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B1–C2 · IELTS General Training

IELTS General Training Practice Test 26

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

1. Role chosen: ______

2. Pay rate: ______ dollars an hour

3. Total hours over the weekend: ______

4. Briefing date: Thursday the ______

5. Briefing time: ______ o'clock

6. Surname: ______

7. Accommodation offered: free ______

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

8. What does Grace need for her security pass?

9. The festival runs from

10. What benefit do staff get on their days off?

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. The cannon at Eyre Square was presented in: ______

12. The Spanish Arch was built in: ______

13. The Cathedral was completed in: ______

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

14. The Spanish Arch

15. The Prom

16. The Cathedral

17. The Latin Quarter

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

18. The bus provides

19. An adult ticket costs

20. The tour runs

Part 3

Listen and answer questions 21–30.

21. Why does Emma think twenty-five questions is too many?

22. What do the students decide about the question format?

23. How will they collect responses?

24. Who will provide the free cookies?

25. Why can't Emma work on Saturday?

26. What will David do tonight?

27. Where will the group meet on Sunday?

Which task is each student responsible for? Choose your answers from the list, A-E: A Writing the introduction and method; B Recommendations and slides; C Typing results and making charts; D Booking the stand; E Buying the cookies.

28. David

29. Carla

30. Emma

Part 4

Listen and answer questions 31–40.

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

31. Micro-apartments are typically defined as living spaces under ______ square metres.

32. Designers rely heavily on ______ furniture such as fold-up beds.

33. Beds often fold vertically up into the ______.

34. Higher-than-standard ______ can make a small apartment feel more spacious.

35. Mirrors and natural light are techniques borrowed from ______ cabin design.

36. Critics worry the trend could normalise substandard ______ conditions.

37. Supporters say micro-apartments provide an affordable ______ into expensive markets.

38. They are seen as especially useful for younger ______ people.

39. Several cities including Tokyo and ______ have adjusted their building codes.

40. These changes explicitly permit smaller minimum ______ sizes.

Reading

Section 1: Notices

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 1.

NOTICE A — Summerfest Box Office: Ticket Refund Policy Due to the cancellation of the headline act's Saturday performance, ticket holders for that specific day are entitled to a full refund or, alternatively, a transfer to any other day of the festival subject to availability. Refund requests must be submitted through the original point of purchase within 30 days of this announcement; requests made after this period cannot be processed. Customers who purchased a weekend camping pass alongside their day ticket will have the camping portion of their pass honoured regardless of which refund option they choose for the day ticket itself. Merchandise purchased in advance for collection on Saturday can instead be collected on any other festival day at the same collection point. Customers with further questions should contact the box office by email rather than by phone, as phone lines are expected to be extremely busy. NOTICE B — Highfield Apartments: Gym Room Access Hours Change The residents' gym room will now be accessible from 6am to 10pm daily, extended from the previous hours of 7am to 9pm, following a residents' survey requesting earlier and later access. Access continues to require the standard building fob, and CCTV recording within the gym room remains in operation for security purposes throughout all open hours. Residents are reminded to wipe down equipment after use and to return weights and mats to their designated storage areas. A new booking system for the single treadmill will be introduced next month, allowing residents to reserve 30-minute slots in advance through the building's resident app, to manage demand during peak evening hours.

Questions 1–3. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. What are ticket holders for the cancelled Saturday performance entitled to?

2. What are the new gym room access hours?

3. How will residents be able to book treadmill slots under the new system?

Questions 4–5. 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.

4. Refund requests must be submitted within 30 days of the announcement.

5. Camping passes will be cancelled regardless of the day ticket refund choice.

Questions 6–7. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Notice A for each answer.

6. Merchandise for Saturday collection can instead be collected on __________.

7. Refund requests must be submitted through the original __________ within 30 days.

Question 8. Answer the question below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Notice A.

8. How should customers with further questions contact the box office?

Questions 9–11. 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.

9. CCTV recording remains in operation in the gym room.

10. There are currently two treadmills in the gym room.

11. Residents are reminded to wipe down equipment after use.

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

12. A new booking system will allow residents to reserve __________ on the treadmill.

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

13. What prompted the change in gym room access hours?

14. Where should residents return weights and mats after use?

Section 2: Workplace

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 2.

