Multiple choice questions

How to answer single-answer and multiple-answer multiple choice questions in IELTS Reading by predicting, locating and eliminating distractors.

Multiple choice looks friendly: the answer is on the screen, and you only have to recognise it. In practice it is one of the slowest tasks, because for each question you may need to check four options against the text, and three of them have been written specifically to attract you. This lesson shows how those wrong options are built, which is the quickest way to learn to reject them.

The two formats

One answer from four.

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. 28 According to the second paragraph, switching between tasks is most costly when A the tasks have to be completed quickly. B the tasks are difficult or new to the person. …

The ‘stem’ is either a question or an unfinished sentence. These questions follow the order of the passage.

Two (or three) answers from a longer list.

Choose TWO letters, A–E. Which TWO reasons are given for the fact that staple crops are not grown in vertical farms?

Here each correct letter is worth one mark, and you can give them in either order.

Multiple choice questions test two things: specific details (‘What did the experiment show?’) and global understanding (‘What is the writer’s main point in the first paragraph?’, ‘What is the best title for the passage?’). Global questions usually come last.

The method

1. Read the stem only, and highlight its keywords. Do not read the options yet.
2. Find the relevant part of the passage. Stems often tell you where to look (‘in the fourth paragraph’, ‘the Stanford study’).
3. Read that part closely and answer the stem in your own words. For example: Switching costs most when → tasks are complicated/unfamiliar.
4. Now read the options and choose the one closest to your own answer.
5. Eliminate the others, each for a definite reason.

Why answer before reading the options? Because the options are designed to put ideas into your head. If you read them first, all four begin to sound plausible, and you go to the text looking for confirmation instead of information.

How distractors are made

A ‘distractor’ is a wrong option that looks right. There are five standard recipes.

1. Mentioned, but it answers a different question

The option is true according to the passage, but it does not answer this stem. This is the most dangerous kind, because when you check it against the text you find it there.

2. Right words, wrong relationship

The option uses words from the passage but changes how they are connected: cause becomes effect, before becomes after, A is said about B.

3. The opposite

The option states the reverse of what the passage says, often by removing or adding a negative.

4. Too strong

The passage says some, may, in certain cases; the option says all, will, always.

5. Not mentioned

The option sounds reasonable and fits the topic, but the passage simply does not say it.

Worked example

The first vending machines sold not snacks but holy water. A device described in the first century AD by the engineer Hero of Alexandria released a measured amount when a coin was dropped through a slot: the weight of the coin tipped a lever, which opened a valve until the coin slid off. The principle was then forgotten for the best part of two thousand years. Coin-operated machines reappeared in London in the 1880s, selling postcards at railway stations, and soon afterwards an American company began installing gum dispensers on railway platforms in New York. Commercial success, however, depended on a problem that Hero had never faced. A machine left unattended in a public place had to be able to tell a genuine coin from a worthless metal disc, and it was not until reliable coin-testing mechanisms were developed in the early twentieth century that vending became a major industry.

Question: According to the writer, vending machines only became commercially important when A they began to be placed in railway stations. B they were able to detect false coins. C an American company started to sell chewing gum. D the mechanism invented by Hero was rediscovered.

Step 1–3. Stem keywords: only became commercially important when. Scan for ‘commercial’: ‘Commercial success, however, depended on a problem… had to be able to tell a genuine coin from a worthless metal disc … it was not until reliable coin-testing mechanisms were developed … that vending became a major industry.’ Own answer: when machines could test coins.

Step 4. Option B matches: detect false coins = tell a genuine coin from a worthless metal disc.

Step 5. Why are the others wrong?

• A – Railway stations are mentioned (recipe 1), but as the place where machines reappeared, not as the condition for commercial success.
• C – Also mentioned (recipe 1). The gum dispensers came ‘soon afterwards’, but the passage does not say they made the industry important.
• D – The passage says the principle ‘was forgotten’; it never says that its rediscovery was the turning point (recipe 2: right words, wrong relationship).

Notice the word however in the passage. Sentences that begin with however, but, yet, in fact very often contain the answer to a multiple choice question, because they mark the point the writer most wants to make.

Questions about the writer’s purpose

Some stems ask why the writer mentions something:

The writer refers to computers in the first paragraph in order to… Why does the writer mention both Finland and the United States?

Do not answer with what is said about the example. Ask what job it does in the argument: to illustrate a point, to introduce a contrast, to show that a belief is wrong, to give evidence for a claim. Read the sentence before and the sentence after the example; the purpose is usually stated there.

Choosing TWO or THREE answers

1. Read the question and highlight exactly what is asked: TWO reasons, THREE features, TWO problems.
2. All the options normally relate to one part of the passage. Find it.
3. Go through the options one by one, marking each as ✓ (stated), ✗ (contradicted) or ? (not mentioned).
4. You should end with the required number of ticks. If you have three ticks for a ‘choose TWO’ question, one of them does not answer the specific question asked: reread the question.

The typical trap here is an option that is mentioned in the text but in a different connection. For example, the question asks for problems that Leila will discuss, and one option is a problem she mentions only to say she will not discuss it.

When you are stuck between two options

• Compare the two options with each other and find the precise difference between them. Then look for that difference in the text.
• Check each option for strong words: only, all, never, always, completely.
• Check that the option answers the stem, not just that it is true.
• If you still cannot decide, choose one, flag the question and move on. There is no penalty for a wrong answer.

Key points

• Read the stem, find the place and form your own answer before you read the options.
• Wrong options are often true statements that answer a different question.
• Sentences after however and in fact are favourite sources of answers.
• For ‘choose TWO’ questions, mark every option ✓, ✗ or ?.
• Reject each wrong option for a reason; do not just pick the one that feels best.

IELTS is a registered trademark of the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. PrepFreely is not affiliated with, approved or endorsed by them.