IELTS Reading · Academic · Computer-delivered

IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 4: The History of Cartography, Microplastics in the Ocean, The Neuroscience of Creativity

This is IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 4 on the computer-delivered screen, with 3 passages: The History of Cartography, Microplastics in the Ocean, The Neuroscience of Creativity. You can start it free in your browser — no download.

• 60 minutes
• 40 questions
• Reading passages on screen

What is in this test

• Passage 1

  The History of Cartography

  How maps changed from rough sketches of trade routes into precise instruments, and what each step cost in time and money.

• Passage 2

  Microplastics in the Ocean

  Where the tiny plastic fragments in seawater come from, how they enter the food chain, and how hard they are to measure.

• Passage 3

  The Neuroscience of Creativity

  What brain scans show while people solve open-ended problems, and why 'creative' turns out to be hard to locate in one place.

Question types in this test

This test uses 7 of the Reading question types. Each one links to what it asks for and the mistakes that cost marks:

• True / False / Not Given
• Sentence completion
• Matching headings
• Note completion
• Matching features
• Multiple choice (one answer)
• Summary completion

Timing and marking

You get 60 minutes for all 40 questions, and there is no extra time at the end to copy answers across — on screen, what you type is already your answer.

There are 40 questions, one mark each, so your raw score is out of 40. The results screen shows which questions you got right, grouped by question type, so you can see where the marks went.

What is different on a computer

The passage sits on one side and the questions on the other, with a divider you can drag. You select text and highlight it instead of underlining with a pencil, and you can search the passage. Practising that is the point of this site.