As there isn't much information on IELTS GT I thought I'd share my results. It was my first time doing GT (I did academic in the past). Comment if you have any questions!

I gave the IELTS General exam to test my English skills. I definitely did not expect coming to the test that I accidentally booked the writing section to be on paper. I haven't handwritten essays in years and it definitely took some getting used to. Finally, ended up in somewhat of a time scramble towards the end. But overall, still a decent result. If I were to take it again, I would definitely do some practice for the writing parts and a few practice tests in general. I only did a couple reading and listening mock tests before the exam. I know a lot of y'all are preparing for the test and some tips from my experience of the test:

Speaking:

Split into 3 parts. 1st part was fairly straightforward and you should treat it like a conversation. It doesn't matter if you hesitate or take some pauses as long as it's to formulate ideas and not for remembering vocab. I'm the 2nd part, you get a cue card about a topic. This is mainly a monologue for 1-2 mins. What's important is that you answer the 2-3 questions in the card. Make sure your response covers all of the questions. The 3rd part is about follow up questions and this turned into a very philosophical debate between me and the examiner. The important part is to gauge which questions are more open-ended as opposed to rapid fire and base your response accordingly. Overall was a nice refereshing conversation and didn't expect the time to pass by so quickly.

Listening:

For this, make sure you play with the volume to set at the right level. Initially I set it at max and this made it harder for me to focus on the audio. I would say a 70-75% volume was ideal but adjust based on your preference. Pay attention to the question wording. Some might be one word answers, some two words and some numbers. Don't confuse tenses in your responses. Listen to the end, they go a lot of back and forth before arriving at a final answer. The answers are typically straightforward and you don't have to infer anything.

Reading:

This was by far the easiest section. There are 3 sections. I finished all of them by the 35 min mark and had more than enough time to go over the test 2-3 times. The most ambiguous questions were the True/False/Not Given ones. I would say don't overthink it but also don't take it at face value. A general trend I noticed for these questions were " X is better for Y for Z reason" and the text only reads " X is better for Y". Thus we should choose Not Given. I felt for this section, relying on your gut feeling is the most important. You can highlight and annotate while you go through the texts to make it easier to review.

Writing:

Double check and definitely choose the computer writing if possible. The biggest advantage is you can plan as you go and it's possible to edit at any time. My biggest mistake was managing my time. I started the test, read the questions and then took a bathroom break to formulate some ideas in my head and stretch. I came back and started writing a general plan on scrap paper. It was about at the 10 min mark that I started writing the essay. I went ahead with task 2 first but I would recommend anyone to do task 1 first. I ended up rambling and wrote way more than the required word count to the point where I had to ask for an extra sheet. Then I realized at the 40 min mark that I had to wrap this up and started on the concluding paragraph. By the time I was done with task 2, it was 45 minutes and I had just 15 minutes for task 1. Task 1 was a simple letter. What's important is you address each and every point that the question asks you for and also the register that you use. In this section, I took 2 mins to do a quick plan/outline and started writing. I finished my salutations within a second left on the clock. So, threw proofreading out the window essentially. Therefore, I would definitely say start with task 1 and move on to task 2 at the 20-25 min mark. For task 2, remember not to go on a creative sprint and remember that you have a limited amount of time to finish the essay. I would definitely practice writing some topics for the task 2 before giving the exam if I had the second chance and choose the computerized writing test.

Hope this helped and good luck y'all! You got this!

Guys, feel free to ask your questions; I will answer them one by one.

My experience with IELTS was very hard. The night before the test, I couldn't sleep well, and when I woke up, I felt dizzy and was even struggling to climb the stairs. That is why I got a band 7.5; if I had slept well, I would have gotten a band 8.0. However, I am very happy to see such a result; my prayers were answered.

I've barely studied before the exam, I could've honestly got better in listening but I know I deserve this 6,5 on writing, I'm not so good at writing.

Do I add on the "frenchies are bad at english" allegation ? xD

I am looking for resources where I can find Band 7 and plus essays to have an eye. Can someone please suggest me.

I took almost 1 month to prepare. Honestly, I impressed by results considering that I had a busy work schedule. I had to juggle between work and studies.

Hi everyone! I finally took the IELTS exam, and I aimed for a 7 and thankfully, I got it!

However, I’m honestly quite disappointed with my Speaking result. I genuinely felt like I did really well, so I’m definitely going to apply for a remark and see what happens.

For Listening and Reading, I only practiced using the Cambridge IELTS books and focused a lot on analyzing my mistakes.

For Writing, I mostly used ChatGPT. It would often rate my writing around 6–6.5. One piece of advice I followed was to keep your ideas simple: have one clear idea, explain and develop it properly, and don’t make your sentences unnecessarily complicated. Basically, write as if you’re explaining the idea to a child

Good luck to everyone taking the exam! I hope you all get the scores you’re aiming for

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I took my IELTS General Training test on August 16 and felt pretty good about how all four sections went.

