What the IELTS Reading test actually involves
IELTS Reading is 60 minutes long, with 40 questions to answer across three sections. That time covers everything — reading the passages, working through the questions and writing your answers — there's no extra time added on afterwards. Academic Reading uses three long passages taken from books, journals, magazines and newspapers, written for a general but well-informed reader and usually increasing in difficulty as the test goes on. General Training Reading also has three sections and 40 questions in the same 60 minutes, but the passages are drawn from everyday and workplace material — notices, advertisements, official documents and general-interest articles — again building in difficulty toward the end.
Whichever version you're sitting, the arithmetic is the same: roughly 20 minutes per section, and each section usually mixes several different question types rather than just one. That's often the harder part — not the vocabulary itself, but switching between skimming for the gist, scanning for one specific detail, and reading closely enough to catch a qualifying word that turns a statement from true to not given.
Where marks are typically lost
Two question types cause a lot of the confusion, and one factor works against every question type at once: time.
- True/False/Not Given versus Yes/No/Not Given. These instructions look almost identical but test different things. True/False/Not Given checks whether a statement matches facts stated in the passage; Yes/No/Not Given checks whether it matches the writer's opinions or claims. Treating "not given" as a weaker version of "false" or "no" — rather than as "this isn't addressed either way" — is one of the easiest ways to drop marks that should have been straightforward.
- Matching headings. This question type asks for the main idea of a paragraph, not the sentence that happens to repeat the same words as a heading. Scanning for matching vocabulary instead of reading for the overall point tends to point you toward a heading that mentions the right topic but the wrong idea.
- Time pressure. Forty questions across three long passages in 60 minutes leaves little room to reread an entire section because one question stalled you. A few minutes lost untangling a single True/False/Not Given item early on can mean reaching the third passage with barely any time left.
Reported results from students Mike has coached include moving from 6.0 to 7.5 overall band score. No band is promised — progress depends on where a student starts and on the work done between sessions.
IELTS Reading question types, at a glance
| Question type | What it tests | Technique |
|---|---|---|
| True / False / Not Given | Whether a statement matches facts in the passage | Decide if it's stated, contradicted, or simply absent — don't guess |
| Yes / No / Not Given | Whether a statement matches the writer's opinion or claim | Find what the writer actually argues, not just the topic they're discussing |
| Matching headings | The main idea of a whole paragraph | Skim for the overall point before checking any heading against it |
| Matching information | Locating one specific detail across several paragraphs | Scan for names, dates and numbers as anchors, rather than reading in full |
| Sentence or summary completion | Locating and copying exact words within a stated limit | Check the word limit and that grammar fits before writing an answer |
| Multiple choice | Distinguishing close, similar-sounding options | Eliminate options that are only partly supported by the text |
Inside a 60-minute Reading session with Mike
A Reading session is one-to-one over Google Meet, built around a timed passage rather than a general lecture on the test. A typical hour runs something like this:
- A passage worked under timed conditions, so the pressure is real rather than theoretical.
- Skimming and scanning technique — how to get the gist of a paragraph in seconds, and how to scan for a name, date or figure without reading every word around it.
- A close look at whichever question types cost you marks that day — True/False/Not Given, matching headings, or wherever the passage caught you out — worked through line by line against the actual text.
- Feedback in the moment, while the passage is still fresh, rather than written comments that arrive days later.
Sessions can be recorded on request, and written progress notes are added to your account afterwards, so the technique covered in the session is there to revisit before the next one.
Who teaches the session
Every session, Reading included, is taught by Mike himself — never handed off to another tutor. Mike is based in Hanoi and holds a Cambridge CELTA (July 2017); he has taught English and IELTS for 12+ years in Vietnam, Turkey and Iran, across 9 schools in 3 countries, and currently teaches 250 students across 10 classes at Newton Grammar School in Hanoi. He has taught 500+ one-to-one sessions through Band Booster IELTS. His own IELTS result is 7.5 overall, with 8.5 in Speaking. More on his background is on the about page.
This page is also available in Vietnamese: luyện IELTS Reading 1 kèm 1.
Reading alongside the rest of the test
Reading rarely improves on its own. The same close attention to exact wording that raises a Reading score also helps with Listening, where similar traps around synonyms and distractors come up, and it feeds the topic vocabulary used in Writing. A session can stay focused purely on Reading, or combine skills within the hour — see the full range of one-to-one IELTS coaching Mike teaches, covering Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking and General English.
Price and booking
A 60-minute one-to-one Reading session is 500,000 ₫ in Vietnam; students outside Vietnam see the price converted to their own currency automatically. First-time students can try a 30-minute trial session for 150,000 ₫, once per student. Booking three sessions together brings the price down by 10%, and five or more by 20% (to 400,000 ₫ per hour). Full pricing is shown in the pricing section of the site, and any current time-limited offers are shown on the booking page.
Payment is by PayPal (cards work through PayPal's guest checkout), bank transfer in Vietnam via VietQR, or USDT (TRC20 or BEP20); the site itself never sees or stores card details. Once payment goes through, a Google Meet link and calendar invite arrive by email immediately, along with a link to set up an account where session history, receipts and progress notes are kept. Slots can be rescheduled free of charge up to 12 hours before the session, there's no subscription, and no package to commit to. Book a Reading session from the live calendar, shown in your own timezone, or start with the 30-minute trial if this is your first booking.