IELTS Preparation

Sample Writing Essay types (40 Mins)

2007-03-22T07:06:00.003-07:00

Present a written argument or case to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge of the following topic. (40mins.)
You are a university student who is living in the accommodation at the campus. One day you find something wrong with your accommodation. So you write a letter to the Ho-use Officer to tell them what happened, the reason you think, what you decide to do, and whether if it is right.

It is wrong that our government pays more money to the artist projects, for instance, there are more and more paintings and sculptures appearing at the public places, be-cause there are more important thing to do. What's you o-pinion? Do you agree or disagree with it?

Write to an English speaking college about qualification, accommodation, fee, what courses do you want to choose and why.

Participating in a sport is as important for psychological health as it is for physical condition and social development.

You have left college. But you didn't say goodbye to your friend who live in the room with you because he had a course at that time. Write a letter to him to apology and tell hem how you spend that days before you leave and how you get home. Then invite him to visit you.

Some people say the parents should accept school to conduct their children's behavior and tell them what is 'rig-ht' or 'wrong'. Others say schools should take this responsibility. Please give your point about it.

Write to the agency officer and complain about the rent car which has something gone wrong. Tell them the problems of the car you rent from the agency and your requirements.

As the developing countries and the third world countries, there are a funds, how to use it? Invest in the basic education or in the high-technology, for instance, computer? What's your opinion?

You are a foreign student. Write to the Student Union, introduce your hobbies and interests and ask information of clubs and societies. You want to join a club or society and enjoy your time when you study there.

Fast food is developing more and more popular. It replaces other traditional food. Some people think it is good, some people disagree with it. What's your opinion about it? Give some reason of your opinion.

A friend will visit Beijing. You will meet him at airport. But for some reason, you have to be late. Explain the reason. Since you haven't met each other, tell the friend where you will meet and how to recognize each other.

More and more children's writing & math ability are affected by computers and calculators. We should limit the use of those tools. Disagree or agree.

You have broken your leg and have to stay in the hospital. You received many cards and letters from your classmates. Write a letter to tell them your detail of your position and thank them at the same time.

Some people say that it is impossible for women to be an effective woman and to be a good mother in home at the same time. They also suggest that the government should give the salary to mothers who stay at home to take care of their children.

Your friend writes to you and tells you that he is hesitating to choose computer or history as his major in university. Write to him and tell him your opinion.

Participating in a sport is as important for psychological health as it is for physical conditions and social development.

You live in a room in college which you share with another student. You find it very difficult to work there because he or she always has friends visiting. They have parties in the room and sometimes borrow your things without as-king you. Write a letter to the
Accommodation officer at the college and ask for a new room nest term. You would prefer a single room. Explain your reason.

Who has responsible for our old people?

Write to the agency officer to complain about a rent house by them. Tell them the problems of the house and your requiring.

You read an about a sale of a shop in the local newspaper, when you came to buy the goods you wanted, you find the sale had ended. Write to the shop manager and complain a-bout this. Require for the compensation.

Write to an English speaking college about qualification, accommodation, fee, what courses do you want to choose and why.

You are accepted as an oversea student by a university. Before you go to the university, write to the student officer and ask them something bout the accommodation, the transportation and the class schedule.

You are a history teacher at a high school. You see an ad at the local newspaper to introduce the local museum which coincides with what you teach now. Write to the museum officer and tell them that you want to bring your students to visit it.

Write a letter to your friend and express thanks for his present which was brought to you during your illness when you were at the hospital.

The first car appeared on British roads in 1888. By the year 2000 there may be as many as 29 million vehicles on British roads. Alternative forms of transport should be encouraged and international laws introduced to control car ownership and use. What do you think? Give reasons for your answer.

The threat of nuclear weapons maintains world peace. Nuclear power provides cheap and clean energy. The benefits of nuclear technology far outweigh the disadvantages. Give reasons for your answer.

People can do longer expect a job for life. What should individuals and governments do to prepare the current and future environments for different working conditions?

