IELTS Academic or General – Each one of us is aware that IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Test is needed for either study abroad purpose or immigration purpose. However, a few of us come to believe that the tests can be replaced with the other – which is not correct. Therefore, in this article we will be discussing the purpose of both the tests.
To begin with, let’s talk about the IELTS (A) Test – the Academic Version. The number of sections and the number of Questions in each section remain the same. The sections are Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Each section of this test is designed to check the academic skills of the test taker and match the results with the University’s expectation. IELTS (A) test is mandatory for all students who hail from and have not studied in an English-Speaking Country. So, this test is to gauge the Language Skills of International Students.
On the other side, we have the IELTS (G) Test –the General Version. This test is designed to test our language skills in general setup or, we can say, in day-to-day usage. This test also has four sections namely Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Each section is designed to check our general English language skills. The results of this test are utilized by Immigration Departments as a basic requirement to shortlist an applicant for Visa Application process. Each country has a set requirement of IELTS (G). For example – Canadian Immigration Department has setup a minimum of CLB (Canadian Language Benchmarking) – 9 for the PR applicants. If, we convert the CLB to IELTS (G) score for a better understanding we can say that on Listening we need an 8.0 band and on all other we need a 7.0 band on a 9.0 band. IELTS Academic or General
There are two (2) major sectional differences in between these tests – Reading Section and the Writing Section (Task- 1). On the IELTS (A), reading is comparatively difficult because we get passages from Literature, History, Geography, Science, Fiction etc. However, on IELTS (G) the reading is for day-to-day usage such as Pamphlet, newspaper cutting, advertisement etc. Additionally, the writing Task – 1 of IELTS (A) is describing an Image, Table, Flow-chart etc. On the contrary, on IELTS (G) Task – 1 is always a Letter Writing which is sub divided into Formal, Informal and Semi-Formal.
At Option Training Institute, Dubai, under the guidance of experienced and tenured teachers, we make sure that whatever test you are preparing for you have a clear idea of the structure and are skilled enough to perform to your optimum level.