Short answers — find the right fact, then count
Short answers still come from the text
This invented archive project is original practice material. Read the passage once, then answer from it rather than from what you know about archives.
In 2021, staff at Elm Town Library began digitising donated field notebooks. Each notebook was photographed before its pages went through text recognition. The originals stayed in a climate-controlled storeroom; researchers used scans. Volunteers added place names to a searchable index, but they did not correct the notebooks' spelling. To test the index, staff selected 60 notebooks and asked 12 students to find references to river floods. In the first trial, students found relevant pages in an average of nine minutes. After the index was added, the average fell to three minutes. The project team called this an improvement in access, not proof that every transcription was accurate. The search page therefore kept a button for reporting doubtful words.
The passage contains a sequence: preparation → index → search trial → result → remaining limitation. The questions will follow that sequence.
An archive keeps records; a short answer has less room for words.
In which year did the library begin digitising notebooks?
The first sentence states 2021. A date remembered from another project is irrelevant.
Locate the fact the question asks for
Assume the instruction says NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER FROM THE PASSAGE.
What year did digitisation begin? → 2021. The first sentence contains the date.
Where were the original notebooks kept? → storeroom. Climate-controlled describes the room; the question asks where the originals stayed. Writing a climate-controlled storeroom would exceed this question's word limit.
Short-answer questions ask for factual details. The official format guide says the answers follow the text's information order, so the next answer should normally be found further down.
Where were the original notebooks kept? NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS FROM THE PASSAGE.
The originals stayed in a climate-controlled storeroom. Storeroom alone answers where and fits the limit.
Count words and numbers after finding the fact
How many notebooks were selected for the test? → 60. The passage also says 12 students took part; 12 answers a different question. Match the noun beside the number before you copy it.
What kind of event did the students search for? → river floods. These are two words from the passage. Flooding near the river may sound equivalent, but it is not copied from the text and is too long for the stated limit.
How long did finding pages take after the index was added? → three minutes (or 3 minutes). Do not copy the earlier nine minutes: after makes the later measurement the one that answers the question.
How many NOTEBOOKS were selected for the index test?
60 notebooks were selected. Twelve counts students; nine measures the earlier search time in minutes.
What kind of event did the students look for? NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS FROM THE PASSAGE.
The passage says 'references to river floods'. Those two words name the event exactly.
Do not turn a faster search into perfect accuracy
The search became faster, but the team did not claim every transcription was accurate. A likely trap is answering a question about accuracy with the time reduction. They measured access time and still provided a way to flag doubtful words.
Check the noun and time qualifier together. Here 60 notebooks differs from 12 students, and after the index differs from before the index.
Because search time fell, the team concluded that every transcription was accurate.
The passage explicitly separates improved access from transcription accuracy and keeps a way to report doubtful words.
A four-check routine
- Underline the question word (when, where, how many, what).
- Find the matching sentence, using the order of the questions to narrow the search.
- Copy the shortest answer that names the right thing; keep any word needed to make it precise.
- Count words and numbers against the instruction, then check spelling.
An answer is complete when it identifies the requested fact, comes from the passage, and fits the printed word limit. A related fact is still the wrong answer.
Source checked on 23 September 2026: official IELTS Academic Reading guide, short-answer questions.