IELTS Academic

The IELTS Academic is for applicants who wish to migrate for academic purposes, like pursuing their degree or a higher level of education, or for professionals such as medical doctors, and nurses who wish to study or practice in an English-speaking environment. The test assesses whether you’re ready or will be comfortable to begin studying or training in a place where English is the major language.

So in short, the IELTS Academic Test is for those who plan to migrate to a foreign country for:

• Studying at an undergraduate or postgraduate level anywhere in the world.
• Applying for Tier 4 Student Visa at a university that is a Tier 4 Sponsor in the UK
• Working in an English-speaking country for a professional organisation.

Test Duration

The test duration for the IELTS Academic, same as the IELTS General, is 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Test Format

The Listening and Speaking sections for both the tests (Academic and General Training) are the same, while the topic subject in the Reading and Writing sections will differ.

Listening Section

The Listening test takes 30 minutes, where there will be 4 Parts with 10 questions in each part. Each part is heard only once.

Part 1: a conversation between two people

Part 2: a monologue set in an everyday social context

Part 3: a conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context

Part 4: a monologue on an academic subject (e.g. a university lecture)

Reading Section

Both General Training and Academic Reading Tests take 60 minutes. But while the General test contains 3 sections with the subject material mostly taken from advertisements, guidebooks or notices, the Academic test contains 3 long texts that are mostly taken from books, journals or newspapers. There will be 40 questions in total.

Writing Section

Both the Academic and General Writing tests take 60 minutes, with both the tests containing 2 tasks, where task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words. The difference comes in task 1, where in the Academic test you will have to describe, summarise or explain the data information given in a table, chart or diagram.

Speaking Section

The Speaking test takes 12-15 minutes and comprises of 3 parts

Part 1: Introduction (questions about your background)

Part 2: Individual talk (based on topic given on a cue card)

Part 3: Two-way discussion (The examiner asks further questions which are connected to the topic of Part 2).