As technological innovation brings about rapid changes and retraining becomes a lifelong necessity, industry should take over more and more of the responsibility for education.
It is more important for governments to ensure adequate standards of housing, education and health care for their citizens by developing the industrial base than to use t-heir resources to develop the rural areas.

Business education and training today must promote environmental awareness.
Whilst studying abroad provides an opportunity to broaden one's experience, it also presents the danger of negative influences from the host culture.

Technological advances continue to improve manufacturing efficiency; the weight of a drinks can has come down from thirty-five grams to about fifteen grams, for example, and modern cars and production techniques are much more energy efficient. Governments need to control the environment rather than controlling industry, as companies already control their resources very efficiently.

Training for work is far more important than proving a broad-based education.
What steps should a student take in preparing for tertiary education and what would be the benefit of taking such steps?

The developed world should lead by example and not insist that aid to the Third World is used to develop rural areas.

It is inevitable that as technology develops so traditional cultures must be lost. Technology and tradition are incompatible - you cannot have both together. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Some people like to do only what they already do well. Other people prefer to try new things and take risks. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.

Some people believe that success in life comes from taking risks or chances. Others believe that success results from careful planning. In your opinion, what does success come from? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

What change would make your hometown more appealing to people your age? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The most important aspect of a job is the money a person earns. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? One should never judge a person by external appearances. Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A person should never make an important decision alone. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

A company is going to give some money either to support the arts or to protect the environment. Which do you think the company should choose? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Some movies are serious, designed to make the audience think. Other movies are designed primarily to amuse and entertain. Which type of movie do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Businesses should do anything they can to make a profit. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

Some people are always in a hurry to go places and get things done. Other people prefer to take their time and live life at a slower pace. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Games are as important for adults as they are for children. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents or other adult relatives should make important decisions for their older (15 to 18year-old) teenage children. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

What do you want most in a friend someone who is intelligent, or someone who has a sense of humor, or someone who is reliable? Which one of these characteristics is most important to you? Use reasons and specific examples to explain your choice.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Most experiences in our lives that seemed difficult at the time become valuable lessons for the future. Use reasons and specific examples to support our answer. Some people prefer to work for themselves or own a business.

Sample Writing Essay types (40 Mins)

2007-03-22T07:06:00.001-07:00

Electronic IELTS results to Receiving Organisations - Update

2006-12-29T00:52:00.000-08:00

Overview

IELTS results are increasingly high-stakes as the test grows in recognition and candidature. Sophisticated features have been built in to the IELTS Test Report Form (TRF) to maintain the security of test results. To provide a further safeguard, in 2002 IELTS developed an on-line service which enables those recognising IELTS to be totally confident about the authenticity of any TRF with which they are presented. The service has been in operation for the last 3 years and has proved to be a great success with most major universities and immigration departments in the English speaking world having signed up. The initial success of the verification service was built upon with the addition of candidate photos in September 2003, ensuring that verification was even more convenient and reliable for verifiers.

In response to requests from key stakeholders, IELTS will be introducing an electronic bulk download facility where organisations will be able to download IELTS results for all IELTS candidates who want the organisation to recognise their result. This new feature will be available in early 2006.

A number of key questions relating to the new development are answered below:

What are the benefits of this facility?

Many stakeholders have suggested that it would make their administrative procedures more efficient if verified results could be downloaded in bulk and loaded into their own data systems.

How does the electronic download facility work?

Candidates registering for IELTS will continue to have the option to specify up to 5 organisations to whom their IELTS test scores should be sent. This information will be recorded by the centre in their local administration systems and subsequently uploaded to the central IELTS processing systems and websites. Users from organisations which have registered for the electronic download facility will be able to login to the existing IELTS TRF verification service and navigate to a new section from which the downloads can be initiated. It will be possible to select date parameters for the download and the file type, either CSV or XML.

Do I have to pay for this service?

The bulk electronic download service and the existing IELTS TRF verification service are provided to appropriate organisations free of charge.

What do I need to do get access to the new service?

If you are an existing user of the IELTS TRF verification service:We will contact the administrator for your organisation later in 2005 and ask whether or not you wish to have access to the new bulk download service. Once your organisation has signed up it will appear in the list of organisations available to Centre Administrators.

