Learn Courses Practice Tests LGS Tools Games Tutors Leaderboard

B1–C2 · IELTS General Training

IELTS General Training Practice Test 2

AI-generated practice paper in the style of IELTS General Training — original material, not a reproduction of any real exam paper, following the official four-module structure (Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking). Listening audio is read aloud by your browser's voice, Writing tasks can be scored by AI, and for Speaking you can record yourself and compare with a model answer.

Listening

Part 1

Listen and answer questions 1–10.

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

1. Group day chosen: ______

2. Meeting time: ______ in the evening

3. Membership fee: ______ dollars a year

4. Number of free trial sessions: ______

5. Surname: ______

6. Contact number: ______

7. Meeting point: the ______ in the park

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

8. What does the membership fee cover?

9. How is the Tuesday group best described?

10. What might Grace need once the weather warms up?

Part 2

Listen and answer questions 11–20.

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

11. Lighthouse built in: ______

12. Height of the lighthouse: ______ metres

13. Number of steps inside the tower: ______

What does the speaker say about each of the following areas? Choose the correct letter, A-F, for questions 4 to 7.

14. The Keeper's Cottage

15. The Lamp Room

16. The Cliff Walk

17. The Museum Room

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

18. The light was automated in

19. A standard tour takes about

20. Visitors are advised to bring

Part 3

Listen and answer questions 21–30.

21. How many conditions will the experiment finally compare?

22. How many volunteers do they have?

23. When will the tests take place?

24. Why do they decide to borrow a mat?

25. Why do they decide not to measure heart rate?

26. What extra information will they collect?

27. What time will the tests start?

Who will be responsible for each task? Choose your answers from the list, A-E: A Anna; B Jack; C Dr. Adams; D Both of them; E The running club.

28. Making the consent forms

29. Contacting the volunteers

30. Setting up the results spreadsheet

Part 4

Listen and answer questions 31–40.

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

31. Adolescents generally need between eight and ______ hours of sleep each night.

32. Many students get considerably less sleep during ______ periods.

33. Adolescent circadian rhythms naturally shift ______ during puberty.

34. This shift conflicts with early school or lecture start ______.

35. Insufficient sleep impairs sustained attention and working ______.

36. Sleep-deprived students perform measurably worse on standardised ______.

37. Chronic sleep deprivation is linked to increased rates of anxiety and ______.

38. Sleep deprivation is also linked to weakened ______ function.

39. Some schools have responded by delaying official start ______.

40. Researchers argue that late-night ______ is often counterproductive.

Reading

Section 1: Notices

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 1.

NOTICE A — Greenfield Sports Club: Membership Update From 1 November, all annual memberships will renew automatically unless cancelled at least 14 days before the renewal date. Members wishing to cancel should do so in writing, either by email to memberships@greenfieldsports.co.uk or by completing a cancellation form at reception. Please note that gym inductions, previously free of charge, will now cost £15 for new members, though this fee is waived for anyone joining on a 12-month contract. The swimming pool timetable for half-term week is available on the noticeboard by the entrance; please check this before planning your visit, as several regular classes will not run during this period. NOTICE B — Found Property A set of car keys with a small silver keyring in the shape of a dog was found in the car park behind the community hall on Tuesday afternoon. If these belong to you, please come to the hall office between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, with some form of identification to collect them. Items not claimed within 30 days will be handed to the local police station's lost property office. Please note the hall office cannot post found items or hold them beyond this period under any circumstances.

Questions 1–4. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. By when must members cancel to avoid automatic renewal?

2. Where were the car keys found?

3. What time is the hall office open to collect found items?

4. Where can members find the swimming pool timetable for half-term week?

Questions 5–7. Do the following statements agree with the information in Notice A? Write TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

5. Gym inductions are free for members on a 12-month contract.

6. All swimming classes will run as normal during half-term.

7. Members can cancel their membership by completing a form at reception.

Question 8. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Notice A for each answer.

8. New members must now pay __________ for a gym induction.

Question 9. Answer the question below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Notice A.

9. How can members cancel their membership in writing?

Questions 10–11. Do the following statements agree with the information in Notice B? Write TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

10. The keyring is shaped like a cat.

11. The hall office can post the keys to their owner.

Question 12. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Notice B for each answer.

12. Unclaimed items will be handed to the __________ after 30 days.

Questions 13–14. Answer the question below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Notice B.

13. What must someone bring to collect the found keys?

14. When was the set of car keys found?

Section 2: Workplace

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 2.

