IELTS
Tips and More
Colin Forsyth
The test that opens doors around the world.
This booklet provides an overview of the IELTS test and some tools and advice to help you prepare.
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1. The Day of the Exam
2. Tips for IELTS Writing Exam
3. Tips for IELTS Reading Exam
4. Tips for IELTS Listening Exam
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5. Tips for IELTS Speaking Exam
6. Linking words
Which test do you need?
IELTS nine-band scale
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Tips for your Listening Test
Tips for your Reading Test
Tips for your Writing Test
Tips for your Speaking Test
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How your skills are assesed
Speaking assessment criteria
Writing assessment criteria -Task 1
Writing assessment criteria -Task 2
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IELTS Preparation checklist
What to expect on test day
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How to complete the Sample speaking tests Listening answer sheet
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Receiving your results
Find a test near you
Notice to IELTS Candidates
CONTENTS
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IELTS The test that sets the standard.
The Day of the Exam The Night Before the Exam Date
Get enough sleep the night before the exam date to keep yourself fresh during your exam. Never stay up late before the exam date as this would make you feel dizzy and would affect your performance. Don’t think too much about the exam just convince yourself that you have a good preparation and you are going to achieve your target score. Relax and think positively.
The morning of the exam day
Take a bath and feel fresh. Have a light meal that you usually take. Dress comfortably. You are not going for an interview for a job so you should wear the dress you like and feel comfortable. Make sure that you already know where the exam place is. If you are taking the exam in a city which is not known to you, make sure you already know how to reach your test center. Make sure you have taken your ID card or Passport, pens, pencils, erasers, sharpners and all other necessary documents you will need for the exam. You must not bring into the test room the following items: • Correction fluid and highlighters. • Mobile phones, calculator and pagers: (they must be switched off and kept outside the exam room) • Large bags and personal belongins
During the test
Tell the supervisor if you think you have not been given the right question paper, or if the question paper is incomplete or illegible. You may not lend anything to, or borrow anything from, another candidate.
Advice and assistance during the test:
Notify the test invigilator immediately if test day conditions in any way impede your performance. You cannot ask for, and you will not be given, any explanation of the questions.
A Good Start
If you start to panic in the examination hall, it will affect your IELTS score. Learn to relax. Why should you panic? You are prepared well. Take several slow breaths, letting your shoulders drop in a relaxed manner as you exhale.
Concentrate on Questions
Do not talk or think about anything in particular. Look at the questions and try to answer it. If you cannot answer a question, don’t waste time. Simply go to the next question. Do not think about your situation, the test in general, your score, or your future. If you do, force yourself to return to the question.
Do not Cheat
Your attitude will affect your performance in the examination hall. You must develop patterns of positive thinking. To help in developing a positive attitude, always remember you are prepared well and you are going to do better. Never ever think to cheat.
Other Tips
• IELTS does not penalize you for wrong answers, so attempt all questions. • There are no breaks between the different test sections and it is not advisable to waste time in the middle of the test. Hence, visiting the toilet before entering the examination hall is a wise thing to do. • Check all the documents that you need to carry for the exam before leaving for the test. This includes: original and valid passport or national id, letter containing your roll number and test venue and fee receipt. • You can use only pencils for listening and reading sections. So, do not forget to take sharpened pencils, a pencil sharpener and a good eraser along with you. Be aware of the time limit that you can spend on each question.
ns some tensio r, e b m e m e R ept nd good. Acc are normal a ctively. It will ru st n co it se it. U But u to study. motivate yo nic or worry. Pa do not panic atr ss of concen lo se u ca ill w ce. r performan tion and poo
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Tips for IELTS Writing Exam The process of writing both tasks (Task 1 & 2) consists of three main l stages:
• Pre-writing • Writing and • Revision. • In the pre-writing stage, you should: • Understanding the task. • Outline/ plan the general framework of your essay. • Brainstorm/ generate as many ideas as possible. • Organize and classify the ideas generated in the previous stage.
