IELTS Practice Academic & General Training

Guided tour · no sign-in needed

See exactly how the practice works before you spend a minute on it

Seven short steps: pick a test type, see the real exam format, hear how Listening audio actually sounds, try real Reading question types, see Writing and Speaking graded against the official bands, and track your score over time.

Step 1 of 7

Two tests, one app

Pick the test you're sitting first. Listening and Speaking are identical either way. Reading and Writing differ — Academic uses long passages and a data-description task, General Training uses everyday texts and a letter — and you can switch anytime; scores are kept separately.

Choose your test

This changes Reading and Writing. Listening and Speaking stay the same.

Listening

Same in both

4 parts, 40 questions, ~30 minutes. Spoken audio with a different voice per speaker.

Reading

Differs

Academic: 3 long passages from journals, books and reports — 40 questions in 60 minutes.

General Training: 3 sections of social, workplace and general-interest texts — 40 questions in 60 minutes.

Writing

Differs

Academic: Task 1 describes a chart, table, graph or process (150 words). Task 2 is an essay (250 words).

General Training: Task 1 is a letter — formal, semi-formal or personal (150 words). Task 2 is an essay (250 words).

Speaking

Same in both

3 parts, 11–14 minutes: interview, long turn from a task card, then discussion.

Illustration of the in-app test-type picker.

Step 2 of 7

The real exam structure

Every set follows the real format — Listening (4 parts, 40 questions, ~30 min), Reading (3 passages/sections, 40 questions, 60 min), Writing (2 tasks, 60 min), Speaking (3 parts, 11–14 min) — all pulled from one shared definition, so practice can't quietly drift from the real exam.

Test format — the four sections are always sat in this order.
SectionFormatQuestionsTime
Listening4 parts, played once4030 min
Reading3 passages (Academic) or 3 sections (General Training)4060 min
Writing2 tasks — Task 1 (150 words), Task 2 (250 words)2 tasks60 min
Speaking3 parts — interview, long turn, discussion3 parts11–14 min
Whole testFour sections, one sitting80 + 2 tasks~2 h 45 min
Listening + 10 min to transfer answers in the paper test Reading no extra transfer time Writing Task 2 is worth twice Task 1

The same numbers drive every timer and score in the app.

Step 3 of 7

Listening with real audio

Every script is spoken with Google Cloud text-to-speech, one voice per speaker, so it sounds like a real conversation rather than a narrator reading both halves. As in the real exam, it plays once — generated fresh each time, never a stale recording.

Listening · Part 1 · Everyday conversation

Questions 1–10 · form and note completion

Enquiry call — community college course01:12 / 04:38

Plays once, like the real exam. Replay is disabled during a timed section.

  • Narratoren-GB · neutral
  • Receptionist (now speaking)en-GB · voice A
  • Calleren-AU · voice B

One voice per speaker, assigned per set — so you learn to follow who is talking.

Step 4 of 7

Reading question types that match the exam

You get the real question types — True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given, matching headings, sentence and note completion, multiple choice — passage beside the questions just like the paper test, marked against a key that's strict on wording but forgiving on case and spacing.

Passage 1 — The return of the urban tram

City transport planners spent much of the twentieth century removing tram networks, which were widely regarded as obstacles to the private car. By 1962 fewer than a dozen British cities still operated a tram line, and most of those closed within a decade.

The reversal since the 1990s has been striking. Modern light-rail schemes are sold on capacity rather than nostalgia: a single vehicle can carry the passengers of several buses, and the fixed route is said to attract investment along its length. Whether that investment is created or merely relocated remains contested among economists.

Question 3 · True / False / Not Given

British tram closures in the 1960s were caused mainly by a fall in passenger numbers.

The passage says closures happened, not why. Nothing states a cause — so the answer is Not Given, not False.

True / False / Not Given Yes / No / Not Given Matching headings Sentence completion Note completion Multiple choice

Passage on the left, questions on the right — and the explanation after you submit.

Step 5 of 7

Writing and Speaking, graded

Writing and Speaking are graded against the four official band descriptors — not a word count or keyword list. You get a band per criterion, an averaged task band, and feedback tied to your own sentences, not generic advice.

Writing Task 2 · your response, graded

268 words · 38 minutes · graded against the public band descriptors

  • Task Response6.5
  • Coherence and Cohesion6.0
  • Lexical Resource7.0
  • Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.5

Task band

6.5

Mean of the four criteria

Estimate

Strengths
  • Clear position stated in the introduction and held to the end.
  • Good topic-specific vocabulary: congestion charging, marginal cost.
  • Both views are addressed, as the prompt requires.
Improvements
  • Paragraph 3 introduces two ideas — split it so each has one.
  • Overuses Moreover; vary the linking between paragraphs.
  • Three article slips (the government spendspends).

Per-criterion bands plus feedback tied to your sentences. Bands are an estimate, not an official score.

Step 6 of 7

20 practice sets per part, 20 full exams

Drill one part at a time (20 sets per part) or sit a full timed exam (20 available). Comprehension is marked out of 40 and converted to a band estimate. Set 1 of every part is free — no account needed.

Listening · Part 2 · choose a set

20 sets · 10 questions each · ~8 minutes

  • 1Free
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
Or sit a full exam — Academic Exam 4 of 20 All four sections, timed end to end, ~2 h 45 min. Raw 31/40 in Reading → band 7.0 (estimate).
Timed

Set 1 of every part is free; the rest is included with a membership.

Step 7 of 7

Track your band over time

The app works without an account — signing in adds a dashboard: your best band per section, an estimated overall, and your trend over time, rounded the way IELTS rounds (.25 and up rounds to the next half or whole band).

6.5 Estimated overall band 6.5 Academic · best band per section · 14 attempts logged Estimate

Listening

6.5

best of 5 attempts

Reading

6.5

best of 4 attempts

Writing

6.0

best of 3 attempts

Speaking

6.0

best of 2 attempts

(6.5 + 6.5 + 6.0 + 6.0) ÷ 4 = 6.25 → an average ending in .25 rounds up, so the overall is reported as 6.5, not 6.0.

Last eight attempts — most recent on the right.

Section bests, an estimated overall, and the trend behind it.

Step 1 of 7

Use the left and right arrow keys to move between tour steps.

Sit a full demo exam — free, no account

All four sections, real timing, spoken Listening audio and graded Writing. You'll know within one sitting whether this is the practice you want.