Free IELTS Academic mock
One IELTS Academic paper in the real exam format: 63 questions across 4 timed sections, 2 hr 14 min on a server-controlled clock.
About the real exam The world's most recognised English test for university study and migration - across the UK, Australia, Canada, and beyond.
Free, reversible until you begin · one attempt per account · no retake, no card.
Scored instantly, or scored by AI
60 questions are scored automatically against the paper key the moment you submit.
1 written task and 2 recorded speaking prompts are scored by AI. These scores are estimates, provided as-is, and can arrive after your objective result.
The paper, section by section
- Listening20 questions · 30 min+1 per correct answer, no negative markingBreak · optional, up to 20 min
- Reading40 questions · 1 hr+1 per correct answer, no negative markingBreak · optional, up to 20 min
- Writing1 question · 40 minScored out of 9 marks, with no negative marking1 written taskBreak · optional, up to 20 min
- Speaking2 questions · 4 minScored out of 18 marks, with no negative marking2 recorded prompts
Navigation: sections run strictly in order and a completed section cannot be reopened.
Sample questions with worked answers
8 original practice questions written by Myndaq in the IELTS Academic style. They are not taken from this mock paper or from official past papers. Try each one, then open the answer.
- Question 1ReadingOne correct answer
Lichens are composite organisms in which a fungal partner houses a population of algae or cyanobacteria. Having no roots, they draw water and dissolved minerals directly from the air, and so they accumulate whatever the atmosphere happens to be carrying. This makes them unusually informative to anyone studying air quality.
Between 2009 and 2021 a survey in the Vardsen valley recorded lichen cover on 640 mature ash trunks, each observation taken at a fixed height of 1.5 metres. Bushy, branching species were the first to vanish where sulphur compounds were concentrated, while flat, crust-forming species clung on in the same places. After households in the valley moved from coal to gas heating, the branching species reappeared, but only on trunks more than three kilometres from the main road; nearer the carriageway, nitrogen compounds from vehicle exhaust remained high and the branching species stayed absent.
The survey team concluded that mapping lichens is far less expensive than maintaining a network of monitoring instruments, although they conceded that lichens respond to a long average rather than to a single bad week.
According to the passage, what is the chief advantage of lichen surveys over networks of monitoring instruments?
- They are considerably cheaper to carry out.
- They register short episodes of pollution more quickly.
- They record pollution levels hour by hour.
- They measure minerals in the soil as well as in the air.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The final paragraph states that mapping lichens is far less expensive than maintaining a network of monitoring instruments, which matches option A.
Option B reverses the passage: the team conceded that lichens reflect a long average rather than a single bad week, so they are slower, not quicker. Option C describes exactly the continuous recording that instruments, not lichens, provide. Option D contradicts the first paragraph, which says lichens have no roots and take minerals from the air.
- Question 2ReadingOne correct answer
Lichens are composite organisms in which a fungal partner houses a population of algae or cyanobacteria. Having no roots, they draw water and dissolved minerals directly from the air, and so they accumulate whatever the atmosphere happens to be carrying. This makes them unusually informative to anyone studying air quality.
Between 2009 and 2021 a survey in the Vardsen valley recorded lichen cover on 640 mature ash trunks, each observation taken at a fixed height of 1.5 metres. Bushy, branching species were the first to vanish where sulphur compounds were concentrated, while flat, crust-forming species clung on in the same places. After households in the valley moved from coal to gas heating, the branching species reappeared, but only on trunks more than three kilometres from the main road; nearer the carriageway, nitrogen compounds from vehicle exhaust remained high and the branching species stayed absent.
The survey team concluded that mapping lichens is far less expensive than maintaining a network of monitoring instruments, although they conceded that lichens respond to a long average rather than to a single bad week.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the passage? Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if it contradicts the information, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
Crust-forming lichens withstood high concentrations of sulphur compounds better than branching lichens did.
- TRUE
- FALSE
- NOT GIVEN
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The second paragraph says that the branching species were the first to vanish where sulphur compounds were concentrated, while the crust-forming species clung on in the same places. That is precisely the comparison the statement makes, so the answer is TRUE.
