True/False/Not Given questions produce more incorrect answers than any other IELTS Academic Reading item type because candidates conflate two genuinely different judgments: False means the passage actively contradicts the statement, while Not Given means the passage simply never addresses it. Confusing these is a technique failure, not a comprehension failure, and it is entirely fixable.
The Core Distinction: Contradicted vs Absent
Every TFNG statement asks you to compare a claim against what the passage actually says, and there are only three possible relationships:
- True — the passage states or clearly implies the same information as the statement.
- False — the passage states or clearly implies the opposite of the statement.
- Not Given — the passage contains no information that confirms or contradicts the statement; the general topic may be mentioned nearby, but the specific claim is not addressed.
The distinction that causes the most errors is between False and Not Given. A statement is only False if you can point to specific text that contradicts it. If you cannot find that contradiction — if the passage is simply silent on the exact claim being made — the answer is Not Given, even if the statement feels intuitively unlikely or the general topic is discussed elsewhere in the passage.
Common Traps That Cause Wrong Answers
Examiners write TFNG statements specifically to test whether you are reading what the passage actually says or what you assume it probably says. The recurring traps include:
- Partial matches. A statement combines something the passage confirms with something it doesn't mention at all, making the whole statement Not Given even though half of it is accurate.
- Qualifying words. Words like "always," "never," "all," "most," or "significantly" change a statement from True to False, or vice versa, if the passage uses a softer or stronger qualifier than the statement does.
- Real-world plausibility bias. Candidates mark a statement False because it sounds wrong based on general knowledge, when the passage never actually addresses it — the correct answer is Not Given regardless of what is objectively true outside the text.
