IELTS: Which test is needed for Canadian permanent residency?

Knowing which IELTS test you need to take and how to best prepare for it is essential if you aim at settling permanently in Canada.

To apply for Canada PR (permanent residency), you will need to prove your English proficiency by taking an IELTS test.

There are two different versions of IELTS: IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training.

To apply for Canadian permanent residency, you will need to take IELTS General Training. IELTS General Training evaluates your abilities to use English in everyday contexts.

IELTS General Training Test Format

There are four parts to the test and you must take them all. The total test time is approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Reading (60 minutes – 40 questions)

The Reading section consists of 40 questions divided into three sections that are designed to test a wide range of reading skills.

Section 1 (social survivor) may contain two or three short texts or several shorter texts that are relevant to basic linguistic survival in English such as notices, advertisements, college brochures and accommodation lists.

Section 2 (workplace survival), focuses on the workplace context, so texts might include job descriptions, contracts, work policies, manuals, staff development and training materials.

Section 3 (general reading) contains one longer and more complex text of general interest. Text types include newspaper and magazine articles, book extracts or internet texts about a variety of topics.

Each answer is worth 1 mark and you will not be penalized if you leave an answer blank.

Writing (60 minutes)

There are two tasks in this part: Task 1 and Task 2.

Task 1: Letter writing

You will be presented with a situation and asked to write a letter requesting information, or explaining the situation. The letter may be personal, semi-formal or formal in style, and it should be of at least 150 words. Your writing will be assessed on four criteria: task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy.

Task 2: Essay writing

You will be asked to write a discursive essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem. Topics are of general interest and the text should be of at least 250 words. Your writing will be assessed on task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy.

Listening (approximately 30 minutes – 40 questions)

In this part of the test, you will listen to recordings of native English speakers with a variety of accents and write your answers to a series of questions on the question paper as you listen.

You can listen to the recordings only once and if you take IELTS on paper, you will be given ten minutes at the end of the test to transfer your answers to an answer sheet.

You will hear four recordings:

Recording 1 – a conversation between two people set in an everyday social context.

Recording 2 – a monologue set in an everyday social context, e.g. a speech about local facilities.

Recording 3 – a conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context, e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment.

Recording 4 – a monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture.

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