The Listening section consists of four recorded monologues and conversations. It assesses your ability to understand main ideas, specific information, opinions, and attitudes, as well as your ability to follow the development of ideas.

• Task Structure:
  • Part 1: A conversation between two people set in an everyday social context.
  • Part 2: A monologue set in an everyday social context, e.g., a speech about local facilities.
  • 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.
  • Part 4: A monologue on an academic subject, e.g., a university lecture.
• Question Types:
  • Multiple choice, matching, plan/map/diagram labeling, form/note/table/flow-chart/summary completion, and sentence completion.
• Scoring:
  • The Listening section is scored out of 40 marks, which are then converted to a band score ranging from 1 to 9.

The Reading section is designed to assess a wide range of reading skills, including reading for gist, reading for main ideas, reading for detail, understanding inferences, and recognizing a writer’s opinions and attitudes.

• IELTS Academic Reading:
  • Contains three long texts which are taken from books, journals, magazines, and newspapers. These texts are appropriate for candidates entering university courses or seeking professional registration.
• IELTS General Training Reading:
  • Includes three sections: the first section contains two or three short texts or several shorter texts; the second section contains two texts; and the third section contains one longer, more complex text. These texts are relevant to everyday life, work-related situations, and general interest topics.
• Question Types:
  • Multiple choice, identifying information (True/False/Not Given), identifying the writer’s views/claims (Yes/No/Not Given), matching information, matching headings, matching features, matching sentence endings, sentence completion, summary/note/table/flow-chart completion, diagram label completion, and short-answer questions.
• Scoring:
  • The Reading section is also scored out of 40 marks and converted to a band score ranging from 1 to 9.

The Writing section assesses your ability to write in a clear, coherent, and organized manner. It is divided into two tasks.

• IELTS Academic Writing:
  • Task 1: You are required to describe, summarize, or explain information presented in a graph, table, chart, or diagram in at least 150 words.
  • Task 2: You must respond to a point of view, argument, or problem. You need to write at least 250 words, presenting a clear and logical argument supported by examples.
• IELTS General Training Writing:
  • Task 1: You are asked to write a letter in response to a given situation. The letter can be personal, semi-formal, or formal, and should be at least 150 words.
  • Task 2: You need to write an essay in response to a point of view, argument, or problem. The essay should be at least 250 words.
• Scoring:
  • Both tasks are scored based on four criteria: Task Achievement/Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The scores for both tasks are then averaged to give a final Writing band score ranging from 1 to 9.

The Speaking section is a face-to-face interview with a certified examiner and assesses your spoken English skills. The interview is recorded and consists of three parts:

• Part 1: Introduction and Interview (4-5 minutes)
  • You will be asked to introduce yourself and answer general questions about familiar topics such as your home, family, work, studies, and interests.
• Part 2: Long Turn (3-4 minutes)
  • You will be given a task card with a topic and will have one minute to prepare before speaking for 1-2 minutes on the topic. The examiner may then ask one or two questions on the same topic.
• Part 3: Discussion (4-5 minutes)
  • You will engage in a discussion with the examiner on more abstract ideas and issues related to the topic in Part 2.
• Scoring:
  • The Speaking section is scored based on four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. The final score is given as a band score ranging from 1 to 9.