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MUET (Writing) - Q2 Guidelines & Answer Scheme (March 2016) (1)

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Education is the key to success. Why? If we take a look at Africa and compared with Singapore, the development of each country differs drastically. Thus, I would like to say that, education is the most fundamental building blocks in human development which lead to the development of the country.

In Malaysia, formal education starts at young age. And throughout the process until university, many people are well-prepared for the next step of the life, careers. Thus, when we got good grades, we can choose what we want to be for our career life. For instance, Professor Ungku Aziz, an ex-student from University Malaya who became one of the top academics in Malaysia. One of his biggest contribution is in Economy. He designed New Economics Policy (NEP) in 1976 to eradicate poverty in Malaysia. Therefore, Malaysia has become one of the most economy stabilised country.

Proton, which was initialised by Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir, is a national automotive manufacturer. Previous years, Proton collaborate with Mitsubishi and learn a lot of things from experts. As a result, Proton received Putra Brands Award in 2017 and 2018 and currently sold in at least 15 countries worldwide. This shows that we can make our own high-technology products if we are on the right track.

In 2018, Malaysia made a huge success. After two long decades researches, the effort of eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis pays off. Proper education towards parents and families made everyone aware about the harmful of the diseases, thus taking their steps in avoiding from that. Elimination cannot be achieved without the commitment of all women, children and families. From here onwards, Malaysia will get free-HIV child and we are protecting the future generations. World Health Organization (WHO) approved that Malaysia has become global reference on this matter.

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E.T group

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E.T group

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The frequency of visits to the three music websites by teenagers

Figure 1 shows the visits to three music websites by teenagers and Table 1 shows promotional activities of three music websites in August. Generally, the number of visitors are greatly affected by the type of promotional activities.

Based on the data, Music Network received the highest number of visitors (40,000) compared to two others music websites (Music Connect: 15,000, Era Music: 10,000) in week 1. This was due to Music Network promoted ‘Name that tune’ activity. In week 3, there was no increase in the number of visitors for all the music websites. Instead, two of the music websites showed significant decrease (Music Network: 20,000, Music Connect: 25,000). The cause was there was no promotional activities conducted. Finally, there was a tremendous growth in the number of visitors for two music websites (Music Connect: 55,000, Music Network: 40,000). Activities that attracted most visitors, which was free concert tickets by Music Connect increased the number of visitors from the previous week impressively.

In conclusion, the type of promotional activities influences the number of visitors. The quality of the promotional activities will increase the number of visitors among teenagers.

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Group Sabah

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Reading either the first sentence, or the first and last sentence of a paragraph is another great skimming technique. The first and/or last sentence of a paragraph will provide enough information about the general overview of a paragraph for the most part. Heading match and title match questions are easier to answer when using this technique.

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'True, False, Not Given' questions requires you to identify if information in a text is true or not.

You will be given a number of factual statements and you have to check the text to see if they are true or not.

This is probably the most difficult question on the reading paper.

This post will:

look at example questions

discuss common problems

define 'True', 'False' and 'Not Given'

give you tips and advice

provide you with a strategy to use on exam day

In this article when I refer to 'statements' I am talking about the questions, not the text in the main reading article.

Example True, False, Not Given Question

This sample is taken from ielts.org and more sample reading questions can be viewed here.

Source: Cambridge English IELTS Past Papers.

As you can see above, you will be given a number of factual statements and asked to look at the text and decide if the statement is true, false or not given.

Common Problems

The biggest problem here is the 'not given' option. Most students are not used to answering questions like this and it causes them lots of problems because they are not sure what to look for. They also spend too much time making sure that it is 'not given' and this affects the rest of their test.

Students also fail to understand exactly what each statement means and therefore cannot identify if it is true or false. Many focus on keywords instead of understanding what the statement as a whole means.

Another common mistake is identifying keywords in the statements and then trying to find words that exactly match them in the text. You can do this, but more often the words will be synonyms.

Finally, some students fail to understand exactly what true, false and not given actually mean and get confused.

Now let's look at solving these common problems.

What do TRUE, FALSE and NOT GIVEN mean?

The most important thing to remember is what the words 'true', 'false' and 'not given' actually mean and therefore what IELTS wants you to write.

