Matching features is the “who said what” question. A passage quotes four researchers, and you are given six statements and asked which researcher made each one.
The names are easy to find. That is exactly what makes the task dangerous.
The rules, in short
| You match | Statements to a list of options from the passage |
| Options are | People most often; also places, dates, theories or categories |
| Answer format | A letter — A, B, C |
| Order | Statements are not in passage order |
| Reuse | Allowed only if the instructions say so |
| Unused | Some options may match nothing |
| What is tested | Connections between facts, and recognising opinions and theories |
Check the instructions for one sentence: You may use any option more than once. If it is there, the same researcher can be the answer to two or three questions. If it is not, each option is used once at most.
Why names are a trap
Finding Dr Okafor in the passage takes three seconds. So the temptation is to find the name, see a word from the statement nearby, and match them.
The test is built to punish that. In a passage about one subject, every researcher is talking about the same thing. The words memory, sleep and study will sit beside all four names. What differs is what each person claimed, and often whether they agreed with the others.
So the name tells you where to read. It does not tell you the answer.
Method
- Read the instructions and note whether options can be reused.
- Mark every option in the passage first. Scan for capital letters and underline each name wherever it appears. Do this before you read a single statement.
- Check for repeat mentions. A person introduced in paragraph B may return in paragraph E as Okafor, or just as she. Mark those too.
- Start with the option mentioned least. A researcher who appears once has one small section to read. Match their statements first and the list gets shorter.
- Read around each name carefully and say to yourself, in a few words, what that person found or believes.
- Now read the statements and match each to the summary it fits. Check the whole meaning, not one word.
Watch the reporting verb
The verb beside a name carries the answer more often than the nouns do.
| Verb | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| claims, argues, maintains | This is their own position |
| found, showed, demonstrated | This is their result |
| suggests, proposes | A cautious idea, not a firm finding |
| doubts, questions, challenges | They disagree with someone else’s view |
| rejects, dismisses | Strong disagreement |
| agrees, supports, confirms | They back another person’s view |
A statement saying a researcher believes sleep improves memory does not match a researcher who questions the claim that sleep improves memory, even though every keyword is identical.
A worked example
An original passage, written for this guide.
For decades it was assumed that city birds sing at a higher pitch simply to be heard above traffic. Elena Marsh was the first to test the idea, recording great tits in ten cities and showing that urban birds did sing higher than those in nearby forests. Her explanation was noise.
Tomas Reyes accepted the measurements but doubted the cause. He pointed out that buildings reflect sound differently from trees, and argued that higher notes simply carry better between hard surfaces, whether or not there is traffic.
A third view came from Priya Nair, who studied birds raised in quiet laboratories. She found that young birds copied whatever pitch they heard from adults, and suggested that the difference is learned and passed on, not chosen by each bird.
| Statement | Answer | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The shape of the surroundings affects which sounds travel well. | Reyes |
| 2 | Birds acquire their pitch from older birds. | Nair |
| 3 | Birds in towns sing higher to overcome background sound. | Marsh |
Look at statement 3. The word traffic appears beside Reyes’s name as well as Marsh’s, and a quick scan could send you to either. Only Marsh gives noise as the reason. Reyes mentions traffic in order to say it does not matter.
Notice also that the statements are in a different order from the passage, and that none of them uses the passage’s words. Buildings reflect sound has become the shape of the surroundings. Copied from adults has become acquire from older birds.
The traps
The shared topic. All the options discuss the same subject, so topic words prove nothing.
The reported view. One researcher describes another’s idea in order to reject it. The idea belongs to the person who holds it, not the person who mentions it.
The second mention. The decisive sentence about a person is in a later paragraph, where they are referred to by a pronoun.
Assuming one use each. If options can be reused, crossing a name off after one answer loses you the next.
Forcing every option. Some options are there to be left over.
Timing
Allow about a minute a statement, plus a minute at the start to mark the names. That first minute is not wasted. It replaces five separate searches with one.
What costs marks
- Matching on a word near the name.
- Reading only the first mention of each person.
- Ignoring the verb, and so missing that someone disagreed.
- Writing the name when the answer sheet asks for a letter.
Practise it
Take one passage with several named experts and, before answering anything, write one line for each expert in your own words. If you cannot say what a person believes, you are not ready to match their statements.
You can practise IELTS Reading with timed tests on IELTS Studio, which mark every answer and show the band straight away.
Related: matching information asks which paragraph holds a detail, and matching headings asks for the main idea of each paragraph.
Sources
- IELTS Reading test format Official description of matching features: statements matched to a list of options from the text, that some options may not be used and others used more than once, and what the task tests.
Last reviewed October 5, 2026. See our editorial policy for how guides are checked and corrected.
Frequently asked questions
- What is matching features in IELTS Reading?
- It is a task where you match statements to a list of options from the passage. The options are a group of features of the same kind, most often researchers or other people, but also places, dates, theories or categories.
- Are matching features answers in the same order as the passage?
- No. The statements are usually in a different order from the passage, so you cannot use the previous answer to narrow your search. The options are easier to find, because names and dates stand out in the text.
- Can I use the same name more than once in matching features?
- Only when the instructions say you may use any option more than once. Read that line before you start. It also works the other way: some options in the list may match nothing at all.
- How do I find the names quickly in matching features?
- Scan the passage for capital letters and mark every place each name appears before you read any statement. A name can appear in more than one paragraph, and later mentions are often by surname only or by he, she or they.
- Why do I get matching features questions wrong?
- Usually by matching a statement to a person because the name is near a familiar word. Several people in the passage often discuss the same topic. The answer depends on what each one actually claimed, including whether they agreed or disagreed.
- Is matching features the same as matching information?
- No. Matching information asks which paragraph contains a detail, and the answer is a paragraph letter. Matching features asks which person, place or category a statement belongs to, and the answer is a letter from a list of options.