IELTS Goes Digital in India: Major Changes Explained for Candidates

This standardised examination is one of the first choices of Indian candidates among the rest avilable.

Recently, IDP Education announced that the IELTS paper based test will be terminated according to the country.

Thus, applicants planning to take the IELTS exam will have to opt for computer-based exams from September 2026.

The organisation stated that the move aims to offer flexibility and smoother testing experience for applicants, while maintaining the same evaluation benchmarks followed in the paper based examination.

The candidates who want to take the paper based test will have 3 opportunities before the format is completely discontinued.

The rest of the paper based IELTs exams in India are scheduled for July 25, August 6, and August 22, 2026. After these dates, all the IELTS exams will only be conducted on a computer.

Although the mole is changing, the examination itself will remain the same, as IDP Education mentioned the test format, question types, level of difficulty, scoring pattern and overall duration will remain unchanged.

Further, the examination will continue to last for 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Candidates will finish, Listening, Reading, Writing sections on a computer, while the speaking tests will be conducted face-to-face with a certified IELTS examiner.

In the Listening section, candidates will use headphones, which will provide clear audio during the test. In the Writing section, they can type their answers directly on the computer screen. It will also be easy to edit and make changes to their answers.

The organisation also mentioned there will be no difference in how candidates are assessed or how theri scores are calculated.

IELTS is one of the most widely accepted English language tests in the world. Over 11,000 organizations in over 140 countries accept it. People take the IELTS test to get admission to universities, apply for visas, immigrate to other countries, or register for professional jobs.