Introduction

This article covers everything you need to know about IELTS General Training: What is this test, and who should take it? Explore each section’s test format, question types, test band scores and assessment, online test registration and fees, and the IELTS One Skill Retake option. This article intends to be your complete guide to IELTS General Training, providing a comprehensive overview of the test.

What is IELTS General Training? Who should take this test?

IELTS General Training is an accepted and recognised English competence test for people who want to study in secondary education, pursue vocational training, work, or migrate to English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States (IELTS, no date - a).

Unlike IELTS Academic, IELTS General Training is a non-academic test that assesses English language skills in a practical, everyday setting. As a result, the test tasks reflect both workplace and social situations. IELTS General Training test takers will encounter language comparable to that found in advertisements, guidebooks, magazines, notices, and employee manuals (British Council, no date - a).

Test format of IELTS General Training

There are two main types of IELTS tests: IELTS General Training and IELTS Academic. They are similar in format because both tests measure four language skills: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. The Listening and Speaking sections are precisely the same in both tests. Nonetheless, they are different in content in the Reading and Writing sections of the test. These four skills will be tested separately in the test, usually on the same day. See Table 1 below for details about the IELTS General Training test format.

Table 1. Test format of IELTS General Training

Question types of IELTS General Training

Listening question types

Listening consists of four sections, each with ten questions. The first two sections are concerned with everyday social contexts. The final two sections relate to educational or training contexts. Candidates hear the recording only once.

★ To assess how well you 1) understand main ideas and factual information; 2) recognise the opinions, attitudes and purpose of a speaker; and 3) follow the development of an argument.

★ Listening question types: multiple choices, matching, plan/map/diagram labelling, form/note/table/flow-chart/summary/sentence completion, and short-answer questions.

Sources: British Council (no date - b); IDP IELTS (no date - a).

Reading question types

Reading consists of three sections, with 40 questions from articles, essays, newspapers, magazines, fiction books, non-fiction books, online blogs and articles, academic papers and journals, company handbooks and guidelines, official documents, notices, advertisements, and timetables. You will likely encounter these materials daily in an English-speaking country.

★ To assess how well you read for a general sense of the passage, the main ideas, details, inferences and implied meaning, a writer’s opinions, attitude, and purpose, follow the development of the argument.

★ Reading question types: gap filling, heading matching, sentence completion, multiple choices, and short-answer questions.

Sources: British Council (no date - b); IDP IELTS (no date - b).

Writing question types

Writing consists of two writing tasks. In Task 1, the letter can be written formally, semi-formally, or informally. For Task 2, you can use a somehow personal style.

★ To assess how well you 1) write a response appropriately; 2) organise ideas; and 3) use a range of vocabulary and grammar accurately.

★ Writing question types: Task 1 is to write a letter of complaint, request, apology, application, making a reservation, appreciation, explanation, or recommendation. In Task 2, you are asked to write one of the five common question types: an opinion essay, an advantage and disadvantage essay, a problem and solution essay, a discussion essay, and a direct question essay.

Sources: British Council (no date - b); IDP IELTS (no date - c).

Speaking question types

Speaking consists of three parts. This Speaking test is interactive and close to a real-life situation.

★ To assess how well you can 1) communicate opinions and information on everyday topics and common experiences; 2) speak at length on a given topic; 3) organise ideas coherently; 4) express and justify your opinions; and 5) analyse, discuss, and speculate about issues.

★ Speaking question types: Part 1 is about general questions on home, family, work, studies, and interests. Part 2 is related to a particular topic on a task card to talk for 2 minutes. Then, in Part 3, you will be asked further questions connected to the topic of Part 2.

Sources: British Council (no date - b); IDP IELTS (no date - d).

Test band scores and assessment of IELTS General Training

The IELTS 9-band scale

You will be graded from 1 to 9 on your performance in each part of the test: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The results from the four sections then produce an overall band score. The highest IELTS score is 9, and the lowest is 1; each overall band score reflects different levels of English users (see Figure 1 below). The individual and overall band scores can be reported in whole or half bands (e.g., 6.5, 8.0). There is no pass or fail in IELTS (IDP Education, no date; Cambridge University Press and Assessment, no date - b).

Figure 1. The IELTS 9-band scale

Figure 1. IELTS 9-band scale — Source: Cambridge University Press and Cambridge Assessment English (2021).

Listening band score - Raw score conversion

Reading band score - Raw score conversion

Writing test assessment criteria

★ Task achievement (for task 1) and task response (for task 2).

★ Coherence (sentences and ideas are connected and flow together smoothly) and cohesion (related to the linking of ideas within a sentence, the linking of sentences within a paragraph, and the linking between paragraphs).

★ Lexical resource (use a wide range of vocabulary).

★ Grammatical range and accuracy.

Sources: IDP IELTS (no date - g); IELTS (no date - b); IELTS (no date - c).

Speaking test assessment criteria

★ Fluency and coherence (to talk with normal levels of continuity, rate and effort and to link ideas and language together to form coherent, connected speech).

★ Lexical resource (the range of vocabulary used and the precision with which meanings and attitudes can be expressed).

★ Grammatical range and accuracy (the range and the accurate and appropriate use of the test takers’ grammatical resource).

★ Pronunciation (produce comprehensible speech to fulfil the Speaking test requirements.

Sources: IELTS (no date - b); IELTS (no date - d).

Overall band score calculation

If the average of the four components ends in .25, the overall band score is rounded up to the next half band, and if it ends in .75, the overall band score is rounded up to the next whole band. The overall band score is rounded down if the average ends with a fraction below .25 or .75 (IDP IELTS, no date - h).

Examples of how the overall band score is calculated.

Overall band score calculator: https://smart-trbritishcouncil1940.db.em2.oraclecloudapps.com/apex/f?p=30355565:900:::NO:::

**Note that the Reading score calculator does not apply to the IELTS General Training test.

How do you book IELTS General Training, and what does it cost?

You can book the IELTS test online through the British Council and IDP and choose between a computer-based or a paper-based test. The computer-based test is held more frequently, and test results are available much faster. IELTS on paper has results in 13 days, whereas IELTS on computer has results in 3 to 5 days (see Table 2 for more details). However, suppose you are not very good at using computers. In that case, we recommend that you stick to the paper-based test so that you do not have to spend extra time familiarising yourself with technology.

★ British Council: https://ieltsregistration.britishcouncil.org/ors/book-test

★ IDP: https://ielts.idp.com/book/IELTS

Table 2. Test fees and frequencies of IELTS on paper and IELTS on computer by the British Council and IDP in some locations

Because some students may not have credit cards, debit cards, or PayPal (the IDP HK IELTS test in Macao only accepts PayPal) to book the test online or may not know how to do so, Ahead Achiever can assist you with securing the test for you free of charge. You are welcome to contact us.

IELTS One Skill Retake is now available

IELTS One Skill Retake enables you to get your desired test score without retaking the entire IELTS test. If you wish to improve your score on one test skill: Listening, Reading, Writing, or Speaking, you can retake it within 60 days of your original test via the Test Taker Portal. IELTS One Skill Retake is only offered to candidates who took the IELTS on computer and in specific regions such as Macau, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, and so forth (British Council, no date - c).

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