Do the Reading Test versions of the IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training, differ from each other?
‘No’ and ‘Yes’. There are some similarities and differences as well, between the two tests.
The similarities are: – In both the formats of the ‘Reading Test’ there are 40 questions carrying one mark each, there are 3 sections for both the formats and time allotted for both the tests are 60 minutes.
The differences are:
1) The given texts are appropriate for candidates going for either undergraduate course or postgraduate course or looking for ‘Professional Registration’ in a foreign ‘English Speaking Country’.
2) The passages given for reading in the ‘Academic Version’ are more lengthy than that in the ‘General Training Version’.
3) The ‘Academic’ reading test has less number of reading passages than in ‘General Training’ reading test.
4) The ‘Academic’ reading test passages are related to ‘Academic Subjects’, i.e. the subjects you are likely to face in your future education in the college or organization. But in the ‘General Training Test’ the passages given are excerpts from newspapers, books, journals, and magazines, etc. and usually the context is related to the day to day life.
5) The ‘Academic Version’ of the test may contain some non-verbal materials, like graphs, charts, illustrations etc.
6) Apart from all these, one point should be mentioned that the ‘IELTS General Training Reading Test’ is easier compared to its’ ‘Academic Counterpart’. In any case, you are required to give a higher number of correct answers in the ‘General Training’ reading test to get the same band score as in the ‘Academic Version’.
7) In the GT module, you would usually get passages containing information about a topic, from the newspapers, magazines, etc. While, in the Academic version the text passages cover 3 different academic topics, but you won’t need to have any knowledge beforehand.