The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Preparation

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a test that measures the English language proficiency of people who want to study or work in areas where English is used as a language of communication. IELTS provides a valid and accurate assessment of the four language skills: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.

There are two types of IELTS, Academic and General Training. General training is to determine language proficiency in everyday context, designed to assess how well you can communicate in workplace and social situation.  While IELTS academic measures language proficiency needed for education and high learning environments.

Listening- Test Format

30 minutes

It will comprise of four recordings of native English speaker.

  • a general conversation between two people in everyday context, e.g speech about everyday life
  • a monologue set in everyday social setting, e.g speech about local facilities.
  • a conversation between a group of up to four people, set in an educational or training context, e.g discussion between lecturer and student regarding an academic project.
  • a monologue on academic subject, e.g a university lecture.

Task types:

Multiple choice, matching, diagram labeling, flowcharts & summary completion, sentence completion and short answers.

Academic Reading-Test format

60 minutes

Reading test includes three long texts which range from the descriptive and factual to the discursive and analytical. These are taken from books, journals, magazines and newspapers.

Task types:

Multiply choice questions, identifying information, identifying writers view, matching information, matching headings and matching features, matching sentence endings, sentence completion, flow-chart & summary completion, diagram labeling and short answer-question.

General Training- Test format

60 minutes

IELTS General Training test – this includes extracts from books, magazines, newspapers, notices, advertisements, company handbooks and guidelines. These are materials you are likely to encounter on a daily basis in an English-speaking environment.

Task type:

Multiply choice questions, identifying information, identifying writers view, matching information, matching headings and matching features, matching sentence endings, sentence completion, flow-chart & summary completion, diagram labeling and short answer-question.

Academic Writing- Test format

60 minutes

Topics are of general interest to, and suitable for, test takers entering undergraduate and postgraduate studies or seeking professional registration. There are two tasks:

  • Task 1 – you will be presented with a graph, table, chart or diagram and asked to describe, summarise or explain the information in your own words. You may be asked to describe and explain data, describe the stages of a process, how something works or describe an object or event.
  • Task 2 – you will be asked to write an essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem. Responses to both tasks must be in a formal style.

Task 1 responses are assessed on task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy.

Task 2 responses are assessed on task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy.

General Training writing- Test format

60 minutes

Topics are of general interest.

  • Task 1 – you will be presented with a situation and asked to write a letter requesting information, or explaining the situation. The letter may be personal, semi-formal or formal in style.
  • Task 2 – you will be asked to write an essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem. The essay can be fairly personal in style.

Task 1 responses are assessed on task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy.

Task 2 responses are assessed on task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy.

Speaking- Test format

11–14 minutes

The speaking section assesses your use of spoken English. Every test is recorded.

  • Part 1 – the examiner will ask you general questions about yourself and a range of familiar topics, such as home, family, work, studies and interests. This part lasts between four and five minutes.
  • Part 2  – you will be given a card which asks you to talk about a particular topic. You will have one minute to prepare before speaking for up to two minutes. The examiner will then ask one or two questions on the same topic.
  • Part 3 – you will be asked further questions about the topic in Part 2. These will give you the opportunity to discuss more abstract ideas and issues. This part of the test lasts between four and five minutes.

Marking and assessment, Fluency and coherence, Lexical resource, Grammatical range and accuracy and Pronunciation