The Academic Reading test is 60 minutes long.
There are 3 sections. The total text length is 2,150-2,750 words.
- Each section contains one long text.
- Texts are authentic and are taken from books, journals,
magazines and newspapers. They have been written for a non-specialist
audience and are on academic topics of general interest.
- Texts are appropriate, and accessible, to test-takers entering
undergraduate or postgraduate courses, or seeking professional
registration.
- Texts range from descriptive and factual to the discursive and analytical.
- Texts may contain non-verbal materials, such as diagrams, graphs or illustrations.
- If texts contain technical terms, a simple glossary is provided.
Question types
A variety of questions is used, chosen from the following types:
multiple choice, identifying information, identifying writer’s
views/claims, matching information, matching headings, matching
features, matching sentence endings, sentence completion, summary
completion, note completion, table completion, flow-chart completion,
diagram label completion, short-answer questions.
Marking
Each correct answer receives 1 mark. Scores out of 40 are converted to the
IELTS 9-band scale. Scores are reported in whole and half bands.
IELTS Academic Reading sample tasks
