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B1–C2 · IELTS General Training

IELTS General Training Practice Test 30

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. Surname: ______

2. Unit size chosen: ______ square feet

3. Monthly rate: ______ dollars a week

4. Start date: Monday the ______ of July

5. Padlock available at reception for: ______ dollars

6. Unit code: BLUE ______

7. Contact number: ______

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

8. What must Ben bring to sign up?

9. The free insurance included in the price covers items worth up to

10. Trolleys for moving boxes are available

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. Line first opened in: ______

12. Railway reopened by volunteers in: ______

13. Today's engine, Dartmoor Lass, was built in: ______

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

14. Ivybridge Station

15. The Combe Viaduct

16. Fernworthy Halt

17. The Engine Shed

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

18. Passengers will have, at Coombe Halt, about

19. An adult return ticket costs

20. Dogs travelling on the train

Part 3

Listen and answer questions 21–30.

21. What does Henry come to agree with Grace about?

22. What should be the main evidence for their argument?

23. How many comparison images should the essay include?

24. What does Dr. Lee suggest adding for context?

25. How much space should the artist's original intentions get?

26. What approach should they take to the argument?

27. What should be cited to strengthen the argument?

What does Dr. Lee decide about each of these? Choose your answers from the list, A-E: A Bring printed images to the meeting; B One paragraph is enough; C Add briefly for context; D Cite it to strengthen the argument; E Take a position but note the counterargument.

28. The artist's intentions

29. The other restoration example

30. The draft feedback meeting

Part 4

Listen and answer questions 31–40.

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

31. Quarantine comes from the Italian phrase meaning ______ days.

32. The forty-day period was first formally applied in the port city of ______.

33. Venice applied the rule during the ______ century.

34. Ships suspected of carrying ______ were made to wait offshore.

35. The number forty likely echoed the ______ significance found in stories like the flood.

36. Venetian officials noticed the disease came from ports affected by ______.

37. The word entered ______ and then English largely unchanged.

38. By the seventeenth century the word had broadened beyond its literal ______.

39. The word came to mean any period of enforced ______ to stop disease spreading.

40. Today quarantine can last from a single day to several ______.

Reading

Section 1: Notices

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 1.

NOTICE A — Zenith Yoga Studio: Class Schedule Change From next month, the studio's class schedule will change to better reflect attendance patterns observed over the past year: the popular Tuesday evening vinyasa class will move from 6pm to 7pm, and a new Saturday morning beginners' class will be introduced at 9am. The Thursday lunchtime class, which has consistently seen low attendance, will be discontinued, and members who regularly attended this class are encouraged to try the new Saturday session instead. All existing class packages and membership credits remain valid and can be used for any class in the new schedule without any need to re-purchase or transfer credits manually. Members are advised to book classes online in advance, as popular sessions, particularly the new Saturday class, are expected to fill up quickly once the new schedule begins. A printed copy of the new schedule is available at the studio reception for members who prefer not to use the app. NOTICE B — Hartley Court: Balcony Safety Inspection An independent structural engineer will carry out a routine safety inspection of all balconies at Hartley Court next week, as required under the building's ongoing maintenance certification. Inspections will take place between 9am and 5pm over three days, and residents will be given at least 48 hours' notice of the specific time slot for their flat. Access to individual balconies will be required for approximately fifteen minutes per flat; residents do not need to be present, provided the building manager has a spare key, but may choose to be at home if they prefer. Any balcony found to require repair work will be temporarily sealed off with warning tape until the repair is completed, and affected residents will be contacted directly with further details. Results of the inspection will be summarised in a report available to all residents on request from the building manager.

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

1. What time will the Tuesday evening vinyasa class move to?

2. Why is the balcony safety inspection taking place at Hartley Court?

3. Where can residents get a copy of the inspection report?

Questions 4–6. 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. The Thursday lunchtime class will be discontinued due to low attendance.

5. Members must re-purchase their class packages under the new schedule.

6. Members who attended the discontinued Thursday class are encouraged to try the new Saturday session.

Questions 7–8. Complete the sentence below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Notice A for each answer.

7. A new Saturday morning beginners' class will be introduced at __________.

8. Members are advised to book classes __________ in advance.

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

9. Where can members get a printed copy of the new schedule?

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. Residents must be present at home during their balcony inspection.

11. Balconies needing repair will be temporarily sealed off with warning tape.

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

12. Residents will be given at least __________ notice of their specific time slot.

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

13. How long will access to each balcony take during the inspection?

14. What type of professional will carry out the balcony inspection?

Section 2: Workplace

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 2.