FALSE would require the passage to say the opposite, and NOT GIVEN would require the passage to be silent on the comparison; here the contrast is stated directly in one sentence.
- Question 3ReadingOne correct answer
Lichens are composite organisms in which a fungal partner houses a population of algae or cyanobacteria. Having no roots, they draw water and dissolved minerals directly from the air, and so they accumulate whatever the atmosphere happens to be carrying. This makes them unusually informative to anyone studying air quality.
Between 2009 and 2021 a survey in the Vardsen valley recorded lichen cover on 640 mature ash trunks, each observation taken at a fixed height of 1.5 metres. Bushy, branching species were the first to vanish where sulphur compounds were concentrated, while flat, crust-forming species clung on in the same places. After households in the valley moved from coal to gas heating, the branching species reappeared, but only on trunks more than three kilometres from the main road; nearer the carriageway, nitrogen compounds from vehicle exhaust remained high and the branching species stayed absent.
The survey team concluded that mapping lichens is far less expensive than maintaining a network of monitoring instruments, although they conceded that lichens respond to a long average rather than to a single bad week.
Complete the sentence. Choose the option that best completes it according to the passage.
Once the valley changed its heating fuel, branching lichens returned only to trunks ______.
- sheltered from the wind by younger trees
- surveyed at a height below 1.5 metres
- situated more than three kilometres from the main road
- belonging to species other than ash
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
The passage says the branching species reappeared, but only on trunks more than three kilometres from the main road, because nitrogen compounds from exhaust stayed high closer to the carriageway. Option C restates that condition.
Shelter from wind and the identity of neighbouring trees are never mentioned, so option A fails. Option B misuses the figure of 1.5 metres, which is the fixed height at which every observation was taken, not a condition for recovery. Option D contradicts the survey design, in which all 640 trunks were ash.
- Question 4ReadingOne correct answer
A. Seagrasses are flowering plants whose ancestors left the land and returned to shallow coastal water. Their roots bind loose sediment, and the sediment they trap buries organic matter in conditions so poor in oxygen that decay almost stops, which is why an old meadow holds a great deal of carbon beneath it.
B. Attempts to bring meadows back have a mixed record. The earliest projects moved adult shoots by hand, a slow business that often failed when the receiving water proved more clouded than the water at the donor bed. A trial in the Kerran estuary took a different route, scattering seeds held in small mesh bags. Only eight per cent of those seeds produced plants that survived two winters, a poorer return per seed than transplanting achieves, yet a single boat crew could sow a hectare in a day, and the cost of each surviving shoot fell by about two thirds.
C. Whether a restored meadow stores carbon as an undisturbed one does remains unsettled. Cores taken from replanted beds show carbon building up in the uppermost sediment within a few years, but several researchers warn that the deeper store, which is what makes old meadows valuable, may need decades to form.
Choose the heading that best fits paragraph B.
- Why flowering plants returned to the sea
- Meadows as a defence against storm damage
- A cheaper approach despite heavier losses
- Unresolved questions about buried carbon
- Training volunteers for transplant work
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
Paragraph B contrasts two restoration methods and ends on the point that seeding lost far more individuals per seed yet cut the cost of each surviving shoot by about two thirds. A heading about a cheaper approach with heavier losses captures both halves of that contrast.
Option A picks up a single detail from the first line of paragraph A and would not head that paragraph either, since paragraph A is about trapping sediment and storing carbon, not about the reasons for the return to water. Option D belongs to paragraph C. Options B and E name ideas the passage never raises, so neither can be the heading of any paragraph here.
- Question 5ReadingOne correct answer
A. Seagrasses are flowering plants whose ancestors left the land and returned to shallow coastal water. Their roots bind loose sediment, and the sediment they trap buries organic matter in conditions so poor in oxygen that decay almost stops, which is why an old meadow holds a great deal of carbon beneath it.