TEXT A — Human Resources: Maternity and Paternity Leave Policy Update The company's family leave policy has been updated to offer six months of paternity leave at full pay, up from the previous two weeks, bringing it in line with the existing maternity leave entitlement, in recognition of research showing shared early caregiving benefits both children and long-term workplace gender equality. Leave can be taken flexibly within the first eighteen months following birth or adoption, either as one continuous block or split into two separate periods with at least four weeks' notice for each. Employees on family leave will continue to accrue annual leave and pension contributions as though they were working normally. Keeping-in-touch days, allowing employees to attend occasional work events or meetings during their leave without affecting their leave entitlement, remain available up to a maximum of ten days. Managers will receive guidance on planning cover for extended leave periods well in advance. TEXT B — Procurement: New Supplier Code of Conduct All suppliers must now formally sign and return the company's updated code of conduct before any new contract can be issued, covering areas including fair labour practices, environmental standards, and anti-bribery commitments. Existing suppliers with contracts renewing in the next twelve months will be required to sign the updated code at their next renewal point rather than immediately. Suppliers who fail to sign within the required timeframe will have new orders suspended until the code is returned, though existing committed orders will not be affected retroactively. Any supplier found to be in serious breach of the code, once signed, may have their contract terminated with immediate effect. Procurement will conduct periodic spot-check audits of a sample of suppliers each year to verify ongoing compliance with the signed code.

Questions 15–17. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

15. What is the new paternity leave entitlement at full pay?

16. What must all new suppliers do before a contract can be issued?

17. What areas does the supplier code of conduct cover?

Questions 18–19. 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.

18. Leave can be split into two separate periods with at least four weeks' notice for each.

19. Employees on family leave stop accruing pension contributions.

Questions 20–21. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Text A for each answer.

20. Keeping-in-touch days remain available up to a maximum of __________.

21. The updated policy brings paternity leave in line with the existing __________ entitlement.

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

22. Within what period following birth or adoption can leave be taken flexibly?

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. Existing suppliers must sign the updated code immediately regardless of contract renewal dates.

24. A serious breach of the code, once signed, may result in immediate contract termination.

25. Existing committed orders are cancelled retroactively if a supplier fails to sign the code in time.

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

26. Procurement will conduct periodic __________ of a sample of suppliers each year.

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

27. What happens to new orders if a supplier fails to sign the code in time?

Section 3: The Curious Science of Deja Vu

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 3.

Nearly two-thirds of people report having experienced deja vu, the unsettling sensation of feeling that a completely novel situation has somehow already been experienced before, at least once in their lives, most commonly during early adulthood, with the frequency of the experience generally declining with age for reasons that remain only partially understood. Despite its near-universal familiarity, deja vu has historically resisted rigorous scientific investigation, largely because it occurs spontaneously, briefly, and unpredictably, making it exceptionally difficult to study under controlled laboratory conditions. Recent advances, however, have allowed researchers to induce deja-vu-like sensations in laboratory settings using carefully constructed virtual environments that share subtle spatial similarities with previously viewed scenes without participants consciously recognising the connection. This experimental approach has lent support to a leading explanation, sometimes called the 'gestalt familiarity' hypothesis, which proposes that deja vu arises when a new scene shares significant structural or spatial similarity with a previously experienced scene stored in memory, without the specific prior memory itself being consciously retrieved or recognised, producing a strong, disembodied sense of familiarity detached from any identifiable source. A separate and equally compelling line of research links deja vu to a kind of memory-checking or error-detection process performed by the brain, particularly involving the frontal cortex, the brain region generally associated with monitoring cognitive processes and resolving conflicts between competing pieces of information. Neuroimaging studies of patients experiencing deja vu associated with certain forms of temporal lobe epilepsy, in whom deja vu can occur as a distinct pre-seizure symptom, have revealed abnormal electrical activity in brain regions overlapping with memory processing circuits, providing valuable if unusual insight into the neurological circuitry potentially involved even in deja vu experienced by neurologically typical individuals without epilepsy. Interestingly, this error-detection framing suggests deja vu might actually represent a healthy, functioning memory-monitoring system rather than a memory malfunction, essentially the brain correctly flagging an inappropriate sense of familiarity as false, a kind of built-in fact-checking mechanism working precisely as intended. This would help explain the curious observation that deja vu frequency appears to decline with age, since some researchers propose that this decline may reflect a gradual weakening of exactly this memory-monitoring capacity as people grow older, rather than an increase in memory accuracy that would otherwise be expected to reduce the initial false-familiarity signal. Despite these advances, researchers caution that deja vu likely represents multiple related but distinct phenomena rather than a single unified experience, and that laboratory-induced approximations, however methodologically valuable, may not perfectly capture the qualitative character of naturally occurring deja vu as most people spontaneously experience it in ordinary daily life.

