What To Expect From The IELTS Exam

First, an overview . . .

The IELTS tests your grasp on the English language in four areas: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. This is to make sure you’ll be able to understand your course material, produce quality research and be able to interact with people inside and outside the classroom.

The test usually lasts 2 hours, 45 minutes and can either be taken on pen and paper or online.

What to expect from each section of the IELTS exam

The more you know, the better you can prepare! We’ve taken each section of the exam and broken it down to its bare bones so that you know exactly what to expect.

You’ll take the Listening, Reading and Writing portions of the test together (in that order and without any breaks). You can either take the Speaking test on the same day or up to seven days before or after, depending on what your test centre offers.

Listening

You will listen to four recordings of native English speakers about which you’ll answer a series of questions. You’ll listen to two conversation-style interactions, one in an everyday and the other in an academic setting, and two monologues, also in everyday and academic contexts. You’ll then answer 40 questions which could be multiple choice, matching, labelling or sentence completion.

You have 30 minutes and an extra 10 minutes to transfer your answers in the Listening section. It is important to remember that there is NO pausing or restarting the audio.

Reading

You’ll be given three passages on the basis of which you’ll be asked to answer a set of questions. The texts are usually taken from newspapers or magazines. Don’t panic if you’re not familiar with what the text is about – the questions are strictly based on the excerpt you’re reading. The questions can be formatted as fill-in-the-gaps, matching headings to graphs or charts, short answers to open questions or multiple choices.

You have 60 minutes to complete the Reading section but there is no extra time provided to transfer your answers.

Writing

This section made up of two tasks with the first one being shorter (and less weighted) than the second. The first task is to describe and summarise a given graph, table or chart in at least 150 words. You could be describing a data set or a process of how something works in this task. The second task requires you to form a 250-word response to a point-of-view, argument or problem.

You have a total time of 60 minutes. It is recommended that you spend less time, around 20 minutes, on the first task and most of the time, ideally 40 minutes, on the second.

Speaking

You’ll have a recorded, face-to-face conversation with a certified IELTS examiner. If you’re giving the test online, the Speaking section will be through a video call. It is divided into three parts starting with introductions and some familiar questions about home, family, work or study. You’ll then be given a task card with a topic and some points to help you find structure. You’ll have one to two minutes to talk about the topic during which you won’t be interrupted. In the last part, the examiner the examiner will ask you some more questions and engage in a discussion about the same topic.

The Speaking test usually takes about 11-14 minutes.

If you’re looking for some examples of what each section looks like and some practice tests, the official IELTS website has some resources that might come in handy.