True / False / Not Given — the decision tree
Three labels, and only one of them is a judgement
- TRUE — the passage says it. The wording will differ; the meaning will not.
- FALSE — the passage says the opposite. There is a specific sentence that contradicts the statement.
- NOT GIVEN — the passage does not say, either way.
- ⚠ NOT GIVEN does not mean "probably false". It may be obviously true in the real world. It may be something the writer would certainly agree with. None of that matters.
- Yes / No / Not Given is the same task applied to the writer's opinion rather than to facts.
The passage says nothing at all about a statement, but the statement is obviously true in the real world. What is the answer?
The task tests the passage, not the world. If the passage neither states nor contradicts it, the answer is NOT GIVEN however true it is.
The decision tree
- Find the part of the passage the statement is about. The questions follow the passage in order, so question 8 is below question 7.
- Ask: is there a sentence here that contradicts the statement? → FALSE.
- If not: is there a sentence here that states it? → TRUE.
- Neither? → NOT GIVEN. Stop. Do not reason further.
- The commonest error is skipping step 4: the passage does not say this, so it must be false. That is exactly what NOT GIVEN means.
Put the decision steps in order.
Checking for a contradiction FIRST is what stops you talking yourself into TRUE on a statement the passage argues against.
Qualifiers decide more items than vocabulary does
- Watch for all, always, never, only, the main, most, must.
- Passage: one cause of the decline was overfishing. Statement: the main cause of the decline was overfishing. → FALSE. "One" and "the main" are different claims.
- Passage: the survey covered forty schools. Statement: the survey covered only forty schools. → the word only adds a judgement the passage does not make.
- Underline the qualifier in the statement before you go looking. It is usually the whole question.
Passage: 'One cause of the decline was overfishing.' Statement: 'The main cause of the decline was overfishing.'
FALSE. 'One cause' and 'the main cause' are different claims, and the passage's wording contradicts the statement's qualifier.
What the passage "says" without using the words
- The passage will almost never repeat the statement's wording. It will paraphrase.
- Numbers fell steeply after 1990 and there was a sharp decline in the population from 1990 are the same claim → TRUE.
- ⚠ A statement that repeats the passage's own words is often a trap: the words match and the meaning has been changed by one qualifier.
- So read for meaning and check the qualifier, not for matching words.
A statement that repeats several of the passage's own words is more likely to be TRUE.
Often the opposite. The passage paraphrases a true statement, and a word-for-word match is frequently a trap in which one qualifier has been changed.
Writing the answer
- Write the exact word: TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN. T, F and NG are accepted; Not mentioned is not.
- Use the right set: TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN for facts, YES/NO/NOT GIVEN for the writer's views. Using the wrong set costs the mark.
- Never leave one blank. There are three options and no penalty, so a guess is worth a third of a mark on average and a blank is worth nothing.
- If you have five NOT GIVENs in a row, check them. A set of ten usually has two or three.
For a question about the WRITER'S OPINION, the three answers are YES, NO and ___.
Yes / No / Not Given for views, True / False / Not Given for facts. Using the wrong set costs the mark even when the judgement was right.