TEXT A — New Employee Handbook Excerpt: Flexible Working All employees who have completed six months of continuous service are eligible to submit a formal request for flexible working arrangements, including compressed hours, remote working, or adjusted start and finish times. Requests should be submitted in writing to your line manager using the Flexible Working Request form available on the staff intranet, at least eight weeks before the desired start date. Managers must respond within 28 days, either approving the request, proposing an alternative arrangement, or providing written reasons for refusal based on genuine business need. Employees may appeal a refusal through the standard grievance procedure outlined in Section 9 of this handbook. TEXT B — Shift Swap Policy Staff wishing to swap an assigned shift with a colleague must notify their supervisor at least 48 hours in advance using the online rota system, except in genuine emergencies. Both employees involved in the swap must confirm the arrangement through the system before it is considered valid; informal verbal agreements between colleagues are not sufficient and will not be honoured if a dispute arises. Employees may not swap more than three shifts in any given month without prior approval from their department manager. Failure to attend a shift that has not been properly swapped through the system will be treated as an unauthorised absence.

Questions 15–18. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

15. After how many months of service can employees request flexible working?

16. How much notice is normally required for a shift swap?

17. What system must be used to confirm a shift swap?

18. Within how many days must managers respond to a flexible working request?

Questions 19–20. Do the following statements agree with the information in Text A? Write TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

19. Flexible working requests must be submitted at least eight weeks before the desired start date.

20. Managers must respond to requests within 14 days.

Question 21. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Text A for each answer.

21. A refused request can be challenged through the standard __________.

Question 22. Answer the question below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Text A.

22. Where is the Flexible Working Request form available?

Questions 23–25. Do the following statements agree with the information in Text B? Write TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

23. Verbal agreements between colleagues are sufficient to confirm a shift swap.

24. Employees can swap unlimited shifts each month.

25. Shift swaps can be arranged with less than 48 hours' notice in a genuine emergency.

Question 26. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Text B for each answer.

26. More than three shift swaps a month require prior approval from the __________.

Question 27. Answer the question below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Text B.

27. What is an unswapped missed shift treated as?

Section 3: The Return of the Four-Day Working Week

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 3.

For most of the twentieth century, the five-day, forty-hour working week remained a largely unquestioned standard across most developed economies, despite having been established decades earlier under very different economic and technological conditions. In recent years, however, a growing number of companies across various industries have begun experimenting with compressed four-day working weeks, typically maintaining full pay while reducing total working hours. The most extensively studied trial, conducted across dozens of companies in the United Kingdom, tracked outcomes for several thousand employees over a six-month period. Results proved considerably more positive than many sceptics had anticipated: the substantial majority of participating companies reported maintained or even improved overall productivity, despite the twenty percent reduction in total working hours, while employee wellbeing measures, including reported stress levels and work-life balance satisfaction, showed marked improvement across nearly all participating organisations. Proponents of the shorter working week argue that traditional forty-hour schedules often accommodate substantial unproductive time, including excessive meetings, workplace distractions, and simple time-wasting that naturally expands to fill available working hours according to a well-documented psychological principle. Compressing available working time, they argue, forces organisations to eliminate genuinely unnecessary activities and encourages employees to work with greater focused efficiency during the hours they do work, rather than simply spreading the same amount of productive effort across additional, less necessary hours. Critics raise legitimate concerns, however, regarding the shorter week's practical feasibility across all industry types. Client-facing service industries requiring continuous availability, healthcare settings with round-the-clock staffing requirements, and manufacturing operations dependent on continuously running expensive machinery present considerably greater implementation challenges than the largely office-based, knowledge-work companies that dominated the most publicised trials. Some critics further question whether reported productivity maintenance genuinely reflects sustainable long-term efficiency gains, or whether it partly represents a temporary, unsustainable intensification of effort that employees adopted specifically because they knew they were being closely observed during a widely publicised trial period. Despite these legitimate reservations, momentum behind four-day week experimentation continues building internationally, with several national governments now conducting or considering their own formal trials. Whether this represents a genuine, lasting transformation in how developed economies structure working time, comparable to the historical shift from six-day to five-day working weeks during the twentieth century, or a more limited phenomenon confined primarily to certain favourable industries and company cultures, remains a question that only considerably more time and broader industry-wide experimentation can definitively answer.

