IELTS General Training Practice Test Online — Computer-delivered Format (2026)
What you get and what it costs
ExamStep sells IELTS General Training practice online: 10 full mock tests and 40 single-skill practice tests, with Listening and Reading marked against the key, and Writing (the letter and the essay) and Speaking marked on the four official criteria as an estimated band. You can start free. Full access costs from CA$12.49 for 7 days, or one full mock test costs CA$7.99 on its own (one-time, in CAD, no auto-renewal).
- One free practice test in each skill (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking), fully marked
- One free full mock exam in which Listening and Reading are scored, and Writing Task 1 and Speaking Part 2 are marked (a partly marked mock gives no overall band)
- One full mock test on its own: CA$7.99 (About 2 h 45 min · all four skills · band report)
- One Writing practice test on its own: CA$3.49 (60 min · a letter and an essay, marked on the official criteria)
- One Speaking practice test on its own: CA$3.99 (11–14 min · 3 parts, marked on the official criteria)
Every pass: All 10 full tests · 40 single-skill tests · 45 drills · Writing & Speaking marked
One-time payment · no auto-renew · all sales final, with the exceptions in our Refund policy
Prices in CAD · pay with just your email · every price
Sit a complete, timed IELTS General Training practice test in the computer-delivered format: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking in the order of the real test day, with the on-screen layout, the question palette, the highlight and notes tools and the clock of IELTS on computer. ExamStep has ten full tests and 40 single-skill practice tests across the four skills, with Writing and Speaking assessed on the four official criteria and reported as a band score. The practice tests are papers of their own, not sections of the full tests, so nothing you have practised comes round again when you sit a full test.
What a full IELTS General Training practice test includes
A full test is 40 Listening questions in four parts, 40 Reading questions across three sections, two Writing tasks in one 60-minute sitting, and a three-part Speaking test led by a recorded examiner with a British accent. The Reading paper is the General Training one: Section 1 carries short everyday texts of the kind found in notices, advertisements and timetables (ielts.org: two or three short texts or several shorter ones; ours have two or three), Section 2 two texts about work, and Section 3 one long text of general interest. Writing Task 1 is a letter, not a report on a chart.
How it is scored
Listening and Reading are marked the moment you finish. Reading uses the General Training band table, which is not the Academic one: the same raw score is worth about a band less here, because the texts are easier. Writing and Speaking are evaluated on the public assessment criteria — task achievement or response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and for Speaking fluency and pronunciation — and returned as an estimated band with specific feedback. The overall band is the average of the four sections rounded to the nearest half band, as IELTS does.
Why timed practice matters
IELTS on computer runs Listening, Reading and Writing back to back — about two and a half hours without a break, with Speaking on the same day or within a few days. Reading gives no extra time to transfer answers, and Writing shares one hour between the letter and the essay, which carry different weight: the essay counts twice. Sitting the whole paper under those rules is how you find out whether your pacing holds.
How to use full tests in your prep
Sit one full test early to find the section holding your band down, work on it with the single-skill practice tests, then sit another full test close to your date. Aim for the same band in every section: IRCC reads the lowest of your four scores, not the average, so one weak skill decides the level your application is judged at.
What a report looks like
This is a sample: the numbers are made up to show the layout, not taken from a real learner.
- Task 1 letter: all three bullet points covered; the closing did not match the formal opening.
- Task 2 essay: the second body paragraph gave a reason but no example.
- Lowest criterion in Writing: Grammatical range and accuracy (articles and verb tenses).
