IELTS Academic — your key to studying abroad
Choose IELTS Academic to study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, or to seek professional registration — including doctors and nurses. The full test takes 2 hours and 45 minutes and is scored on the 9-band scale.
Four skills, one band score
Listening and Speaking are the same in IELTS Academic and General Training. Reading and Writing are Academic-specific and use texts and tasks suited to university study.
Listening
Four recordings of native speakers — a conversation, a monologue, a group discussion, and an academic lecture. You answer as you listen.
- Multiple choice
- Matching
- Plan / map / diagram labelling
- Form, note, table, flow-chart, summary completion
- Sentence completion
- Short-answer questions
Reading (Academic)
Three long texts from books, journals, magazines and newspapers — descriptive, factual, discursive and analytical — chosen for a non-specialist audience.
- Multiple choice
- Identifying information (True / False / Not Given)
- Identifying writer's views (Yes / No / Not Given)
- Matching information, headings, features, sentence endings
- Sentence / summary / note / table / flow-chart completion
- Diagram-label completion & short-answer questions
Writing (Academic)
Task 1 (20 min, 150+ words): summarise, describe or explain a visual — graph, table, chart or diagram. Task 2 (40 min, 250+ words): a formal discursive essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem.
- Task 1 — Data description or process diagram
- Task 2 — Discursive essay (opinion, discussion, problem/solution)
- Assessed on Task Achievement / Response, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range & Accuracy
Speaking
A recorded conversation with a certified examiner. Same format for Academic and General Training.
- Part 1 — Introduction & familiar topics (4–5 min)
- Part 2 — Long turn from a task card, 1 min prep + 1–2 min talk
- Part 3 — Two-way discussion on abstract ideas (4–5 min)
- Assessed on Fluency & Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range & Accuracy, Pronunciation
How the 9-band scale works
You receive a band score for each of the four skills and an overall band. Scores are reported in whole and half bands (e.g. 6.5, 7.0). Most universities require an overall 6.5 – 7.5 with no skill below 6.0.
Writing & Speaking scored on the real IELTS rubric
Every response is graded on the four public criteria with specific, actionable fixes — so you know exactly what to do to move up half a band.
A study path built around your band goal
Skill drills
Short, focused practice for a single sub-skill — matching headings, paraphrasing, chart description, part 2 long turn.
Open PracticeFull mock tests
Timed, full-length IELTS Academic simulations with authentic pacing, task types and difficulty.
Open Practice TestsNERV adaptive prep
AI diagnoses your weakest sub-skill and generates a real IELTS task on exactly that gap.
Open NERVReady to hit your target band?
Start with a free diagnostic, get an honest band estimate, and follow a plan built around your weakest skill.