IELTS::READING

Duration and format
The Reading test takes 60 minutes. There are 40 questions,
based on three reading passages with a total of 2,000 to
2,750 words.
Texts and questions appear on a question paper which
candidates can write on but not remove from the examination
room.
All answers must be entered on an answer sheet during the
60-minute test. No extra time is allowed for transferring answers.

Task types
A variety of questions are used, chosen from the following types:
• multiple choice
• short-answer questions
• sentence completion
• note/summary/flow-chart/table completion
• labelling a diagram
• matching headings for identified paragraphs/ sections of the
text
• identification of writer’s views/claims – yes, no or not given
• identification of information in the text – true, false or not
given
• classification
• matching lists/phrases

Academic Reading
Texts are taken from magazines, journals, books, and
newspapers. Texts have been written for a non-specialist
audience. All the topics are of general interest. They deal with
issues which are interesting, recognisably appropriate and
accessible to candidates entering undergraduate or
postgraduate courses or seeking professional registration.
At least one text contains detailed logical argument. Texts may
contain non-verbal materials such as diagrams, graphs or
illustrations. If texts contain technical terms then a simple
glossary is provided.

General Training Reading
Texts are taken from notices, advertisements, official documents,
booklets, newspapers, instruction manuals, leaflets, timetables,
books and magazines.
The first section, ‘social survival’, contains texts relevant to basic
linguistic survival in English with tasks mainly about retrieving
and providing general factual information.
‘Training survival’, the second section, focuses on the training
context, for example on the training programme itself or on
welfare needs. This section involves a text or texts of more
complex language with some precise or elaborated expression.