IELTS Test Structure
Modules
There are two modules of the IELTS:
→ Academic Module and
→ General Training Module There is also a separate test offered by the IELTS test partners, called IELTS Life Skills:
→ IELTS Academic is intended for those who want to enroll in universities and other institutions of higher education and for professionals such as medical doctors and nurses who want to study or practise in an English-speaking country.
→ IELTS General Training is intended for those planning to undertake non-academic training or to gain work experience, or for immigration purposes.
→ IELTS Life Skills is intended for those who need to prove their English speaking and listening skills at Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) levels A1 or B1 and can be used to apply for a ‘family of a settled person’ visa, indefinite leave to remain or citizenship in the UK.
The IELTS test has four parts
→ Listening: 30 minutes (plus 10 minutes’ transfer time)
→ Reading: 60 minutes
→ Writing: 60 minutes
→ Speaking: 11–14 minutes
The test total time is: 2 hours and 55 minutes.
Listening, Reading and Writing are completed in one sitting. The Speaking test may be taken on the same day or up to seven days before or after the other tests.
All test takers take the same Listening and Speaking tests, while the Reading and Writing tests differ depending on whether the test taker is taking the Academic or General Training versions of the test.
Scoring
Test takers receive a score for each test component – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The individual scores are then averaged and rounded to produce an Overall Band Score.
Band scale
There is no pass or fail. IELTS is scored on a nine-band scale, with each band corresponding to a specified competence in English. Overall Band Scores are reported to the nearest half band.The following rounding convention applies: if the average across the four skills ends in .25, it is rounded up to the next half band, and if it ends in 5.75, it is rounded up to the next whole band. The nine bands are described as follows:
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