Guide · On the day
Computer-delivered IELTS tips
Last checked 2 October 2026
Most IELTS advice is advice about English. This is not. These are the fourteen things about the screen itself that decide whether the English you already have turns into marks.
Computer-delivered IELTS tips — on the @ieltscomputer channel. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
The short answer
Learn the interface before test day, because on the day you will not have time to. Nothing on the screen is difficult — but every second spent working out where the volume control is, or how to highlight, is a second not spent on the question. Sit one full test on a screen that behaves like the real one and most of this list stops being advice and starts being reflex.
Before you start
1. Set the font size and colour first
The British Council describes an adjustable font size and colour on the computer-delivered screen. Thirty seconds at the start is nothing; forty minutes of squinting at Reading is a lot. Do it before the clock matters.
2. Find the volume control before the audio starts
You control the volume yourself in Listening. Set it during the instructions, not during Part 1.
3. Know where the timer is, and then mostly ignore it
There is a timer on screen. Decide in advance when you will actually look at it — at the end of each Reading passage, say — rather than letting it pull your eyes every twenty seconds.
Listening
4. The recording plays once. Plan for that, not around it
“You will hear the recordings once only” is the official wording, and it is the whole character of the section. If your practice lets you pause or replay, it is rehearsing a test that does not exist.
5. Type the answer, then look up again immediately
Your typed answer is your answer — there is no answer sheet to transfer it to later. The danger is staying in the box too long and missing the next question. Type, glance at the next gap, back to listening.
6. Read ahead during the pauses
The time between parts is reading time, not resting time. Read the next set of gaps and decide what kind of word each one needs — a number, a name, a plural, a day.
7. Spelling is marked, and nothing checks it
IDP is blunt about this: words with spelling errors in Listening and Reading are marked as incorrect. There is no spell-check on the screen. A word you heard perfectly and typed badly scores nothing, which is why the Spelling trainer exists.
8. Two minutes at the end, not ten
The paper test gives ten minutes to copy answers onto the answer sheet. The computer version gives two to check. Spend them on the gaps you flagged, not on re-reading everything.
Reading
9. Drag the divider
The passage sits beside the questions with a divider between them. Move it. A wider passage pane for a dense text and a wider question pane for a long matching task is a free improvement that most people never make.
10. Highlight by selecting, then right-clicking
That is how the British Council describes it. It replaces underlining with a pencil and it is worth doing deliberately: highlight the thing the question is asking about before you go hunting for it in the passage.
11. Use the notes panel, and remember it hides
Notes appear in a separate panel you can hide or show. It is useful for a running list of names in a matching task — and it is also screen space, so hide it when the passage needs the room.
12. Sixty minutes, forty questions, no transfer time
Reading is 60 minutes for 40 questions, one mark each. On paper there is no extra time at the end either — but on the computer there is also nothing to copy, so the whole hour is reading and answering. Budget about twenty minutes a passage and move on when the budget is gone.
Writing
13. Watch the word counter, do not trust your instinct
Task 1 asks for at least 150 words in about 20 minutes and Task 2 for at least 250 in about 40. The screen counts for you, which removes the single most common paper-test anxiety — so use the counter to confirm you are past the minimum and then stop looking at it.
14. Editing is free, so plan less and revise more
On paper, moving a paragraph means rewriting it. On a keyboard it costs nothing. That changes the sensible strategy: get a full answer down, then spend the last five minutes fixing it. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 towards the Writing score, so if time runs short, it is Task 1 that gets the shorter treatment — never the other way round.
Two smaller things nobody mentions
- The scratch paper is not marked. IDP says notes made on it are not part of the evaluation. Use it freely and do not make it tidy.
- Capitalisation. Write proper nouns the way they are normally written — a day, a month, a name, a street — and the question never comes up.
The one that matters more than the other fourteen
Do a full-length test on a screen that works like the real one, timed, without pausing. Not because the English is different, but because the gap between people who have done that and people who have not shows up in the first ten minutes of Listening — and it has nothing to do with how good their English is.
Practise it here
Reading about the screen only gets you so far. These run in the computer-delivered interface, in your browser:
- The free demo — the Reading screen, six questions, no account
- IELTS Listening tests — typed answers, audio that does not rewind
- IELTS Reading tests — split screen, highlighting, a draggable divider
- IELTS Writing tests — the editor and the live word count
Questions people ask
Can I highlight text on the computer-delivered IELTS?
Yes. You select the text and right-click to highlight it, and there is a separate notes panel you can show or hide. It replaces underlining and writing in the margin.
Is there a spell-check in the computer test?
No. There is an automatic word counter in Writing, but nothing checks spelling, and a misspelt Listening or Reading answer is marked incorrect.
How much time do I get to check my Listening answers?
Two minutes on the computer-delivered test. The ten minutes you may have read about are the paper test's transfer time, and they do not exist on a computer because there is nothing to transfer.
Can I change the font size?
Yes. Font size and colour are adjustable on the computer-delivered screen. Set them before the test starts rather than part way through a passage.
Does the computer test let me go back to a question?
Yes, you can navigate back and forth between questions in a section, the same way you would flip pages in a booklet.
Is typing speed a problem?
Only if it is slow enough to cost you Listening answers while the recording moves on. It is worth finding that out in practice rather than on the day.
The on-screen tools — highlighting by selecting text and right-clicking, the notes panel that can be hidden or shown, adjustable font size and colour, the volume control, the on-screen timer, navigating back and forth, and the automatic word counter with no spell-check — are as described by the British Council, IELTS on computer — highlighting text, checked 2 October 2026. Two minutes to check on the computer against ten minutes to transfer on paper: British Council, IELTS on paper vs computer, checked 2 October 2026. “You will hear the recordings once only”, and the 4 parts / 40 questions / about 30 minutes: IELTS Listening format, checked 2 October 2026. Reading 60 minutes and 40 questions, one mark each: IELTS Academic Reading format, checked 2 October 2026. Task 1 at least 150 words in about 20 minutes, Task 2 at least 250 words in about 40, and Task 2 contributing twice as much to the Writing score: IELTS Academic Writing format, checked 2 October 2026. Spelling errors in Reading and Listening being marked incorrect: IDP — How to improve your spelling, checked 2 October 2026. The scratch paper not forming part of the evaluation: IDP, Is there a difference between the paper and computer IELTS exams?, checked 2 October 2026. Nothing here is published guidance about capitalisation — no official page checked on that date states a rule either way, so the advice is only to write proper nouns normally. IELTS Computer is not affiliated with IDP, British Council or Cambridge.
Other guides
- IELTS on computer vs on paper — The same test, two rooms. What actually changes, what does not, and the one difference that catches people out.
- IELTS on computer with Writing on Paper — Type Listening and Reading, handwrite the essay. Who it is for, where it exists, and the one group it is not available to.
- IELTS in India is on computer now — Paper is gone, so the question is no longer which format — it is what the screen changes, and what it gives you back.
- IELTS for Express Entry: what CLB 9 needs — Four IELTS scores, and the arithmetic of why the step from CLB 7 to CLB 9 is worth up to 106 points.