IELTS General Training Test Reading
Just like the Academic Test, you have to answer 40 questions in 60 minutes.
The texts come from books, magazines, newspapers, notices, advertisements, company handbooks and guidelines. These are everyday materials that you would find in an English-speaking environment.
There are three sections:
Section 1 may contain two or three short texts or several shorter texts. The texts are about ‘social survival’ and are mainly about general factual information, for example, notices, advertisements and timetables.
Section 2 contains two texts. It is about ‘workplace survival’. The texts focus on the workplace context, for example, job descriptions, contracts and staff development and training materials.
In Section 3, there is one long ‘general reading’ text with a more complex structure. The emphasis is on descriptive and instructive texts rather than argumentative texts. The general context is relevant to the wide range of test takers involved, for example, newspapers, magazines and fictional and non-fictional book extracts.
You can find more detail about the question types here (click forward to find the Reading section).
How can you practise?
I’ve made a series of podcasts to help you go through your first practice test.
They are based on this British Council practice test – click here to download and do the test.
Then check your answers and listen to my podcasts!