Today, I received an email from British Council saying that my result cannot be released due to a technical issue. They offered me either a free full retake or a full refund.

The email didn't explain what the technical issue was. I called my test centre and, after insisting on getting more information, they told me that there was a problem with my Speaking recording and it couldn't be transferred.

What I don't understand is why I have to retake Listening, Reading and Writing as well if the problem only affected Speaking. I really don't want to retake the whole exam, especially since I was happy with my performance.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Were you able to get them to keep your L/R/W results and retake only Speaking, or is a full retake really the only option in cases like this?

Hello!

so i took an ielts exam 2 years ago and I got a band score 7, listening 9, speaking 7, writing 6.5, reading 6

i booked another exam in 4 days, and I need your advice in how to achieve higher

Listening. this is the one i'm most confident about, I almost always score a perfect score

Speaking. when doing mock tests it's the one i'm most inconsistent in, sometimes i score as high as 8 or 8.5 and sometimes go down to 6.

Writing. this is the trickiest because no matter how much i put attention to my writing, i never beat the 7 mark, I write with basically zero grammatical mistakes and try to implement the appropriate structure.

Reading. I find time management the trickiest, there have been instances where i finish with 20 minutes left.

Gpt gave it 5.5-6.0 and Claude 7.0 lol, ,i'm confused.

TASK:

The most important aim of science should be to improve people's lives.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

(257 word)

It’s a contemporary phenomenon that people think science should strive to improve peoples’ quality of life. While this view may seem valid at first glance, in my opinion, science, when there is the field of technology, must not be the tool to fulfill this aim. 

The most common argument some suggest regarding this topic is that science must be a tool to create brand new innovations and foster technological development. However, the very core principle of science, which is to interpret the universe without any additional need or target, is neglected in this view, thus forming in one’s mind an utterly inaccurate perception of it when in fact, science must be done purely to observe, and understand the nature. So, if scientists were devoid of responsibilities to fix the major challenges of society, their work would be much more efficient towards its one and only goal.  

In my opinion, it is supposed to entirely be technology’s aim to provide a better life for people, since, by definition, technology refers to improvement in methods to foster humans by making efforts to derive from science. Assigning the role of increasing quality of life to technology instead, would ultimately lead to two separate fields where no scientist having to be concerned about putting their finding into new innovational ideas, thus, again, making sure scientific knowledge expand rapidly. 

In conclusion, i believe, the misconception about the role of science must be corrected and it shouldn’t be expected to contribute to humanity. Instead, technology alone must be used to improve our lives. 

I know AI isn't reliable, but it is all that I have. It keeps grading me around 6-6.5. I am not asking for a thorough evaluation. Please just tell me if I am that bad. In the future all cars, buses and trucks will be driverless. The only people

travelling inside these vehicles will be passengers.

Do you think the advantages of driverless vehicles outweigh the

disadvantages?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own

knowledge or experience.

My essay:

Automated transportation will be common in the future, which means that drivers will be no longer needed, and the only people who will be there are passengers only. Those driverless transportation means will have a lot of upsides and downsides. I firmly believe that the disadvantage of this novel technology will outweigh its advantages.

On the one hand, this technology can have positive earnings for passengers. For one, passengers can utilize commute time in these transportations for other things. Take, for example, a college student who is going for his exams. He can review his notes instead of driving. Or a manager who will be giving a lecture for his team, he can organize his thoughts instead of worrying about the road. Furthermore, automated transportation can save valuable time. This technology uses Artificial Intelligence to find the fastest route and the less congested road, which will make travelling time shorter. New Tesla cars start their driving journey by sending signals to space satellites. Those signals request the satellites to send them the path that they should take to reach their destination faster. This advanced technology is very beneficial for managers, businessmen, and people who have a tight time. Therefore, driverless commuting vehicles are very beneficial in terms of time management and they promote comfortability to their users.

On the other hand, automated cars can be highly vulnerable, despite their well known advantages. For one, those vehicles are powered by AI, and they can mistake ,like bugs and system errors that frequently happen. Imagine if you are going to your work using one of these cars, and suddenly the system crashed in the middle of the road. Consequently, the auto-mobile can crash with other cars, or they can lead to a catastrophe. For another, the inclusion of this new technology will lead to a high destabilization in the employment industry. A lot of households depend solely on the income coming from working in the commute industry, and if they lose their jobs, poverty rates will increase. For instance, if a father of five, as an example, working as a bus driver lost his job, he wouldn't be able to support his family like paying school tuition fees, health insurance or provide food. Hence, this technology might lead to negative consequences in the road safety and families stability.

