What does ukvi refer to?

ukvi refers to the IELTS test used for UK visas and immigration.

A stands for Academic, which means academic examination. It is suitable for studying abroad to apply for undergraduate, graduate and above degrees, or to obtain professional qualifications; G stands for General Training, which is a training examination. Suitable for immigration applications from English-speaking countries (such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom), or applications for training and non-diploma courses.

Both Category A and Category G IELTS are divided into four components: listening, speaking, reading and writing, and the listening and speaking question types are exactly the same. Their main difference is in reading and writing. Because Category A exams are for international students, the test questions focus more on academic content, and the difficulty of the questions is much higher than Category G exams.

Features:

UKVI IELTS is exactly the same as the ordinary IELTS in terms of question types, content, and scoring standards, but the registration fee is higher than the ordinary IELTS. In fact, the UKVI IELTS test is mainly set up to meet the special examination requirements stipulated by the British Visa and Immigration Service.

Students who want to directly study undergraduate, master's and doctoral degree programs in the UK can take the general IELTS Category A as long as the school does not require it. But if you have friends who want to study non-degree courses, such as preparatory courses, language classes, freshman diploma courses, etc., you will need to take UKVI IELTS.