Questions 28–30. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

28. What was the standard working week for most of the twentieth century?

29. What kind of settings are mentioned as requiring round-the-clock staffing?

30. What did employee wellbeing measures show in the UK trial?

Questions 31–34. Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

31. The UK trial reduced total working hours by twenty percent while maintaining full pay.

32. Most companies in the UK trial reported decreased productivity.

33. All national governments have already implemented the four-day week nationally.

34. Manufacturing operations dependent on continuous machinery face fewer challenges implementing a shorter week.

Question 35. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

35. Traditional schedules often accommodate substantial __________, including excessive meetings and distractions.

Questions 36–38. Answer the question below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.

36. What kind of industries face greater implementation challenges for the four-day week?

37. What historical shift is compared to the potential four-day week transformation?

38. What principle explains why work expands to fill available hours?

Questions 39–40. Do the following statements agree with the writer's claims? Write YES if the statement agrees with the writer's claims, NO if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks.

39. Some critics question whether productivity gains in trials are genuinely sustainable long-term.

40. It is certain that the four-day week will become the global standard.

Speaking

Part 1: Introduction and interview

The examiner asks you questions about yourself and familiar topics (4–5 minutes).

Part 1 (Cities / The countryside) — the examiner asks about two familiar topics. Topic 1: Cities Q1. Would you prefer to live in a big city or a small town? Q2. What problems do large cities have? Topic 2: The countryside Q3. Do you ever visit the countryside? Q4. Would you like to live there permanently?
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: 1. A small town, I think. I spent a year in a big city, and although there was always something going on, I found it expensive and I missed having green spaces nearby. 2. The biggest ones are probably traffic, pollution and the cost of housing. Ordinary workers often can't afford to live close to where they work. 3. Yes, quite regularly. My grandparents have a farm about an hour away, and I go there most summers to help with the harvest. 4. Perhaps when I retire. I love the peace and the fresh air, but I would find it difficult now because there are fewer job opportunities and not much entertainment.

Part 2: Individual long turn

You have one minute to prepare, then speak for one to two minutes.

Describe a time when you received some good news. You should say: - what the news was - how you found out about it - who you told first and explain how you felt when you heard it. You are given a minute to get ready before speaking for one to two minutes.
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The good news I'd like to describe is finding out I'd been accepted onto a postgraduate course I'd applied for, after months of waiting. I found out by email, which arrived on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon while I was at work, completely unrelated to anything I was doing at that moment. I remember staring at my phone for a few seconds because I genuinely thought I'd misread it, since I'd almost convinced myself I'd be rejected after not hearing anything for so long. The first person I told was my flatmate, because she was the only one home when I got back, and she actually screamed with excitement, which made me laugh because I was still in a slight state of shock myself. After that I called my parents, who were, of course, thrilled, and my mother immediately started planning how she'd tell the rest of the family. I felt an enormous sense of relief more than anything, because I'd worked really hard on the application and had been quite anxious about it. It also felt like a kind of validation, proof that the effort had actually paid off, and it motivated me to keep pushing myself in the months that followed.

Part 3: Two-way discussion

The examiner asks more abstract questions linked to the Part 2 topic.

Part 3 (crime and punishment) — the examiner asks four related questions. Q1. What do you think are the main causes of crime in society? Q2. Should the main purpose of prison be punishment or rehabilitation? Q3. Do you think crime rates are affected by economic conditions? Q4. How might approaches to reducing crime change in the future?
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: 1. Poverty and lack of opportunity are often cited as major factors, along with poor education and, in some cases, addiction, since these can push people towards crime out of desperation rather than choice. 2. I lean towards rehabilitation, since simply punishing someone without addressing the underlying problem often means they reoffend once released, whereas proper support can genuinely reduce future crime. 3. Very much so; crime rates often rise during economic downturns, particularly for property-related offences, as financial pressure increases and legitimate opportunities become scarcer for some people. 4. I imagine more investment in early intervention, such as youth programmes and mental health support, since prevention is generally more cost-effective and humane than dealing with crime after it has already happened.

Writing Task 1

You recently started a new job and would like to request a change to your working schedule for personal reasons. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: explain what change you would like to make, give reasons for your request, and suggest how this change could work for the company. Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write your own address. Begin your letter 'Dear ...,'

Writing Task 2

In many countries, more people are choosing to work from home instead of going to an office. Some people think this is a positive change, while others believe it has more disadvantages than advantages. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Keep your streak going

Up next: IELTS General Training Practice Test 3

Next paper → 🇹🇷 IELTS General Training rehberi

← Back to IELTS General Training papers