It is encouraging to see that the researchers are not at all naïve about the practical considerations involved
in test production and they readily acknowledge the challenges associated with modifying the IELTS test
in order to improve construct representation along the lines they propose. We clearly need to recognise
the limits to which a test such as IELTS can (or should be expected to) simulate language use in the
target use situation in its entirety. The testing of reading in IELTS is premised upon a generalist construct
of academic reading and the researchers are right to highlight the inevitable challenge that disciplinary
variation in reading requirements at university raises for a test such as IELTS. Furthermore, as previously
mentioned, IELTS is designed principally to test readiness to enter the world of university-level study
in the English language and does not assume test takers have already mastered the high-level academic
literacy skills they are likely to require for their future studies. Such skills may well need to be developed
during their studies, perhaps even during the early months of their first year, and within a specific
disciplinary context which enjoys its own specialist discourse and approach to literacy.