IELTS Life Skill Test

Did you hear about IELTS life skill test? Who is the test for? The test is different from IELTS General test or Academic test?  Don’t worry we give u all the answers. People who want to UK Visas and Immigration (UKV1) need to show their speaking and listening ability for fulfill the application requirement. The test is specially designed for people going to apply for following three types of visas:

• “Family of a settled Person” People who want to want live with spouse or partner or any relative living permanently in the UK.  

• “Indefinite Leave to Remain” those who are already settled and living in UK and want to make UK as their permanent residence.

• “Citizenship Visa” people who are interested to obtain UK Citizenship.

I hope you got the answer of first two questions. Now let’s talk about the test format to know about the difference between regular IELTS and IELTS life Skills test.  There are two CEFR (Common European Framework) levels of IELTS Life Skills test according type of visas.  In both type of test levels Applicant listening and speaking ability is evaluated.

• CEFR Level A1- Speaking and Listening Test. The test is designed for the people who want to obtain “Family of settle Person’ Visa.  The duration of test is 16-18 minutes.

• CEFR Level B1- who want to Get UK Citizenship or want to apply for indefinite leave to remain visa category. The duration of test is 22 minutes.

Before going for test, make sure that you are familiar with test levels and format of test. Each level of test has different types of tasks in different sections. You are allowed to make notes during the test but remember you will not get any marks on them. The speaking test will be taken in pairs and you need plenty of practice for speaking on everyday topics. The speaking test is a recorded test so you don’t need to be nervous. The examiner may interrupt during speaking so don’t worry about timing as each test has standardized terms of timing. In the next post I will describe the standardized timings of different parts and tips to get success in the test.