What is IELTS ?
The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is developed to measure the language competence of individuals who need to study or work in countries where English is the primary language of communication. IELTS is necessary for university admission in the UK and other countries.
What is the format of the IELTS General test?
The General IELTS version is simpler than the Academic version. The IELTS General Training test is appropriate for those applying to study at the undergraduate level. This includes a school or college that is taught in English. It can also be used for work experience or other job-related training. For migration to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, IELTS General Training is also required. The Listening and Speaking parts are the same for all candidates.
The exam is divided into four sections:
Listening
- 4 sections, 40 questions, 30 minutes
- Section 1: A conversation between two people that takes place in a social environment.
- Section 2: A monologue placed in a common social setting, such as a speech about local amenities.
- Section 3: A discussion between up to four people in an educational or training context, such as a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment.
- Section 4: A monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture.
Each part is only heard once. It includes accents from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada..
Reading
- 3 sections, 40 questions, 60 minutes
- Section 1: two or three short factual texts with tasks mainly about retrieving and providing general factual information.
- Section 2: contains two short factual texts focusing on work-related issues
- Section 3: one longer, more complex text.
Speaking
- An interview, 11-14 minutes
- Part 1 Introduction and interview
- Part 2 Individual long turn - you have to talk about a given topic for up to 2 minutes.
- Part 3 Two-way discussion (The examiner asks further questions which are connected to the topic of Part 2.)
Writing
- Part 1: write a letter requesting information or explaining a situation.
- Part 2: write an essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem
Level and scores
You are assigned a score between 1 and 9. Half-point scores of 6.5 are possible. Universities frequently require a minimum IELTS score of 6.0 or 7.0. They may additionally require a minimum of 6.0 in each of the four sections.
You can use the IELTS Band Score Calculator on this site to convert your reading and listening raw scores.
IELTS Listening marking schemes
For the listening test, which contains 40 questions, the approximate band scores can be calculated using this table.
| Band Score | 9 | 8.5 | 8 | 7.5 | 7 | 6.5 | 6 | 5.5 | 5 | 4.5 | 4 | 3.5 | 3 | 2.5 |
| Score / 40 | 39-40 | 37-38 | 35-36 | 32-34 | 30-31 | 26-29 | 23-25 | 18-22 | 16-17 | 13-15 | 10-12 | 8-10 | 6-7 | 4 |
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