Four sections
Students have 10 mins at the end of the test to transfer their answers onto an answer sheet. The recording is heard ONCE.
Three sections
At least one passage contains arguments and/or views. This is usually Section 3.
Two compulsory tasks:
Candidates are advised to spend 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2, which is worth twice as many marks as Task 1.
All candidates who take the test receive an Overall Band Score between 1 and 9 that is an average of the four scores for each part of the test.
(Source: Cambridge English Complete IELTS – Official Cambridge preparation materials for IELTS)
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