International English Language Testing System
IELTS is the International English Language Testing System which tests English proficiency across the globe. Conducting 2 million tests in the past year, IELTS is the world’s most popular high stakes English-language test for study, work and migration.
IELTS is recognized by universities and employers in many countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. It is also recognized by professional bodies, immigration authorities and other government agencies.
The IELTS test has four parts:
Listening: | 30 minutes |
Reading: | 60 minutes |
Writing: | 60 minutes |
Speaking: | 11–14 minutes |
The test total time is: | 2 hours and 45 minutes |
IELTS has two versions
1. Academic IELTS: The Academic test is for those who want to study at a tertiary level in an English-speaking country.
2. General IELTS: The General Training test is for those who want to do work experience or training programs, secondary school or migrate to an English-speaking country. All candidates take the same Listening and Speaking tests but different Reading and Writing tests.
Test takers receive a score for each test component – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The individual scores are then averaged and rounded to produce an Overall Band Score.
Band scale
There is no pass or fail.
IELTS is scored on a nine-band scale, with each band corresponding to a specified competence in English. Overall Band Scores are reported to the nearest half band.
The following rounding convention applies: if the average across the four skills ends in .25, it is rounded up to the next half band, and if it ends in .75, it is rounded up to the next whole band.
The nine bands are described as follows:
- 9: Expert User
- 8: Very Good User
- 7: Good User
- 6: Competent User
- 5: Modest User
- 4: Limited User
- 3: Extremely Limited User
- 2: Intermittent User
- 1: Non User
- 0: Did not attempt the test