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Yes/No/Not Given vs True/False/Not Given: The Key Difference

IELTS Reading29 August 2026 · 6 min read · WiderAI Team

Yes/No/Not Given questions ask whether a statement agrees with the views or claims of the writer, while True/False/Not Given questions ask whether a statement agrees with the information in the passage. That single word — views — is the whole difference. True/False/Not Given checks facts; Yes/No/Not Given checks opinions, arguments and positions the writer personally takes.

The mechanics are identical. Yes means the statement matches what the writer believes or claims. No means the writer says or clearly implies the opposite. Not Given means the writer's position on this particular claim cannot be found in the passage. The answers follow passage order, paraphrase hides the matches, and the False/Not Given boundary from True/False/Not Given returns here as the No/Not Given boundary, causing exactly the same trouble.

What changes is the reading skill being tested. Yes/No/Not Given appears with argumentative and discursive passages — the kind where a writer evaluates a theory, criticises a policy or takes sides in a debate. Your job shifts from verifying facts to tracking a person's stance, including opinions the writer reports from others but does not share. That is why this variant usually feels harder, and why it tends to appear in the later, more opinion-driven passages of the test.

What exactly is the difference between the two question types?

Read the instruction line above the questions; it tells you which game you are playing.

• True/False/Not Given asks: "Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?" You are checking objective content — what happened, what was measured, what is described.
• Yes/No/Not Given asks: "Do the following statements agree with the claims/views of the writer?" You are checking the writer's own position — what the author argues, believes, doubts or dismisses.

In practice this means a fact can sit plainly in the passage and still be irrelevant to a Yes/No/Not Given statement about the writer's opinion of it. Suppose the passage reports that a government adopted a recycling scheme, and the statement says the writer supports the scheme. Unless the writer signals approval — calling it sensible, welcome, overdue — the answer is Not Given, however much detail the passage gives about the scheme itself.

The reverse trap also exists. Writers often present views they disagree with before knocking them down. If the statement matches the reported view rather than the writer's verdict on it, the answer is No, not Yes. Always ask: whose voice is this sentence in?

How do you find the writer's opinion in the passage?

Writers of IELTS passages rarely announce "I believe". Their stance leaks through smaller choices, and spotting these is the core skill of Yes/No/Not Given.

Evaluative vocabulary

Adjectives and adverbs do the heavy lifting. A writer who calls a study rigorous endorses it; one who calls the same study ambitious may be hedging; flawed, simplistic or overstated signal rejection. Verbs matter too: a theory the writer says demonstrates something has their backing, while one that merely purports to show something does not.

Concession and contrast

Structures like "although X, Y" or "X — however, Y" put the writer's real position after the pivot. In "While the scheme has attracted praise, its costs have been quietly ignored", the writer's view is the second half. Statements built on the conceded first half are classic No or Not Given bait.

Strength of commitment

Track how firmly the writer commits. "This will reduce emissions" is a claim; "this could plausibly reduce emissions" is a weaker one. A statement that hardens the writer's hedge into certainty typically earns No or Not Given, depending on whether the writer's actual wording contradicts the stronger version or simply stops short of it.

A working method for Yes/No/Not Given

1. Read the statement and decide what kind of claim it is: about the world, or about the writer's attitude to something. Most are the second kind.
2. Locate the topic in the passage using names, dates and distinctive nouns, exactly as you would for any locating task.
3. Identify the voice. Is the relevant sentence the writer speaking, or the writer reporting someone else? Attribution phrases decide this.
4. Compare the writer's actual position with the statement. Same position: Yes. Opposite position: No. Position absent or unresolvable: Not Given.
5. Answer and move forward. The questions follow passage order, so each answer narrows the search zone for the next.

For a No, hold yourself to the same standard as False: you must be able to quote words showing the writer holds the opposite view. "The writer never praises it" is not opposition; it is silence, and silence is Not Given.

Which mistakes cost the most marks?

The most expensive mistake is answering from the facts instead of the stance. Candidates find the topic, see accurate factual content, and mark Yes because the statement is consistent with the passage. Consistency is not agreement; the writer must actually hold the view.

The second is inserting your own reaction. Discursive passages cover topics people have opinions about — education, technology, the environment — and it is easy to grade the statement against your view rather than the writer's. The correction is the same discipline that fixes True/False/Not Given: no verdict without quotable evidence. This evidence-first habit pays off across the whole test, and even in Speaking Part 3, where examiners reward clearly signposted opinions — something you can drill with an IELTS speaking mock test.

The third is rushing the attribution step. One misread "however" and you assign the reported view to the writer. When a paragraph contains multiple voices, slow down and label each sentence mentally: writer, critic, supporter, researcher. Ten extra seconds here saves a mark.

Finally, do not fear Not Given. Test writers include it deliberately, and strong candidates choose it with confidence when the writer's stance is genuinely absent. Weak candidates treat it as a last resort and talk themselves into a Yes or No the passage never supports. Since IELTS Reading has no penalty for wrong answers, answer every question — but let the evidence, not hope, pick the option.