Universities, professional registration bodies, employers, and immigration agencies often ask for proof of English language skills as a part of their admission or recruitment process. IELTS is widely accepted for such purposes. It stands for the International English Language Testing System. It is a standardized test to determine the expertise of the English language of non-native language speakers. It is accepted by academic institutions of various nations and for visa applications as well. 

Format of the IELTS

There are two modules of the test designed to examine the English abilities of a novice or an expert, which are :

• IELTS Academic: It is taken by those candidates who aim to study in English speaking countries at tertiary level or are seeking professional advancement. 
• IELTS General Training: This test is taken by those who are immigrating to English Speaking countries for training or any other purpose which is non-academic in nature. 

Both the tests have different versions in terms of content, purpose, and task, but are similar in features like time allocation, reporting of scores. We will cover the IELTS Academic version as that’s what is required for admission in universities in the US.

The entire test is divided into four sections:

• Listening

• Reading

• Writing, and

• Speaking 

The duration of the test is 2 hours and 45 minutes. The reading, writing, and listening tests are done together and speaking tests can be taken on the same day or seven days before or after the written exam. 

Details of each section:

Listening: The first section of the test comprises 4 sections each including 10 questions. The duration of the test is 30 minutes and extra 10 minutes time is given to candidates to transfer their answers on the sheet before moving on to the next section. All the four sections begin with a brief introduction to the candidates about the situation and speakers. They are provided with time to examine the questions presented and are given parallel information transmitted through a recording. Each section can be heard only once. 

Section one and two contain everyday social situations such as a conversation between two speakers (eg. travel arrangement conversation) and a person delivering a speech (eg. about local facilities) respectively. Section three and four are more inclined towards education and training situations such as a conversation between two university students (eg. main speakers) and a person speaking on an academic subject respectively. 

Reading: This is the second part of the test containing three sections which include various nature of questions like completing a summary with words taken from the text, matching information or heading or features in a sentence, labeling diagrams, short answer questions, identifying information, multiple-choice and more. The duration of this section is 60 minutes. The candidate has to be very careful about the grammar as points will be lost for incorrect usage. 

Usually, the texts in the IELTS Academics originate from journals, magazines, books and online sources written for non-expert candidates and all the topics are of general interest to students. 

Writing: This is the third and final section which includes two mandatory tasks to be done. The duration of this section is 60 minutes. The first task in this section is to write 150 words within a time limit of 20 minutes. And the second task has dedicated the rest 40 minutes of the time to write about 250 words. Both the tasks MUST include the specified number of words on the given topic and must be in paragraphs as fewer words or bullet points lead to low grading. 

In the IELTS Academic version, here is the breakdown of the tasks:

• Task one – To describe the given table, chart, graph or diagram in their own words.
• Task two – To discuss an argument, point of view or an issue. Depending on the question a candidate may have to justify an opinion, state or compare evidence and more.

Note: British or American spellings can be used together or separate but once a person has spelt a particular word in one way they should continue to do so in the same way throughout the test.  

Speaking: This section is a face-to-face interview between the examiner and the examinee and it contains three sections. The duration of this section is 11-14 minutes. 

• Section One – Introduction and Interview (4 to 5 minutes)

The basics of oneself like family, work, hobby, interest and much more general topics like clothing, caps, internet and more are asked. 

• Section Two – Topic Talking (3 to 4 minutes)

A topic is given to speak about and one minute preparation time is given and the test taker is supposed to speak about the given topic and its one aspect of it must be explained during the talk lasting for at least 2 minutes and the examiner may ask questions in between. 

• Section Three – Discussion (4 to 5 minutes)

It involves a discussion in which the examiner asks general questions usually regarding the topic or theme of section two. 

Scoring 

In the IELTS, there is no minimum passing score. The test takers are all graded with a score from band 1, the lowest (Non-user) to band 9, the highest (Expert user). The band 0 is given to those who have not attempted the test. 

Note: Every Academic institution has different band requirements for getting admitted so it is very important you know what the admittance criteria of the college you are aiming for. 

Important Information

The IELTS test requires preparation so make sure you know all the details before attempting the test. For more details, feel free to contact the professional counselors at UniRely.