If you are a new user of the IELTS TRF verification service:If you would like to access either the IELTS TRF verification site or the bulk download facility, then please refer to the IELTS website for further information on registration.

What is the impact of registering for the bulk download service?

Once you have registered for the service and you have received confirmation from IELTS administration, all users at your institution will be able to access an additional area of the web site which will allow them to download candidate results. You will not receive hard copy TRFs for these candidates. However to start with you may receive some TRFs as hard copy and some results electronically, as all centres switch over to the new system.

Unfortunately, at the moment, once an institution has subscribed to the bulk download service it is not possible to unsubscribe. Candidate preferences in terms of who receives their results are captured when the candidate registers for IELTS and allowing institutions to withdraw from the service would mean that some candidates may not be able to get their TRFs verified easily.

Which university student administration packages will be supported?

To support users in universities IELTS is developing interfaces which will allow universities to import IELTS scores directly into the most popular student administration packages without the need for any kind of bespoke development.

Initially an interface is being developed to allow IELTS scores to be imported into PeopleSoft Campus Solutions versions 8.0 and 8.9. PeopleSoft users will be able to download PeopleSoft projects which can then be applied to their instance of PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. IELTS scores can then be imported, in the same way as other test scores, without any further bespoke development. Full supporting documentation explaining how to apply the projects will be provided.

It is anticipated that similar support will be available for the Banner Student Administration System in 2006.

Users of other student administration systems or those with bespoke systems cannot be supported at this time although organisations are free to develop their own import routines.

When will the electronic download functionality be available?

The electronic download functionality will be available in early 2006.

What is the file format for the download?

The file is available to download in either CSV or XML file formats. Please note that the photo is only available in the XML format and is not transferred as part of the CSV download.

Currently the hard copy TRF shows the Writing and Speaking as an integer but the Listening and Reading and Overall band score to 1decimal place. The download formats output each of the 4 skills and the overall band score all to 1 decimal place for the XML format and to one decimal place in the CSV format where the band score is not an integer.

Good Luck!!

Learn Some Root Words

2006-12-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

http://vocabularytips.blogspot.com

Possible Questions from the Interviewer of the IELTS Test!!

2006-12-11T02:34:00.000-08:00

This is only for practice purpose

The questions here list Vietnam/Australia. However they will be posed keeping in mind the country you are from ad the country you intend to visit for your studies.

