How does the IELTS test process work?

After months of study and preparation you are ready to take the IELTS test. But first you need to know the different phases of the test to understand it properly. Here are the 4 parts of the IELTS test.

Paper 1: Listening

Listening is the listening part of the IELTS test. It consists of 40 questions that must be answered within 40 minutes. The IELTS test on GlobalExam includes a number of questions which are in the form of MCQs and fill-in-the-blank texts. These questions, which are based on audio recordings, are repeated only once. The listening time is the same for all candidates and is approximately 30 minutes. This leaves only 10 minutes to write the answers on the test answersheet. The audio recordings consist of 4 types of conversations or monologues with different accents: - A business-like telephone conversation, - A monologue of a person describing something, - A conversation in a school setting, - A speech.

Test 2: Reading

This is the reading component of the IELTS test with 40 questions and it lasts one hour. In this test, the candidate has to read several texts and answer questions about them. These questions are of the type "true, false, or not given" or you can also be asked to give a title to each paragraph. The topics covered in each text are very varied and the texts and questions become increasingly difficult from the first text to the last one. The IELTS academic test has 3 long texts with 15 questions. The IELTS general training test consists of 5 short texts with about 10 questions for each text.

Paper 3: Writing

This is the last and most difficult part of the test. The writing test allotted time is 1 hour and the papers vary depending on the IELTS test taken. The IELTS academic writing consists of 2 papers including - analysis and commentary on numerical data presented in a graphical form, and - argumentation on a given question or sentence. For the IELTS general training test, there are also 2 parts which are - writing a letter of at least 150 words, and  - an essay of 250 words on a general topic. The 4th test is the speaking test which is usually held the day before the written tests. This test lasts 11 to 14 minutes and consists of 3 parts: - 3 to 4 minutes to answer personal questions, - 4 minutes to answer questions on a topic. The candidate has 2 minutes to reflect on the subject. - Debate on the previous topic.
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