TEXT A — Human Resources: Holiday Office Closure Schedule The office will close for the winter holiday period from 24 December to 2 January inclusive, reopening on 3 January, with all staff required to use annual leave entitlement to cover this closure unless they have specifically arranged to work remotely on a skeleton service basis for essential client support. Staff wishing to volunteer for skeleton service cover, which involves monitoring urgent emails and phone messages only, should register their interest with their line manager by the end of next month, with a small additional payment offered for this cover. The building's heating and security systems will remain operational throughout the closure, and deliveries scheduled during this period should be rearranged in advance where possible. Staff returning on 3 January should expect a higher-than-usual volume of emails and should prioritise urgent client matters first. TEXT B — Talent Acquisition: New Employee Referral Portal A new online referral portal will replace the current email-based process for submitting employee referrals from next week, allowing staff to track the progress of any candidate they refer through each stage of the recruitment process in real time. The portal also displays a live list of all current open vacancies, searchable by department and location, making it easier for staff to identify suitable roles for people in their network. Referral bonus payments, unchanged at £500 per successful hire, will now be processed automatically once a new starter completes three months of service, rather than requiring a separate manual claim form as before. Staff can refer as many candidates as they like, though duplicate referrals for the same candidate from different staff members will only credit the first person to submit the referral. Login access to the portal uses existing company credentials, requiring no separate registration.

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

15. When will the office reopen after the winter holiday closure?

16. What will replace the current email-based referral process?

17. What can the portal be searched by, besides department?

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. Staff must use annual leave to cover the closure unless arranged for skeleton service.

19. Skeleton service cover involves handling all client work as normal.

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

20. A small additional payment is offered for __________.

21. Deliveries scheduled during the closure period should be __________ in advance where possible.

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

22. What should staff returning on 3 January prioritise first?

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. The referral bonus amount is changing to a higher figure.

24. Duplicate referrals for the same candidate all receive a bonus.

25. Staff can refer as many candidates as they like.

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

26. Referral bonus payments will be processed automatically once a new starter completes __________ of service.

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

27. What credentials are used to log in to the new portal?

Section 3: The Science Behind Why Time Feels Faster As We Age

You should spend about 20 minutes on Section 3.

The near-universal adult observation that time seems to accelerate with age, that childhood summers once felt endless while recent years appear to pass in a blur, has attracted surprisingly serious scientific investigation, with several competing but not mutually exclusive explanations emerging from psychology and neuroscience research over recent decades. One influential explanation, sometimes called the 'proportional theory,' offers a straightforward mathematical account: a single year represents a much larger fraction of a five-year-old's total lived experience than it does of a fifty-year-old's, and this proportional shrinkage, the theory suggests, translates into a corresponding subjective sense of each year passing more quickly as the total accumulated years of comparison grows larger. While intuitively appealing, critics note that this theory, taken alone, does not adequately explain more granular observations, such as why a single unfamiliar week on holiday can feel longer in the moment than a completely uneventful month at home, despite representing the same proportional fraction of total lifespan. A second, increasingly favoured explanation focuses on novelty and memory density rather than pure mathematics. The brain, this theory proposes, does not track the passage of clock time directly but instead infers the duration of a period retrospectively based on the density of distinct memories formed during it; a childhood filled with genuinely novel experiences, new skills, unfamiliar environments, and constant learning, generates a correspondingly dense memory record, which is later recalled as having taken a long time, whereas adult life, increasingly dominated by familiar routines and repeated daily patterns, generates comparatively sparse distinct memories, and consequently feels, in retrospect, as though it passed quickly, even though the moment-to-moment experience of adult routine may not have felt hurried at all while actually happening. This memory-density account gains support from a well-documented related effect: time spent in an unfamiliar environment, such as during travel to a genuinely new destination, is reliably reported as feeling both slower during the experience itself and, somewhat paradoxically, longer in later retrospective recall, precisely the pattern predicted by a memory-density theory rather than a purely proportional one. Some researchers have further proposed that measurable, gradual changes in dopamine-related neural processing with advancing age may contribute an additional physiological dimension to altered time perception, since dopamine appears to play a meaningful role in the brain's internal timing mechanisms, though this specific physiological hypothesis remains considerably less well established than the psychological novelty-based account. Practically, this research suggests a genuinely actionable strategy for anyone hoping to subjectively slow the felt passage of time as they age: deliberately seeking novel experiences, learning new skills, and varying daily routines appears, according to the available evidence, more likely to produce a subjectively richer and, in later retrospective memory, longer-feeling life than simply attempting to think about time differently through willpower alone.

