Practice for

IELTS Academic

For university study (undergraduate or postgraduate) and professional registration, such as doctors and nurses.

Taking General Training instead? Go to IELTS General Training →

Compared with General Training, Academic Reading uses fewer, longer and denser texts, and Writing Task 1 asks you to report data from a chart, table, map or diagram instead of writing a letter. Listening and Speaking are identical in both. Below, the four parts appear in the order you take them, with the Academic versions of Reading and Writing. Booked IELTS Academic for UKVI? IELTS for UKVI uses the same Academic papers, so this practice applies.

Listening

Same for both testsListening tips →

Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 1
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 2
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 3
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 4
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 5
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 6
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 7
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 8
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 9
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Listening · Free
Listening Practice Test 10
40 minutes · 40 questions · 4 parts
Four recordings with different speakers and accents. Each part plays once, like the real test.
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Academic Reading

Different for each testReading tips →

Academic Reading has three long passages and 40 questions in 60 minutes, with no extra time to copy answers. The passages come from books, journals, magazines and newspapers. They are written for a general reader, so you do not need specialist knowledge, but they use the longer sentences and wider vocabulary you meet at university.

The question types include multiple choice, True / False / Not Given, matching headings to paragraphs, sentence and summary completion, and labelling a diagram. The passages usually get harder as the test goes on, so leave about 20 minutes for the third.

In the conversion table our tests use, about 23 correct answers out of 40 gives band 6 in Academic Reading, and about 30 gives band 7.

Academic Reading · Free
Academic Reading Practice Test 1
60 minutes · 40 questions · 3 parts
Passages: Bees on the Rooftops, The White Gold of the Ancient World, Why We Forget — and Why It Might Be Useful
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Academic Reading · Free
Academic Reading Practice Test 2
60 minutes · 40 questions · 3 parts
Passages: The Humble Pencil, Farming Upwards, Why Boredom Matters
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Academic Reading · Free
Academic Reading Practice Test 3
60 minutes · 40 questions · 3 parts
Passages: Lights on the Coast, The Hidden Value of City Trees, Working Less, Achieving More?
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Academic Reading · Free
Academic Reading Practice Test 4
60 minutes · 40 questions · 3 parts
Passages: The Story of the Tin Can, Sound in the Sea, The Paradox of Choice
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Academic Reading · Free
Academic Reading Practice Test 5
60 minutes · 40 questions · 3 parts
Passages: Ice Before Refrigerators, Can Happiness Be Measured?, The Return of the Wolf
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Academic Reading · Free
Academic Reading Practice Test 6
60 minutes · 40 questions · 3 parts
Passages: Reading with the Fingers, Water from the Sea, In Defence of Handwriting
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Academic Reading · Free
Academic Reading Practice Test 7
60 minutes · 40 questions · 3 parts
Passages: The Long Road to the Bicycle, The Ground Beneath Our Feet, The Myth of Multitasking
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Academic Writing

Different for each testSample feedback →Writing tips →

60 minutes · 2 tasks · AI-marked

Task 1: Describe a chart, graph, table, map or process diagram in at least 150 words.
Task 2: An essay of at least 250 words on an academic-style topic, worth twice as much as Task 1.

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Already written an answer? Paste it in to get it marked

Speaking

Same for both testsSample feedback →Speaking tips →

11–14 minutes · 3 parts · AI examiner

Speak out loud to an examiner who asks Part 1 questions, gives you a cue card, and follows up on your ideas in Part 3. Then get an estimated band with corrections.

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Worked example: planning Academic Writing Task 1

A Task 1 question written for this page, and the five decisions to make before you write a word.

The task
The table shows the number of visitors, in thousands, to three museums in one city in 2005, 2015 and 2025. Science museum: 120, 180, 260. Art gallery: 200, 190, 170. History museum: 90, 140, 150. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
1. Read the labels
What is measured (visitors), the unit (thousands), the place (one city) and the time (three years, twenty years apart). Getting the unit wrong is an easy way to lose marks.
2. Find the overview
Two museums grew and one shrank, and the science museum went from second place to by far the most visited. That is your overview, and it needs no numbers.
3. Choose the key figures
The start and end of each line, and the change in rank: the science museum more than doubled, from 120,000 to 260,000, overtaking the gallery after 2015.
4. Group the data
One paragraph for the two museums that grew, one for the gallery that fell. Grouping lets you compare instead of describing each row in turn.
5. Leave things out
No reasons and no opinions. The task is to report what the table shows, not to explain why people prefer science.

Common mistakes in IELTS Academic

These cost marks specifically in the Academic version of the test, mostly in Writing Task 1 and the harder reading question types.

Not: "More people visit the science museum because science is more interesting."
Better: "Visitor numbers at the science museum more than doubled."
Task 1 asks you to report the data. A reason that is not in the chart is a guess, and it uses words that should describe the figures.
Not: A Task 1 answer with no overview.
Better: "Overall, two of the museums became more popular, while the gallery lost visitors."
IELTS's public band descriptors for Task 1 refer to an overview of the main trends. Without one, an answer that lists details is held back however accurate it is.
Not: Every number in the table, row by row.
Better: The highest, the lowest, the biggest change and any point where lines cross.
"Selecting the main features" is part of the task. Listing everything shows you did not select.
Not: "The table shows the number of visitors to three museums in a city in 2005, 2015 and 2025."
Better: "The table compares how many people visited three city museums over a twenty-year period."
Copying the question shows nothing about your own English. Rephrase it in your own words.
Not: Answering False when the passage does not mention something.
Better: Not Given.
False means the passage says the opposite. If the passage says nothing either way, the answer is Not Given.
Not: Spending 35 minutes on Task 1.
Better: About 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 on Task 2.
Task 2 is worth twice as much. Running out of time on the essay costs more than a short Task 1.

Sample Academic Task 1 answer, explained

This answers the museum table in the worked example above. It is our own example, written to show the structure of a well-organised answer, not an official model.

The table compares how many people visited three museums in one city in 2005, 2015 and 2025. Overall, the science and history museums became more popular over the period, while the art gallery lost visitors, and by 2025 the science museum was clearly the most visited of the three. The science museum showed the most dramatic growth. Its visitor numbers rose from 120,000 in 2005 to 180,000 in 2015, and then to 260,000 in 2025, more than doubling in twenty years. The history museum also grew, although more slowly: it attracted 90,000 visitors at the start of the period and 150,000 at the end, with most of the increase happening in the first decade. The art gallery followed the opposite pattern. It was the most popular museum in 2005, with 200,000 visitors, but its figures fell steadily to 190,000 in 2015 and 170,000 in 2025. As a result, it was overtaken by the science museum after 2015.

Why it works

The first sentence rephrases the task instead of copying it.
The overview comes second and has no numbers, so the main trends stand out.
Each body paragraph groups museums by what happened to them, which makes comparison natural.
Phrases such as more than doubling, more slowly and the opposite pattern compare as well as describe.
At about 160 words it is over the 150-word minimum without padding, and it gives no reasons or opinions.

Taking General Training instead? IELTS General Training practice, or see how the two tests compare.

IELTS Academic

Listening

Listening Practice Test 1

Listening Practice Test 2

Listening Practice Test 3

Listening Practice Test 4

Listening Practice Test 5

Listening Practice Test 6

Listening Practice Test 7

Listening Practice Test 8

Listening Practice Test 9

Listening Practice Test 10

Academic Reading

Academic Reading Practice Test 1

Academic Reading Practice Test 2

Academic Reading Practice Test 3

Academic Reading Practice Test 4

Academic Reading Practice Test 5

Academic Reading Practice Test 6