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IELTS Preparation tips

The best ways to study for the four IELTS sub-tests: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking

IELTS Test Dates

I’ve been receiving many emails with questions about the test dates and it became clear to me that many people are confused about this matter. Here is what’s going on with IELTS dates:

Every month there are 2 dates for the General Training test and 4 dates for the Academic test. The exams are held on Thursdays and Saturdays only and the dates are already set for the rest of 2008 and 2009.

Now, you should also know that test centre in your country may “skip” some of those dates and not hold the exam – it depends on how many students have signed up and it’s up to the IELTS centre to decide whether they will hold the exam or not.

Here are the official IELTS test dates for the rest of 2008:

October 2008:
General Training test: 11th, 25th
Academic test: 4th, 11th, 23rd, 25th

November 2008:
General Training test: 8th, 20th
Academic test: 8th, 15th, 20th, 29th

December 2008:
General Training test: 6th, 13th
Academic test: 4th, 6th, 13th, 20th

Get your free IELTS samples

We can’t have too many free tasks samples, can we 🙂 ? The IELTS official site recently released some more free practice materials.

They have added some Academic and General training reading passages and tasks, Academic and General Training writing tasks and a Speaking test. They also made the answers available and even some listening samples.

So those of you who haven’t seen the free samples yet can find them here:

Academic Reading Sample

Academic Writing Sample

General Training Reading Sample

General Training Writing Sample


Speaking Card Sample