IELTS General Training Reading – Task Type 1 – Multiple Choice

Task Description

What are candidates required to do?
Candidates are asked to choose the best answer from four alternatives A, B, C or D, and to write the letter of the answer they have chosen on the Answer Sheet.

What form do the questions take?
They may involve sentence completion – the stem gives the first part of a sentence and candidates choose the best way to complete it from the options. The stem could also be worded as a complete question, with the candidates choosing the option which best answers it.

Are there any variations of this item type?
Sometimes there may be more than four alternative answers, and candidates may have to pick more than one correct answer. There may also be a global multiple choice question at the end of the set of questions, asking candidates to choose the most suitable title for the reading passage, for example.

Are the questions in text order?
The questions are in the same order as the information in the passage.

What text type is this item type used with?
It may be used with any text type.

What skills are being assessed?
Multiple Choice items are used to test a wide range of reading skills. They may require the candidate to have a detailed understanding of specific points or an overall understanding of the main points of the text.

Understanding the Task

To see examples of this task type please click on the link below.

Examples of Task Type 1

To understand better how candidates need to approach this task, it may help you to do the task yourself and analyse what you had to do to find the right answer.

Look at this sample Task Type 1. Complete the task, thinking about how you are doing it.

Sample Task Type 1 Task (PDF)
Answers

Things to consider

Now look at these questions about how you approached the task and consider your answers.

1. Did you read the instructions carefully?
   
   
2. Did you read the whole passage before you tried to answer the questions?
   
   
3. Did the questions come in the same order as the information in the passage?
   
   
4. Did you think about the answer to the item before reading the options?
   
   
5. Did you read all the options before choosing the answer?