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IELTS · Articles · October 20, 2026 · 6 min read

IELTS Reading: question types, band score tables and 40 practice texts

An open book, a text with highlighted lines and a pencil

IELTS Reading takes 60 minutes: three texts and 40 questions. There is no extra time to transfer answers, so enter them as you go. On average, one text takes about 20 minutes.

Academic has three long texts from journals, books and newspapers, in a popular-science style. General Training texts are shorter and closer to everyday life and work, such as notices, instructions and workplace documents, followed by one longer article. The question types are the same.

Question types

For most types, the answers come in the order of the text. The exceptions are matching headings and matching information, where the answer can be in any paragraph.

How many correct answers you need

Academic Reading

Correct out of 40 Band
39–40 9.0
37–38 8.5
35–36 8.0
33–34 7.5
30–32 7.0
27–29 6.5
23–26 6.0
19–22 5.5
15–18 5.0

General Training Reading

Correct out of 40 Band
40 9.0
39 8.5
37–38 8.0
36 7.5
34–35 7.0
32–33 6.5
30–31 6.0
27–29 5.5
23–26 5.0

In Academic you need 30 correct answers for 7.0, 27 for 6.5 and 23 for 6.0. General Training needs more for the same band: 6.0 is 30–31 correct answers, for example. The exact cut-offs vary slightly from test to test, so treat the tables as a guide.

A 60-minute strategy

  1. 20 minutes per text, no more. If a question takes longer than a minute, enter your best guess and move on: a blank answer is guaranteed to score nothing.
  2. Questions first, then the text. Skim the questions and underline the keywords: names, dates, numbers and terms.
  3. Skim the text in 2–3 minutes. Knowing what each paragraph is about speeds up every search and helps with matching headings.
  4. Search, do not read. For each question, find the place by its keyword or a synonym, and read carefully around it.
  5. Compare meaning, not words. The answer is almost always paraphrased. Matching words point to the place but do not guarantee the answer.

Common mistakes

40 texts for practice

Each text opens in the Nomto practice room: 20 minutes, exam-style questions and, after checking, a band and an explanation for every answer.

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