Which One is Easier: The IELTS General or The IELTS Academic?

Davu SivaAugust 21, 2019Last Updated: August 21, 2019

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IELTS General and IELTS Academic

For those who do not know that IELTS comes in two variants, then it’s time to know well about your IELTS exam. Yes, IELTS comes in different variants: IELTS General vs IELTS Academic

IELTS General
IELTS Academic

PURPOSE:

IELTS General is given by the candidates who are willing to travel abroad on a work visa or immigration visa. And the IELTS Academic is given by the candidates who are aspiring to study abroad on a student visa.

WHICH IS EASIER: IELTS General and IELTS Academic

As compared to the IELTS Academic and IELTS General definitely is easier as it is for all those people who just need a working knowledge of the English language so that they can communicate when they are in the foreign country. On the other hand, the IELTS Academic exam has much higher competency level because it weighs the candidate on every single aspect of the English language.

Though both the tests have the same format, yet their Reading and Writing section contents vary. And the candidate selects the version of the exam on the basis of the purpose for which he wants to travel abroad. So, the selection between the two variants is need or purpose-based.

SECTIONS:

Both the IELTS versions comprise of four different sections:

Reading Section
Writing Section
Listening Section
Speaking Section

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SCORING:

Each section of the IELTS exam carries 25% of the total score. The scoring of Writing, Listening and Speaking section is marked in the same way in IELTS Academic and IELTS General but the score calculation in the reading section differs in both the IELTS exams. Let us see how is reading section marked in IELTS General and IELTS Academic.

There are 40 questions in all in the reading section and the scoring is done on the number of correct responses in both the exams. Following is the band range according to the number of correct responses:

IELTS General

No. of Correct responses out of 40 (Raw score)	Bands
15-18	4
23 -26	5
30-31	6
34-35	7
37-38	8
40	9

IELTS Academic

No. of Correct responses out of 40 (Raw score)	Bands
15-18	5
23-26	6
30-32	7
35-36	8
39-40	9

Let’s take an example from the above table. If a candidate has 30 correct responses out of 40 in the reading section of IELTS General exam, then he will score a band 6. Whereas, if the candidate has 30 correct responses out of 40 in the IELTS Academic Reading section, then he will score 7 bands. Besides that, it is important to know that there is no negative marking in the exam which means no marks are deducted for the wrong answers.

Band Description:

The description of each band remains the same for both the IELTS Academic as well as IELTS General exam, i.e,

Band 9 signifies that the candidate is an expert user of the English language.
Band 8 signifies that the candidate is a Very good user of the English language.
Band 7 signifies that the candidate is a good user of the English language.
Band 6 signifies that the candidate is a competent user of the English language.
So on and so forth till band 1 which signifies, a candidate is a non-user of the language.

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Comparison: IELTS General vs IELTS Academic

On the basis of the content, there is no difference in the IELTS Listening and Speaking sections in IELTS Academic and IELTS General but Writing and Reading sections differ. Let’s see the comparison of the contents of the Reading and Writing sections of the IELTS General and IELTS Academic.

IELTS READING

GENERAL	ACADEMIC
IELTS General Reading section is further subdivided into 3 sections. Where the first and the second sections have 2 to 3 small texts and the third section has one long passage	The IELTS Academic Reading has 3 long passages and with each passage the level of difficulty increases.
The texts and passage are small and easy which are procured from the company handbook/ newspaper/ official documents.	The passages are related to academics and are procured from the college or university books.

The above comparison implies that the General reading section is much easier than Academic reading.

Both have 40 questions in all which are to be completed within 60 minutes.

IELTS WRITING

GENERAL	ACADEMIC
The general writing section consists of two tasks. Task 1 is a Letter Writing and Task 2 is an essay writing.	The academic writing section consists of two tasks. Task 1 is a report writing/ graph/chart summarisation/ Diagram description and Task 2 is an essay writing.
Word limit: The minimum word limit of task 1 is 150 words and the minimum word limit of task 2 is 250 words.	Word limit: The minimum word limit of task 1 is 150 words and the minimum word limit of task 2 is 250 words.
The time allowed: A candidate gets 20 minutes to complete task 1 and 40 minutes to complete task 2.	The time allowed: A candidate gets 20 minutes to complete task 1 and 40 minutes to complete task 2.
Writing style: Use of Simple sentences, Semi-formal/ Informal language acceptable. Candidate can use contractions/ slangs. Referencing and Citations not required or used much.	Writing style: Use of Complex sentences/ Only formal English acceptable. Academic vocabulary is used. Use of contractions or slangs preferably not allowed. Citation and Referencing are used.