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

28. What does the 'proportional theory' propose about why time seems to speed up with age?

29. What neurotransmitter is mentioned as potentially playing a role in altered time perception with age?

30. According to the passage, moment-to-moment adult routine may feel, while it is happening...

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 proportional theory alone fully explains why a holiday week can feel longer than an uneventful month.

32. The memory-density theory proposes the brain tracks clock time directly.

33. The dopamine-related hypothesis is described as more firmly established than the memory-density account.

34. The proportional theory and the memory-density theory are presented as necessarily mutually exclusive.

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

35. A childhood filled with novel experiences generates a correspondingly dense __________.

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

36. What kind of adult life generates comparatively sparse distinct memories, according to the passage?

37. What practical strategy does the passage suggest for subjectively slowing the felt passage of time?

38. What does the memory-density theory suggest the brain infers duration from, rather than clock time?

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. Time spent in an unfamiliar environment tends to feel both slower at the time and longer in retrospect.

40. The writer believes simply trying to think about time differently through willpower is the most effective strategy.

Speaking

Part 1: Introduction and interview

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

Part 1 (Bicycles / Driving) — the examiner asks about two familiar topics. Topic 1: Bicycles Q1. Can you ride a bicycle? Q2. Do many people cycle where you live? Topic 2: Driving Q3. Do you have a driving licence? Q4. Would you say driving is stressful?
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: 1. Yes, I learnt when I was six. My father ran behind me holding the seat, and I remember shouting at him not to let go, when he already had. 2. Not as many as there should be. The roads are narrow and busy, so most people feel safer in a car, though the council is starting to build cycle lanes. 3. I passed my test two years ago, at the second attempt. I'm not a confident driver yet, so I mostly keep to routes that I know. 4. It can be, particularly in rush hour when the traffic hardly moves, and parking in the centre is a nightmare. On a quiet country road, though, I actually find it quite relaxing.

Part 2: Individual long turn

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

Describe a friend you have known since childhood. You should say: - who this friend is - how you met - what you used to do together and explain why you are still friends. You'll have a minute to prepare, then speak for one to two minutes.
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: I'd like to talk about my friend Elif, who I've known since I was six years old. We met on the very first day of primary school, when the teacher put us at the same desk because our surnames were next to each other in the register. At first we were both too shy to say anything, but after a few days we discovered that we both loved drawing horses, and that was the start of a friendship that has lasted more than twenty years. As children we spent almost every afternoon together. We'd ride our bicycles around the estate, build a den in her garden from old blankets, and record silly radio shows on a cassette player. Later, as teenagers, we shared secrets and helped each other with homework. She now lives in another city and works as a nurse, so we can't meet as often, but we talk on the phone every Sunday. I think the reason we're still close is that we trust each other completely and we don't need to pretend. Even after months without seeing each other, we can pick up the conversation exactly where we stopped.

Part 3: Two-way discussion

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

Part 3 (celebrity culture) — the examiner asks four related questions. Q1. Why do you think people are so interested in the lives of celebrities? Q2. Do you think celebrities have too much influence over public opinion? Q3. Should celebrities be entitled to more privacy than they currently have? Q4. How might celebrity culture change with the growth of social media?
Recorded on your device only — play it back and compare with the model answer.
Show sample answer
Model answer: 1. It's partly entertainment and escapism, and partly a kind of aspiration, since people enjoy imagining a more glamorous lifestyle, even while knowing most of what's shown is carefully curated. 2. In some cases, yes, particularly when followers treat a celebrity's casual opinion as expert advice on topics like health or politics, where they may have no genuine relevant knowledge. 3. I think so, especially regarding family members who never chose public attention, though celebrities themselves have partly accepted reduced privacy as part of a public career. 4. I expect ordinary social media influencers to increasingly rival traditional celebrities in influence, since audiences often find them more relatable than distant, heavily managed public figures.

Writing Task 1

A tour company cancelled a day excursion you had booked during your holiday, with very little notice and no clear explanation. Write a letter to the tour company. In your letter: explain what happened, describe how it affected your holiday plans, and say what you would like them to do. Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write your own address. Begin your letter 'Dear Sir or Madam,'

Writing Task 2

Some people believe that schools should teach financial literacy, such as budgeting and saving, as a compulsory subject, while others think this is the responsibility of parents. 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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