Ielts Prep Essentials

Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Each is weighted equally at 25% of the writing band score.

At least 250 words. Writing fewer than 250 words risks losing points under Task Achievement. Essays of 280–320 words are typical for a strong Band 7+ response.

30 minutes of recorded audio plus 10 minutes to transfer answers to the answer sheet. The recording is played only once, so careful listening is essential.

Section 1: social context (two speakers). Section 2: social context (monologue). Section 3: educational/training context. Section 4: academic monologue.

40 questions across three passages. The Academic and General Training versions share the same question count but differ in text difficulty and source.

At least 150 words. Responses under 150 words lose marks for Task Achievement. Around 170–200 words is usually sufficient to fully describe the data.

Three parts: Part 1 (introduction and familiar topics, 4–5 minutes), Part 2 (long turn with cue card, 3–4 minutes including prep), Part 3 (two-way discussion, 4–5 minutes).

One minute to prepare notes on the cue card topic, followed by up to two minutes of continuous speaking. The examiner may then ask one short follow-up question.

A 9-band scale from 0 (no attempt) to 9 (expert user). Scores are reported in whole or half bands. Most universities require an overall 6.5 or 7.0.

Academic contains three long texts from journals, books, and newspapers. General Training uses shorter texts from notices, advertisements, official documents, and general interest articles.

You are given a list of headings (i–viii) and must match each one to the correct paragraph. It tests your ability to identify the main idea of each section.

You decide whether a statement agrees with the text (True), contradicts it (False), or is neither confirmed nor denied (Not Given). 'Not Given' means the information is absent.