What is the IELTS Academic test like?
The Academic version of IELTS is harder than the general version. All candidates do the same Listening and Speaking sections. The test has four sections:

Listening
4 sections, 40 questions, 30 minutes
Section 1: a conversation between two people
Section 2: a lecture in an everyday social context
Section 3: a conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context
Section 4: a lecture on an academic subject (e.g. a university lecture)
Each section is heard once only

Speaking
An interview, 15 minutes
Part 1 Introduction and interview
Part 2 Individual long turn (you have to talk about a topic)
Part 3 Two-way discussion (The examiner asks further questions which are connected to the topic of Part 2.)

Reading
3 long reading passages, 40 questions, 60 minutes Each section contains one long text. Texts are from books, journals, magazines and newspapers.

Writing Part 1: describe, summarise or explain the information in a graph, table, chart or diagram
Part 2: write an essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem

Level and scores

Multi-level. You get a score between 1 and 9. Half scores such as 6.5 are possible. Universities often demand an IELTS score of 6 or 7. They may also demand a minimum score in each of the 4 sections.