What is IELTS?
IELTS, also known as the International English Language Testing System, is an English language proficiency exam co-owned by the British Council, IDP and Cambridge ESOL Examinations. The IELTS test is used worldwide for a number of purposes, including immigration, undergraduate and postgraduate courses and registration to professional associations. The IELTS syllabus is the same whether you are in India, Indonesia or Ireland. Many of the common questions asked by candidates are the same also!
There are two versions of the IELTS exam: Academic and General Training. They differ somewhat in terms of topic areas covered and tasks, but they contain the same sections. The listening and speaking sections are the same in both Academic and General Training. Where they are significantly different is in the IELTS reading and writing sections. This will be covered below.
Why Take the IELTS General Training Test?
Take this version of the IELTS exam if you want to provide a potential employer proof of your English level. IELTS General Training can also be used for immigration and IELTS is the most popular of the international English language test systems available nowadays.
Why Take the IELTS Academic Test?
Candidates who take the IELTS academic exam are applying for post-secondary education or a specialized professional registration.
Is there an official IELTS syllabus?
The phrase IELTS syllabus has been used interchangeably with IELTS content and IELTS requirement. A syllabus is an official document outlining the content of a course. Usually, this covers topics that the students will cover. Students taking IELTS in order to study abroad should be aware of the IELTS exam syllabus and exactly what they are expected to be able to do.
HOWEVER, individual language schools will certainly have an IELTS syllabus for their own courses. This will vary depending on where you study and the level of the course that you take.
What are the sections of the IELTS test?
The sections are:
IELTS Listening Test
The IELTS listening section has four separate parts. There are 40 questions and the listening test lasts around 30 minutes.
The IELTS exam syllabus for listening makes it clear that students are expected to be able to answer questions based on:
- Section 1 – two people talking in an everyday social context
- Section 2 – a monologue or speech in an everyday social context
- Section 3 – a conversation between up to four people in an educational or training context
- Section 4 – a monologue on an academic subject
Each section is only heard once and includes speakers with different accents.
For both Academic IELTS and IELTS general training, the IELTS syllabus for listening covers a range of listening skills and types of questions.
There are several different question types in the listening portion of the IELTS exam. These include multiple-choice, sentence completion, matching, note completion, labelling a diagram, and filling a form.
Instructions at the beginning of each section must be followed carefully. Test takers sitting the IELTS exam are allowed to take notes and are given 10 minutes at the end to transfer their answers to the answer sheet.
Each question is worth one point and spelling mistakes are penalised. The raw score out of 40 is converted and a band (input your raw scores here to calculate your overall band score) from 1 to 9 is awarded.
IELTS Reading Test
The IELTS reading section comprises 40 questions and lasts 60 minutes. There are three sections in the reading test.
The IELTS exam syllabus makes it clear that examples of question types in IELTS reading include multiple-choice, matching, summary completion, sentence completion, note, table, flow-chart completion.
The different question types test for different reading skills like reading for gist, main ideas, details, skimming, and understanding the writer’s opinion.
The reading section differs if the student is taking the IELTS Academic test or the IELTS General Training test.
Typically, in both the academic and general training tests, the texts get more difficult as the reading section progresses although the types of questions are similar.
The raw score out of 40 is converted and the test taker earns a band from 1 to 9. Each question is worth one point and spelling mistakes are penalised.
IELTS Academic Reading Test – what about topics?
To be clear, the IELTS syllabus focuses on skills, not topics. The IELTS academic reading section texts are selected for a non-specialist audience and are general interest topics that may be familiar to the test taker pursuing a degree or professional certification. There are three different texts in the IELTS reading test and each text has several different question types.
Therefore, you do not have to be an expert or specialist in science, medicine or history to answer the questions! Students who plan to study abroad need to practice their academic study skills rather than learn lots of new information.
General Training Reading Test
The General Training IELTS exam also has three sections but the first two sections are made up of shorter texts. The third section of the IELTS reading is a longer text. The passages come from sources test-takers would see in their everyday life like newspapers, magazines, books and handbooks.
