Lesson 13 – Yes, No, Not Given

 

Today we are going to look at Yes, No, Not Given questions

 

This is the question form that many students have problems with – so pay attention!

 

Let’s begin with some tips and advice

 

1. These questions are not global they look only at detail.
2. You are basically dealing with a Yes/No answer to a question OR you will be unable to answer.
3. Making the sentences into questions really helps with this – then you CAN answer Yes or No.
4. If you are unable to answer yes or no because there isn’t enough information then it is not given.
5. YES answers agree with the statement in the question NO answers contradict the statement in the question.
6. NOT GIVEN answers mean that there isn’t enough information to really answer the question.
7. These questions often analyse the views or ideas of the writer.
8. Check that these views are those of the writer and not simply recorded from other people.
9. Choose the key words that will give you the location in the text.
10. There are very important key words that will help you with the answer and these must be analysed carefully (see the next sentences).
11. Check for comparisons more…than, as… as, same ….as etc.
12. Check for adverbs always, never, often, etc.. these could be key in the answer.
13. Match the question sentence very carefully with the place in the text.
14. Be very careful NOT to use your own knowledge of the topic as this may NOT be the same as what the writer has said.

 

Key skills to develop:

 

Yes, No not Given are easy to answer as long as you pay attention to ALL the words

 

• Get good at identifying all the key words you’ll need

 

• Think about synonyms for everyday words (these will be useful in your writing too)

 

• Practice guessing the meaning of words you don’t know from the surrounding words – in these questions there may be unknown words

 

• Look at the questions and try to predict the answer (do this from what you know of the text not just your own ideas)

 

• Read the place in the text carefully WITHOUT referring to the question, make sure you really understand what it is saying before you compare with the question

 

• Look at some NO answers – why are they NO? Because they are contradictions, because they are the negative of the original meaning in the text or because they information is not the same as the text – use this criteria when doing the questions.

 

Things to do for Yes, No, Not Given:

 

Learn to match meanings in the question with the text

 

• practise analysing sentences word by word so that you can get every bit of the meaning from them
• look at Y,N,Not Given in your IELTS books or online – check the answers and really understand why these are the correct answers
• practice turning these statements (in the questions) into yes/no questions this should really help you to find the right answer

 

Don’t forget, if there is anything you don’t understand or can’t find send a message via Contact us

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Let’s have a go at a Yes, No, Not Given exercise

 

Here are two exercises for you.

 

The first is a True/False – don’t worry the techniques are the same. I’ve linked here to the questions but you can link to the reading from the page

 

http://www.gapfillers.com/?atk=109

 

Try this IELTS Y/N/NG – this is another training exercise from Sam McCarter’s book

 

http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=7657

 

Don’t forget, if there is anything you don’t understand or can’t find send a message via Contact us

Now you’re done!

Good luck and let’s make great progress with IELTS!