IELTS General Training - sample test questions

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Listening and Speaking tests are the same for IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training, but the Reading and Writing tests are different.

With these official practice materials you can:

IELTS General Training - paper sample tests

Listening General Training Reading General Training Writing Speaking

The Listening test is the same for both IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training and consists of four recorded monologues and conversations.

The following IELTS Listening sample tasks are to be used with the Answer Sheet and MP3 audio files and/or transcripts. Each answer sheet indicates which recording to listen to, or if a transcript is provided.

Listening sample tasks

A variety of tasks is used including: multiple-choice questions, identifying information, identifying writer’s views/claims, matching information, matching headings, matching features, matching sentence endings, sentence completion, summary completion, note completion, table completion, flow-chart completion, diagram label completion, short-answer questions.

General Training Reading sample tasks

The General Training Writing test consists of two writing tasks of 150 words and 250 words.

In Task 1, test takers are asked to respond to a situation by writing a letter, for example, requesting information or explaining a situation.

In Task 2, test takers write an essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem.

General Training Writing sample tasks

In the Speaking test, you have a discussion with a certified examiner. It is interactive and as close to a real-life situation as a test can get.

There are three parts to the test and each part fulfils a specific function in terms of interaction pattern, task input and test taker output.

In Part 1, you answer questions about yourself and your family. In Part 2, you speak about a topic. In Part 3, you have a longer discussion on the topic.

The Speaking test is the same for both IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training. Each of the three parts is designed to test a different aspect of your communication ability.

Speaking Sample tasks