INTRODUCTION
IELTS is International English Language Testing System. It is an exam intended for non-native English speakers. Its purpose is to find out what is your level of English (your result is a band score from 0 to 9). Usually you need to take IELTS if you are applying for a job/studies in a college or university in English-speaking country or if you are migrating to such country. The IELTS is available in 2 formats - Academic and General Training.
The focus is on General Training Reading and Writing tests for our purposes to test your full range of formal language required for basic survival skills in a broad social and educational context.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The IELTS test consists of four parts in the following order.
Listening Test | Reading Test | Writing Test | Speaking Test
Listening Test takes about 30 minutes – 20 minutes to listen to a CD and to answer questions on what you hear, and 10 minutes to transfer your answers to Answer Sheet. There are 40 questions and four sections.
Reading Test takes 1 hour and your task is to read passages of text and answer questions according to what you have read. There are 40 questions based on three reading passages with a total of 2,000 to 2, 750 words.
Writing Test takes also 1 hour and is divided into 2 sub-parts: 20 minutes to write a letter/report and 40 minutes to write an essay.
Speaking Test takes up to 15 minutes and consists of 3 parts: Personal Interview, Little Speech and a Discussion.
Module | Total Time | Questions | Time for each question |
Listening | 30 min | 40 | .75 min |
Reading | 60 min | 40 | .67 min |
Writing | 60 min | 2 | 30 min |
Speaking | 11 - 14 min | N/A | N/A |
All the parts continue one after another, and only before the Speaking test you get a break.