B. Attempts to bring meadows back have a mixed record. The earliest projects moved adult shoots by hand, a slow business that often failed when the receiving water proved more clouded than the water at the donor bed. A trial in the Kerran estuary took a different route, scattering seeds held in small mesh bags. Only eight per cent of those seeds produced plants that survived two winters, a poorer return per seed than transplanting achieves, yet a single boat crew could sow a hectare in a day, and the cost of each surviving shoot fell by about two thirds.
C. Whether a restored meadow stores carbon as an undisturbed one does remains unsettled. Cores taken from replanted beds show carbon building up in the uppermost sediment within a few years, but several researchers warn that the deeper store, which is what makes old meadows valuable, may need decades to form.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the passage? Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if it contradicts the information, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
Seeds sown in the Kerran estuary survived better in sheltered parts of the estuary than in exposed parts.
- TRUE
- FALSE
- NOT GIVEN
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
The passage gives a single overall survival figure of eight per cent for the seeded trial and never divides that figure by position within the estuary, nor does it mention shelter or exposure at all. With no information either way, the answer is NOT GIVEN.
TRUE would need a stated comparison of sheltered and exposed sites, and FALSE would need the passage to deny such a difference. The reference to clouded water concerns hand transplanting, not seeding, so it cannot settle the statement.
- Question 6ReadingOne correct answer
A. Seagrasses are flowering plants whose ancestors left the land and returned to shallow coastal water. Their roots bind loose sediment, and the sediment they trap buries organic matter in conditions so poor in oxygen that decay almost stops, which is why an old meadow holds a great deal of carbon beneath it.
B. Attempts to bring meadows back have a mixed record. The earliest projects moved adult shoots by hand, a slow business that often failed when the receiving water proved more clouded than the water at the donor bed. A trial in the Kerran estuary took a different route, scattering seeds held in small mesh bags. Only eight per cent of those seeds produced plants that survived two winters, a poorer return per seed than transplanting achieves, yet a single boat crew could sow a hectare in a day, and the cost of each surviving shoot fell by about two thirds.
C. Whether a restored meadow stores carbon as an undisturbed one does remains unsettled. Cores taken from replanted beds show carbon building up in the uppermost sediment within a few years, but several researchers warn that the deeper store, which is what makes old meadows valuable, may need decades to form.
Why, according to the passage, did the cost of each surviving shoot fall in the Kerran estuary trial even though most seeds failed?
- The seeds were obtained at no charge from a nearby bed.
- A very large area could be sown with little labour.
- The seeds proved unusually tolerant of clouded water.
- The plants needed only one winter to become established.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
Paragraph B links the fall in cost to the fact that a single boat crew could sow a hectare in a day. The saving comes from the small amount of labour needed per unit of area, which is option B.
Option A invents a source for the seeds that the passage never gives. Option C transfers the point about clouded water, which applies to hand-moved adult shoots. Option D contradicts the text, which measures survival after two winters.
- Question 7ReadingOne correct answer
A. Seagrasses are flowering plants whose ancestors left the land and returned to shallow coastal water. Their roots bind loose sediment, and the sediment they trap buries organic matter in conditions so poor in oxygen that decay almost stops, which is why an old meadow holds a great deal of carbon beneath it.
B. Attempts to bring meadows back have a mixed record. The earliest projects moved adult shoots by hand, a slow business that often failed when the receiving water proved more clouded than the water at the donor bed. A trial in the Kerran estuary took a different route, scattering seeds held in small mesh bags. Only eight per cent of those seeds produced plants that survived two winters, a poorer return per seed than transplanting achieves, yet a single boat crew could sow a hectare in a day, and the cost of each surviving shoot fell by about two thirds.
C. Whether a restored meadow stores carbon as an undisturbed one does remains unsettled. Cores taken from replanted beds show carbon building up in the uppermost sediment within a few years, but several researchers warn that the deeper store, which is what makes old meadows valuable, may need decades to form.
Complete the sentence. Choose the option that best completes it according to the passage.
Researchers remain cautious about replanted beds because ______.
- cores cannot be taken from sediment that has been replanted
- carbon at greater depth may take decades to accumulate
- replanted beds contain fewer plant species than older meadows
- carbon has never been measured in undisturbed meadows
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
Paragraph C reports carbon appearing in the uppermost sediment within a few years but warns that the deeper store, the feature that makes old meadows valuable, may need decades to form. Option B states exactly that reservation.
