Overview of the IELTS test

Listening
Here are some key points about the IELTS listening test:
- There are 4 parts with a total of 40 questions.
- Each part has 10 questions.
- It takes approximately 30 minutes.
- You will hear each listening passage once only.
- Each question is worth 1 mark.
Here is an overview of the 4 parts:
Part | |
---|---|
1 | a conversation between two speakers in an everyday social context (e.g. asking for information about a gym membership) |
2 | a monologue in an everyday social context (e.g. speech about school facilities) |
3 | a conversation between up to four speakers in an academic context (e.g. a student asking a tutor about an assignment) |
4 | a monologue in an academic context (e.g. a university lecture) |
A variety of question types is used:
- multiple choice
- matching
- plan labelling
- map labelling
- diagram labelling
- form completion
- note completion
- table completion
- flow-chart completion
- summary completion
- sentence completion
- short-answer questions
Reading
Here are some key points about the IELTS reading test:
- There are 3 reading passages with a total of 40 questions.
- Each passage has 12–14 questions.
- The passages gradually become more difficult. That is, the first passage is the easiest and the third passage is the most difficult.
- It takes 60 minutes.
- Each question is worth one mark.
- The passages are taken from books, journals, magazines and newspapers. They are authentic and academic but written for a non-specialist audience.
- The style of the passages may be narrative, descriptive or argumentative. At least one of the passages will contain detailed logical argument.
- If a passage contains technical terms that need to be understood in order to answer a question, a simple glossary is provided.
A variety of question types is used:
- multiple choice
- identifying information (True / False / Not Given)
- identifying writer’s views/claims (Yes / No / Not Given)
- matching information
- matching headings
- matching features
- matching sentence endings
- sentence completion
- summary completion
- note completion
- table completion
- flow-chart completion
- diagram label completion
- short-answer questions
Writing
There are 2 tasks in the IELTS writing test: Task 1 and Task 2.
Here is an overview of Task 1:
Timing | Length | What you need to do |
---|---|---|
20 minutes | 150 words | Describe and summarise visual information in the form of a graph, table, chart or diagram |
Assessment criteria:
- Task achievement
- Coherence and cohesion
- Lexical resource
- Grammatical range and accuracy
Here is an overview of Task 2:
Timing | Length | What you need to do |
---|---|---|
40 minutes | 250 words | Write an essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem |
Assessment criteria:
- Task response
- Coherence and cohesion
- Lexical resource
- Grammatical range and accuracy
Speaking
Here are some key points about the IELTS speaking test:
- It is conducted face-to-face with a human examiner.
- There are 3 parts.
- It takes 11–14 minutes.
- It is recorded.
Here is an overview of the various parts:
Part | Timing | What you need to do |
---|---|---|
1 | 4–5 minutes | Answer questions about familiar topics such as home, family and work |
2 | 3–4 minutes | Speak for 1–2 minutes in response to a task card (following 1 minute of preparation time) |
3 | 4–5 minutes | Answer more detailed and abstract questions about the topic from Part 2 |
Assessment criteria:
- Fluency and coherence
- Lexical resource
- Grammatical range and accuracy
- Pronunciation