Understanding the IELTS test format – Paper-based test

What is the format of the IELTS Paper-based Test?

This article is common for both the IELTS Academic and General Training tests. There are differences in terms of the types of questions asked for the Reading section and Writing Task 1, but the format remains the same for both the test types. So, this article is relevant for test takers of both academic as well as the general training test.

The test is split into two parts

Speaking Test

Written Test - Listening, Reading and Writing test.

They are conducted on two separate days. The Listening, Reading and Writing test are conducted together and on the day that you selected, mostly a Saturday. The Speaking test will be conducted in the week preceding or the week after the Listening, Reading and Writing test. Make sure that you read the confirmation mails that you receive on signing up for the test carefully to check for the date of you speaking test.

Speaking Test Format 

 The duration of the test is 11-14 minutes. Whether it lasts for 11 or 14 minutes depends on the length of your answers and the number of questions the examiner asks you. There is no way to say how well you performed based on the duration of the speaking test. There are three sections to the speaking test. 

 Section 1: Introduction and Interview

In this section the examiner will ask you multiple question about you. These are very general questions based on very common topics associated with your life. The topics could be your education, work, childhood, family, hometown, hobbies etc. 

Section 2: Long Turn 

The examiner will present a written question to you. The question will have a main theme and will be supported by sub questions that you need to answer. You will have one minute to prepare for your answer and then 1 to 2 minutes to speak. The examiner will stop you once the 2 minutes are over. After this the examiner will ask you a couple of question about the topic of the cue card. 

 Section 3: Discussions 

 The examiner will ask follow-up questions on the topic of the cue card and/or on topics that are related to the topic of the cue card. 

Written Test Format 

This is the test where you appear for the Listening, Reading and the Writing tests. This test will last for a total of three hours including change overs. 

Listening Test: 

The listening test is of 40 minutes. Of these for 30 minutes you hear the recordings and answer on the question paper. You then get 10 minutes to transfer the answers to the answer sheet. It has 4 audio recordings and there are 10 questions against each of these recordings. Thus, making it a total of 40 question for the listening test. 

Reading Test: 

The reading test is for one hour. There are 3 sections and a total of 40 questions to answer. For the Academic test, each section contains a passage, and for the General Training test, section 1 and section 2 have 2 passages each while section 3 has one passage. 

Writing Test: 

The writing test too if for one hour. You must complete two tasks in the given hour. Writing Task 1 is different for the Academic and the General Training tests. For the Academic test, you will describe an illustration (graph, table, map, or flowchart) in 150 words or more, and for the General Training test you will write a letter in150 words or more. The Writing Task 2 is common, and you must write an essay in 250 words or more on the given topic. You can split the time as you wish between the two tasks, as there is no stipulated time set by IELTS. 

The invigilators will tell you when to begin and when to stop. Make sure you follow their direction carefully to ensure that you finish you test on time. You answer sheets are collected at the end of each section. 

To know what type of questions to expect on each of the 4 modules, you can read the following articles: 

- What to expect on the Speaking Test?

- What to expect on the Listening Test ?

- What to expect on the Academic Reading Test?

- What to expect on the General Training Reading Test?

- What to expect on the Academic Writing Test?

- What to expect on the General Training Writing Test?

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