IELTS (International English Language Testing System) study guides

IELTS Academic Reading is a 60-minute, 40-question test covering three long passages with multiple-choice, matching, completion, and TFNG items.

Task 1 (Academic) is 150-word data description of a chart, graph, or process; (General Training) it is a letter — formal, semi-formal, or informal.

Task 2 is a 250-word essay responding to a prompt — opinion, discussion, problem/solution, or two-part questions.

IELTS Listening is a 30-minute, 40-question test covering four sections (everyday → academic) with one playthrough of each audio.

IELTS Speaking is a 11–14 minute, 3-part oral interview covering personal questions, a 2-minute long turn, and a discussion.

Lexical Resource is one of four scored criteria across Writing and Speaking — assessing range, accuracy, collocation, and idiomatic flexibility.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy is one of four scored criteria across Writing and Speaking — assessing complexity, error-frequency, and punctuation.

Pronunciation is one of four scored criteria for Speaking — covering individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress, and intonation.

Fluency & Coherence is one of four Speaking criteria — measuring speech rate, hesitation, self-correction, and topic development.

Computer-Delivered IELTS (CD-IELTS) is the digital version offered at most centres — same content, on-screen, with results in 3–5 days.

Process diagrams are a sub-type of Academic Task 1 — describing a flow, cycle, or manufacturing process step-by-step.

General Training Task 1 is a 150-word letter — formal, semi-formal, or informal — responding to a real-life scenario.

IELTS scores 0–9 in half-band increments across four modules — Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking — with an Overall Band Score (rounded).

IELTS Academic 7.0 (with no sub-band below 6.5) is one accepted route for UK NMC nurse registration alongside OET B-grade.

True/False/Not Given questions test precise distinction between facts the passage states, contradicts, or does not address. They are the most-missed reading question type for non-native speakers.

IELTS Listening Section 3 features 2–4 speakers in an academic context (tutorial, seminar, project meeting). Speed and speaker overlap make it the most challenging listening section.

Part 2 is a 1-2 minute monologue based on a cue card. Candidates have 1 minute to prepare. Coherence, range of vocabulary, and grammatical control determine the band score.

Task 2 (250 words, 40 minutes) tests one of five essay types: opinion, discussion, problem-solution, advantages/disadvantages, or two-part question. Misidentifying the type is the most common Task 2 error.

Matching Headings asks candidates to assign the best heading from a list to each paragraph. The list is intentionally longer than the paragraph count, requiring elimination logic.

Task 1 (Academic) requires summarising visual data in 150 words within 20 minutes. Bar and line charts test trend description vocabulary and accurate data interpretation.

Part 1 is a 4–5 minute warm-up of 10–12 short questions on familiar topics (work, study, hometown, hobbies). Naturalness and range of vocabulary matter more than length.

Pronunciation is one of four Speaking band-score criteria. Sentence stress, word stress, and rising/falling intonation distinguish Band 6 from Band 7+ speakers.

Comparing IELTS, TOEFL iBT, and PTE Academic on format, scoring, accepted destinations, retake speed, and result delivery so candidates pick the right credential first time.