The test at a glance

Academic or General Training: which do you need?

IELTS comes in two versions. Academic is for people who want to study at university, and it is also used for some professional registration. General Training is used for work, for migration and for entry to secondary education. Both versions share exactly the same Listening and Speaking tests; the Reading and Writing papers are where they differ.

Those are the usual uses, not rules you apply yourself. You do not choose your version by which one sounds easier or which one a friend took. The organisation that will receive your result decides which version it accepts, and a result in the wrong version may simply not be accepted, which means booking, paying for and preparing for the test all over again.

Try the method on four typical situations. Decide for each person before you check the answer, and notice how often the honest answer is ‘probably this one, but check first’.

The four papers, in order

Every candidate takes four papers: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The first three are taken on the same day, in that order, with no breaks between them. Speaking is arranged separately: on the same day, or up to seven days before or after the other three. Here is the whole test in one table.

Listening: about 30 minutes, each recording played once

Listening has four parts and 40 questions, one mark each. The recordings move from everyday situations to education and academic ones:

1. Part 1: a conversation between two people in an everyday social situation, for example someone phoning to book a service or ask for information.
2. Part 2: one person speaking in an everyday social context, for example a talk about a local facility or event.
3. Part 3: a conversation between up to four people in an education or training context, for example students discussing a project with their tutor.
4. Part 4: one person speaking on an academic subject, much like a short lecture.

You hear each recording once. Question types include multiple choice, matching, labelling a plan, map or diagram, and completing forms, notes, tables, flow charts, summaries or sentences. Spelling counts, so a right answer spelt wrongly does not earn the mark; British and American spellings are both accepted. What the paper really rewards is catching precise details (names, numbers, spellings) while still following the speaker’s meaning, with no chance to replay.

Reading: 60 minutes, three sections

Reading has three sections and 40 questions in 60 minutes. That is about 90 seconds per question, including the time to read the texts, so method and speed matter as much as vocabulary. On paper, that same hour also has to include writing your answers on the answer sheet; more on that below.

In Academic, each section is one long text taken from books, journals, magazines or newspapers and written for a general reader, not a specialist. In General Training, Section 1 has short everyday texts, Section 2 has work-related texts, and Section 3 has one longer text on a general topic.

Question types include multiple choice, True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given, matching (headings, information, features or sentence endings), completion (sentences, summaries, notes, tables, flow charts or diagram labels) and short answers. When an instruction sets a word limit, such as NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS, follow it exactly: an answer over the limit is wrong even if it contains the right idea. The Reading module teaches a method for each type.

Writing: 60 minutes, two tasks

Task 1 needs at least 150 words, and about 20 minutes is suggested. In Academic you describe and summarise visual information: a graph, table, chart, diagram, map or process. In General Training you write a letter in response to a situation, covering the bullet points you are given; depending on the situation, the letter may be formal, semi-formal or informal.

Task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words, with about 40 minutes suggested, responding to a point of view, an argument or a problem. It is the same kind of task in both versions, and it counts for twice as much as Task 1 in your Writing band. Writing under the minimum in either task is penalised. There is no maximum, but extra length costs time and adds chances to make mistakes.

Examiners mark each task on four equally weighted criteria. In plain terms: how fully and appropriately you answer the task (called Task Achievement in Task 1 and Task Response in Task 2); how clearly your writing is organised and linked (Coherence and Cohesion); the range and accuracy of your vocabulary (Lexical Resource); and the range and accuracy of your grammar (Grammatical Range and Accuracy). The Writing modules teach each one in depth.

Speaking: 11 to 14 minutes, face to face

Speaking is a recorded, face-to-face conversation with an examiner, in three parts:

Academic and General Training side by side

Here is the difference in one table. If you remember only one thing, remember this: Listening and Speaking are identical, and the two versions part ways in Reading and in Writing Task 1.

Paper or computer?

Both formats are taken at a test centre, and which formats are available depends on the centre, so check before you book. The questions, tasks and timings are the same, apart from the few minutes at the end of Listening. The other differences are practical, and most of them are about how you record your answers.

How the test day runs

Add up the first three stages and you have a long sitting: on paper, about 30 minutes of Listening plus 10 minutes of transfer time, then 60 minutes of Reading and 60 of Writing. That is roughly two hours and forty minutes without a break, a little less on computer, and Writing comes last, when you are most tired. So before your test, do at least one full practice run of Listening, Reading and Writing back to back (the lesson ‘Make your study plan’ shows where it fits), so the length is not a shock on the day.

Your Speaking test could also come before the other three papers, so do not leave Speaking practice until the last week. Check your booking confirmation for the date, time and place of each part, and follow your test centre’s instructions on arrival and what to bring. The lesson ‘Test day: what to expect’, later in this module, covers the day itself in detail.

Check yourself

Put it to work today

Knowing the format only helps if it changes what you do. Finish with two short tasks: one that settles your target, and one that gets you explaining the test in English, from memory.

The first task is a real email. Check the organisation’s website first, because the answer is often published there; if it is not clear, send what you write. If you already know your requirements, write to an imaginary university instead: it is still good practice in clear, polite writing.

The second task is spoken, and it does two jobs. Recalling what you have just learnt, without looking, fixes it in your memory better than re-reading it. It is also a gentle first taste of Speaking Part 2, where you talk on your own for one to two minutes.

Next: How band scores work. You will learn what the bands mean in plain words, how your overall band is calculated, and why the minimum in each skill can matter as much as the overall score.