On this page you will find links to the best online resources to help you prepare for your IELTS exam. There are
pages for general information, for listening, reading, writing and speaking. Where possible we have tried to find
sites that are free or have at least some free pages.  

Help us keep this list up to date. If you find a bad link, please tell us


General information
www.ielts.org
The IELTS organisation home site – information and help to download, handbooks, some (limited) online practice,
research notes, list of recognising organisations etc. There are more links to useful areas of this site on other pages
of Active IELTS.

www.cambridgeesol.org
This Cambridge Exams page has a guide to the exam and handbook download.

www.cambridgeesol.org/research
A collection of research papers on the IELTS exam. Some are very specialised but all are interesting.

www.onestopenglish.com
This very good site is normally for teachers but there are a lot of IELTS class materials you can use to practice by
yourself or with other candidates.

http://www.pearsonlongman.com
This site is from the publisher Longman. Their IELTS study tips page has lots of advice and study tips for the exam.


General language
www.grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar
It is very important to produce a good range of short and long sentences in the writing and speaking tests and
this guide to grammar and writing is a useful resource for different areas of language structure.

www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx
Concordance programmes are enormous databases of English language. If you want to use a word for writing but
you are not sure how to use it, just put it in the box at the top and hit Show Concs.

The Longman Vocabulary site has a useful section on academic vocabulary, which you can use in the writing
and speaking exams. Try the multiple choice quizzes.

IELTS practice sites
We don't list many other sites that give you practice for the test because a lot of them are not very good. The
ones that are here are.

www.successatielts.com
This site has online exercises, practice tests, model answers, plus exam tips to prepare candidates for the Academic
IELTS writing tasks. Speaking modules coming soon!

www.1StopESL.com
1StopESL offers FREE teacher resources, student resources and exam practice for KET, PET, IELTS Modules,
TOEFL and General English.

www.ielts.school.nz
Teacher and Student IELTS Information and Resources for IELTS Tests


Speaking sites
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/moralmaze
BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze is a website where you can listen to people discussing controversial subjects – good
practice for part 3 of the speaking test and task 2 of the writing test, as well as the listening test itself, of course.  
You can also add your own comments to their message board.

http://www.chuala.com/lessons.php#3
Chuala Language Software is a free product designed to help learners with the pronunciation of English sounds
and words. You can choose a specific sound that is causing you problems or a topic area – a very good idea for
IELTS – and then practice how you say it.


Writing sites
www.debatabase.org
This is an excellent resource for ideas for a discussion essay, with lots of topics from the writing paper.

www.statistics.gov.uk
This page shows UK government statistics. Excellent practice for Academic Writing Task 1.

www.longman-elt.com
This page has some good online practice in language of change for Academic Writing Task 1.

http://adw.hct.ac.ae
This is a useful resource if you are taking the Academic test. It focuses on the vocabulary you need to describe
graphs in writing task 1, and shows it all very clearly.

http://my.powa.org/index.php
This is a very good guide to writing formal essays, like the ones you need to do in task 2 of the Writing test. The
section on thesis is especially useful for the IELTS.

http://www.statcan.ca
This page from Canada’s National Statistics Agency describes different kinds of graphs and gives examples of each
type – useful for task 1 of the Academic writing test.

http://www.writefix.com
This page is an excellent resource for the language you need to describe graphs in Academic Writing Task 1.

http://www.pbs.org/fmc/book.htm
The First Measured Century is a collection of essays about American life in the 20th century but also has many
excellent descriptions of graphs, diagrams and charts, with lots of the language that you need for the task 1
question in the Academic IELTS exam.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/ethics/
The Ethical Issues page is a guide to the different issues around topics such as animal ethics, euthanasia and war. It’
s very useful to help you find ideas for writing questions and for the more difficult questions in part 3 of the
speaking.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/specialreports/index/0,,181169,00.html
The Guardian's Special Reports section will give you ideas for part 2 of the writing and part 3 of the speaking. You
can find real examples to support your opinions, and real examples mean good answers.

http://www.letterexpert.co.uk
This is a site to help you with writing task 1 of the general training exam. The Letter Expert site has a very clear
guide and examples for many types of letters including complaining, canceling an appointment and making a claim.
These are typical questions for the general training test.

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/guides
Your answers for the writing paper need to be clear and concise - complicated won’t get you extra marks. The
Plain English Campaign is an organization which fights for better and clearer English – their site has some very
useful guides to writing well and simply.


Reading sites
http://www.britishcouncil.org/professionals-exams-ielts-reading-exam-2-2.htm
The British Council’s Learn English Professionals site has a good selection of reading questions for you to practice
with. There are other pages on the same site for listening, speaking and writing.

www.oup.com
Here you can find sample questions for reading from the Oxford University Press (in PDF format).
part 1        part 2

http://www.ielts.studyau.com
This is an excellent page for reading practice. You can choose the level from easy to difficult and all the exercises
are timed, which means that you can improve your reading speed too.

http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/ielts/main.htm#re#01
This site  has a good guide to the different kinds of questions in the reading test and some of the sections have
practice questions also. On other pages there is information about the other parts of the IELTS exam.


Listening sites
www.abc.net.au
Listen to the Australian version of the news, important for getting used to Australian accents.

www.speechinaction.com
This page is a complete courses in listening and pronunciation of real language, including different accents - which
is important for the exam. The site has free areas and pay areas.

University of Michigan English Language Institute
This page is a good source of listening practice – difficult to find on the web. The section we have chosen is a
collection of short lectures, which is what you will hear in at least one part of the IELTS listening exam. You can also
listen and read the text at the same time.  


News sites
These sites are useful to practise the language you need for writing task 2 and the reading test. They may also
help you in part 3 of the speaking test.

http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/
This is a page which collects together links to hundreds of newspapers from around the world. Have a look at a
newspaper from the UK or one from Australia.

www.news.bbc.co.uk
The BBC news page is especially useful for finding examples to support your answer in task 2 of the writing paper.

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
The BBC news for English language students.

Forums and communities
www.esnips.com
This community page has a large collection of files and documents on IELTS.

www.aippg.net
This Indian forum has a very active IELTS page for questions and advice.

www.urch.com/forums/ielts/
Test Magic’s IELTS forum is another good way to discuss the exam.

www.5steps2ielts.com
This site has an excellent forum and blog - the other pages are a bit limited in the rebuild.

More help
www.wordreference.com is an excellent free online dictionary and translator. It also has a forum so you can ask
questions on difficult vocabulary. You get very quick answers.
©Active IELTS 2006