Short-answer questions are the plainest thing in IELTS Reading. What was the bridge made of? When did the factory close? You find the fact and write it down.
They reward one habit above all: answering the question that was asked, and only that.
The rules, in short
| You write | Words or numbers taken from the passage |
| Word limit | Stated in the instructions. One word over loses the mark |
| Numbers | Figures or words are both accepted |
| Hyphenated words | Count as one word |
| Order | Questions follow the passage |
| What is tested | Finding and understanding specific information |
The question word tells you the answer type
Before you look at the passage, look at the first word of the question.
| Question word | Look for |
|---|---|
| Who | A person, a group or a job title |
| Where | A place |
| When | A date, a year, a time or a period |
| What | A thing, a material or an action |
| Which | One item out of several mentioned |
| Why | A reason, often after because, due to, so that |
| How many / how much | A number or an amount |
| How long / how often | A duration or a frequency |
This narrows the search before it begins. If the question starts with when, you can scan a paragraph for numbers and time words and ignore almost everything else.
Method
- Read the instruction for the word limit.
- Read the question and note the question word. Decide what kind of answer you need.
- Underline the words you can search for: names, dates and nouns. Expect the rest to be paraphrased.
- Find the place in the passage, starting from your last answer.
- Read the sentence carefully and pick out the words that answer the question.
- Trim. Remove anything the question already says, and anything that is not the answer itself.
- Check the limit and the spelling.
Write the answer, not a sentence
Question: What material were the first bicycle frames made from?
Passage: The earliest frames were built entirely of wood, which made them heavy and uncomfortable.
| Answer | Result |
|---|---|
| wood | Correct |
| They were made of wood | Wrong — over the limit, and not needed |
| timber | Wrong — not in the passage |
A complete sentence feels more polite. It is the commonest way to break the word limit.
A worked example
An original passage, written for this guide.
The first public library in the town opened in 1887 in a single room above a bakery. It held fewer than four hundred books, most of them donated by a retired sea captain, and members paid a small annual fee to borrow them. The collection outgrew the room within ten years. In 1898 the council bought a former school on Mill Street, where the library remains today, and abolished the fee so that anyone could join.
Answer the questions. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
- Where was the library first located?
- Who gave most of the original books?
- What did the council remove in 1898?
1: above a bakery. A where question, so a place. In a single room above a bakery is too long; above a bakery is within the limit and answers the question.
2: a sea captain. A who question. The full phrase is a retired sea captain, which is four words. Retired sea captain and a sea captain are both three and both acceptable; either identifies the person.
3: the fee. A what question. The passage says the council abolished the fee, and the question has turned abolished into remove. Two traps sit in the same sentence: a former school is something the council bought, not removed, and 1898 is already in the question.
The traps
The true fact that does not answer the question. The sentence contains several details. Only one matches the question word.
The answer in your own words. You understand the passage and write what it means. The mark is for the passage’s words.
Repeating the question. Words that are already in the question do not belong in the answer.
Two answers when one is asked. Unless the question asks for two things, give one.
The paraphrased question. The question says remove and you search for remove. The passage says abolished.
Timing
These are fast marks: half a minute to a minute each. Because they are in order and ask for plain facts, do them early in a passage. They also walk you through the text, which helps with any harder question type that follows.
What costs marks
- Exceeding the word limit with a full sentence or an article.
- Answering with a synonym.
- Giving a detail from the right sentence that answers a different question.
- Spelling errors in copying.
- Leaving a blank. A guess from the right sentence costs nothing.
Practise it
Take any factual paragraph and write five questions on it yourself, each beginning with a different question word. Writing the questions shows you how the test writer paraphrases, and that makes the paraphrases easier to see through.
You can practise IELTS Reading with timed tests on IELTS Studio, which mark every answer and show the band straight away.
Related: sentence completion follows the same rules, and the Listening version is covered in Listening short-answer questions.
Sources
- IELTS Reading test format Official description of short-answer questions: answers taken from words in the text, the word limit, numbers in figures or words, hyphenated words counting as one, and answers in the order of the text.
Last reviewed October 5, 2026. See our editorial policy for how guides are checked and corrected.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I answer short-answer questions in IELTS Reading?
- With words or numbers taken from the passage, inside the word limit. Write only the words that answer the question, not a sentence. If the question asks where, the answer is a place and nothing else.
- Are IELTS Reading short-answer questions in passage order?
- Yes. The answers come in the same order as the information in the passage, so each answer is found after the one before it.
- Can I write numbers as figures in IELTS Reading?
- Yes. Numbers can be written in figures or in words, so 12 and twelve are both accepted. Figures are quicker and remove the risk of a spelling mistake.
- Can I use my own words in a short-answer question?
- No. Answers must be taken from words in the passage. A synonym or a reworded answer is marked wrong, even when the meaning is right.
- What if my short answer is longer than the word limit?
- It loses the mark. Cut it down to the words that carry the answer. Articles, repeated words from the question and extra description are usually what push an answer over.
- What is the difference between short-answer questions and sentence completion?
- The rules are the same and the format differs. Sentence completion gives a sentence with a gap. A short-answer question is a direct question, so the question word tells you what kind of answer to look for.