1. What is the meaning of your given name?

2. Does your name affect your personality?

3. Tell me something about your hometown.

4. What are the differences in accent between your hometown and Hanoi?

5. What is the character of the people like in your hometown?

6. What is people's favorite food in the region where you live?

7. What will you do during the Spring Festival this year?

8. Are there any traditional festivals in your region?

9. Describe a typical Spring Festival for a Vietnamese family.

10. Tell me something about the Hue Festival.

11. How have weddings changed in recent years?

12. Tell me something about the Hung King Festival.

13. Describe a traditional wedding ceremony.

14. How do Vietnamese usually celebrate birthdays?

15. Are there any traditions concerning the birth of a baby?

16. How do you like Hanoi? Compare it to your hometown.

17. What place do you like best in Hanoi?

18. What places in Hanoi should a foreigner visit?

19. What places would you recommend a visitor to go to in your region/hometown?

20. If you had the choice, where would you choose to live in Vietnam?

21. Which parts of Vietnam would you recommend a foreigner to visit?

22. Tell me something about your family.

23. Which is the worst place you've been to in Vietnam?

24. Who takes the greatest responsibility for bringing up your child in your family?

25. Which is the best place you've been to in Vietnam?

26. Who does most of the household chores in your family?

27. Are the traditional sexual roles within the family changing?

28. Why is the divorce rate increasing so rapidly? Is it a problem?

29. What is your opinion of the planning family policy?

30. How do you discipline your child?

31. Is it acceptable for couples to live together without marrying?

32. If you had the choice, would you have a son or a daughter?

33. Are you going to bring your child up any differently to the way your parents did?

34. What hopes do you have for your child?

35. Do women still have too heavy a burden in their day to day life?

36. Is the increasing influence of the West largely a positive or negative thing?

37. What, according to you, has been the greatest change in recent years?

38. What, according to you, has been the most problematic change in recent years?

39. If you are a lecturer, what changes have you seen in education over the past few years?

40. Who should bear the responsibility for payment of tuition fees?

41. What can be done to improve education in rural areas?

42. Have recent changes affected your job in any way?

43. Do you agree with private education?

44. What can be done to close the gap between urban and rural areas?

45. If you had the power, what reforms would you carry out within education?

46. Describe a typical working day for you.

47. How do you see yourself in ten years time?

48. If you had the opportunity to change your job, what would you do instead?

49. If you had one million dollars, what would you do with it?

50. If you could start your life again, would you do anything differently?

51. Do you have any ambitions?

52. Which country/place would you most like to visit?

53. What changes do you think Vietnam will see in the next few years?

54. Will any possible future changes affect your job in any way?

55. How do you think you will cope in Australia?

56. Does anything worry you about going to Australia?

57. Are you looking forward to anything in particular in Australia?

58. What are your plans on your return to Vietnam?

59. What do you do in your spare time?

60. What will you do if you fail the IELTS?

Common connective words!!

2006-12-11T02:26:00.000-08:00

Familiarity with these words would be useful in all IELTS test modules.

Common connective words indicating:

Addition	Consequence	Contrast
in addition and similarly likewise as well as besides furthermore also moreover and then too not only ... but even besides this/that	as a result thus so therefore consequently it follows that thereby eventually then in that case admittedly	however on the other hand despite in spite of though although but on the contrary otherwise yet instead of rather whereas nonetheless even though compared with in contrast alternatively
Certainty	Definition	Summary
obviously certainly plainly of course undoubtedl	is refers to means that is consists o	in conclusion in summary lastly finally to sum up to conclude to recapitulate in short
Example	Time
for instance one example for example just as in particular such as namely to illustrate	before since as until meanwhile at the moment when whenever as soon as just as

Bibliography Guide

2006-12-11T02:23:00.000-08:00

Books

Author’s surname, initials. (Year). Title of Book. Place of puplication: Publisher.

Books (Edited)

Editor’s surname, initials. (ed.) (Year). Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Article in an edited book

Author’s surname, initials. (Year). Title of article. Followed by IN: Editor’s surname, initials. (ed.) (Year). Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

CD-ROMs

Author’s surname, initials. (Year). Title. [CD ROM]. Place of puplication: Publisher.

E-mail

Sender’s surname, initials. (Sender’ email address), Day, month, year. Subject of message.. (Email to)

Interviews

Name of interviewee First initial. Surname. Kind of interview (Personal or Telephone). Date of interview.

Journal articles

Author’s surname, initials. (Year). Title of article. Title of the journal. Volume, number,, Page number of article. month/ reason

Newspaper articles

Author’s surname, initials. (Year). Title of article. Title of the newspaper. Date of publication, Page numbers of article.

Videos

Series title. Series number. Title. Year. Place of puplication: Publisher. Date of transmission,. [Medium: Format]

Fragile Earth. 5. South American wetland. (1982). London: BBC. 17, October, [video: VHS].

World Wide Web

Author’s surname, initials. (Year). Title. [Internet]. Place of puplication: Publisher (if ascertainable). Available from: [accessed date].

Guide for writing bibliography:

The list of the references is arranged in alphabetical order by author’s family name.

Numbers of entries for an author: arrange in chronological order beginning with the least recent. subsequent entries, the author’name is not used, but instead, a line is drawn…

Good to Know Abbreviations

2006-12-11T02:22:00.000-08:00

e.g. for example

i.e. that is

etc. etcetera: and so on

cf. compare

viz. namely

c. (or cr.) about/approximately

N.B note

C19 nineteenth century

C20

1920s i.e.1920-1929: similarly 1970s etc.

approx. approximately

dept. department

diff.(s) difficult(y)(-ies)

excl. excluding

govt. government

imp. important/ importance

incl. including

info. information

lang. language

ltd. limited

max. maximum

min. minimum

1^st first

2^nd second

3^rd

G.B. Great Britain

U.K United Kingdom

Eng. English

Brit. British

Q. question

A. Answer

no. nummber

p.pp. page/pages

poss. possible/possibly

prob. probable/probably

probs. problems

re- with refeerence to/ concerning

ref. reference

sts. studens

tho’ though

thro’ through

v. very

\ therefore

THE IELTS ACADEMIC WRITING TEST - TASK 2 TUTORIAL

2006-12-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

Task 2 in the IELTS Academic Writing Test is more important than task 1. You have to write more, it's a more difficult task and it is worth more to your final band for writing as more weight is given to Task 2 than to Task 1.

