Hey Ankita,

Glad to know that you are interested in Studying Abroad with genetic Engineering as your specialization. IELTS is applicable for Genetic Engineering as well.

Firstly, IELTS is an exam which is applicable for any stream regardless of the subject. Exam like TOEFL and IELTS are both common exam taken for passing English LAnguage Profieciency.

IELTS , which means International English Language Testing System, Which is usually taken by those who wants to study or work where English is used as language of communication. It is basically a english Profeicency test . It uses a 9 band Scale to identify the profeciency level of a person ranging from one for non proficency to 9 for expert.

There are two types of IELTS Test -

• Academic - for those who want to pursue Higher Education or professional registration in English Speaking environment. They usually assesses whether the candidate is ready for education or training. It reflects the features of the academic language. Many Instituion, especially UK instituions prefer IELTS or TOEFL too.
• General Training - It is taken by those who want to pursue secondary education , work experience, or training programmes in an english environment. IT is also taken up if a person wants to emmigrate to Australia, Canada, NewZealand or UK. This test solely focuses on the survival skills required for social outreach and in work places.

Hoewever , even if the option varies, the areas of testing remains the same, but in the both test, the only variation will be regarding the content and subject in that particular area.

IELTS assesses a candidate based on 4 broader areas-

• listening  :  Here , there will be 4 recording by a native english speakers and the student must write answers to series of questions after listening to the audio.
• Reading : Here, the content between the two types of test varies, for academic, the text include descriptive to factual and discursive to analytical. it will be taken from books magazine etc appropriate for a person who wants to study in an university where as for General training , the texts will be based on the recent newspapers, magazines etc which you see in daily life.
• Writing : this again varies with academic and general training concept, Academic will include graphs tables etc interpretation of those and essays reegarding a point or arguments where as in general training, the situation would be given and based on that analysis writing will be done as well as essay for the topic in response to point of veiw or problem etc.
• Speaking : this is the last part , which is same for both the type, its to acess your spoken english, The person will be having the general talk at first and then the Pick and speak part where you need to prepare about topic on spot and you will be regarded with questions and lastly , discussion on that topic.

these are the main category for testing. So the IELTS is done to check your english profeicency and doesnt depend on the subject. You can take up any subject in your college/ university of interest and check which of the exams they prefer. SOme colleges presfer onlt TOEFL , which is again similar to IELTS and some prefer either of the two. Most of instituition in USA prefer one of the two IELTS or TOEFL along with GRE which includes many more other than the normal English profeciency tests.

So answer for your question as said before as well, IELTS is applicable for Genetic engineering as well.

Hope it helps, Good Luck.