Practice the IELTS paper, not facts about the test
A notebook full of “IELTS has four skills” will not move a band score. The test is a recording, three reading texts, two writing tasks, and a short interview. If your practice never includes those, you are revising the brochure.
Official pages are the ones to trust for the shape of the paper. Coaching sites copy each other and drift. Start at the Academic format on ielts.org and the British Council format page.
Academic and General Training are not the same paper
Listening and Speaking are shared. Reading and Writing are not. Academic Reading uses longer texts from books, journals, and magazines. General Training Reading uses notices, workplace documents, and general-interest articles. Academic Writing Task 1 asks you to describe a chart, table, diagram, or map. General Training Writing Task 1 is a letter.
Check which module your university, visa, or employer asked for before you buy a book. A week of letter practice is wasted if you sit Academic, and a week of graph practice is wasted if you sit General Training.
Listening and Reading are scavenger hunts
IELTS publishes Listening as four recordings and 40 questions, about 30 minutes, plus 10 minutes on the paper test to copy answers onto the sheet. The questions follow the recording. If you are still on question 4 when the speakers have moved on, you have already lost 5 through 10.
Reading is 60 minutes and 40 questions across three sections. The Academic texts run roughly 2,150 to 2,750 words in total. There is no extra transfer time. Spelling and grammar mistakes on the answer sheet cost the mark. British Council test-day notes put Listening, Reading, and Writing together at 2 hours 40 minutes, with no break between them.
A useful drill is one section, timed, then a check against the transcript or the passage with a pencil on the line that holds the answer. “I almost knew it” is not a review. The line is.
Writing is two tasks, and Task 2 carries more
You get 60 minutes for both tasks. British Council’s format page suggests about 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 minutes for Task 2, because Task 2 is worth more of the writing score. Task 2 is an essay: agree or disagree, discuss both views, problem and solution, or advantages and disadvantages. The question tells you which.
Beginners often write a long Task 1 and a rushed Task 2. Flip that. A short, accurate Task 1 and a finished Task 2 beats a beautiful graph description and an essay that stops mid-paragraph.
Speaking is 11 to 14 minutes, with one minute to think
Part 1 is everyday questions, about 4 to 5 minutes. Part 2 is a cue card: one minute to prepare, then 1 to 2 minutes of talk. Part 3 picks up the same topic and asks harder, more general questions, about 4 to 5 minutes. The Speaking test can be the same day as the written papers or up to a week before or after. The centre tells you.
Practise out loud. Reading model answers silently does not train the clock. Record one cue card, play it back, and notice where you stopped for a word you actually know.
A first week that stays on the paper
Day 1: one short reading passage and its questions. Day 2: one listening section, answers written while the audio plays. Day 3: a Task 2 plan and one body paragraph, 15 minutes. Day 4: a cue card spoken for a full minute after the prep time. Day 5: mark yesterday’s reading and listening against the key and rewrite the wrong ones in a sentence of your own. Days 6 and 7: repeat the weakest paper, not a new topic about “IELTS tips”.
Free practice sets live on the British Council practice page. Use those before random PDFs. Related notes: NEET UG from the official syllabus, JEE Main Paper 1, and what to do with a mock after you finish it.
Questions people ask
Are IELTS Academic and General Training the same test?
Listening and Speaking are shared. Reading and Writing are different. Academic reading uses longer texts. General Training reading uses everyday texts. Academic Writing Task 1 describes a visual. General Training Writing Task 1 is a letter.
How long is the IELTS test?
On the paper format published by IELTS, Listening is about 30 minutes plus 10 minutes to copy answers, Reading is 60 minutes including transfer, Writing is 60 minutes, and Speaking is 11 to 14 minutes. British Council test-day notes say Listening, Reading, and Writing together take 2 hours 40 minutes with no breaks. Computer-delivered Listening does not add a separate 10-minute copy window, because you type as you go. Confirm the version you booked.
Where should a beginner start?
With one short reading passage and the questions that belong to it. Then one listening section, one Writing Task 2 paragraph, and one Speaking Part 2 cue card said out loud. Band tables can wait.
If you want a short quiz on the section you just practised, Rivox on Google Play can build items from a topic you name, such as IELTS Academic Reading true, false, not given, instead of a general article about the exam.