IELTS is one of the most widely accepted English tests in the world. This guide covers how the exam works, which version you need, and what actually raises a band score.
First, pick the right version: Academic or General Training?
Academic is for university admission and professional registration. General Training is for migration, work and vocational courses. Listening and Speaking are identical in both; Reading and Writing differ.
Choosing the wrong version means paying the fee twice. Confirm in writing which one your institution requires.
There is also IELTS for UKVI for UK visa applications: the same content, registered differently and offered only at certain centres.
How the exam works
Listening (about 30 minutes, 40 questions). Four sections, and every recording plays once only. Difficulty rises through the test.
Reading (60 minutes, 40 questions). Three long academic passages in Academic; everyday texts building to one long passage in General Training. There is no extra transfer time.
Writing (60 minutes, two tasks). Task 1 is at least 150 words — describing a chart or process in Academic, a letter in General. Task 2 is at least 250 words, an essay in both. Task 2 carries two-thirds of the marks, so split your time 20 and 40 minutes.
Speaking (11–14 minutes). With a real examiner, in three parts: introductory questions; a one-to-two minute talk from a cue card after one minute of preparation; and a more abstract discussion around the same topic.
Scoring: what the nine bands mean
Each section receives a band from 0 to 9; the overall score is the average of the four, rounded to the nearest half band. Roughly: 6.0 is the floor for many undergraduate courses, 6.5–7.0 is the band universities most often ask for, 7.5+ is for competitive programmes and some professional registers.
Most institutions look not only at the overall score but at a minimum per section: “overall 6.5 with no band below 6.0” is a typical requirement. One weak section can sink an application whose average is fine.
One Skill Retake: many centres let you resit a single section rather than the whole test. Check whether your centre offers it and whether your institution accepts the result.
The four things that raise scores most
1. Corrected writing practice. Uncorrected essays reinforce mistakes. Two essays with feedback beat five without. Marking uses four criteria — task response, coherence, lexical resource and grammatical accuracy — so write with them in mind.
2. One-listen discipline. The recording plays once, so practise that way. Listen a second time only when checking answers against a transcript.
3. Reading under the clock. Most candidates lose marks to time, not knowledge. Reading the questions first and then scanning for the information is almost always faster than reading the whole passage first.
4. Length in speaking. Short answers are the commonest error. Answering “Do you like reading?” with “Yes” costs marks; add a reason, an example, a comparison. Paraphrasing always beats silence.
An eight-week plan
Week 1: Sit a full practice test and record all four band scores separately. The gap to your target decides how your time is split.
Weeks 2–5: Forty minutes a day on your two weakest sections, twenty on the others. Write two Task 2 essays a week and have them corrected.
Weeks 6–7: Record yourself speaking ten minutes daily and listen back, marking where you hesitate. Do all reading and listening under timed conditions from now on.
Week 8: One full test at the real exam hour, with full timing, so fatigue is not a surprise on the day.
Where to start
If you do not know your level, take a placement test first — ours is free for 13 languages and reports on the CEFR scale. IELTS bands map roughly onto CEFR: B2 is about 5.5–6.5, C1 about 7.0–8.0.
LexUnio is not a test provider and issues no official certificate; the exam is taken at British Council and IDP centres. Our job is to prepare you for it.