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1995 revision of IELTS
In keeping with the commitment of the IELTS partners to respond to developments in applied linguistics, measurement theory and teaching practice, further modifications to the test were implemented in April 1995. In addition to a number of modifications to improve security and administration, there were three areas of significant change:The field-specific Reading and Writing Modules A, B and C were replaced with ONE Academic Reading Module and ONE Academic Writing Module. Details of the research behind this change to the test design can be found in Clapham (1996) who concluded that the different subject modules did not appear justified in terms of accessibility to specialists. In addition, the thematic link between the reading and writing activities was also removed to avoid confusing the assessment of reading ability with that of writing ability.
General Training Reading and Writing Modules were brought into line with the Academic Reading and Writing Modules in terms of timing allocation, length of written responses and reporting of scores. The difference between the Academic and General Training Modules is in terms of the content, context and purpose for testing rather than the scales of ability.
Measures were introduced to gather data on test performance and candidate background so that issues of fairness relating to test use and users could be more effectively monitored.
A brief summary of the 1995 revision of IELTS can be found in Charge and Taylor (1997).