Virtuous English AcademyWhat IELTS is, and who runs it
IELTS — the International English Language Testing System — is an English test for people who want to study, work or migrate to a country where English is the main language of communication. It measures four skills separately: listening, reading, writing and speaking. There is no pass mark. Every candidate receives a score from 0 to 9 for each skill and an overall band, and the organisation you are applying to decides which number is high enough.
The test is jointly owned and delivered by three organisations: the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Between them they run the test centres, produce the papers and train and monitor the examiners.
The practical consequence is worth stating plainly. For anything binding — fees, available dates, identity-document rules, the exact requirements of the university or authority you are applying to — the official site of the organisation running your test centre is the authority, and it is the one to check. What an independent guide can usefully do is explain the format honestly and teach the English underneath it, and that is what these pages set out to do.
Academic or General Training: which one you need
IELTS comes in two versions, and you choose between them when you book. The Listening and Speaking papers are the same in both. Reading and Writing are not.
| Paper | Academic | General Training |
|---|---|---|
| Listening | Identical in both versions | Identical in both versions |
| Reading | Three long texts taken from books, journals, magazines and newspapers, written for a non-specialist audience but academic in register | Everyday texts — notices, advertisements, company handbooks and official documents — building to one longer general-interest article |
| Writing | Task 1 describes visual information: a graph, table, chart, map or process diagram. Task 2 is a discursive essay. | Task 1 is a letter — formal, semi-formal or personal. Task 2 is an essay on a more everyday topic. |
| Speaking | Identical in both versions | Identical in both versions |
| Usually taken for | University and college admission, and professional registration | Work experience, training programmes and some migration routes |
The two versions compared. Listening and Speaking are identical; the difference is in the texts you read and what you are asked to write.
Which version you need is decided by the institution or authority you are applying to, never by you and never by a preparation site. Check their published requirement before you book, because sitting the wrong version means sitting the test again.
One asymmetry surprises people. General Training reading uses simpler texts, but it is marked on a stricter conversion: for the same band you generally need more correct answers than you would on the Academic paper. Easier material and an easier score are not the same thing, and the two effects roughly cancel out.
The test at a glance
The three written papers are taken in one sitting, in a fixed order — Listening, Reading, Writing — with no break between them. Speaking is a separate appointment, which most centres schedule within a week either side of the written date, and sometimes on the same day.
| Paper | Time | Questions or tasks | What it is really measuring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listening | About 30 minutes of audio, plus time to transfer or check answers | 40 questions across 4 parts | Understanding spoken English on a single hearing, at natural speed, in several accents |
| Reading | 60 minutes, with no extra transfer time | 40 questions across 3 texts | Reading speed, precision, and the discipline to answer only what the text says |
| Writing | 60 minutes for both tasks | 2 tasks — at least 150 and 250 words | Organised, accurate, appropriately formal written English produced under time pressure |
| Speaking | 11–14 minutes | 3 parts, with an examiner | Fluent, coherent, spontaneous speech — not a rehearsed performance |
Structure of the four papers. Question counts are fixed; timings for the written papers are strict.
You can sit the written papers on paper or on a computer, depending on what your centre offers. The questions are the same. What differs is mechanical: on paper you copy your Listening answers onto an answer sheet in ten extra minutes at the end, while on a computer your answers are already recorded and you get a short period to check them instead. Computer-delivered results are usually available in a few days; paper results take around a fortnight. Speaking is conducted with a real examiner in both formats.
From your CEFR level to an IELTS band
This site is built on the CEFR — the six-level scale from A1 to C2 that every lesson, word list and level test here is written against. IELTS uses a different scale, and the two do not convert exactly, because a nine-band score compresses a great deal of information into one number. But the alignment below is close enough to answer the question people actually ask: given where my English is now, what band should I realistically expect?
| CEFR level | Typical IELTS band | What a learner at this level can do | Where to start here |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 · Beginner | — | Handles greetings, numbers and memorised phrases. IELTS is not built to measure this far down the scale and a sitting would not be informative. | A1 grammar · A1 words |
| A2 · Elementary | around 3.0–4.0 | Copes with routine exchanges about familiar things, but breaks down as soon as the topic is unfamiliar or the speaker is quick. | A2 grammar · A2 words |
| B1 · Intermediate | around 4.0–5.0 | Deals with most travel and everyday situations, gives opinions with reasons, and writes connected text — with visible strain under time pressure. | B1 grammar · B1 level check |
| B2 · Upper-Intermediate | around 5.5–6.5 | Follows complex text and extended speech, argues a position, and writes clearly enough for most academic and professional purposes. This is the band most universities ask for. | B2 grammar · B2 level check |
| C1 · Advanced | around 7.0–8.0 | Uses English flexibly and precisely for academic and professional work, with only occasional inaccuracy and good control of register. | C1 vocabulary · phrasal verbs |
| C2 · Mastery | around 8.5–9.0 | Understands virtually everything read or heard and expresses shades of meaning precisely, even in complex situations. | C1–C2 vocabulary · long-form reading |
Indicative CEFR-to-IELTS alignment. Bands overlap because the two scales measure differently — treat this as a starting estimate, not an equivalence.
