IELTS General Training practice: the letter task and what else differs

General Training gets described as the easier IELTS, and that reputation costs people bands. The texts are more everyday, yes. But GT is mostly taken for migration, and migration requirements are frequently higher than university ones: CLB 9 for competitive Canadian Express Entry means Listening 8.0 and 7.0 in the other three, which is a harder target than most undergraduate courses set.

Here is what actually differs, and where GT candidates lose marks.

What is identical to Academic

Listening and Speaking are exactly the same test: same format, same timing, same marking, same difficulty. That is half the exam, and everything you practise for those two skills applies regardless of module. Task 2 is also an essay of at least 250 words marked on the same four criteria, though GT prompts tend to be a little more everyday and less abstract.

General Training Reading: more texts, less time each

• Section 1: two or three short everyday texts, such as notices, advertisements or timetables.
• Section 2: two workplace texts, such as job descriptions, contracts or staff handbooks.
• Section 3: one longer general-interest passage, closest in style to Academic Reading.
• Still 40 questions in 60 minutes, but spread across more, shorter texts, which means more transitions and more chances to lose your place.
• The question types are the same as Academic. The texts are the difference, and section 3 is where most of the difficulty sits.

The GT Reading trap: reading too carefully

Section 1 texts look easy, so candidates read them properly, comfortably, at normal speed. That is how you arrive at section 3 with fifteen minutes left.

Sections 1 and 2 should be fast: scan for the answer, take it, move. Budget about 15 minutes for section 1, 20 for section 2 and 25 for section 3. The marks are worth the same everywhere, but the time cost per mark rises steeply, so bank time early.

Task 1: the letter, and why it catches people out

GT Task 1 asks for a letter of at least 150 words responding to a situation, with three bullet points you must cover. It looks trivially easy compared with describing a chart, and it is where a lot of GT Writing bands quietly cap.

Two things do the damage. First, missing a bullet, which caps Task Achievement immediately no matter how well written the rest is. Second, register: getting formal, semi-formal and informal wrong. A complaint to a company written in the tone of a message to a friend is a serious mismatch, and examiners mark it as one.

Getting register right

• Formal (to someone you do not know, by role: a manager, a council, a company): "Dear Sir or Madam" or "Dear Mr Smith", no contractions, no phrasal verbs where a formal alternative exists, close with "Yours faithfully" for Sir/Madam and "Yours sincerely" for a name.
• Semi-formal (to someone you know in a formal relationship: a landlord, a colleague, a course tutor): "Dear Mr Smith", polite but warmer, contractions acceptable sparingly.
• Informal (to a friend or family member): "Dear Anna" or "Hi Anna", contractions, phrasal verbs, personal comments, close with "Best wishes" or "Take care".
• Read the prompt for who the recipient is before you write a word. It is stated, and it decides everything about the letter.
• Cover all three bullets, in order, roughly one short paragraph each. Then a closing line. That structure is worth memorising because it makes missing a bullet almost impossible.

A GT letter template you can adapt

Opening line stating your purpose ("I am writing to complain about…" / "I'm writing to let you know that…"). Paragraph per bullet, in the order given. Closing line stating what you want to happen or a friendly sign-off. Correct sign-off for the register.

Around 170 to 190 words is the sweet spot: comfortably over the 150 minimum without eating the 40 minutes Task 2 needs. And Task 2 is worth twice as much, so never let the letter overrun.

• Full IELTS letter writing guide with model letters

Where to spend a GT preparation

Weight it: Listening and Speaking are half your band and identical to Academic, so do not neglect them because the module says General. If you are chasing a per-skill migration requirement, work out which single skill is furthest below your threshold and put most of your time there. For Canadian Express Entry candidates that is very often Listening, where CLB 9 needs 8.0.

For Writing, split two thirds to Task 2 and one third to letters, and within letters, practise all three registers rather than only formal complaints.

Practise the General Training module specifically

On IELTSVega you can set your module to General Training and practise GT Reading sections and Task 1 letters across all three registers, with instant AI band scores on Writing against Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy, plus full timed GT mock tests so your pacing is built on the right paper.