Most people now sit IELTS on a computer. The guidance online largely still assumes paper, which means candidates arrive expecting an answer sheet and transfer time that no longer exist.
Here is what actually differs, and what does not.
What does not change
| The questions | Identical question types and difficulty |
| The marking | Same criteria, same band descriptors |
| The band scale | Same raw-score conversion |
| Speaking | Face to face with an examiner in both |
| Your certificate | Does not state which format you took |
There is no scoring advantage either way. Choose on how you work, not on which you think is marked more kindly.
Reading and Listening: how you answer
On paper you write. On screen you click, tick, drag or type — which removes several ways of losing a mark and adds one or two new ones.
| Question type | On the computer |
|---|---|
| True/False/Not Given, Yes/No/Not Given | Click the option |
| Multiple choice, one answer | Click the option |
| Multiple choice, two answers | Tick two checkboxes |
| Matching information, matching features | Click the box in an on-screen table |
| Gap fill, summary completion | Type into the field, or drag a word in |
This kills a whole class of paper error. You cannot write TRUE where the task wanted YES, because only YES, NO and NOT GIVEN are on screen. You cannot write A and C and invalidate a correct answer, because you are ticking boxes. And there is no handwriting to be illegible.
The tools you get on screen
Highlighting. Select text, right-click, highlight. Available in Reading and Listening, not in Writing or Speaking. Multiple colours if you want to separate main ideas from detail.
Notes. Right-click also offers a note. Most experienced teachers advise against it — typing notes under time pressure costs more than it returns.
Mark for review. A flag button that lets you jump back to a question later. This is genuinely useful on matching information, where the advice is to move on quickly rather than get stuck.
Copy and paste. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V are enabled. On gap-fill questions you can copy the word straight from the passage into the answer box, which makes a spelling mistake impossible on an answer you found correctly. Given that one wrong letter voids the answer, this is the biggest single advantage of the computer format.
A countdown timer at the top of the screen, which turns red at ten minutes and again at five.
Ctrl+F does not work
Worth knowing before you rely on it. The browser search function is disabled during the exam, so you still find information by reading. Anyone planning to search the passage for a keyword should plan differently.
The timing difference that catches people
This is the one that changes how you should behave in the room.
Listening on paper: you write answers on the question paper while listening, then get 10 minutes at the end to copy them onto the answer sheet.
Listening on computer: you type answers straight into the boxes as you listen, then get 2 minutes at the end to review.
Two minutes is enough to fix a typo or fill a blank you flagged. It is not enough to reconstruct an answer you never attempted. So on the computer version, guessing in the moment matters more — put something down and move on, because there is no ten-minute grace period at the end to think it through.
Reading has no transfer time in either format. Sixty minutes, and your answers must be final within it. Paper candidates who note answers in the booklet intending to transfer them at the end regularly run out of time.
Writing: the live word count
The computer version shows a running word count. That removes a genuine source of anxiety, because the minimums are enforced strictly — under 150 words on Task 1 or 250 on Task 2 is penalised directly under Task Achievement or Task Response.
On paper you have to estimate, usually by counting words in an average line and multiplying by the number of lines.
Two other things change when you type:
Editing is free. Restructuring a paragraph on paper means crossing out and squeezing text into a margin. On screen you just rewrite it. This makes planning slightly less critical and revision considerably easier.
There is no spellcheck. No autocorrect either. Typing errors are still errors, and they count against Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range in Writing, and simply mark the answer wrong in Listening and Reading.
If your typing is slow or inaccurate, that is a real reason to prefer paper — it is the one place the format genuinely favours some candidates over others.
Speaking is identical
Face to face with a real examiner in both formats, in the same room, with the same three parts and the same timings.
You still get paper and pencil for your one minute of Part 2 preparation. Nothing about the computer format touches Speaking.
Which should you choose?
Computer suits you if you type faster than you write, your handwriting is untidy, you want the word counter, or you value being able to paste answers into gap-fills.
Paper suits you if you annotate heavily as you read, you find reading long passages on screen tiring, or your typing is slow enough that Writing would become a race against the keyboard rather than the task.
Results come faster on the computer version, typically in a few days rather than around two weeks — worth weighing if you have a deadline.
Practise in the format you will sit. Most of the difference is mechanical, and mechanical differences are exactly the kind you do not want to meet for the first time on test day.
Practise it
If you are sitting the computer version, do at least a few full papers on a screen rather than on printouts. Reading on screen and scrolling within a passage genuinely feels different, and the habit of highlighting with a right-click is worth having before the clock starts.
You can practise IELTS on screen with AI band feedback on IELTS Studio, which marks against all four criteria for Writing and shows the passage evidence for Reading answers.
Related: how your Listening and Reading answers become a band score covers the raw score conversion, summary completion covers the gap-fill rules where copy and paste helps most, and Academic vs General Training covers the other choice you have to make.
Frequently asked questions
- Is computer-delivered IELTS easier than paper?
- Neither is easier. Both use the same questions, the same difficulty, the same marking criteria and the same band scale, and your Test Report Form does not say which one you took.
- How much time do you get at the end of IELTS Listening on computer?
- Two minutes to review your answers. On paper you get 10 minutes, but that is transfer time for copying answers onto the answer sheet, not extra thinking time.
- Can you copy and paste in computer-delivered IELTS?
- Yes. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V work, so you can paste words straight from the passage into gap-fill answers and eliminate spelling errors. Ctrl+F is disabled, so you cannot search the text.
- Is there a word counter in computer-delivered IELTS Writing?
- Yes, a live word count appears on screen in the Writing module. On paper you have to estimate from the number of lines you have written.
- Is the Speaking test different on the computer version?
- No. Speaking is face to face with a real examiner in both formats, and you still get paper and pencil for your Part 2 notes.
- Is there a spellcheck on computer-delivered IELTS?
- No. There is no spellcheck and no autocorrect, and a misspelled answer is still marked wrong in Listening and Reading.