How our IELTS General Training test compares with the official one
The left column says only what the official source says. The right column is ours.
| The official test | ExamStep's practice test | |
|---|---|---|
| Time per section | Listening about 30 minutes, Reading 60, Writing 60, Speaking 11–14. | Listening: About 30 min · 4 parts, 40 questions · auto-marked. Reading: 60 min · 3 sections, 40 questions · auto-marked. Writing: 60 min · a letter and an essay, marked on the official criteria. Speaking: 11–14 min · 3 parts, marked on the official criteria. |
| What differs by module | Listening and Speaking are the same in Academic and General Training; Reading and Writing are different. | General Training Reading with its own band table, and Writing Task 1 marked as a letter. Listening and Speaking come from the shared bank. |
| Writing | Task 1 is a letter of at least 150 words (about 20 minutes); Task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words (about 40 minutes). Task 2 counts twice as much. Four criteria: Task achievement/response, Coherence and cohesion, Lexical resource, Grammatical range and accuracy. | Both tasks are marked by our AI on the same four criteria, with a band and notes per criterion; Task 2 counts twice in the Writing band. It is an estimate to study from, not an examiner's mark. |
| Speaking | 11–14 minutes. | A recorded examiner asks the questions in the three parts of the real test; you answer into your microphone and the recording is marked on the four Speaking criteria. |
| Where | At a test centre. | Online in your browser, on a screen modelled on IELTS on computer. |
Official column: ielts.org, IELTS General Training test format; ielts.org, General Training Writing, checked 28 September 2026. ExamStep is not affiliated with the test owner.
Frequently asked questions
Should I take General Training or Academic?
It depends what the score is for. General Training is the version for Canadian permanent residence and citizenship — IRCC accepts IELTS General Training for Express Entry, not Academic — and for some work and training programmes. Academic is what universities and most professional bodies ask for. The two share Listening and Speaking; Reading and Writing Task 1 are different papers.
How is the band worked out?
Listening and Reading use raw-score-to-band tables, and General Training Reading has its own: 30 correct out of 40 is Band 6.0 here, where the same score in Academic Reading is Band 7.0. Writing and Speaking bands are estimates produced by our AI marker on the official criteria; treat them as a guide, not a result. The overall band follows the official rounding rule: the mean of the four sections to the nearest half band.
What is Writing Task 1 in General Training?
A letter of at least 150 words, written to a reader the task names, covering three bullet points you are given. It may be personal, semi-formal or formal depending on who it is addressed to, and you are told you do not need to write any addresses. The marker here judges it as a letter: whether all three points are covered, whether the purpose is clear, and whether the tone fits the reader.
Is the Reading paper easier than Academic?
The texts are — they are the kind of English you meet in daily life and at work rather than journal articles. The band table corrects for it, so an easier paper does not mean an easier band. Section 3 is a long text and is closer to the Academic level of difficulty than the first two sections.
Which accent are the recordings?
British. The real test mixes British, Australian, New Zealand and North American speakers, so expect a wider range on the day. Listening and Speaking are the same papers in both modules, so the Listening and Speaking tests here are taken from our Academic bank rather than written twice.
Are these real IELTS questions?
No. Every text, recording and task is written for ExamStep to the published test specification. IELTS is a registered trademark of the British Council, IDP IELTS and Cambridge University Press & Assessment; ExamStep is not affiliated with them.
How much is an IELTS General Training mock test online?
One full mock test and one practice test in each skill are free with an account, with the free mock partly marked. After that, one full mock test costs CA$7.99 on its own, or a pass opens everything from CA$12.49 for 7 days (7 days CA$12.49, 30 days CA$23.49, 90 days CA$45.99). Every price is one-time, in CAD, no auto-renewal.
Will my IELTS Writing be corrected?
Yes. Each task comes back with a band for each of the four criteria and notes on what held it back, and a Writing practice test on its own costs CA$3.49. The first Writing practice test is free and fully marked. The band is an estimate from our AI marker, not an examiner's mark.
Do I need an account to buy?
No. Type your email and pay; a new account is made for you and signed in straight away. If that email already has an account, you are asked to log in to it.
Ready to sit a full mock exam?
Start free, then unlock every timed full IELTS General Training mock test, with AI scoring on Writing and Speaking.
Start practising free →