Reading
How to choose the right heading for each paragraph without reading every word. With a practice exercise and answers.
IELTS matching headings questions give you a list of headings and ask you to choose the right one for each paragraph. There are always more headings than paragraphs, so some are never used, and that is deliberate.
Candidates lose time here more than marks. Reading every paragraph in full and then testing every heading against it is slow, and the reading test does not give you time to be slow. The method below is faster and more accurate.
What is being tested
You are identifying the main idea of a paragraph, not looking for matching words.
A heading has to cover the whole paragraph. A heading that describes only one sentence is wrong, even when that sentence is the most memorable one.
Extra headings are included to catch candidates who match on vocabulary. Some headings will never be used at all.
The heading almost never repeats the words of the paragraph. If it does, be suspicious: that is often the distractor.
Unlike most reading question types, matching headings answers do not follow the order of the passage. You cannot use position to narrow the options.
Method
Six steps, in this order. The order matters more than any single step.
Read all of them before you touch the passage, and note any that look similar to each other. Those pairs are where the test is trying to catch you.
In most academic writing the main idea sits in the first sentence, and sometimes in the last. Read those two before reading the middle.
Before you look at the heading list again, put the paragraph into one short sentence in your head. Then find the heading closest to your sentence.
Each heading is used once. Removing used headings makes every later paragraph easier and faster.
If two headings both seem to fit, move on and come back. The other paragraphs will remove one of them for you.
Before you commit, make sure the heading covers the end of the paragraph as well as the beginning. Paragraphs that change direction halfway are a common trap.
Practice
Read the passage, then choose the best heading for each paragraph from the list.
ATrams disappeared from most British and Australasian cities between the 1930s and the 1960s. They were seen as slow, inflexible and an obstacle to the private car, which was then still regarded as the transport of the future. Track was lifted, depots were sold, and within a generation almost nothing remained.
BThe reasoning behind those closures now looks weak. Buses were assumed to be cheaper because the vehicles cost less, but the calculation ignored how long a tram lasts, how many passengers it carries and how little of the road space it needs per person moved. On the measures that matter, the tram was the cheaper option all along.
CReintroducing a system is a different matter from never having closed one. Laying new track through a city that has since built over the old routes is expensive and disruptive, and several recent schemes have run far beyond their original budgets. Cities considering a network should expect the first line to cost more and take longer than promised.
DNone of that has stopped them. Networks have opened or reopened in dozens of cities over the last thirty years, and passenger numbers have generally exceeded forecasts. Where a line has been built, the argument tends to end: the complaints during construction are rarely heard again once the service is running.
Headings
i A costly and difficult process
ii Why the original decision was wrong
iii How trams work
iv Success despite the obstacles
v The end of an era
vi Competition from the railways
1Paragraph A
v, The end of an era. The paragraph is entirely about closure and disappearance. Heading vi mentions railways, which are never discussed.
2Paragraph B
ii, Why the original decision was wrong. The whole paragraph argues that the reasoning behind the closures does not stand up.
3Paragraph C
i, A costly and difficult process. Expense, disruption and overrunning budgets are the subject from start to finish.
4Paragraph D
iv, Success despite the obstacles. None of that has stopped them refers back to the difficulties in C, and the rest of the paragraph is about how well the new lines have done.
It is the question type that eats the most time, and speed only comes from doing a lot of them with feedback on why each answer was right.
The complete IELTS course on IELTStestONLINE has video lessons on every question type, many more exercises like this one, and your own support tutor you can ask when an answer does not make sense. Take a look at the complete course
Four paragraphs is a start. A real reading passage has eight or nine, under time, with two other question types alongside.
IELTStestONLINE keeps every score you get in one place, gives you an estimated band as you work, and assesses your writing and speaking against the four criteria so you can see where you stand before test day. See what full membership includes
The extra headings are distractors. They usually repeat words from the passage without describing the main idea, so candidates who match on vocabulary rather than meaning choose them.
No. This is one of the few IELTS reading question types where the answers do not follow the order of the text, so you cannot use position to narrow your options.
Not at first. Read the first and last sentences, decide what the paragraph is mainly about, then check the middle only if two headings still seem possible.
No. Each heading is used once at most, which is why crossing out headings as you use them makes the later paragraphs faster.
Leave that paragraph and come back to it. Answering the others will usually remove one of the two options for you.
Full membership
Doing exercises shows you which answers you got wrong. Knowing why, and knowing what band that puts you at, is what changes your result.
IELTStestONLINE assesses your writing and speaking against the four IELTS criteria, instantly and as often as you like, using a system built by a former IELTS examiner and examiner trainer. It keeps every score in one place with an estimated band, and it carries no advertising.
See what membership includes