IELTS - International English Language Testing System, has two modules : Academic ( for student's who seek to pursue higher education outside their country) and General ( people looking for PR or jobs abroad).

Both, the test evaluates candidate's skills in 4 major sections : Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. There is slight difference in both patterns, but not much. 

Two of the bodies that conducts the IELTS exam is British Council and IDP. There are two modes to take this test : Paper-based and computer-based.

A better score is considered to be Band 7 with no section less than 6 for University admission ( Academic) and CLB-8 ( for general).

 

Listening(L) is for 40 minutes which has 4 sections with 10 questions each cumulatively 40 questions in total. Reading ( R) has 3 passages with 40 questions which need to be completed in duration of 1 hour. Writing ( W) has two task to be completed in ( 20 mins and 40 mins respectively). Total time : 2 hours 40 minutes.

 

Speaking ( S) has 3 sections and is often done in not more than 20 minutes.

LRW happens to be on one day, while Speaking happens + / - 2 days ( before or after LRW).

 

For , test place, availability and registering, you can always logon to websites of IDP or British council.

 

Looking forward to help you all. best luck !!!