IELTS

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A quick look at IELTS Academic Reading test

The Academic Reading test includes three long texts which range from descriptive and factual to discursive and analytical. The texts are authentic and are taken from books, journals, magazines and newspapers. These have been selected for a non-specialist audience but are appropriate for people entering university courses or seeking professional registration. 

Academic Reading free sample questions

A quick look at IELTS Academic Writing test

Duration: 60 minutes

The IELTS Academic Writing test is made up of two tasks. The topics in these tasks are related to areas of general interest and are suitable for test takers entering undergraduate and postgraduate studies or seeking professional registration. Responses to both tasks must be written in a formal style. 

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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 present data, describe the stages of a process, how something works or describe an object, plan or design.  

Task 2  

You will be asked to write an essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem. You will support your point of view with relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience. 

Academic Writing free sample questions

A quick look at General Training Writing test

Duration: 60 minutes  

The General Training Writing test includes two tasks that are based on topics 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 slightly more personal in style compared to an Academic Writing task. You will support your point of view with relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience. 

General Training Writing free sample questions

A quick overview of IELTS General Training Reading test

The General Training Reading test requires you to read extracts from books, magazines, newspapers, notices, advertisements, company handbooks and guidelines. These are materials you are likely to encounter daily in an English-speaking environment. There are three parts in the test, with Part 1 containing two to three short texts, Part 2 contains two texts and Part 3 contains one longer text. 

General Training Reading free sample question

A quick look at IELTS Listening test

Duration: 30 minutes 

The Listening test is the same for both IELTS Academic test and IELTS General Training test. You will need to answer 40 questions in response to four recordings. 

You will listen to four recordings which are a mix of monologues and conversations from a range of native speakers and you will only hear each recording once. There are 10 questions for each part of the Listening test.  

These questions test your ability to understand: 

Main ideas and detailed factual information 

The opinions and attitudes of speakers 

The purpose of an utterance 

The ability to follow the development of ideas. 

Listening part details: 

Recording 1 A conversation between two people set in an everyday social context.  

Recording 2 A monologue set in an everyday social context, e.g. a speech about local facilities.  

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Recording 3 A conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context, e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment.  

Recording 4 A monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture. 

Listening free sample questions

A quick look at IELTS Speaking test

Duration: 11 to 14 minutes  

The Speaking test will assess your use of spoken English. The test will last between 11 and 14 minutes where you will discuss a variety of topics with an IELTS examiner. Your test will take place in a quiet room with an examiner who will encourage you to keep speaking. Unlike an AI test, an IELTS examiner will be able to make you feel relaxed and confident. They’re also able to understand your accent to ensure you get the best possible score. There are 3 parts to the Speaking test.  

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 4 and 5 minutes.  

Part 2  

You will be given a task card and the examiner will ask you to talk about a topic. You will have 1 minute to prepare before speaking for up to 2 minutes. The examiner will then ask one or two questions on the same topic to finish this part of the test.  

Part 3

You will be asked further questions connected to the topic in Part 2. These questions will allow you to discuss more abstract ideas and issues. This part of the test lasts between 4 and 5 minutes. 

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A quick look at IELTS Academic Reading test

The Academic Reading test includes three long texts which range from descriptive and factual to discursive and analytical. The texts are authentic and are taken from books, journals, magazines and newspapers. These have been selected for a non-specialist audience but are appropriate for people entering university courses or seeking professional registration. 

Sample questions

Sample answer sheetexternal icon

Sample questions

Multiple choice - one answer sample taskexternal icon

Multiple choice - more than one answer sample taskexternal icon

Identifying information - True/False/Not given sample taskexternal icon

Identifying information - writer's views or claims sample taskexternal icon

Matching headings sample taskexternal icon

Matching features sample taskexternal icon

Summary completion sample task 1external icon

Summary completion sample task 2external icon

Flow chart completion sample taskexternal icon

Sample answers

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Academic reading sample answersexternal icon

Multiple choice

There are three types of multiple choice questions: 

Choose the best answer from four choices (A, B, C or D) 

Choose the best two answers from five choices (A, B, C, D or E) 

Choose the best three answers from seven choices (A, B, C, D, E, F or G) 

Each multiple choice question may involve completing a sentence, where you are given the first part of a sentence and then you have to choose the best way to complete it from the options, or you might have to answer a complete question, choosing the option which best answers it. 

The questions are presented in the same order as the information in the reading text. So, the answer to the first multiple choice question will be located in the text before the answer to the second multiple choice question, and so on.

Identifying information

When you have to identify information, you will be given a number of statements and asked: “Do the following statements agree with the information in the text?”. When you answer the questions, you write “True”, “False” or “Not given” in the answer boxes. 

It is important to understand the difference between “False” and “Not given”. “False” means the passage states the opposite of the statement in question. “Not given” means that the statement is neither confirmed nor contradicted by the information in the passage.

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Identifying a writer's views or claims

In this question type, where you have to identify a writer’s view or claim, you will be given a number of statements and asked: ‘Do the following statements agree with the views/claims of the writer?’. You will then select ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘Not given’. 

It is important to understand the difference between 'No' and 'Not given'. 'No' means that the views or claims of the writer explicitly disagree with the statement, i.e. the writer expresses the view or makes a claim which is opposite to the one given in the question; 'Not given' means that the view or claim is neither confirmed nor contradicted. 

Be careful when deciding on your answer that you are not influenced by your own knowledge on the topic area. 

