IELTS General Training Reading has three sections of increasing difficulty and 40 items (questions). Section 1 has 14 items and sections 2 and 3 have 13 items each. Section 1 may contain 2 or 3 short texts or several shorter texts such as advertisements, Section 2 usually comprises 2 texts and in Section 3 there is 1 long text. The texts vary in topic and text type and are graded with the most difficult appearing in Section 3. The texts and items appear in Question Booklets.
Answer format
Candidates record their responses on Answer Sheets.
Timing
IELTS General Training Reading takes 60 minutes to complete. Candidates are not given extra time to transfer their answers onto the Answer Sheet.
Marks
One mark is awarded for each correct answert.
Texts
Texts for the first Section are taken from notices, advertisements, timetables, publicity material and similar sources. Texts for the second Section are taken from company handbooks, contracts, workplace notices, office memos, guidelines for employees and similar sources. Texts for the third Section are taken from newspapers, magazines or journal articles, fictional or non-fictional book extracts and similar sources.
Length
The texts have a total word count of approximately 2,400 words.
Task Types
There are 11 basic task types, some with possible variations. They are:
| Task Type 1 | Multiple Choice |
| Task Type 2 | Multiple Matching |
| Task Type 3 | Short-answer Questions |
| Task Type 4 | Sentence Completion |
| Task Type 5 | Notes/Table/Diagram/Flow-chart Completion |
| Task Type 6 | Summary Completion |
| Task Type 7 | Choosing Headings for Paragraphs or Sections of a Text |
| Task Type 8 | Locating Information |
| Task Type 9 | Identification of Writer’s Views, Claims or Information in the Text |
| Task Type 10 | Classification |
| Task Type 11 | Matching |