Reading test

The Reading test takes 60 minutes. There are 40 questions, based on three reading passages with a total of 2,000 to 2,750 words. Both the Academic Reading and General Training Reading tests have the same format. All answers must be entered on an answer sheet during the 60-minute test. No extra time is allowed for transferring answers.

Academic Reading Texts are taken from magazines, journals, books, and newspapers. Texts have been written for a non-specialist audience. At least one text contains detailed logical argument. Texts may contain non-verbal materials such as diagrams, graphs or illustrations. If texts contain technical terms then a simple glossary is provided.

 What reading skills are tested in IELTS Academic Reading?

 This is a test of reading comprehension in a general academic context. The texts used and the skills tested are intended to reflect the target language needs of undergraduate and postgraduate students, without bias for or against students of any particular discipline.

 What is reading for detail?

 When we read for detail we read every word in a text and think carefully about the meaning of every sentence. It is often necessary in IELTS Academic Reading to read a certain section of a text in detail in order to answer a question correctly. Usually a candidate must skim or scan the text first to find the right section and then, having found the relevant section, read for detail. 

How do we read text?

 In everyday life we use different strategies or approaches to read different texts. Sometimes we read quickly, skimming for general ideas or scanning for a specific point. Sometimes we read slowly, trying to gain a detailed understanding. How we read depends on the text – its length, its type – and our purpose in reading it. 

General Training Reading The first section, ‘social survival contains texts relevant to basic linguistic survival in English with tasks mainly about retrieving and providing general factual information.

‘Training survival’, the second section, focuses on the training context, for example on the training programme itself or on welfare needs. This section involves a text or texts of more complex language with some precise or elaborated expression.

The third section, ‘general reading’, involves reading more extended prose with a more complex structure but with the emphasis on descriptive and instructive rather than argumentative texts, in a general context relevant to the wide range of candidates involved.

 What reading skills are tested in IELTS General Training Reading?

 In IELTS General Training Reading candidates are expected to be able to deal with texts from a range of social and educational, training and work contexts which are general rather than discipline specific. Technical terms are avoided and low frequency lexical items may be glossed. It is a test of reading and not of general knowledge.