Difference Between IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training

Whether you are planning to study, migrate or find a job overseas, this blog will be helpful for all of you. Why? Because English is the main language to communicate abroad. Foreign countries look for individuals with high English proficiency. International English Exams like IELTS check that proficiency. Let us discuss this in detail to get you a proper and deep understanding. We will move step by step, so before we jump into a deep discussion, let us briefly know about IELTS.

Visa zone experts are here to help you understand the details. Not only here, but we also offer IELTS Coaching in Ahmedabad where students can directly meet our trainers and talk. For now, understand the Difference between IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training.

Difference Between IELTS Academic And IELTS General Training

What Does IELTS Mean?

The International English Language Testing System ( IELTS) is the most widely used in the world for immigration and higher education run by the British Council in partnership with IDP Education and Cambridge Assignment English.

What is the IELTS Band Score?

The IELTS exam will evaluate your English (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking skills) and assign a score between 1 to 9. Then, you can provide this band score to immigration authorities, schools, and potential employment. If you know, there are two types of IELTS tests based on what purpose you are going, for IELTS General Training and IELTS Academic.

We will discuss everything in detail, whether it be similarities or differences between IELTS academic and general. So, after stepping out from this blog, you have a clear vision and clarity on the difference between IELTS academic and general training. The first step is to understand which test is suitable, IELTS Academic and IELTS General, based on your purpose.

The Purpose Of IELTS Academic

If you are planning to pursue a professional registration or further your studies, like undergraduate or postgraduate at university or as a registered professional, to work in your selected country in a variety of disciplines, including nursing, medical, accountancy, law, and engineering, then the IELTS Academic is for you.

The Purpose of IELTS General Traning

If you plan to migrate to an English-speaking nation, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or the UK, or if you intend to study, work, or receive training there, you should take the General Training exam. If you are attempting the IELTS General Training, then it is assessed on how well you utilise the language in daily scenarios, with questions and content centred around the workplace and social contexts.

Before you go for the test, you must check the requirements of the country you are going to, as every country has their requirements and criteria regarding test and band scores. Now, as we have discussed on IELTS General and IELTS Academics, let's move on to learn about the similarities between these.

IELTS General Training vs IELTS Academic: What are the Similarities?

The base of the IELTS for an individual is reading, speaking, writing and listening. As we are talking about the similarities, there are no differences in the listening and speaking sections of IELTS General and IELTS Academic.

IELTS Speaking Test

The speaking test is taken face to face and divided into three steps,

Step 1: In this step, you will be asked questions, related to your studies, family and work, and the examiner will give you 4-5 min.

Step 2: You will be given certain topics, and the examiner will give you 1 minute to think about the topic, and you have to speak for about 2 minutes on the given topic. After that, the examiner will ask you some questions about the same topic.

Step 3: The last section lasts about 5 minutes, and you will have to discuss the challenges and ideas about the previous test.

IELTS Listening Test

You will be listening to four recordings here in English, and after that, you have to answer a series of questions. This process lasts for half an hour, during which they will check your comprehension skills, and the focus is on you to understand the factual information first. On briefing about the recordings,

1st Recording: In this, you will listen to the conversation between the two people, and the topic will be based on the social issue.

2nd Recording: In this recording, you will listen to a monologue.

3rd Recording: This recording is a conversation between four people discussing education and training.

4th Recording: In the last recording, you will listen to a monologue again.

IELTS General Training vs IELTS Academic: What are the Differences?

As discussed above, the speaking and listening tests are the same for both IELTS Academic and General, whereas the reading and writing processes are different for both. There are different IELTS Reading Questions that students have to tackle. Similarly, in the IELTS Writing Tasks, there is a difference in general and academic based on the context. Read more to understand these better.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

The IELTS reading section is to test your reading ability, and it consists of 40 questions. You will get 60 minutes to complete the task. You will asked to read the different passages and answer the questions accordingly.

They will give you three long paragraphs that can be descriptive, factual or analytical. The paragraphs are from research work, books, newspapers and magazines.

IELTS General Reading Test

Here, you will get 40 questions and have to answer the questions within 1 hour. Your passage will be related to advertisements, guidelines, brochures, companies and more. It is said that the general reading test is easier than the academic test, and mostly, words in the passages consist of daily used words.

IELTS Academic Writing Test

In this, you will be asked to write on various topics based on your undergraduate and postgraduate studies. In addition, they can ask you to explain the flowchart. Besides this, you need to write an essay based on data. Also, you need to support the data with some good and correct examples. And your writing style should be strictly formal.

IELTS General Writing Test

Here, you will write about topics of general interest. To complete it, you will be given one hour. In the first task, you need to write a semi-formal, formal or personal letter on the situation presented to you.

Conclusion

Hope you got the proper and complete information you are looking for, the difference between IELTS academic and general training. In short, The differences consist in the writing and reading portions, and the similarities are in the listening and speaking sections. Are you looking for the best coaching classes for IELTS? Visit Visa zone Education & Immigration Services Pvt. Ltd. They will help you understand everything in more detail and provide a clear vision.