Candidates will listen to four recorded texts, monologues and conversations by a range of native speakers, and write your answers to a series of questions.
These include questions which test the ability of the candidates to understand main ideas and detailed factual information, ability to understand the opinions and attitudes of speakers, ability to understand the purpose of an utterance and the ability to follow the development of ideas.
A variety of voices and native-speaker accents are used and each section is heard only once.
Section 1A conversation between two people set in an everyday social context.
Section 2
A monologue set in an everyday social context e.g. a speech about local facilities.
Section 3
A conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context, e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment.
Section 4
A monologue on an academic subject e.g. a university lecture.

The Reading component consists of 40 questions. A variety of question types is used in order to test a wide range of reading skills. These including reading for gist, reading for main ideas, reading for detail, skimming, understanding logical argument, recognising writers' opinions, attitudes and purpose.
The Writing component of IELTS Academic includes two tasks. Topics are of general interest to, and suitable for candidates entering undergraduate and postgraduate studies or seeking professional registration. There are two tasks in writing module.
This test is designed to assess the speaking capabilities of a candidate and takes between 11 and 14 minutes to complete the test. Every test is recorded. The Speaking component is delivered in such a way that it does not allow candidates to rehearse set responses beforehand. This test is divided into Three parts.