IELTS Exam Summary
IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing System. It is globally recognized test jointly owned by IDP: IELTS Australia, British Council, and Cambridge University Press and Assessment. You need to take this exam if you wish to study, migrate or work in countries such as Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and the UK, where English is the native language.
The purpose of IELTS Exam
IELTS is conducted to test your English language skills. It’s required of you if you wish to move some English speaking country for the purpose of study, work or immigration.
Millions of people around the world take IELTS exam for various purposes, e.g., study visa, work permit and immigration.

IELTS test determines how well you are in English Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. Once you secure a desired band score, it will be internationally recognized for up to two years.
Reading | Listening | Writing | Speaking | Overall Score |
7.5 | 8 | 7 | 7.5 | 7.5 |
Important!
A band scale of 0-9 points is used to evaluate your individual and overall score. Overall score is the arithmetic mean of individual scores in each section. See the table below:
IELTS Modules
There are following four modules or components in both GT and Academic IELTS;
Listening and speaking parts are identical in Academic and GT test, while reading and writing are different. You have to be sure of your test type.
Important!
IELTS exam lasts for 2 hours and 45 minutes in total. Only Speaking test may be scheduled up to a week before or after the other tests. While, all other parts are completed on the same day with no breaks in between.
Reading
It lasts for 1 hour. This section has 3 reading passages with 40 questions.
Listening
This part consists 30 minute audio recording with 40 questions.
Writing
It has task 1 and task 2. It lasts for 1 hour.
Speaking
This section has 3 parts lasting between 11-14 minutes. You can choose either a face-to-face or a virtual (on computer) test with examiner.
IELTS Results
There is a band scale of 0-9 points to evaluate your language ability. The higher the band, the higher is the proficiency level. Each IELTS score corresponds to some level of English Proficiency. 0 is the minimum score, and 9 is the maximum on band scale, as shown below:
Important!
Band Score Proficiency Level 9.0 Expert user 8.0 Very good user 7.0 Good user 6.0 Competent user 5.0 Modest user 4.0 Limited user 3.0 Extremely limited user 2.0 Intermittent user 1.0 Non user 0.0 Did not attempt the test
Important!
Your IELTS certificate is called TRF (Test Report Form). It’s issued 13 days after the test. You can find both your individual score and overall score on it. The overall band score is the average score of all the four sections.
There is no minimum score to pass the test. You have to obtain a target band to serve the purpose, as each institution sets a different threshold.
Rounding Off the Overall Band Score
From the band scale of 0-9 points, you can score either a whole (e.g. 4.0, 5.0, 6.0) or a half band (4.5, 5.5, 6.5) for each module of the test. But your overall score can be in points other than a half or a whole band between 0 and 9 (e.g. 5.25, 6.75, 6.125 etc). In such a case, it is rounded off to the nearest half or whole band score. See the table for an illustration:
Reading | Listening | Writing | Speaking | Average Score (Raw) | Overall Score (Final) | |
Candidate A | 6 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 5.25 | 5.5 |
Candidate B | 6.5 | 7 | 6 | 7.5 | 6.75 | 7 |
Candidate C | 7 | 6.5 | 6 | 5 | 6.125 | 6 |
Candidate D | 5.5 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 6 | 5.375 | 5.5 |
IELTS rules for rounding off
- If the average score of the four modules ends in 0.25, your overall score is rounded up to the next half band.
- Your overall score is rounded up to the next whole band, if the average score ends in 0.75.
- If the ending of your average band score is other than 0.25 and 0.5, it is rounded off to the nearer (either a half or a whole) band.
IELTS – The World’s Most Popular Test
IELTS is world’s favorite test of English. Many professional registration bodies and employers accept this exam as a proof of English language proficiency. Thousands of educational and vocational institutes rely on IELTS to select the best students from across the globe.
Following are a few reasons why you should choose IELTS:
- Its global recognition makes it a world’s favorite test of English. No other test is more reliable for any government or academic institution than IELTS.
- You don’t need to cross border, as you can take IELTS exam in almost every country. You can reach 1,600 test centre locations in over 140 countries worldwide.
- Transparency level is unparalleled. The examiners are highly qualified and trained professionals.
- The test is categorized into GT and Academic IELTS according to your need. Thus, it helps you achieve your study, work or migration objective.
- You can take this exam on paper or computer, as per your preference.
- You can select your favorite day and time-slot for taking this test. It relieves you of every sort of incumbency and pressure.
Test Types
You can choose your test between the following two types:
Academic version is to achieve study goals, while GT test is for migration or work purposes. In other words, if you wish to study in any English speaking country such as New Zealand, Australia, USA or the UK, you would be required to pass an Academic test. While if your objective is to migrate or to work in the country where English is the first language, you would need to pass GT test of IELTS.
You can take exam on paper or on computer as per your ease and liking. Your IELTS certificates achieved are valid for not more than two years.
As a common practice, Academic exam is organized once in two weeks, while General Training once in four weeks. You can choose your suitable test date and time from here:
Both types of tests can be taken in a test center either on paper or on computer.
Which one to choose: British Council or IDP?
It doesn’t matter. There is no difference between the IELTS exam at the BC and in IDP. Both IDP and the British Council jointly own IELTS along with Cambridge English Language Assessment. You get the same test with no difference in difficulty level. The BC and IDP only conduct the tests, do not write them. All tests at the British Council and IDP are set by Cambridge English Language Assessment, one of the part owners of IELTS.
Also the marking criteria is the same for both The BC and IDP: Australia. All IELTS examiners are highly qualified and professionally trained. They follow the same rules to evaluate your band score.
Accents in IELTS
IELTS accepts international English, not only British English. Although BC is British and IDP is Australian, they both use a range of accents.
You may get a range of accents in your listening test. In your speaking module, you can choose accent of your own: British, Australian or American.
CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) Scale
CEFR means the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. It’s an international standard for describing the language ability of individuals. It breaks down language learning into six levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2), where A1 is for beginners and C2 is for those proficient in a language.
It was developed by the Council of Europe, with extensive support from the University of Cambridge (ESOL Examinations).
People from all over the world use this scale for their self-assessment. In addition to IELTS, it is also used as a conversion scale for other tests such as PTE and TOEFL.
The CEFR is a more standardized scale used by governments, employers, and educational institutes for determining fluency in languages with more reliable indicators.
From the table below, you can convert your IELTS test score to CEFR scale:
IELTS Conversion in CEFR Scale