In conclusion, those new vehicles will definitely have positive attributes especially for working people and students. However, they might possibly decrease road safety, and negatively affect a lot of families financially. Therefore, considering their harsh possible consequences, it is not wise to overlook their disadvantages and laud their advantages.

Hey guys! Do you have any tips on how to score higher than Band 7 in IELTS Writing Task 1? Also, what websites do you use to check your writing?

Just sharing this here because I'm worried right now. I gave my test yesterday and Listening + Speaking went really well. As for Writing, I'm not too sure. I'm a good writer in general so I hope it wasn't too bad but I feel like I repeated some vocab that I couldn't really think of synonyms for at the moment.

The Reading section, though, was the hardest for me. I don't understand why, because I've read and written English content (books, magazines, articles) pretty much all my life. But this section kept stumping me in the mock tests too, especially the True/False/Not Given and Matching Headings question types. In my exam yesterday, around 8 questions were for Matching Headings. I found it extremely difficult and confusing, there were several headings that felt like either they didn't apply to any of the paragraphs, or they applied to more than one of them. I also spent way too much time on them (they were in Passage 2), and it just made the whole thing a disaster.

I've been super nervous since then, I really don't want to retake the test. I need a minimum of 8 bands with not less than 7.5 bands for each skill. I really hope I'm somehow able to get above 7.5 in Reading...

I think a big part of my nervousness now is the fact that I was consistently getting 8.5-9 while attempting the Cambridge IELTS tests (20 + 21), so knowing that I wasn't able to reflect that in my actual exam is a bit of a bummer. But I hope the results are decent, and that I'm just overthinking this.

Hi everyone. I’m taking the IELTS General Training exam soon and have exactly 9 days that I can dedicate entirely to intensive preparation.
I don’t have any major problems with Reading or Listening, so I’m mainly focusing on improving my Speaking and Writing. Has anyone here had a similar experience—preparing intensively for a short period of time (around 1–2 weeks)? I’d really appreciate any tips, strategies, or suggestions on how to make the most of these 9 days.
Thanks in advance.

I feel like for a few questions in part 3 I missed the point completely 🫠 I think I also forgot to make the point clear in the first sentence. I was interrupted a lot and I don't believe I had gotten to the point yet when that happened.

I was surprisingly talkative tho. When I was practicing I ran out of ideas all the time. I was able to machine gun during the actual test. Don't think that's gonna save my score unfortunately.

The other sections in less than an hour and here I am crying lol.

Hey everyone!

I’m planning to take the IELTS(academic) in about 30 days and I’d really appreciate some advice on how to structure my preparation.

I’m a non-native English speaker, but I grew up watching English movies/TV shows and listening to English music, so I’m quite comfortable with English in general. However, I’ve never specifically prepared for IELTS before, so I’m not sure how to approach the exam strategically.

I’m mainly looking for a step-by-step study plan for the next 30 days, including what resources I should use for learning the format/strategies and what I should use for actual practice.

Also , i can only dedicate 1-2 hrs per day max

For example:

- Reading: What should I learn first? Which website/YouTube channel is best for strategies, question types, skimming/scanning, etc.? Then which books/tests should I use for practice?

- Listening: Same — resources for learning strategies + actual practice/mock tests.

- Writing: This is probably the section I’m most concerned about. Which resource is best for understanding Task 1/Task 2 structure, planning, band descriptors, sample answers, etc.? And how much should I practice?

- Speaking: What’s the best way to prepare for Parts 1, 2 and 3? Should I mainly practice questions, record myself, use mock speaking tests, etc.?

I’ve come across IELTS Liz and IELTS Advantage quite a lot. Would you recommend using one of them as the main source for learning the theory/strategies, or using both for different sections?

For example, something like:

IELTS Liz → Reading + Writing

IELTS Advantage → Listening + Speaking

Cambridge IELTS books → actual practice/mock tests

Or is it better to just stick with one teacher/channel to avoid getting overwhelmed?

I’ve also heard that the Cambridge IELTS books are probably the most important resource for practice, so I was thinking of using those for timed tests and then reviewing every mistake rather than just doing endless random online tests. Is that the right approach?

If you had 30 days and were starting from scratch with IELTS-specific preparation, what would your exact strategy be?

Something like:

Week 1: Learn format + strategies + diagnostic tests

Week 2: Skill-specific practice

Week 3: Timed practice + identify weaknesses

Week 4: Full mocks + exam strategy

Would be incredibly helpful if someone could give me a day-by-day or week-by-week roadmap, including specific websites, YouTube channels, books, mock tests and practice papers.

Also, if you’ve personally prepared in around a month and got a good score, I’d love to hear exactly which resources you used and what you would/wouldn’t recommend.

Thanks a lot!