Short Answer Questions

On this page, we will learn about: What are short-answer questions?, examples of short-answer questions, Useful information about short-answer questions on IELTS Reading, Strategies to answer the short-answer questions, Tips for the short answer questions and practice for the short answer: The fattest animals, and Answers and Explanations of the Fattest Animals.

What is Short answer Questions?

Short-answer questions assess your ability to find and comprehend specific information in a reading text.This activity may be difficult for some because it demands both skimming and scanning abilities.

In this lesson, we will learn reading strategies and tips for IELTS Reading short-answer questions.

IELTS Reading short-answer questions are very similar to sentence completion questions. Again, you should respond to questions using words directly from the text. You also have a word limit (for example: write no more than two words).

Note: The only difference is that sentence completion requires you to finish sentences. In addition, short-answer questions may require you to either complete sentences or answer questions, such as:

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 3-7 on your answer sheet.

5. What will be crucial in the development of the education sector?


When answering short-answer questions, keep the word limit in mind. Many IELTS test takers are caught off guard by the word limit: even if the answer is logically correct, if the number of words exceeds the limit, it receives 0 points.


Example of Short-answer Questions:


short answer in ielts reading

Useful information about short-answer questions on IELTS Reading:

  • You should use words from the text to complete statements or answer questions.
  • You have a word limit.
  • The questions are arranged in the same order as the text.

It is important to note that if you are asked to complete a sentence with no more than two words, you can write one or two words; a three-word answer is automatically incorrect.


Strategies to answer the short answer questions:

  1. Read the instructions carefully, keeping in mind the word limit for your answers.
  2. Read the questions and make an attempt to understand what is being asked.
  3. Underline key words in the questions. Consider possible synonyms as well.
  4. Skim over the text. Keep an eye on the keywords and synonyms you identified, but don't read too deeply.
  5. Reread question 1, then scan the first paragraph, possibly the second, until you find the location of the answer. Then read carefully to find the exact word or words required to answer the question.
  6. Apply this strategy to the remaining questions.


Tips for the short answer questions:

  1. First, read the questions, then the text. Before reading the text, make sure you understand what the questions are asking. You will then be aware of the main ideas to keep an eye out for as you skim read.
  2. The answers will be presented in chronological order in the text. As a result, once you've found the answer to question 1, you'll know that the answer to question 2 will follow shortly after, and so on.
  3. Don't exceed the word limit for your answers, such as 'NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER.'
  4. For your answer, only use the words from the text. You may need to change the tense of any verbs you use to ensure your answer is grammatically correct.
  5. Most questions will include synonyms or paraphrases of the text, which means that the meaning will be the same but the wording will be slightly different.


Practice for short answer questions:

The fattest animals

1. The blue whale, as the world's largest animal, also has the most fat. In a 1968 study of 49 different mammal species from the United States and Brazil, researchers discovered that the blue whale had the highest percentage of body fat - more than 35%. With the whales weighing up to 180 tonnes, that is easily a record amount of fat for a single animal.

2. However, if we look at things in proportion, some of the world's full-fat species may surprise you. We'll start with blubber, a fat-rich tissue found in marine mammals that has numerous applications including streamlining, buoyancy, defense, insulation, and energy storage.

3. Bowhead whales can be found in waters further north. They have a layer of blubber nearly half a metre thick to survive in these icy, remote waters. In his studies, Dr. Craig George discovered that blubber mass ranged from 43% to 50% of the body mass of yearling whales.


Answer the following questions below; don’t use more than three words:

1. Which of these animals has the most fat?

2. How is the fat-rich tissue of marine mammals referred to?

Answer and Explanations:



1.The answer to this question can be found in the first sentence of the text:

The blue whale, as the world's largest animal, also has the most fat.

After we've identified a possible answer (blue whale), we must validate it:
a. It's no more than two words.
b. The text clearly states that the blue whale has the most fat.

As a result, we can conclude that the correct answer is blue whale.



2.After reading the text, we can see that the second passage mentioned marine mammals' fatty tissue. Okay, we look over the second passage to find the solution. This sentence is simple to locate:

We'll start with blubber, a fat-rich tissue found in marine mammals that has numerous applications including streamlining, buoyancy, defense, insulation, and energy storage.

The answer that was discovered (blubber) is appropriate and valid.You can see how a new term from the text is used for the question; short-answer questions in IELTS Reading frequently use this term.

3.Which marine creatures must have a thick layer of fat to survive in cold waters?

We can assume that the answer is somewhere in the third paragraph because questions follow the order of the text. That's correct:

Bowhead whales can be found in waters further north. They have a layer of blubber nearly half a metre thick to survive in these icy, remote waters.

The correct answer is bowhead whales.