The IELTS Academic Writing Test

The IELTS Academic Writing Test lasts for 1 hour and includes 2 tasks. Task 1 is a letter and you must write at least 150 words. You should spend about 20 minutes out of the hour for Task 1. Task 2 is an essay and you must write at least 250 words. You should spend about 40 minutes for Task 2.

The Task for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

The IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 asks you to write a short essay of a minimum of 250 words. The essay is usually a discussion of a subject of general interest. You may have to present and justify your opinion about something, give the solution to a problem or compare differing ideas or viewpoints.

Marking for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

Your task will be marked in three areas. You will get a mark from 1 to 9 on Arguments, Ideas and Evidence, Communicative Quality and Vocabulary and Sentence Structure. Your final band for Task 2 will be effectively an average of the three marks awarded in these areas. Task 2 writing is more important than Task 1 and to calculate the final writing mark, more weight is assigned to the Task 2 mark than to Task 1's mark. To get a good overall mark though, both tasks have to be well answered so don't hold back on Task 1 or give yourself too little time to answer it properly.

Arguments, Ideas and Evidence

This mark grades you on the content of your essay. The argument is how you present your case as regards the question. The ideas part is how many and how good your ideas are in helping your argument. The evidence is the facts that you use to back up your ideas. Evidence is very important in Task 2. You need to bring in facts from your own experience in order to support your ideas. The three parts (Arguments, Ideas and Evidence) are not independent but blend together to give a good answer. Together they really present the content and substance of your essay.

Communicative Quality

This is how you are making yourself understood and whether the reader of your writing understands what you are saying. Are you communicating well with the reader and are your ideas that you want to present understood by the reader?

Vocabulary and Sentence Structure

This area looks at the your grammar and choice of words. The marker will look at whether the right grammar and words are used and whether they are used at the right time, in the right place and in the right way. Most people are predominantly worried about their grammar but, as you can see, grammar is only half of one section of three used to grade your writing. IELTS is much more interested in communication rather than grammatical accuracy.

Paragraphing for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the clarity of your writing. I have said this for Task 1 but for Task 2 it's is even more important. In Task 2 you will be writing more and it is therefore more important to divide your writing up into divisions to make it easier to read.

Very often people use no paragraphing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable.

For Task 2, have a paragraph break after your introduction, and then for every differing section of your separate ideas with the supporting evidence. Then have a final paragraph for your conclusion. You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs plus the introduction and conclusion.

Look at this section on paragraphing. It is divided into 5 separate paragraphs dividing the 5 different areas that I want to present to you, the reader. The 5 areas are:

Paragraph 1 Why paragraphing is important for Task 2.
Paragraph 2 How to divide your paragraphing.
Paragraph 3 Where your paragraph divisions should occur.
Paragraph 4 The division of paragraphs in this section.
Paragraph 5 Explaining the comparison with this section and the one below to show how paragraphing can work.
Below I will repeat paragraphs 1 - 4 of this section on paragraphing but I am going to remove all the paragraphs and line breaks and make it a "sea of writing" as I said can happen above. I hope you feel that this section is easier to understand than the one below!! (By the way, I haven't used line breaks through this entire tutorial as there would be too many and it would be too confusing).

