IELTS Reading practice tests online

IELTS Reading gives you sixty minutes, three passages and forty questions — and no extra time to transfer answers. Almost everyone who struggles with Reading is struggling with pace and with two or three specific question types, not with reading itself.

This page sets out how the Reading paper works, what each question type is really testing, and how to practise it on TestPilot with instant scoring and answer-by-answer review.

How the IELTS Reading test is structured

Reading is the one paper where Academic and General Training differ most. Both last sixty minutes and both contain forty questions, but the texts are drawn from different places.

Academic and General Training Reading compared
	Academic Reading	General Training Reading
Texts	Three long passages from books, journals, magazines and newspapers	Sections built from notices, advertisements, workplace documents and one longer general-interest text
Difficulty	Descriptive to analytical, aimed at undergraduate level	Everyday and workplace English, becoming more complex in the final section
Questions	40	40
Time	60 minutes, no transfer time	60 minutes, no transfer time

That works out at roughly twenty minutes per passage, including reading time. On the computer-delivered test the passage sits beside the questions, you can highlight text and add notes on screen, and the timer is always visible.

Band conversion differs by module

The raw score out of 40 converts to a band score, but the Academic and General Training conversions are not the same — General Training typically needs more correct answers for the same band. Practise against the module you will actually sit.

IELTS Reading question types

Reading uses a wider set of question types than any other paper. Each one rewards a different reading behaviour:

True / False / Not Given — does the passage state this fact, contradict it, or simply not mention it?
Yes / No / Not Given — the same logic applied to the writer's claims and opinions rather than facts.
Matching headings — identifying the main idea of each paragraph or section.
Matching information — finding which paragraph contains a specific detail.
Matching features — attributing statements to people, studies, places or dates.
Matching sentence endings — completing stems with the endings the passage supports.
Multiple choice — single or multiple answers.
Sentence, summary, note, table and flow-chart completion — within a strict word limit.
Diagram label completion — transferring information from text to a visual.
Short-answer questions — answering a direct question in a few words.

Two of these cause most of the damage. True/False/Not Given punishes students who reason from world knowledge instead of from the text: if the passage does not say it, the answer is Not Given even when the statement is obviously true in real life. Matching headings punishes students who read for detail: you need the paragraph's main point, not its most memorable sentence.

How to practise IELTS Reading on TestPilot

TestPilot Reading tests run in the computer-delivered layout — passage on one side, questions on the other, with the same highlighting and note tools available in the real exam. You can sit a full sixty-minute test or practise a single passage when you want to work on one question type.

Scoring is instant. The review screen shows your answer beside the correct one and, for many questions, highlights the exact sentence in the passage that contains the evidence, with a written explanation of why the answer is what it is. That is the fastest way to fix a broken True/False/Not Given instinct: you can see the wording you misread.

My Progress then tracks which question types keep costing you marks across tests, so your next practice session has a target instead of being another random test.

A workable timing plan

Give each passage twenty minutes and move on when the time is up, even with questions unfinished.
Read the questions before the passage so you know what you are hunting for.
Answer question sets in the order given — most types follow the order of the passage, so your place in the text moves forward with you.
Do matching headings and matching information last within a passage; they need a whole-text view.
Never leave a blank. There is no penalty for a wrong answer.

If you routinely run out of time, the problem is usually re-reading. Scan for the answer, confirm it in one sentence of close reading, and commit.

Frequently asked questions

How long is the IELTS Reading test?

Sixty minutes for forty questions. Unlike Listening, there is no extra transfer time, so the sixty minutes includes writing your answers.

What is the difference between Academic and General Training Reading?

Academic Reading uses three long passages from books, journals and newspapers. General Training uses shorter workplace and everyday texts in the first two sections, plus one longer general-interest text. The number of questions and the time limit are the same.

What does Not Given actually mean?

It means the passage neither states nor contradicts the statement. If you have to bring in outside knowledge or an assumption to decide, the answer is Not Given.

Should I read the passage or the questions first?

Most candidates do better reading the questions first, then scanning the passage for the information those questions need. Reading the whole passage carefully before looking at the questions rarely fits inside twenty minutes.

Can I practise IELTS Reading online for free?

Yes. TestPilot has free Reading practice tests with instant scoring and answer review; paid plans open the full library and the monthly full mock test allowance.

Take a timed Reading test in the computer-delivered interface and see exactly which sentence held each answer.

Practise IELTS Reading