If the text agrees with or confirms the information in the statement, the answer is TRUE

If the text contradicts or is the opposite to the information in the statement, the answer is FALSE

If there is no information or it is impossible to know, the answer is NOT GIVEN

True means that the meaning is the same. It is just similar then it is FALSE. Remember that we are dealing with factual information so there is no room to say it is similar or nearly the same.

Lots of students have argued with me during practice and said the statement is true because it 'kind of' means the same. There is no 'kind of' with these questions, only facts.

Very important- Just because an answer is NOT GIVEN does not mean there are no words in the statements that match words in the text. This is something that confuses people, if words match then it must be TRUE or FALSE, right? Not really. This is not a good way to think about these questions because there probably will be matching words for NOT GIVEN answers, they just don't have enough information to answer the question as a whole.
Top 10 Tips

1. Ignore anything you already know about the topic and don't make assumptions. Base your answers on the text only.

2. Identify any words that qualify the statement, for example, some, all, mainly, often, always and occasionally. These words are there to test if you have read the whole statement because they can change the meaning. For example, 'Coca-Cola has always made its drinks in the U.S.A.' has a different meaning from 'Coca-Cola has mainly made its drinks in the U.S.A.'

3. Be careful when you see verbs that qualify statements, such as suggest, claim, believe and know. For example, 'The man claimed he was a British citizen,' and 'The man is a British citizen' mean two different things.

4. There will be at least one of all three answers. If you don't have at least one 'true', 'false' or 'not given' you have at least one answer wrong.

5. Don't skim and scan the text to find the final answer. You will have to read the appropriate part of the text very carefully in order to understand what the author means.

6. Don't look for words that exactly match those in the statements. You should also look for synonyms. Remember that you are matching meaning, not words.

7. If you can't find the information you are looking for, then it is probably 'not given'. Don't waste time looking for something that is not there.

8. If you have no idea what the answer is put 'not given'. You probably have no idea because the answer is not there.

9. Answers are in the same order they appear in the text. Do not waste time going back. Keep on reading.

10. YES/NO/NOT GIVEN questions are slightly different because they deal with opinion. TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN questions deal with facts.

True, False, Not Given Strategy

This is my suggested strategy. There are many different strategies and you should use the one you feel comfortable with. You can also adapt this strategy to what suits you.

1. Always read the instructions carefully and make sure you know if it is a TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN or YES/NO/NOT GIVEN question.

2. Read all the statements carefully, trying to understand what the whole sentence means rather than simply highlighting keywords. Watch out for qualifying words such as some or always.

3. Try to think of what synonyms might be in the text. This will help you identify the matching part of the text.

4. Match the statement with the correct part of the text.

5. Focus on the statement again and then carefully read the matching part of the text to establish if it is true or false. Remember the meaning should exactly match that of the statement if it is true.

6. Underline the words that give you the answer, this will help you focus and you can check back later. Again, be careful there are no qualifying words in the text.

7. If you can't find the answer, mark it as 'not given' and move on to the next question.

8. If you are really unsure or can't find the answer, mark it as 'not given'.

I hope you found this article on True, False Not Given IELTS questions useful. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments below or on the Facebook page.

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IELTS Reading - True, False, Not Given Tips and Strategy

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'True, False, Not Given' questions requires you to identify if information in a text is true or not. You will be given a number of factual statements and you have to check the text to see if they are true or not. This is probably the most difficult question on the reading paper.

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My family and I celebrated Hari Raya on 6th June 2019. We had worn our beautiful baju melayu and baju kurung. Our mother was busy cooking the meals while we were getting ready to the mosque. We were so excited and very happy. We enjoyed our festival very much.

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It was a sunny day. I was driving when my mum called me. She had asked me to fetch my sister at school. When I reached there, my sister had been waiting for me at the school gate.

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Yesterday, I ate a burger. While I was eating the burger , a monster came. It had eaten my burger. I had been crying for a week.

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Perak Group

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This morning, I woke up at 6 a.m. My mother was cooking while I was taking bath. It smelled so good. I felt hungry. Quickly, I dressed up and sat at the table. Then, I ate my breakfast together with my mother. It was the best meal I ever had. After that, I off to work.