IELTS Writing Test
The IELTS writing section lasts 60 minutes is made up of two separate writing tasks: one shorter task and one longer essay. Both writing tasks must be completed. While both the Academic and General Training IELTS tests have similar longer essay tasks, the shorter writing piece is different for each.
Each writing task is assessed independently on four separate criteria: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Candidates earn a band score between 1 and 9 in each of the four criteria.
The longer task is worth twice as much as the shorter task. All the scores are then averaged to produce the final writing score. Scores at .25 or .75 are rounded down.
IELTS test takers must write their response on the answer sheet but they are allowed to take notes on the test paper. Nothing written on the test paper will be assessed.
The writing tasks must have paragraphs with proper sentences. Bulleted responses are not accepted.
IELTS Academic Writing Test
The IELTS Academic writing test differs from general training in that the topics and tasks are more in line with what someone preparing for higher education or professional certification may encounter.
IELTS Academic Task one
The IELTS syllabus makes it clear that the test taker is given a visual (a diagram, chart, map, graph, table or a combination of two) and is expected to write a report in their own words summarizing the information, explaining a process or highlighting key points.
You must have practised all these question types and be ready to answer any of them. There are plenty of questions and answers from task 1 online.
There is no word minimum or a word limit but it is recommended that IELTS test takers write at least 150 words and spend no more than 20 minutes on task 1.
IELTS Academic Task Two
This is a longer, discursive essay written in an academic or semi-formal style. Test takers are given a topic on which they must write an essay of approximately 250 words.
There is no word minimum or word limit but it is suggested that no more than 40 minutes are used for academic task 2.
Test takers must be careful to answer the question directly, as there are different question types and topics in IELTS exams. If the writer produces an answer that is generally related to the topic but does not specifically cover the issue of the writing task, the task achievement score will be penalised. Lots of questions in task two cover familiar topics such as education, society, health care and the economy.
General Training Writing Test
The writing section of the IELTS General Training test contains topics and tasks that a candidate may come across in his or her daily life in an English-speaking environment.
IELTS General Training Task One
The candidate is given a prompt and asked to write a letter. The letter may require a formal, semi-formal or informal style. For example, you may be asked to write a letter requesting information or a letter thanking a friend.
There is no word minimum or a word limit but it is recommended that test-takers write at least 150 words and spend no more than 20 minutes on writing task 1.
Candidates must take care to cover all the information listed in the prompt and use an appropriate style.
IELTS General Training Task Two
This is a longer, discursive essay written in an academic or semi-formal style. Candidates are given a topic on which they must write an essay of approximately 250 words.
There is no word minimum or word limit but it is suggested that no more than 40 minutes are used for academic task 2.
Candidates must be careful to answer the question directly, as there are different question types and topics in the IELTS exam. If test takers write an essay that is generally related to the topic but does not specifically cover the issue of the writing task, the score will be penalised.
IELTS Speaking Test Syllabus
The IELTS speaking test is a one-on-one interview lasting 11 to 14 minutes. The questions are the same for IELTS Academic and General Training. The speaking test is recorded and consists of three parts.
This is the only part of the test that may have a different IELTS test date than the other sections.
SPEAKING TEST PART 1
The first part is a short question and answer session lasting approximately 4 minutes. Familiar topics are covered in the speaking section of the IELTS exam. Lots of questions are about school or college, the weekend, hobbies and habits.
SPEAKING TEST PART 2
The second IELTS speaking section is the long turn, where test takers are given a card on which they must speak for up to two minutes uninterrupted. The candidate has one minute to prepare prior to the long answer.
SPEAKING TEST PART 3
The third speaking section is also question and answer, but the questions require longer answers than in part one. This part of the IELTS exam lasts 4 to 5 minutes and allows the test taker to speak on more abstract topics.
Candidates are scored on four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy and Pronunciation. Scores are given from 1 to 9 for each of the criteria and averaged to reach the final score.
IELTS Scoring
Each section is scored separately and the average of those scores is the final band score. While overall scores on IELTS tests are rounded up, band scores in the individual sections are rounded down.
Need help?
Contact IELTS Podcast for all your IELTS preparation needs. The team here is highly experienced with all areas of the IELTS exam and can help you prepare for reading, writing, speaking and listening.
