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The General Training Reading test consists of three sections and 40 questions. It focuses on situations you might face in everyday life, work-related issues such as applying for a job, and topics of general interest. The extracts in each section are taken from books, magazines, newspapers, notices, advertisements, company handbooks and guidelines.

Section 1 looks at your social survival skills. The questions relate back to short texts that are relevant to everyday life in an English-speaking country. These might be notices, advertisements or timetables.

Section 2 takes a closer look at your workplace survival skills. The texts here are taken from job descriptions, contracts, staff development and training manuals, as well as pay and workplace condition documents.

Section 3 contains a long and more complex text on a topic of general interest. Texts could be taken from newspapers, magazine or books.

The reading part of the IELTS test looks at how well you can understand main ideas, details, inferences and implied meaning. It also assesses your ability to follow the development of an argument, recognise a writer's opinion, attitudes and purpose.

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Ask IELTS

Why are the topics in the Reading and Writing test so difficult?

Every IELTS test is carefully produced and tested to ensure a consistent level of difficulty across all the test versions. We want every IELTS test  taker to have their true English-language ability reflected in their result, which is why we offer so many free and paid tools to help you  practise and prepare.

Check out our preparation  tools for tips and advice so that you can be as prepared as possible for your test date.

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