What is the IELTS Reading test format?

The Academic page lists eleven question types: multiple choice; identifying information (True/False/Not given); identifying the writer's views or claims (Yes/No/Not given); matching information; matching headings; matching features; matching sentence endings; sentence completion; summary, note, table or flow-chart completion; diagram label completion; and short-answer questions. The number of each varies from test to test.

The General Training page lists eight, folding sentence completion into the completion task and leaving out Yes/No/Not given and matching sentence endings. The British Council says the question types are the same for both versions, so prepare for all eleven.

"False" means the statement contradicts the text; "Not given" means the text neither agrees nor disagrees. ielts.org warns against using your own knowledge of the topic when you choose.

The British Council suggests about 15 minutes for Section 1, 20 for Section 2 and 25 for Section 3, and reminds you that marks are never taken away for wrong answers, so answer every question (British Council).

Completion and short-answer tasks set a word limit such as "NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER"; going over it loses the mark. Answers must be words from the text, numbers can be figures or words, and hyphenated words count as one (ielts.org). The General Training page adds that you lose marks for incorrect spelling and grammar (ielts.org).

Both versions are graded on the same scale, but Academic texts can be harder, so General Training usually needs more correct answers for a given band. These are ielts.org's average marks; the exact number varies slightly by test version (ielts.org).