Academic practice test
Academic Practice Test 000103
- the spacing effect in study
- postal services before the railways
- bird migration and navigation
- meteorite hunting in Antarctica
- hospital design and patient recovery
- who should pay for higher education
Each section is timed and scored on its own, so you can sit the whole test or only the skill you want to practise. Your answers and results are kept in this browser.
The four sections
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Listening
4 parts40 questions27 minutes
4 recordings, each played once. Answer while you listen — there is only a short pause at the end to check your answers.
- Note completion
- Multiple choice
- Map / plan labelling
- Matching features
- Summary completion
Marked instantly against the answer key and converted to a band estimate.
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Reading
3 passages40 questions60 minutes
3 passages — about 2,650 words to read. There is no extra time for transferring answers, so keep moving.
- Table completion
- True / False / Not Given
- Short-answer questions
- Matching features
- Summary completion
- Multiple choice
- Yes / No / Not Given
- Matching sentence endings
Marked instantly against the answer key and converted to a band estimate.
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Writing
2 tasks60 minutes
Task 1: summarise a table in at least 150 words (about 20 minutes). Task 2: write an essay of at least 250 words (about 40 minutes). Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1.
Assessed against the four public Writing criteria — you get a band estimate with a likely range.
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Speaking
3 partsabout 14 minutes
Part 1: 12 short questions on familiar topics. Part 2: speak for up to 2 minutes from a cue card after 1 minute to prepare. Part 3: 6 discussion questions. You answer aloud, so have a microphone ready. The real interview runs 11–14 minutes.
Assessed against the four public Speaking criteria — you get a band estimate with a likely range.
Not taken yet