IELTS Reading – Matching Headings

Here are some tips, strategies and articles with matching headings questions.

matching headings basics

Matching headings questions test your ability to understand the main idea of a paragraph. Most paragraphs have one main idea.

You will get a list of headings, and you need choose the correct heading for each paragraph. There will be more headings than paragraphs.

There are a few different strategies for these questions. Below are two popular ones. Try them both and see which works best for you.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

i What if you get it wrong?
ii Everything you wanted
iii Decisions exclude
iv Whatever will be okay
v A fork in the road
vi Make a choice and move forward
vii Shrink or grow
viii Don’t do nothing
ix Hard choices

Matching Headings example from the article Difficult Decisions.

Strategy A: read the paragraphs first

(This is my preferred strategy.)

Read each paragraph and find the main idea.
– Try summarising it in your own words (or think about what a good heading would be).
Match the headings.
– Start with paragraph 1. Look at the list and choose a heading that matches. You might need to re-read the paragraph to make sure.
Skip if it’s not clear.
– If you can’t match a heading to a paragraph, go on to the next one. It will be easier if you come back to it later and there are fewer choices left.
Repeat for each paragraph.

strategy B: read the questions first

(This is a strategy many teachers recommend.)

Look at the list of headings first
– Think about the key words, possible synonyms, and the overall meaning of each heading.
– Try to imagine what kind of paragraph would match each one.
Read Paragraph A
– Identify the main idea and try to match it to a heading from the list.
Skip if it’s not clear.
– See Strategy A.
– Also, remember, there will be more headings than paragraphs.
Repeat for each paragraph.

Other Tips for matching headings

Read carefully enough to get the main idea of the text.
But move quickly – don’t get stuck on details.
Learn to know the difference between main ideas and supporting details.
Sometimes a paragraph will contain similar information to the heading, but it might not be the main idea.
Matching Headings questions usually come first. If they don’t, it’s still a good idea to do them first.
Knowing the main ideas of the paragraphs will help you to find the answers to the other questions more quickly.