Option A contradicts the paragraph, which describes cores taken from replanted beds. Option C raises species richness, a topic the passage never touches. Option D is ruled out by paragraph A, which describes how much carbon an old meadow holds.
- Question 8ReadingOne correct answer
A. Seagrasses are flowering plants whose ancestors left the land and returned to shallow coastal water. Their roots bind loose sediment, and the sediment they trap buries organic matter in conditions so poor in oxygen that decay almost stops, which is why an old meadow holds a great deal of carbon beneath it.
B. Attempts to bring meadows back have a mixed record. The earliest projects moved adult shoots by hand, a slow business that often failed when the receiving water proved more clouded than the water at the donor bed. A trial in the Kerran estuary took a different route, scattering seeds held in small mesh bags. Only eight per cent of those seeds produced plants that survived two winters, a poorer return per seed than transplanting achieves, yet a single boat crew could sow a hectare in a day, and the cost of each surviving shoot fell by about two thirds.
C. Whether a restored meadow stores carbon as an undisturbed one does remains unsettled. Cores taken from replanted beds show carbon building up in the uppermost sediment within a few years, but several researchers warn that the deeper store, which is what makes old meadows valuable, may need decades to form.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the passage? Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if it contradicts the information, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
Hand transplanting of adult shoots covered ground more quickly than sowing seeds did.
- TRUE
- FALSE
- NOT GIVEN
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
The passage calls hand transplanting 'a slow business', and says that in the seeded trial a single boat crew could sow a hectare in a day. The text therefore states the opposite of the statement, so the answer is FALSE. TRUE would require the passage to credit transplanting with greater speed, and NOT GIVEN is wrong because both methods' rates of work are described.
Device and setup checklist
- A stable internet connection for the full duration.
- A working microphone (speaking sections are recorded).
- Headphones or speakers (this paper plays audio).
- A laptop or desktop is recommended for the closest exam experience.
What you get back
You get your raw marks and per-section scores. No scaled score, band, rank or percentile is estimated for this paper.
- Scored out of 87 raw marks, with per-section totals.
- There is no negative marking anywhere in this paper.
- AI-scored tasks are estimates provided as-is, and can arrive after your objective result.
How the real IELTS Academic bands are read
IELTS is reported as a band score from 0 to 9 (in 0.5 increments) for each of the four skills, plus an overall band that is the average of the four, rounded to the nearest half-band. Scores are valid for 2 years from the test date.
- Band 8.0 - 9.0 (Very good / Expert)Meets the English requirement of virtually any university worldwide, including the most competitive courses (medicine, law, top-ranked postgraduate programmes). Signals near-native command with full operational fluency.
- Band 7.0 - 7.5 (Good)Required by many top universities and competitive postgraduate courses, and by several professional-registration bodies (e.g. nursing, medicine in some jurisdictions). Comfortable, accurate English with only occasional inaccuracies.
- Band 5.0 - 5.5 (Modest)Accepted for foundation courses, pre-sessional English programmes, some diplomas, and certain skilled-migration thresholds. Partial command of the language; coping with overall meaning in most situations.
Context only - this free mock returns: You get your raw marks and per-section scores. No scaled score, band, rank or percentile is estimated for this paper.
The IELTS Academic in four panels
The exam
IELTS Academic (International English Language Testing System) is the English-proficiency test required for admission to universities and professional registration in English-speaking countries - the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and increasingly the United States. It is accepted by over 12,000 organisations worldwide, including universities, employers, and immigration authorities. The test measures four skills in a single sitting - Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking - each scored on a 9-band scale, with an overall band that is the average of the four. Unlike multiple-choice-only tests, IELTS Writing and Speaking are assessed by trained human examiners against published descriptors, so genuine command of the language - not test tricks - is what raises your band. The Academic version (as opposed to General Training) uses university-level reading passages and data-description writing tasks, and is the version required for degree study.
