IELTS

It’s divided into four main sections: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. Here’s a brief overview of each component:

1. Listening:

   • Duration: About 30 minutes.
   • Format: Four sections with 40 questions. Each section is heard only once.
   • Content: Includes conversations and monologues in various contexts, such as social situations and academic settings.
   • Purpose: Tests the ability to understand spoken English in different accents and contexts.

2. Reading:

   • Duration: 60 minutes.
   • Format: Three sections with 40 questions. The content differs between the Academic and General Training versions of the test.
     
     • Academic: Includes texts from books, journals, magazines, and newspapers.
     • General Training: Includes materials from everyday life, such as advertisements, instructions, and workplace documents.
   • Purpose: Assesses reading comprehension, including the ability to identify main ideas, details, and inferences.

3. Writing:

   • Duration: 60 minutes.
   • Format: Two tasks.
     
     • Academic:
       
       • Task 1: Describe, summarize, or explain information presented in a graph, table, chart, or diagram.
       • Task 2: Write an essay in response to a point of view, argument, or problem.
     • General Training:
       
       • Task 1: Write a letter (formal, semi-formal, or informal) based on a given situation.
       • Task 2: Write an essay in response to an argument or problem.
   • Purpose: Evaluates the ability to write clearly and coherently, and to express ideas effectively.

4. Speaking:

• • Duration: 11-14 minutes.
  • Format: A face-to-face interview with an examiner.
    
    • Part 1: Introduction and general questions about yourself, your home, and your interests.
    • Part 2: Speak about a specific topic for 1-2 minutes after preparing notes for 1 minute.
    • Part 3: Discussion on more complex ideas related to the topic in Part 2.
  • Purpose: Assesses spoken English skills, including fluency, coherence, pronunciation, and lexical resource.

The IELTS test is scored on a band scale from 1 to 9, with each section receiving a separate score. The overall band score is the average of these four scores. The test is used for academic, professional, and immigration purposes and is recognized by institutions and governments around the world.