IELTS Practice Material: Listening, Writing, Speaking, Reading

By kh. M. Haris Naveed

Want to prepare for the IELTS through practice material? It’s a very good idea.

Today, we are going to discuss what are the different sections of the IELTS exam as well as the practice material for the preparation of the IELTS exam. This will contain a detailed explanation and all the links for the practice material.

IELTS Sections and Practice Materials

Let’s begin with a simple question. What is the IELTS exam? For the knowledge regarding the IELTS exam click on the image below because it is important to know about the exam before moving forward.

Click on the image to go to the article.

If you already know about the IELTS exam then let’s move on to the main topic of discussion. We are here to provide you with the practice material for the IELTS exam.

Let’s begin with the explanation of each section.

1. Listening Section:

The listening section of the exam consists of an audio file according to which you will have to answer different questions. The main target of this task is to determine your listening capability.

The total that will be allotted for this section will be 30 Minutes. During that time the audio will be played. Keep in mind that the audio will be played only once because as explained above that the purpose of this section is to determine your listening capabilities.

It will serve any purpose if the audio will have to be played again and again for the candidates.

Try not to rush into the questions. Listen carefully to the audio because it is designed to stump you in your tracks. Try to write the answers first on some rough page so that even if you are wrong, you would have a chance to correct it.

Links for Listening Section:

Here are some links for the sample tasks, audio files, and answer sheets. Try to take advantage of them as much as you can.

Sample Tests:

1. 115006_listening_sample_task_-_matching__example_1_
2. 115007_listening_sample_task_-_matching__example_2_
3. 115009_listening_sample_task_-_plan_map_diagram_labelling
4. form-completion
5. listening-sample-task-8
6. listening-sample-task-8-answer-sheet
7. listening-sample-task-9
8. listening-sample-task-9-answer-sheet
9. listening-sample-task—multiple-choice
10. listening-sample-task—sentence-completion
11. listening-sample-task—short-answer

Audio Files:

The audio files for the listening preparation are as following:

1. Audio 1
2. Audio 2
3. Audio 3
4. Audio 4
5. Audio 5
6. Audio 6
7. Audio 7
8. Audio 8
9. Audio 9

2. Reading Section:

The reading skill that one needs is also very crucial to pass the exam. The main target of this section is to evaluate your reading ability. To improve your reading skill it is advised that you practice your vocabulary and also try reading as many books or articles as possible.

There are two basic types of reading section which are:

1. Academic Reading.
2. General Reading.

1) Academic Reading:

The academic reading section is for the people who are trying to apply for the candidates who are going abroad for study purposes. It is taken from a variety of books, journals, magazines, and newspapers.

The total time allotted for the academic reading section is 60 Minutes. There are a variety of tasks such as multiple-choice questions, identifying information, identifying writer’s views/claims, matching information, matching headings, matching features, and many other things.

Links for Academic reading Section:

The links for the academic reading sections are as follows:

1. 115015_academic_reading_sample_task_-_matching_features__2_
2. 115018_academic_reading_sample_task_-_table_completion__2_
3. academic-reading-sample-task-flowchart-completion-selecting-words-from-the-text
4. academic-reading-sample-task-identifying-information-true-false-not-given
5. academic-reading-sample-task-matching-headings
6. academic-reading-sample-task-multiple-choice-more-than-one-answer
7. academic-reading-sample-task-multiple-choice-one-answer
8. academic-reading-sample-task-summary-completion-selecting-from-a-list-of-words-or-phrases
9. academic-reading-sample-task-summary-completion-selecting-words-from-the-text
10. pb-sample-academic-reading-matching-sentence-endings-task-and-key
11. pb-sample-academic-reading-note-completion-task-and-key
12. pb-sample-academic-reading-sentence-completion-task-and-key

2) General Reading:

The general reading section is for people who are trying to go for a visitor to apply for a job abroad.

The time for general reading is the same as the academic reading (which is 60 minutes). The tasks will include multiple-choice questions, identifying information, identifying writer’s views/claims, matching information, matching headings, matching features, and many others.

Links for General reading Section:

1. 115023_general_training_reading_sample_task_-_matching_headings
2. 115025_general_training_reading_sample_task_-_sentence_completion
3. 115026_general_training_reading_sample_task_-_short-answer_questions
4. PB-sample-general-training-reading-note-completion-task-and-key
5. PB-sample-general-training-reading-summary-completion-task-and-key
6. PB-sample-general-training-reading-of-task-and-key
7. 115019_general_training_reading_sample_task_-_flow-chart_completion
8. 115020_general_training_reading_sample_task_-_identifying_information
9. 115022_general_training_reading_sample_task_-_matching_features
10. 116971_general_training_reading_sample_task_-_matching__information

These are the links to both the academic and general reading section.

3. Writing Section:

The target of the writing is to determine your English Writing capabilities. The exam will check your vocabulary, tenses and many other things. The best practice for this is to try practicing by writing as much as you can. Focus on your pronunciation and on the vocabulary as well.

Just like the reading section writing section also has two types one for applying in school and another for general visits. These types are:

1. Academic Writing.
2. General Writing.

1) Academic Writing:

The time allowed for this section is 60 Minutes.

There will be two tasks available for the academic section. In Task 1, test takers are asked to describe some visual information which will include image or graph, etc. They need to write 150 words in about 20 minutes.

In Task 2 test takers are presented with an argument and they need to write their response in 250 words in about 40 minutes.

Links for Academic Writing Section:

The links are given below:

1. 113313_ac_sample_scripts
2. academic-writing-answer-sheet-task-1
3. academic-writing-sample-task-1a
4. academic-writing-sample-task-1b
5. academic-writing-sample-task-1c
6. academic-writing-sample-task-2a
7. academic-writing-sample-task-2b
8. ac-writing-sample-materials-and-examiner-comments

2) General Writing:

The time that is allowed for general writing is the same as that of academic writing (Which is 60 minutes). There are also only two tasks for this section as well.

In Task 1, candidates are required to respond to a situation by writing a letter, for example, explaining a situation, etc.

In Task 2, test takers write an essay upon an argument presented to the candidate.

Links for General Writing Section:

The links are given below:

1. 115004_general_training_writing_sample_scripts
2. general-writing-answer-sheet-task-1
3. general-writing-answer-sheet-task-2
4. gt-writing-sample-scripts-and-examiner-comments
5. gt-writing-sample-task-1a
6. gt-writing-sample-task-1b
7. gt-writing-sample-task-2a
8. gt-writing-sample-task-2b

These are all the links for the practice material of the academic and general writing sections.

4. Speaking Section:

The speaking section is designed to evaluate your speaking capability, that is how well you can speak English. This will be held separately because it requires a live session between two individuals.

It can be very difficult for introverts but to overcome this hurdle they need to practice with people they may already know and then move up to talking to strangers.

The time that is fixed for the speaking section is 11-14 Minutes. There are basically 3 parts in the speaking section. These parts are as follows:

• Part 1, you will have to answer questions about yourself and your family.
• In Part 2, there will be a discussion on a topic.
• Part 3, you have a longer discussion on the topic.

Links for the Speaking Section:

These links are as following:

1. 115041_speaking_sample_task_-_part_1
2. 115045_speaking_sample_task_-_part_1_transcript
3. 115047_speaking_sample_task_-_part_2
4. 115051_speaking_sample_task_-_part_2_transcript
5. 115053_speaking_sample_task_-_part_3
6. 115057_speaking_sample_task_-_part_3_transcript

These are all the links for the IELTS exam.

Hopefully, this practice material for the IELTS proves to be helpful for your preparation for the exam.