Reading practice
IELTS Reading Short Answer practice
Answer questions in a few words.
This page is for doing Short Answer questions: start the drill, then use the routine and the checks below to make each attempt count. For the strategy behind it, read the Short Answer guide.
Practise Short Answer only
2 Short Answer questions from Academic Practice Test 2, with the passage and instructions they were written for. Your answers are saved and marked exactly as in a full section.
- Questions
- 2 questions
- Time
- 10 minutes
No account needed — sign in later to keep this attempt in your history.
What Short Answer looks like on screen
Each question has a box for a short typed answer taken from the passage. The instruction sets the word limit, for example NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER, and the answer can be words, a number or both.
Where you will meet it
Short-answer questions are set in Academic and General Training, and the answers come in the same order as the information in the passage. They suit factual passages — descriptions, reports, instructions — where the answers are names, numbers, places and things.
A routine for doing a set against the clock
Reading gives you 60 minutes for 40 questions — about 90 seconds a question, including the time spent reading. Decide the set's share before you start, then work it like this:
- Read the question word first — who, when, how many — and decide what the answer will look like.
- Find the place in the passage, starting just after your previous answer.
- Copy the answer words exactly, then count them against the limit before you move on.
- Give each question no more than its share of the time; if it will not come, guess, flag it and continue.
Traps when the clock is running
Answering in your own words. A correct idea in different words is marked wrong. The answer has to be words or numbers that appear in the passage.
Answering a different question. Under time pressure it is easy to answer 'what' when the question asked 'why' or 'how many'. Read the question word again before you type.
Trimming away a meaning word. Cutting an answer to fit the limit can remove the word that made it correct, such as 'solar' in 'solar panels'. Cut words like 'the' first, never the ones that carry the meaning.
Check yourself after the drill
Mark the drill first, then answer these honestly. A pattern across two or three attempts tells you more than any single score.
- Is every answer within the word limit?
- Is every answer copied from the passage, not reworded?
- Does each answer actually answer the question word?
- Did any answer lose a word that changed its meaning?