Section 1: Notices, Advertisements and Timetables

IELTS General Training Reading has 40 questions in 60 minutes, in three sections. The question types are the same as in Academic Reading, but the texts are different: they are the kind of English you need to live, work and study in an English-speaking country. That is why GT Reading matters for migration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the UK. Section 1 is called 'social survival'. It usually gives you two or three short texts, or a set of five to eight very short ones, with about 14 questions. Typical texts are a notice about changes at a library, a set of advertisements for courses or flats, a bus timetable, a leaflet from a doctor's surgery or a price list. These texts are short and the language is everyday, so Section 1 is where you collect marks quickly. The danger is going too fast: the questions test exact details such as days, prices, conditions and exceptions. There is no extra time at the end of the Reading paper to copy answers, so write each answer on the answer sheet as you go.

TRUE means the text says the same thing, usually in different words. FALSE means the text says the opposite, or something that cannot be true at the same time. NOT GIVEN means the text does not say whether the statement is true or false. In everyday texts the most common FALSE answers come from qualifiers and numbers. If a notice says 'the café is open daily except Mondays', the statement 'You can visit the café on any day of the week' is FALSE because of 'except'. If a notice says the pool closes 'from 3 to 16 June', then 'The pool will be closed for a month' is FALSE: two weeks is not a month. NOT GIVEN answers usually add something the notice never mentions: a reason, a future plan, a refund, a comparison. Before you choose NOT GIVEN, check the small print and any footnotes, because notices often put conditions at the bottom.