IELTS Practice Guide

Listening and Speaking are the same in both versions. Reading and Writing differ: Academic uses university-style passages and asks for an essay analysing data; General Training uses everyday and workplace texts and asks for a letter plus an opinion essay.

Pick General Training for UK visas and immigration. Pick Academic if you're applying to a UK university or for professional registration (NMC for nurses, GMC for doctors).

Each skill is scored 0–9 in 0.5 increments. Your overall band is the average of the four, rounded to the nearest 0.5 (so 6.25 rounds to 6.5; 6.125 rounds to 6.0).

Band 6 = competent user. Band 7 = good user. Band 8 = very good. Most UK Master's programmes want 6.5 overall with 6.0 minimum in each. Pre-registration NMC nursing wants 7.0 overall with 7.0 in Speaking, Listening and Reading and 6.5 in Writing.

Listening: 30 minutes, 40 questions across four recordings (a social conversation, a monologue, an academic discussion, a lecture). Headphones supplied.

Reading: 60 minutes, 40 questions, three long passages. Academic uses journal and textbook style; General uses adverts, notices, manuals.

Writing: 60 minutes, two tasks. Task 2 (essay) is worth twice as much as Task 1 — start with Task 2.

Speaking: 11–14 minute face-to-face interview with a certified examiner. Three parts: introduction, long-turn (you talk for 1–2 minutes), discussion.

Allow eight weeks if you're around band 5 and aiming for band 6.5. Spend half your time on Writing — it's the section that holds most candidates back. Get a tutor or marker to grade at least three full essays so you can target weaknesses.

Listening and Reading respond fastest to practice. Drill timed papers daily and review every wrong answer to find the keyword you missed.

Book through the British Council, IDP, or Cambridge English. Computer-delivered IELTS gives results in 3–5 days; paper IELTS in 13. The fee is £210–£250 depending on test centre and version.

Bring your passport (the same one you used to book). Arrive 30 minutes early. Speaking may be on the same day or up to seven days later — check your booking confirmation.

Academic Task 1 (20 minutes, 150 words): describe a chart, table, graph, map or process diagram. Use a four-paragraph structure: introduction (paraphrase the title), overview (the 2–3 most striking trends, no numbers), body 1 (detail with figures), body 2 (detail with figures). The overview is the single biggest scoring factor.

General Task 1 (20 minutes, 150 words): a letter — formal, semi-formal or informal. Always include the three bullet-point requirements from the prompt.

Task 2 (40 minutes, 250 words, both versions): an essay. Common types: opinion ('to what extent do you agree?'), discussion ('discuss both views'), problem-solution, two-part question. Plan five minutes, write thirty, proofread five. Aim for four paragraphs: introduction with a clear thesis, two body paragraphs with topic sentence + reason + example, conclusion that restates the thesis.

IELTS Speaking is judged on four equal criteria: Fluency & Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range & Accuracy, and Pronunciation. The single biggest fluency killer is unnatural pauses while you search for a 'big' word — examiners would rather hear simple, fluent English than fancy stumbling.

Part 2 (long turn): you get one minute to plan, then talk for 1–2 minutes on a card prompt like 'describe a memorable journey'. Use the planning time to scribble a four-bullet outline (when, where, who, why memorable). The examiner will not interrupt during the long turn — keep going until they stop you.

Part 3: thematic discussion related to Part 2. The examiner pushes for opinions, comparisons and predictions. Practise extending each answer with 'because… for example… on the other hand…'.

Since 2023 IELTS One Skill Retake lets candidates who took computer-delivered IELTS resit a single skill (Listening, Reading, Writing or Speaking) within 60 days, for around £170. This is a game-changer for candidates who hit their target overall but missed a single sub-score (e.g. NMC nursing requires Writing 6.5 — many band-7 candidates hit that with a retake).

Plan strategically: aim for your overall target on the first sitting and treat One Skill Retake as the safety net for the section that historically holds you back. Many UK universities now accept One Skill Retake; always confirm with the admissions office before relying on it.

Trinity GESE is the cheapest SELT for A1, A2 and B1 levels (around £150) and tests Speaking & Listening only — ideal if Reading and Writing aren't your strongest skills and you're applying for a visa that doesn't need them. Test centres are in most major UK cities.

LanguageCert IESOL covers all four skills, costs slightly more (£200–£260) and is accepted across the same visa categories. Pearson PTE Home is fully computer-based with results in 2–3 days — the fastest option for time-pressured applications.

IELTS for UKVI (Life Skills A1, A2, B1) is the option chosen by most candidates who already have IELTS prep materials at home. The Life Skills version costs around £170 and tests only Speaking & Listening, like Trinity.

Whichever you pick, book at a Home Office-approved centre — only the UKVI versions count. A standard IELTS or LanguageCert taken outside the SELT network will be rejected by the visa caseworker no matter how high your score.