The format
All four IELTS Academic skills, fully modelled at the question-type level: (1) Listening - 4 sections of increasing difficulty (everyday social conversation, social monologue, academic group discussion, academic lecture), 40 questions in ~30 minutes plus transfer time, spanning multiple-choice, matching, plan/map/diagram labelling, form/note/table/flow-chart completion, and short-answer. (2) Reading - 3 long academic passages (~2,150 words total), 40 questions in 60 minutes, covering True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given, Matching Headings/Information/Features/Sentence Endings, multiple-choice, sentence/summary/note/table/flow-chart completion, diagram labelling, and short-answer. (3) Writing - Task 1 (describe a graph, chart, table, process, or map in 150+ words, 20 minutes) and Task 2 (a discursive essay in 250+ words, 40 minutes), each scored on Task Achievement/Response, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range & Accuracy. (4) Speaking - a 11 - 14 minute face-to-face interview in three parts (introduction & interview, a long-turn 'cue card' monologue, and a two-way discussion), scored on Fluency & Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range & Accuracy, and Pronunciation.
The candidates
- Professionals seeking registration with bodies that require IELTS - for example nurses, doctors, engineers, and teachers applying for licensure or chartered status in English-speaking countries.
- Applicants for skilled-migration and permanent-residency programmes (e.g. Australia's points-based visas) where IELTS bands convert directly into immigration points.
- Anyone who needs a globally recognised, examiner-verified certificate of English ability for academic or professional purposes and wants a structured way to reach a target band.
How people prepare for it
- Find your baseline first. Take one timed Reading and one timed Listening set under exam conditions to see where you stand against your target band. IELTS is a time-pressure test as much as a language test - knowing your current speed tells you what to drill.
- Build Reading speed and scanning. With 60 minutes for 3 passages and 40 questions you cannot read every word - locate answers by keyword, and master the highest-yield types: True/False/Not Given, Matching Headings, and Summary Completion.
- Train Listening with the audio only once. The real test plays each recording a single time, so practise predicting answers from the question wording before the audio starts, and learn to keep moving when you miss one. Section 4 (the academic lecture) is the hardest - prioritise it.
- Rehearse Speaking out loud daily. Record yourself answering Part 2 cue cards for the full 2 minutes, and practise extending Part 3 answers with reasons and examples. Fluency and the ability to keep talking matter more than a perfect accent.
Figures about the real exam, as recorded in the Myndaq course. They describe the real sitting, not this free mock paper - check current details with the exam body before you book.
What it opens up
- Reach your target overall band across all four skills, with a clear understanding of the per-skill minimums universities require
- Master the time strategy each section demands - especially Reading speed and single-play Listening - so timing is never the reason you miss marks
Course context for the real IELTS Academic.
Figures above are as reported for the cycle named in each row and are refreshed each cycle. Sourced, dated facts for this exam (official links on every row) are on the IELTS Academic course page.
How this mirrors the real format
- The paper structure is the real format: 4 sections in exam order, 63 questions in total.
- Timing is server-controlled for the full 2 hr 14 min -- closing the tab does not pause the clock, exactly like our paid mock series.
- Marking follows the published paper: the per-section marks shown in the paper map are the marks the scorer applies.
- Sections run strictly in order and a completed section cannot be reopened.
- Break windows fall where the paper schedules them, and each one is shown in the paper map.
"Real format" means the paper shape, timing, marking and navigation above - not the official exam software, its visual identity, or any affiliation with the exam body.
What differs or is limited
- This free mock covers every section of the real exam format. Speaking is trimmed to at most 2 prompts and writing to 1 task; the paid mock includes the full task set. AI-scored sections are estimates and are provided as-is. Audio you record is deleted within 30 days.
- Section length in this free paper: Listening has 20 questions.
- Section length in the real IELTS Academic exam: Listening has 40 questions.
- These are two different lengths. The free Listening section is shorter than the real one (20 against 40), so treat it as a diagnostic of that skill rather than a full-length Listening test.
One attempt, explicitly
Adding this mock to your account is free and reversible - you can change the exam any time before you begin. Only the confirmed Begin action uses your one attempt. No retake, no reset, no card.