IELTS Reading Format
IELTS (International English Language Training System) is a test conducted by British Council, Cambridge English Assessment and IDP Australia. The official website for this test is https://www.ielts.org/. IELTS reading is also a part of IELTS (a test used as an English proficiency test where English is primary language to speak).
The IELTS reading format consists of the structure of IELTS reading test, types of questions, duration of the test, and the score structure of IELTS reading. The IELTS reading format is important to know for the aspirants who want to get enrolled in IELTS, because it is also one of the sections of IELTS from 4 sections- reading, listening, writing and speaking.
IELS reading format helps you to get general idea about the reading test of IELTS.
Before going into the details of IELTS reading format, let us discuss IELTS reading introduction along with some general information.
IELTS reading types
There are two types of IELTS reading– IELTS academic reading and IELTS general training reading. The reading section of IELTS is not similar in both types of IELTS reading, but the format of IELTS reading is same for both types of IELTS reading- IELTS general reading and IELTS academic reading. The main difference occurs in the content of the reading test.
The passages of IELTS general reading are based on general topics and easily able to understand. While the passages of IELTS academic are based on the general and academic topics. These passages are taken from magazines, books, newspapers, articles and journals. There are 40 questions in the test covering all 3 passages of the test. You are asked to read all these passages and answer with respect to them.
Summary
IELTS reading format helps candidate to know the general introduction and structure of IELTS reading. There are two types of IELTS reading- IELTS reading academic and IELTS reading general training. The format for IELTS reading is same. IELTS reading consists of three different passages and the passages are different in both types of reading tests. IELTS general reading contains the passages based on general topic while IELTS reading academic contains the passages based on academic topics. These passages are taken from different resources such as books, articles, newspapers or from magazines. The examiner evaluates your reading skills by this purpose. There are different types of questions asked in the reading test of IELS such as multiple choice questions, filling gaps, matching headings, table completion, flowchart completion, summary completion or diagram label completion etc. These types of questions are asked in the test to know how they understand different types of the passages and how they answer all. Examiner evaluates by this purpose to know how you will understand the main ideas and supporting sentences of the passages. There are 40 questions with 40 marks. Each correct answer carries one mark. These marks are converted into band score at the end by following marking criteria. To sum up all, IELTS reading format helps you to know about IELTS reading test.
IELTS reading purpose
IELTS reading test evaluates your reading skills in different ways such as:
- By reading test, examiner analyzes that how you can get the gist of the passages.
- How you get the general idea of the passages.
- How you pick up the main points of the passages.
- How you understand the passages and the sense of the text.
- How you gain writers’ opinions.
- How you understand the topic sentence and supporting sentences.
IELTS reading duration
Time duration is same for both types of tests- IELTS reading academic and IELTS reading general. The time duration for this test is 60 minutes in which you have to solve the whole test. No more time is given to you for transferring answers on the answer sheet of IELTS reading. You have to transfer your answers within that time.
Do not spend more than 20 minutes on each passage. Try to use 17-18 minutes on each passage, so that you can save minutes to check all the answers in the end.
The most important thing to do your best in the reading test is that you should transfer the answers of each test at the end of the test to avoid from any type of embarrassment or confusion.
IELTS reading question types
14 types of questions are found in the test of IELTS reading. These IELTS reading all types of questions analyze the candidate’s ability that how well he performs in the traps of different situations. A list of different types of questions are given below to read and understand:
- Multiple choice questions
- Identify information (True/False/Not given)
- Identify writer’s view/claim (Yes/No/Not given)
- Matching information
- Matching headings
- Matching features
- Matching sentence endings
- Sentence completion
- Summary/Note/Table/Flowchart completion
- Diagram label completion
- Short answers questions
These different types of questions are described below in short.
