Our IELTS practice tests give a customer the best of the IELTS practice and preparation for the exam. Our site now offers 15 full IELTS tests, which is enough for most people to know what is coming on the day. The differences between the our academic IELTS practice tests and our general training IELTS practice tests are illustrated fully.
First the similarities. Both have 40 questions and both last for one hour. They both use similar types of question (which will be explored in a later article). That’s it.
The academic reading test has 3 main reading texts with around 13 or 14 questions assigned to each part. The question types vary, but some types come more than once. The articles are of general though academic interest and at least one will have some form of logical argument to it.
The general training reading test also has 3 sections. Section 1 though has two or three texts and one text here may comprise of shorter texts, eg a series of advertisement on a similar topic. Section 1 is aimed at survival in an English speaking context. Section 2’s subject focuses on the training and work environments and here there will be 2 texts and they will be longer than section 1. Section 3 is a single longer text in the style of the ones found when doing the academic reading test. All 3 sections in the general training reading text also have 13 or 14 questions assigned to them.
I hope this has clarified the differences between these 2 reading tests. Our IELTS practice tests fully reflect these styles of test.