In the post-writing stage, remember the following:
• All your sentences have subjects and verbs. • All your sentences start with a capital letter and finish in a full-stop. • Long sentences should be avoided in order not to lose control of them. If they are long, divide/ break them down into two. • Your answer should be divided into paragraphs. • Each paragraph is about one central idea, which is developed by things like quotations, examples & details. • Transition words should also be used for more cohesion. • Do not use contractions. Write full forms. • All your sentences should make sense. Simply imagine yourself as the reader. • For the introduction & conclusion of academic task 1, make sure you write an overview/ general sentence about the whole chart. • For the introduction & conclusion of Task 2, make sure you state your position/opinion about the topic. • In order to make sure that you give the proper time to each task, start with task 2 rather than task 1. • Use brackets for categories mentioned in charts and graphs.
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Tips for IELTS Reading Exam • Read faster by reading words in groups/ chunks rather than word by word. • Do not give more than one answer in a gap. Otherwise, it will be marked as wrong. • Before going immediately to the question, familiarize yourself with the passage by examining: the title, headings, pictures and the first few lines of each paragraph. This will help you to “grasp the overall idea of the passage” and to “find/ locate answers easily”. • Use the skill of ‘scanning’ the text looking for key words. Then read around the keyword to find the answer. In other words, use the keyword in a question in order to find the answer. If there is no keyword in the question, you can read the first two sentences of each paragraph to know if it might include the answer. • In filling gaps questions, your knowledge of grammar can be useful so be accurate using grammar. A little spelling or grammatical mistake can reduce your band score. • Do not waste time reading, enjoying, and completely understanding the passage. You can return to the passage for each question. That is why there is no need to understand it completely. • You are advised to skip time-consuming questions and get back to them later in order not to miss the easier questions. An example is (all the following are true/ mentioned in the passage EXCEPT …). Such a question is timeconsuming because you need to check that all the other
choices exist in the passage in order to identify the choice that is not mentioned. • If you are unsure of the spelling of a word, write an approximation of the way the answer sounds. Sometimes you can copy it from the exam booklet itself. • Do NOT spend too much time on a single question in order not to miss the easier questions. • In the question that asks you to match headings to paragraphs, read a paragraph and then choose the most suitable heading. • Be careful about what the question asks you to do. Do not confuse (TRUE/ FALSE/ NOT GIVEN) with (YES/ NO/ NOT GIVEN) questions. So, if you put (TRUE) while you are supposed to answer with (YES), you lose the mark. • It is extremely important to pace yourself so that you do not run out of time without answering all the questions. Thus, each passage has almost 20 minutes including the time for transferring your answers to the answer sheet. • When you read the first sentence of a paragraph, you have a general idea about what it is about. As you read the questions, try to determine which paragraph will have the answer. It will save time if you can jump straight to the paragraph, so try to remember what you learned from the first sentences. For example, if the first paragraph is about poets; the second is about poetry, and a question asks about poetry; where will the answer be? It will be in the second paragraph of course.
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Tips for IELTS Listening Exam • Do not give more than one answer in a gap. Otherwise, it will be marked as a wrong answer. In IELTS Listening fill in the gaps type questions, you are expected to write a single answer even if more than one answers are correct. • If you are unsure of the spelling of a word, write an approximation of the way the answer sounds. Sometimes you can copy it from the exam booklet itself. It’s always a wise idea to look at the question paper to find the word to be sure about the spelling. • Listen to the instructions because they tell you which questions you should read before listening and answer while listening. If you do not read the instruction, you might fall in a trap to answer a question incorrectly. • In order to stay focused, try to listen ‘actively’, i.e. predict what you are going to listen and what you need to listed from the questions. Most of the mistakes are made by the candidates because of the lack of focus. If you find yourself distracted from the listening, put your attention back immediately. • In labeling questions, following both the questions and the chart might be confusing. You just need to follow the number or the letter logically in order not to be lost or confused. • Do not use the time between sections to transfer your answers because there will be 10 minutes at the end to transfer them. • Listen in chunks. It is not necessary to understand every single word to be able to answer the questions. • Practice listening through the media like watching the BBC. This is important not only to develop your listening skill but also to develop your language in general. • In gap-filling questions, be aware that some of the answers may come quickly one after the other. • Check that your answers are given in grammatically correct English. For example, if there is the article ‘a’ before the gap, it means that you have to supply the answer in singular form. If not, it means that the answer will be either plural or an uncountable noun.
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In order to stay focused, try to listen ‘actively’, i.e. predict what you are going to listen and what you need to listed from the questions. Most of the mistakes are made by the candidates because of the lack of focus.