Read the table as overlapping ranges rather than fixed equivalents. A learner at solid B2 might come out at 5.5 on a bad day and 6.5 on a good one, and the difference is often preparation for the format rather than a change in their English. Institutions also set their own thresholds — and frequently require a minimum in each individual skill as well as an overall band, which is why an unbalanced profile can fail a requirement that the overall score appears to meet.
The quickest way to place yourself on this table is to measure the CEFR level rather than guess it. Our free adaptive level test takes five to seven minutes and reports grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing separately, and the longer free placement exam adds listening and speaking and produces a record of the result. Neither is an IELTS test and neither predicts a band — they establish the CEFR level that this table then translates into a realistic expectation.
The six guides
Start with the skill you are weakest at, not the one you enjoy. In a test where the overall band is an average and many institutions also set a per-skill minimum, the lowest of your four scores is usually the one deciding the outcome.
IELTS Reading
Both versions of the paper, all the question types, why True / False / Not Given is the hardest scoring point on the exam, and a timing plan for 40 questions in 60 minutes.
IELTS Writing
Task 1 and Task 2 in both versions, the four marking criteria in plain English, the penalties that quietly cap a score, and the language of describing data.
IELTS Listening
The four parts, the question types, the accents, and the answer-form rules — spelling, plurals, word limits — that turn correct understanding into lost marks.
IELTS Speaking
What happens in each of the three parts, what the four criteria actually reward, how to use the one-minute preparation, and which widely repeated advice is wrong.
IELTS band scores
The 0–9 scale, how the overall band is calculated and rounded, indicative raw-score conversions for Listening and Reading, and what different bands are typically used for.
Find your level first
Preparation aimed at the wrong band wastes months. Measure the CEFR level you are starting from, then use the chart above to set a realistic target.
Preparing with what is already free on this site
Most of what raises an IELTS band is not exam technique. It is the English underneath — a wider active vocabulary, grammar that stays accurate when the sentence gets long, and enough reading volume that an unfamiliar text is not a shock. That part costs nothing, and this site already holds a lot of it.
Grammar that survives complexity
Band 6 and band 7 writing differ less in vocabulary than in whether the complex sentences stay accurate. The structures that matter most are passives, relative clauses, conditionals and the connectors that hold an argument together.
Topic vocabulary for Writing Task 2
Essay prompts recycle a small set of subjects: education, environment, technology, health, work, crime, media. Learning those fields properly is more efficient than memorising general "band 9 phrases".
Academic register for band 7 and above
Precision is what separates an accurate essay from an impressive one — the difference between a big problem and a pressing concern, and between hedging a claim and overstating it.
Reading volume
Reading speed is built by reading, not by drills. Graded stories at your level, then material slightly above it, is the cheapest route to handling three long texts in an hour.
Tenses, tested rather than admired
Speaking Part 3 and Writing Task 2 both punish tense drift. The tense pages explain each form and then make you use it.
A structured route, if you want one
If your English is below B2, targeted IELTS practice is premature. A sequenced course closes the gap faster than exam drills at the wrong level.
An eight-week plan that does not assume a teacher
This is a shape, not a prescription — but it answers the question most self-studying candidates get wrong, which is what to do in which order. It assumes you are already at B2 or close to it, and that you can give the test five or six hours a week.
- Weeks 1–2 — measure and read the format. Take a level test so you know your starting point, then read all four skill guides once. Do not practise yet. Most wasted preparation comes from drilling a paper you have misunderstood.
- Weeks 3–4 — one full paper per skill, untimed. Work slowly and check every wrong answer against the text or transcript until you can say precisely why the right answer was right. Accuracy first; speed is a later problem.
- Weeks 5–6 — add the clock. Repeat under real timing. This is where Reading falls apart for most people, and where a timing plan is worth more than another vocabulary list.
- Week 7 — write and speak on a schedule. Two Task 2 essays a week, each written in forty minutes and then rewritten properly the following day. Record yourself answering Part 2 cue cards and listen back, which is uncomfortable and unusually effective.
- Week 8 — one full mock, then stop. Sit all four papers in one session to build stamina, review it once, and then taper. Cramming in the final week reliably lowers Speaking scores by making delivery stiff.