This question type assesses your ability to recognise opinions or ideas, and so it is often used with discursive or argumentative texts. 

Matching information

In this matching information question type, you are required to locate specific information within the lettered paragraphs or sections of a text, and then you have to select the letters of the correct paragraphs or sections.  

You may be asked to find:  

specific detail 

an example 

a reason 

a description  

a comparison  

a summary  

an explanation.  

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You will not necessarily need to find information in every paragraph or section of the text, but there may be more than one piece of information that you need to locate in a given paragraph or section. When this is the case, you will be told that you can use a letter more than once.  

This matching information question type can be used with any text, as it tests a wide range of reading skills, from locating detail to recognising a summary or definition.  

Matching information assesses your ability to scan for specific information.

Matching headings

A heading refers to the main idea of the paragraph or section of the text. In the matching headings question type, you are given a list of headings and then asked to match the heading to the correct paragraphs or sections. There will always be more headings than there are paragraphs or sections, so some headings will not be used. It is also possible that some paragraphs or sections may not be included in the task. This question type is used with texts that contain paragraphs or sections with clearly defined themes.

Matching headings tests your ability to recognise the main idea or theme in the paragraphs or sections of a text, and to distinguish main ideas from supporting ones.

Matching features

You are required to match a set of statements or pieces of information to a list of options. The options are presented as a group of features from the text with each one identified by letters. For example, you may be required to match different research findings to a list of researchers, or characteristics to age groups, events to historical periods, etc. It is possible that some options will not be used, and that others may be used more than once. The instructions will tell you if you can use the options more than once.  

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Matching features will assess your ability to recognise relationships and connections between facts in the text and your ability to recognise opinions and theories. It may be used both with factual information, as well as opinion-based discursive texts. You will need to be able to skim and scan the text in order to locate the required information and then to read for detail to match the correct feature. 

Matching sentence endings

When you have to match sentence endings, you are given the first half of a sentence based on the reading text and you are asked to choose the best way to complete it from a list of possible options. There will be more options to choose from than there are questions. You will then have to choose the correct option to complete the sentence. The questions are in the same order as the information in the passage: that is, the answer to the first question in this group will be found before the answer to the second question, and so on.   

Matching sentence endings assesses your ability to understand the main ideas within a sentence. 

Sentence completion

In this sentence completion question type, you will complete sentences taken from the reading text. The instructions will make it clear how many words or numbers you should use in your answer, e.g. ‘NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage’, ‘ONE WORD ONLY’ or ‘NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS’. If you write more than the number of words in the instruction, you will lose the mark. Numbers can be written using figures or words. Hyphenated words count as single words. The questions are in the same order as the information in the passage: that is, the answer to the first question in this group will be found before the answer to the second question, and so on.  

Sentence completion assesses your ability to locate detail or specific information. 

Summary, note, table, flow-chart completion

In this summary completion question type, you will be given a summary of a section of the text and are required to complete it with information taken from the text. The summary will usually be of only one part of the passage rather than the whole.  

The given information may be in the form of:  

several connected sentences of text (referred to as a summary) 

several notes (referred to as notes) 

a table with some of its cells empty or partially empty (referred to as a table) 

a series of boxes or steps linked by arrows to show a sequence of events, with some of the boxes or steps empty or partially empty (referred to as a flow-chart). 

The answers will not necessarily occur in the same order as in the text. However, they will usually come from one section rather than the entire text. 

There are two variations of this task type. You may be asked to: 

select words from the text

select from a list of answers. 

Where words have to be selected from the passage, the instructions will make it clear how many words or numbers you should use in your answers, e.g. ‘NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage’, ‘ONE WORD ONLY’ or ‘NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS’. If you write more than the number of words asked for, you will lose the mark. 

Numbers can be written using figures or words. Hyphenated words count as single words. Where a list of answers is provided, they most frequently consist of a single word. 

Because this task type often relates to precise factual information, it is often used with descriptive texts. 

Summarising assesses your ability to understand details and/or the main ideas of a section of text. In the variations involving a summary or notes, you will need to be aware of the type of word(s) that will fit into a given gap (for example, whether a noun is needed, or a verb, etc.). 

Diagram label completion

In this question type, you are required to complete labels on a diagram, which relates to a description contained in the text. The instructions will make it clear how many words or numbers you should use in your answers, e.g. ‘NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage’, ‘ONE WORD ONLY’ or ‘NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS’. If you write more than the number of words asked for, you will lose the mark. Numbers can be written using figures or words. Hyphenated words count as single words. The answers do not necessarily occur in order in the passage. However, they will usually come from one section rather than the entire text. 

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The diagram may show some type of machine, or of parts of a building or of any other element that can be represented pictorially. This task type is often used with texts describing processes or with descriptive texts. 

Diagram label completion assesses your ability to understand a detailed description, and to relate it to information presented in the form of a diagram. 

Short-answer questions

In this question type, you are required to answer a question providing a short answer. You will answer questions which usually relate to factual information about details in the text.  

You must write your answers using words or numbers from the text. The instructions will make it clear how many words or numbers you should use in your answers, e.g. ‘NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage’, ‘ONE WORD ONLY’ or ‘NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS’. If you write more than the number of words asked for, you will lose the mark. 

Numbers can be written using figures or words. Hyphenated words count as single words. The questions are in the same order as the information in the text. 

Short-answer questions assess your ability to locate and understand precise information in the text. 

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