Academic: for university study and professional registration.
If you are sitting IELTS to study at university or to register in a profession such as medicine, nursing or engineering, you are taking Academic. What sets it apart is the denser Reading and the data-driven Task 1, and both are covered here in full, free, marked on the page.
Academic and General Training are marked on the same nine-band scale and share two of the four skills outright. Listening and Speaking are identical. Academic is defined by the other two: Reading, which uses long, dense passages of the kind you will meet at university, and Writing Task 1, where you describe data rather than write a letter.
What sets Academic apart
Universities also tend to ask for higher bands than migration routes do, often 6.5 or 7.0 with minimums in each skill, so Academic candidates usually need precision, not just competence. The two skills to drill hardest are the two in bold, and this site covers both with complete, self-marking papers.
Built for Academic
Scoring on this track
The overall band arithmetic, the Academic Reading conversion that runs kinder than GT, and why the Task 1 report is marked on its overview. Indicative tables.
Start →Listening on this track
Four full Listening tests, and their back halves are a rehearsal for lectures and tutorials. Where the easy marks leak, and how to point the toolkit at the lecture register.
Start →Speaking on this track
There is no separate Academic Speaking test, and that is worth understanding properly: the Part 3 register you already train for essays, and the Part 1 trap it sets.
Start →Seventeen complete passages
Full Academic passages, each with fourteen questions across the four question types. Sit them online, mark instantly, with an explanation for every answer.
Start →Fourteen full papers
Complete Task 1 and Task 2 papers with charts, timers, model answers and self-assessment against the criteria. All online, all free.
Start →Essay questions
The essay bank, sorted by topic and question type, each question with the structure it wants from you.
Browse →The writing scan
Paste a Task 1 or Task 2 answer and get an instant read on structure, length and paragraphing before a human ever marks it.
Scan →Shared with General Training (use these too)
Speaking, identical
Speaking does not change between modules. The three-part structure, topic banks, and Part 2 cue cards with Band 6 and Band 8 models.
Practise →Listening, identical
Listening does not change either. Turn any video you already watch into a marked, IELTS-style exercise with the free generator.
Practise →The grammar section
The grammar that holds your band back is the same whichever module you take. Twenty-plus interactive topics, laddered by band.
Open →How you are scored
The nine-band scale, how your overall band is worked out, and the criteria examiners mark against.
Read →Chasing a 6.5 or 7.0 for an offer letter? That is precise work, and precise work is what lessons are for. If you would like your Task 1 or Task 2 marked properly against the criteria, book a lesson →
The book of the method
The Proper English Grammar Guide to IELTS Speaking
The method this site drills for free, written down properly: five response frameworks, thirteen grammatical structures taken to automation, vocabulary by band, pronunciation with audio demonstrations one scan away, and first-language guidance for eight language families. 614 pages, built from more than two thousand documented one-to-one lessons. Most guides teach every candidate the same English; this one starts from what your first language makes you do.
Paperback on Amazon →Kindle edition →The free 79-page companion →