There are two categories of IELTS, General and Academic. The General test needs to be taken by people who are moving to English-speaking countries for the purpose of PR or jobs. Whereas Academic has to be taken by the people who are moving to English-speaking countries for the purpose of higher studies or any other course.
But please check which exam you are supposed to write before you register for the exam. Now listening, which is your first test. is going to be for 40 minutes, reading for 60 minutes, writing will be for 60 minutes again and speaking for 11 to 14 minutes. Listening, reading and writing are going to take place on one day at a stretch.
That means for 2 hours and 40 minutes you won't have any break in between the tests. Whereas speaking is going to take place either on the same day or in the span of seven days before or after listening reading and writing test this depends on the schedule that you get from idp or british council depending upon whoever you register with let's start with listening now listening as i told you is going to be your first test will have four These sections are in the order of difficulty. That is, the first section is going to be the easiest, whereas the fourth one is going to be the most difficult.
Please make sure that you write the answers into the question booklet. It's a simultaneous process of listening and writing. You need to answer these 40 questions whilst you listen to the audio.
At the end of the test, you'll get... 10 minutes to transfer the answers from the question booklet to an answer sheet which will be provided to you. Let's move on to reading now. Reading is different for general and academic tests unlike listening and speaking that are same for general and academic.
Reading has three sections. for both general and academic. General test will have one or two texts based upon which you need to answer 40 questions.
These are in the order of difficulty. That means section 1 is going to be easiest whereas section 3 is going to be a little difficult. This is to say that the passage can be a little difficult.
or the language could be just a little difficult. On the other hand, academic you'll have one long passage each section based upon which you can learn the language. which you need to answer forty questions. Make sure that you write the answers straight into the answer sheet because you don't get here any extra time to transfer the answers from the question booklet to any other answer sheet. Now let's look at writing.
Even this section is a little different for general and academic both. Writing will have two tasks. One is to write the answer.
and task 2. In general you'll have a letter in task 1 and an essay in task 2. In academic test you'll have to summarize a text and in task 2 you'll have an essay. This letter could be formal, informal or semi-formal. But the summary here in academic will be on the basis of the image.
That could be in the form of charts, graphs or diagrams. In both the tests, you'll have 20 minutes for task 1 and 40 minutes. For task 2, for task 1, let it be general or academic, you must write at least 150 words and 250 words at least in task 2. This is to say that there is a minimum threshold of word limit. If you write below that, you will get a penalty.
There is no upper limit. Now let's have a look at speaking. Speaking is basically a one-to-one interaction between the examiner and the candidate which is recorded. Speaking has three sections in all.
Section one has a brief introduction which will be followed by a short question and answer conversation. Part two will be an individual speaking. In this the examiner will give you a topic to speak on on which you will have to speak for one to two minutes but don't worry you'll have a minute to prepare.
The examiner will not interrupt at all whilst you speak. Part 3 is a discussion. Here the examiner will ask you about five to six questions based upon the topic that was given to you in part two please make sure that you relax and speak as much as you can that's it about as format watch my next video for the assessment criteria for writing and speaking all the best