IELTS General Training

Duration: 60 minutes. (It is advised to spend 20 minutes on task 1 and 40 minutes on task 2)

Total Questions/ Tasks: 2.

Task 1: Letter Writing (word requirement minimum 150). An informal, semi-formal or formal letter for requesting information, inviting someone, explaining a situation and so on.

Task 2: Essay Writing (word requirement minimum 250). An essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem.

NB. The assessment of Task 2 (Essay) carries more weight in marking/band score than Task 1 (Letter).

Duration: 11-14 minutes.

Total Questions: 11-12.

IELTS speaking component assesses a candidate’s use of spoken English. The whole conversation is recorded to assign an accurate band score.

Speaking Part # 1 – In this part, the examiner asks 4-5 general questions about yourself and a range of familiar topics, such as home, family, hometown, work, studies and interests. This part lasts for 2-5 minutes.

Speaking Part # 2 – In this part, you will be given a card (known as Cue Card or Candidate Task Card) which asks you to talk about a particular topic. You will be given one minute preparation time before you start speaking. You need to speak up to two minutes. The examiner will then ask one or two questions on the same topic which are called round-off questions.

Speaking Part # 3 – In this part, the examiner asks 5-7 questions which are related to the topic in Speaking Part 2. You need to discuss more abstract ideas and issues in this part. This part of the test lasts between four and five minutes.

Duration: 30 minutes. (Extra 10 minutes to transfer your answer to the answer sheet if you take the paper-based IELTS test.)

Total Questions: 40.

In the Listening section of your IELTS test, you will listen to recordings (divided into four sections) of native English speakers and answers to a series of questions (usually 40 questions).

Recording Part # 1 – A conversation between two people set in an everyday social context.
Recording Part # 2 – A monologue set in an everyday social context, e.g. a speech about local facilities.
Recording Part # 3 – A conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context, e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment.
Recording Part # 4 – A monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture.

Task Types: A variety of question types are used in IELTS GT listening section including multiple-choice, matching, plan/map/diagram labelling, form/note/table/flow-chart/summary completion, and sentence completion.

Duration: 60 minutes.

Total Questions: 40.

IELTS GT Reading test has three sections. Each section comes with 13-14 questions.

Section 1 contains 2-3 short texts or several shorter texts.
Section 2 comprises two texts/passages.
Section 3 has a long reading passage.

Test source: IELTS GT Reading passages are taken from books, notices, advertisements, magazines, newspapers, company handbooks and guidelines.

Task Types: A variety of questions types are used in IELTS GT Reading section including multiple choice, matching headings, identifying information, short-answer questions, identifying writer’s views/claims, matching information, matching features, matching sentence endings, summary completion, sentence completion, note completion, table completion, flowchart completion, and diagram label completion.