| Multiple choice question: In this type of question, you have to face four possible answers (A, B, C, D). The list of possible answers may increase with choosing correct answers. The answers in this type of question follow sequence that means the answer of first question is before the second answer of question. By this, examiner evaluates how well the candidate understands the text and picks main points. |
| Identify information (True/False/Not given): In this type of question, you have to identify information from the text with respect to the question. You have to check the statement or question that is asked in the question of true, false or not given. True means that statement is available as same in the text. False means, statement is present but it is wrong, while not given means statement is not in the text of the test. |
| Identify writer’s view/claim (Yes/No/Not given): You have to check the writer’s opinion or his statement in the question and in the text. If the statement is completely right in the text that means “yes”. If the statement is available but not accurate that means “no”, while “not given means, the statement is not given in the passages of the test. |
| Matching information: In this type of question, you are required to match information from question to the passages of the test. The information can be in the form of examples, numbers, facts, or reasons etc. |
| Matching headings: In this type of question, an examiner evaluates your abilities that how you understand the text and how you make difference between main ideas and supporting sentences of the passages. You will face different types of headings in this type of question. You require to find out the correct heading of each passage. |
| Matching features: This type of question is also related to the matching headings; the main difference occurs that in this type of question you need to identify the feature from the text. By this, examiner evaluates that how well a candidate understands the supporting sentences of the passages. |
| Matching sentence endings: In this type of question, you have to complete the sentence by picking next half of the sentence from the text. First half of the sentence will be given to you in the question, you are required to connect with next suitable half of the text. The questions like this type are in sequence. |
| Sentence completion: In this type of question, you have to complete the sentence according to the question. Instructions take an important role in this type of question, so be informed before answering these types of question. If you do not follow instructions, you will lose you marks. |
| Summary/Note/Table/Flowchart completion: Summary is easy portion in this test. Note completion contains empty spaces and you have to complete by putting right words from the passage as an answer. The question types of table and flowchart completion are mostly similar types of question. You have to find correct words for empty spaces in these types of questions. The types of reading skimming and scanning are evaluated in these types of questions. |
| Diagram label completion: In this type of question, you have to fill the diagram according to the information provided in the diagram and passages of the test. You will face a diagram in this portion and some instructions are given to you for completing the diagram. You need to answer according to the instructions, otherwise your marks will be lost. |
| Short answers completion: In this type of question, you have to answer in short. Instructions are important for this type of questions. So, you must follow instructions and write answers according to the questions. Do not cross limits mean word limit. Mostly the questions are based on facts and figures. |
IELTS reading score
The total number of questions in the IELTS reading test is 40. Each question carries one mark. All of these marks are converted into bands. The band range for IELTS reading is 0-9. Your final result of IELTS is calculated by averaging all four modules of IELTS- reading, listening, writing and speaking. If you face any difficulty while calculating result, you can use websites to calculate final bands. How IELTS bands scores are calculated is an excellent article to help you in this regard.
The bands are in the form of whole or half band such as 6 bands, 6.5 bands, 7 bands etc. As the IELTS reading academic and IELTS reading general are different, the marking criteria is also different for both types of tests.
In the table given below, I describe the marking criteria of both types of IELTS reading- IELTS reading academic and IELTS reading general training:
| Academic reading test | General training reading test | ||
| Band score | Correct answers out of 40 | Band score | Correct answers out of 40 |
| 9 | 39-40 | 9 | 40 |
| 8.5 | 37-38 | 8.5 | 39 |
| 8 | 35-36 | 8 | 37-38 |
| 7.5 | 33-34 | 7.5 | 36 |
| 7 | 30-32 | 7 | 34-35 |
| 6.5 | 27-29 | 6.5 | 32-33 |
| 6 | 23-26 | 6 | 30-31 |
| 5.5 | 19-22 | 5.5 | 27-29 |
| 5 | 15-18 | 5 | 23-26 |
| 4.5 | 13-14 | 4.5 | 19-22 |
| 4 | 10-12 | 4 | 15-18 |
In a nutshell: IELTS reading format
The IELTS reading format helps you to understand the test and its structure. The format of IELTS reading is same for both types of IELTS reading academic and general training, but the content is different in both tests. IELTS reading test polishes your reading abilities. The range of score is 1-9 called bands.
14 different types of questions are there in IELTS. Examiner evaluates your abilities by these different types of questions. There are 60 minutes to crack reading test. This article for IELTS reading format gives you a general understanding about the test.