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

28. Roughly what proportion of people report having experienced deja vu at least once?

29. In which patients has deja vu been studied as a distinct pre-seizure symptom?

30. How do researchers induce deja-vu-like sensations in the laboratory?

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. Deja vu frequency generally declines with age.

32. Deja vu has always been easy to study under controlled laboratory conditions.

33. Neuroimaging studies of epilepsy patients have revealed abnormal activity in memory processing circuits.

34. Laboratory-induced deja vu perfectly captures naturally occurring deja vu in every respect.

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

35. The 'gestalt familiarity' hypothesis proposes deja vu arises from significant structural or spatial __________ with a previously experienced scene.

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

36. Which brain region is generally associated with monitoring cognitive processes and resolving conflicts?

37. What might the decline in deja vu frequency with age reflect, according to some researchers?

38. When is deja vu most commonly experienced, according to the passage?

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. The error-detection framing suggests deja vu might represent a healthy, functioning memory system.

40. Researchers believe deja vu is definitely a single, unified phenomenon.

Speaking

Part 1: Introduction and interview

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

Part 1 (The internet / Social media) — the examiner asks about two familiar topics. Topic 1: The internet Q1. How often do you use the internet? Q2. What do you mainly use it for? Topic 2: Social media Q3. Do you use social media? Q4. Do you think young people spend too much time on it?
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: 1. Every day, for several hours. I use it at work all day and then again at home in the evening, so I'm rarely offline for long. 2. Mostly for work emails, looking up information and watching tutorials. I also do my banking and book most of my travel online, which saves a lot of time. 3. A little. I have an account to keep in touch with relatives abroad, but I don't post very often. I mainly look at what other people have shared. 4. I think many of them do, yes. When I see teenagers on a bus, they're nearly all looking at their screens. It would probably be healthier if they went outside and talked face to face more often.

Part 2: Individual long turn

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

Describe a book you have enjoyed reading. You should say: - what the book is called and who wrote it - what kind of book it is - what happens in it and explain why you enjoyed it. You will have one minute to prepare and then speak on the topic for one to two minutes.
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: One book I really enjoyed is called The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. A friend lent it to me during a long train journey, and I ended up finishing it in two days. It's a fairly short novel, a sort of adventure story with a philosophical side. It follows a young shepherd from Spain who dreams of finding treasure near the Egyptian pyramids. He sells his sheep and sets off across the desert, meeting people along the way who teach him important lessons, such as an Englishman who studies alchemy and a wise old king. Eventually he discovers that what he was searching for was closer to home than he'd imagined. What I liked most was the simple language, which made the story easy to follow, yet the ideas behind it were deep enough to make me stop and think. It also came at a moment when I was unsure about which career to choose, and the message about following your dreams and listening to your heart was very encouraging. I've since given copies to two colleagues, and both of them said they loved it as well. I'd happily read it again in a few years' time.

Part 3: Two-way discussion

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

Part 3 (social media) — the examiner asks four related questions. Q1. In what ways has social media changed how people form opinions? Q2. Do you think social media has a negative effect on young people's confidence? Q3. Should there be an age limit for using social media platforms? Q4. How might social media develop over the next decade?
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: 1. People are exposed to a much wider range of viewpoints, but algorithms often show content that matches existing opinions, which can make people's views more extreme rather than more balanced. 2. Often, yes, since constantly comparing your life to carefully edited posts from others can create unrealistic expectations, especially for teenagers who are still forming their sense of identity and self-worth. 3. I think some restriction makes sense, since younger users may not yet have the judgement to handle the pressures social media can create, though enforcing any age limit in practice is genuinely difficult. 4. I expect stricter regulation around data privacy and possibly clearer limits on algorithm-driven content, as governments and users both push back against some of its more harmful effects.

Writing Task 1

You would like to ask a former manager to provide a reference for a new job application. Write a letter to your former manager. In your letter: remind them of when you worked together, explain what the reference is for, and say what you would like them to mention. Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write your own address. Begin your letter 'Dear ...,'

Writing Task 2

Some people believe that everyone should attend university and study for an academic degree, while others think that vocational, practical training is more valuable for many people. 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.
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