• In multiple-choice questions, before the passage is played, or as you listen, circle the topic of each question in order to stay focused. • Pay attention to capital letters like names of people, months, places (hotels, cities, countries, etc.) • In almost every IELTS listening test, you have to write dates at least once. The simplest way to write a date is to write the number and the month as in (15 July). • If you miss something, do not worry. Otherwise, you will miss other things. • Always write numbers as figures rather than letters in order to save time and to avoid spelling mistakes. • While listening and answering, it is not necessary to write the words in full. This will help you save time to focus on answering the other questions. Your exam booklet will not be marked. • In labeling questions, following both the question and the chart might be confusing. You just need to follow the number or the letter logically in order not to be lost or confused.
Tips for IELTS Listening Exam • When writing down letters, do not confuse them such as (k & q), (j & g), etc. • If you see a complicated question, spend the time given to look at questions in order to examine it carefully. • Make sure that you include the suitable units if not included in the answer sheet. Examples of units are like cm, $, am, pm, etc. If you need to write one of the letters that have similar forms in both capital and small cases (like k and K, c and C), make sure that they are big enough, etc. • A common mistake is confusing 80 with 90, 18th with 19th, etc. • While listening and following on the exam sheet, you need to be patient and not to hurry things up writing down the first possible answer you hear. Often the speaker changes his or her mind and makes a correction before giving the
answer that you need or someone else corrects him/her. • Capitalize the names of sections/departments related to institutions like (Computer Lab, Students’ Toilet, Staff Room, etc.) • The example done at the beginning of each IELTS listening question can be useful as an example of how to write the rest of the answers like whether to capitalise or not. • When the speaker is about to say a number or the spelling of a proper noun, get ready to listen carefully and write quickly. • In both reading and listening, you should consider the following when transferring answers into the answer sheet “Spelling”, “Grammar” & “Transferring the answers to their correct places”.
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Tips for IELTS Speaking Exam • It is important that you are relaxed when taking this test. It is understandable that you will be under considerable tension created by the examination situation. Nevertheless, take a deep breath, and try to look self-assured. The examiner is trying to assess your language communication capabilities. He/she will not be able to assess you unless you speak up. The test is designed to give you ample chance to answer a variety of questions. It does not matter if all the things that you say are not true. • Answer in complete sentences. Keep talking until the examiner interrupts you or goes to the next question. Start speaking within the time it takes one to count to 5. If you need time to think say something like “That’s an interesting question.” or just repeat the question in a form like “You’d like me to tell you about (...topic...).” • It is important that you relax and speak as confidently as you can. Candidates who are difficult to draw into the conversation may not achieve their potential band score simply because they haven’t been able to demonstrate the level of language they are capable of producing. • Questions are in the form of yes/no questions, but they are not. You always need to expand by giving details, justifications, and examples. • Prepare several stories that can be fitted into different questions. • Try to give examples from things you are familiar with and easy for you to talk about in English • The speaking section is not a test of your general knowledge; rather, it is a test of your English. That is why do not care about getting the right ideas because this might affect your fluency. • The more information you give about a topic, the easier it will be for the examiner to hold a conversation, and the more impressed he or she will be with your fluency Therefore, avoid one word answers such as ‘yes’/ ‘no’ .
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Linking words While taking IELTS test, many non-native English speakers do not properly join two sentences. The proper use of connectives mentioned below will be helpful. Familiarity with these words would be useful in all IELTS test modules. Common linking words indicating: Addition: in addition, and, similarly, likewise, as well as, besides, furthermore, also, moreover, and, then, too, not only ... but, even besides, this/ that etc. Sequence: first(ly), initially, second(ly), to begin with, then, next, earlier/later, after this/that, following this/ that, after wards etc. Consequence: as a result, thus, so, therefore, consequently, it follows that, thereby, eventually, then, in that case, admittedly etc. Certainty: obviously, certainly, plainly, of course, undoubtedly etc. Condition: if, unless, whether, provided that, for, so that, depending on, only if, providing that etc. Definition: is refers to, means, that is, consists of etc. Summary: in conclusion, in summary, lastly, finally, to sum up, to conclude, to recapitulate, in short etc. Example: for instance, one example, for example, just as, in particular, such as, namely, to illustrate etc. Reason: since, as, so, because (of), due to, owing to, the reason, why, in other words, leads to cause etc. Time: before, since, as, until, meanwhile, at the moment, when, whenever, as soon as, just as etc.
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