’s common to end up with two very similar answer options that it’s difficult to decide
between. In this case, you need to study them in even more detail to identify the
difference.
First, write them out one under the other unless they already appear like this on the
sheet.
Here are a couple of tactics you can then use to compare them:           

 Paraphrase each one in your own words.

 Identify distractors such as qualifying words that give them different

meanings.

 Compare keywords and synonyms between them and with the question.

8) Move on
Time will always be against you. If you get really stuck with an answer, you’ll need to
take an educated guess so you at least write something on the answer paper. If you’re
down to two possible answers then you have a 50% chance of picking the correct one.
Do this and keep moving on through the test.
The more you practice your general reading skills and this strategy for answering
multiple choice questions, the quicker you’ll get and the easier they’ll become.
Use all the information, tips and strategies on the pages in the menu below.

Example with answers

This question is from a past IELTS Reading test paper taken from the official IELTS
website, www.ielts.org. The passage is just a part of the full text used the exam. In the
real test, a longer version appeared and it had several different types of questions set
on it.
Before checking the answers, you might want to try answering it yourself for
practice. When you’ve completed the task, read my notes below on how I found the
answers. They include lots more tips to help you with multiple choice questions.
Click this link for a downloadable PDF of the question - Older People in the
Workforce

Notes on how I answered the questions

1)  First, I read each of the sentences and their four possible endings to get a general
idea of the information they contain.
Next, I skim read the text, again to get the general meaning. I then go to question 1 and
underline key words in it.
1  In paragraph one, the writer suggests that companies could consider
           A    abolishing pay schemes that are based on age.
          B    avoiding pay that is based on piece-rates.
          C    increasing pay for older workers.
          D    equipping older workers with new skills.