IELTS Test Format
IELTS is a completely English language proficiency test. It comprises of four modules – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Listening, Reading and Writing exam is conducted on the same day whereas Speaking test is conducted altogether on a different day either one week prior to the main exam or one week after that. The candidate has to choose from 2 modules – IELTS Academic or IELTS General.
There are 4 modules in IELTS exam through which the accuracy level and English language skills of the students are checked:
IELTS Listening : This module comprises of 4 sections where a track is played and simultaneously the students have to answer a total of 40 questions. There is no negative marking in the IELTS exam.
IELTS Reading: In this module, the candidate has to attempt 3 sections and 40 questions in 1 hour. There are passages of varying difficulty level on which the questions are based.
IELTS Writing: Writing accesses the candidate on the basis of 2 tasks. In case of Academic IELTS, the first task is Report Writing and in General IELTS exam the first writing task is Letter Writing. The second task for both is Essay Writing and the entire Writing is marked on the basis of four major assessment parameters.
IELTS Speaking: Speaking module comprises of 3 parts which are Introduction Round, Cue Card Round and Discussion Round in which the candidate’s speaking skills are assessed along with other scoring parameters.
The candidate is marked on a 9 Band scale in every module and then the final band score is taken out from the average of all the bands. Your performance on the final test day in each of the module is marked as a band score on a scale of 1, which is the lowest to 9, which is the highest. The Overall Band Score is the average of the marks of four sections, which is rounded to the nearest whole or half band. The scores per section are weighted equally.
