The test day: what happens at the centre, from arrival to Speaking
You know what happens at the test centre, in what order, and which rules can stop you taking the test.
Two rules can end your test before it starts. Your booking confirmation tells you when to arrive, and if you arrive late, you will not be allowed to take the test. The same happens if you bring a different identity document from the one you booked with.
Both are in the test's terms and conditions, which you agree to when you book. We go through the day in order, with the rules that matter at each point.
Warm-up
What goes into the room?
You are about to go into the test room.
Which of these may you take in with you?
How it works
The day, in order
- 1Arrive on time
Your booking confirmation gives the time to arrive at the centre. Be there before it. If you are late, you cannot take the test.
- 2Show your identity document
It must be the one you booked with. Your photo is taken, and you take off any face covering for a moment. You may also be asked for a signature and a finger scan.
- 3Leave your belongings
Bags, phones, other devices, all watches and your own pens and pencils go into the belongings area, with the devices switched off. You may be scanned for devices at any time during the day.
- 4Take your seat
You have your identity document and your water with you, and nothing else. The centre gives you paper for notes and something to write with.
- 5Listening, Reading and Writing
The three papers come in that order, one after another, with no breaks between them.
- 6At the end
Leave everything from the test in the room, including any paper you made notes on. Stay in your seat until it has all been collected and you are told you can go.
Three papers, no breaks
- 30 min: Listening
Four parts and 40 questions, each recording heard once. You type each answer as you hear it, and have 2 minutes at the end to check.
- 60 min: Reading
Three sections and 40 questions. You type or click your answers on screen within the hour, and no time is added at the end.
- 60 min: Writing
Task 1 in about 20 minutes and Task 2 in about 40. The screen shows how many words you have typed.
Total: 150 min
On computer, and Writing on Paper
Since mid-2026, IELTS at a test centre is taken on computer. The paper-based test stopped on different dates in different countries.
In some countries you can choose Writing on Paper. Listening and Reading are still on computer, and the Writing tasks appear on screen. You are given a Writing answer sheet and a pen, and you write your answers by hand. The tasks, timing and marking are the same. The practical difference is that no screen counts your words.
The Speaking test
The Speaking test lasts 11 to 14 minutes. You talk face to face with an examiner, and the test is recorded. It can be on the same day as the other papers or on a different day, depending on the test centre. Check your confirmation for its day and time, and bring the same identity document.
For Part 2, the examiner gives you a pencil and paper for notes. Sometimes a second person sits in on the test. They are there to check the examiner's work.
Rules in the test room
Raise your hand to speak to the invigilator, the person in charge of the room. They will not explain any test question, so do not ask what a word means.
If you cannot hear the recording clearly, or something on your screen is not working, raise your hand and tell the invigilator at once.
Once the test has started, do not talk to other candidates, and do not lend or borrow anything.
No eating in the test room. Leave the room only with the invigilator's permission.
Using prepared notes of any kind is cheating, and so is copying another candidate. So is sharing the questions after the test, online or anywhere else. The rules call all of this malpractice, and it can cost you your result.
If you feel ill, or the way the test is run may affect how you do, tell the invigilator that day. Make any complaint as early as you can, at the centre before you leave if possible. ielts.org warns that a late complaint may be harder to investigate.
Watch me do one
Say my confirmation tells me to arrive by eight, and the centre is forty minutes away by train.
Late means no test, so I take a train that gets me there well before eight, with time for a delay.
The night before, I put the passport I booked with into my bag, with water in a clear bottle. I peel the label off the bottle.
I pack no pens or pencils, because the centre gives me something to write with. My watch stays at home. It would only go into the belongings area.
At the centre, my phone goes into the belongings area, switched off, before I go near the test room.
Practice with Elita7 questions
Seven situations from test days. Choose what happens, or what you should do.
A late train
Your train is delayed. You reach the centre ten minutes after the test has started.
What happens?
The wrong document
You booked the test with your passport. On the morning of the test you cannot find it, but you have your national identity card.
Can you take the test with the card?
Allowed in the room?
Decide where this goes on the day of the test.
A watch with hands and no screen, to keep track of the time
A word you do not know
In the Reading test, you do not know what one word in question 23 means.
What can you do?
Noise during Listening
Building work outside the centre made part of the Listening test hard to hear.
What should you do?
Your notes paper
After Writing, you want to take home the paper you planned your essay on, to show your teacher.
Can you?
Skipping Speaking
Your Speaking test is two days after the other papers. You think your Writing went badly, and you want to stay at home.
What happens if you do not go?
Words to keep
The person in charge of a test room. Raise your hand if you need to speak to the invigilator.
An official document that proves who you are, such as a passport. Bring the identity document you booked the test with.
The place where candidates leave bags, phones and watches during the test. My watch stayed in the belongings area all morning.
With no label on it. Take your water into the room in a clear, label-free bottle.
A person taking a test. Candidates may not talk to each other once the test has started.
Cheating, or anything else that breaks the rules that keep a test fair. Sharing the questions online after the test counts as malpractice.
Before you go
Arrive before the time on your confirmation, with the identity document you booked with.
Take into the room only your identity document and water in a clear bottle with no label. The centre gives you paper and something to write with.
Listening, Reading and Writing run with no breaks. Speaking may be on another day, and you must go to it to get a result.
Leave everything from the test in the room. If something went wrong, tell the invigilator and complain before you leave the centre.
Next: The last lesson of the course is about the rules inside the papers that cost marks: word limits, spelling, time to check, word counts and answering the question asked.