Paragraphing (bad example section)

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the clarity of your writing. I have said this for Task 1 but for Task 2 it's is even more important. In Task 2 you will be writing more and it is therefore more important to divide your writing up into divisions to make it easier to read. Very often people use no paragraphing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable. For Task 2, have a paragraph break after your introduction, and then for every differing section of your separate ideas with the evidence. Then have a final paragraph for your conclusion. You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs plus the introduction and conclusion. Look at this section on paragraphing. It is divided into 4 separate paragraphs dividing the 4 different areas that I want to present to you the reader. The 4 areas are: Paragraph 1: Why paragraphing is important for task 2: Paragraph 2: How to divide your paragraphing. Paragraph 3: Where your paragraph divisions should occur. Paragraph 4: An example to show you how paragraphing works.

I hope you feel that the first section was easier to understand than this second one!!

Ideas to Think About for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

1 Timing

The exam paper recommends that you spend about 40 minutes on this question and this is about right. Remember that Task 2 gives more to your final writing band and so you should make sure that you have enough time after Task 1 to properly answer Task 2. Some students do Task 2 first in order to make sure that Task 2 is answered well before they get onto Task 1. There is no problem with this but make sure you write the 150 words to give a good answer for Task 1 as well.

So, whatever you decide to do about your approach to Task 1 and Task 2 in the writing paper, make sure that you spend approximately 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2. This should give you the right amount of time to provide good answers to both tasks.

2 Answering the question.

Although this sounds very straightforward, people don't often properly answer the question set and therefore don't get the band that they should even if the writing is very good.

First of all read the question very carefully in order to see exactly what it asks you. Very often there will be more than 1 part to the question; sometimes even 3 or 4 parts. When you produce your answer you must answer all the different parts of the question. How much you produce on each part depends on how important you think it is.

You have to write a formal academic English essay of the type that would be required for teachers or tertiary education courses. Formulate and develop an argument and show a personal response. Give your opinions and back them up with evidence and examples. Your answer should persuade, be consistent and develop logically towards a conclusion, which answers all parts of the question.

Another important basic is to write at least 250 words. Writing less does not answer the question, which tells you to write at least 250 words. If you write less than 250 words, the examiner marking your paper will give you a maximum of 5 for Arguments, Ideas and Evidence or even less. It is no problem to write more than the 250 words; there is no upward word limit on the essay. Time is your only constraint.

The question wants you to produce an essay. Therefore don't give a list of numbered notes (your paragraphs should not be numbered). Give the examiner a proper essay with an introduction, a main body with your ideas and evidence and a conclusion, all divided of course with the paragraphing techniques discussed above.

3 Planning

Many students that I have taught have regarded writing an essay plan as a waste of time. The only answer I can give is that it depends on the individual. If you are a good essay writer who can automatically organize your ideas and structure in your head so well that you can produce a good structured essay without planning, then I say that's it's fine not to write an essay plan.

Also if you're really short of time and you need to get writing on page, then you don't want to waste time on planning. However, if none of these conditions apply, then 1 or 2 minutes thinking about your ideas and how you are going to present them will not be wasted. I'm not saying that you should spend 10 minutes on this. Just take a scrap of paper and jot down some ideas that you are going to use in your essay.

Then you can divide the ideas into 3 or 4 paragraphs in a logical order. This shouldn't take you long and the structure that this will give your essay will be well worth the time that you spend doing it.

Writing The Essay in the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

1 The Introduction

First of all, don't repeat any part of the question in your introduction. This is not your own work and therefore will be disregarded by the examiner and deducted from the word count. You can use individual words but be careful of using "chunks" of the question text.

Your introduction should first say what you understand by the question. Then give the main issue or issues that you intend to bring into your answer. Don't go into any detail; you can save that for the later paragraphs.

Finally, the question often asks you to take up a position over an issue. There is no right answer for putting your views at the start and then explaining this through the essay, or developing your opinion though your essay and stating your final stance at the end. I personally like the opinion at the start of the essay. Quickly and clearly answer the question, making your attitude plain. Don't give any reasons. Again, that's what the body of your essay is for. You don't have to do it this way though. You can wait until your conclusion to give your position as regards the question.

2 The Body of Your Essay

You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs in your answer. This is not exact. You can write more or fewer paragraphs, as your answer requires. Remember you've only got about 40 minutes to cover all the question areas so don't be too ambitious and try to write too much.

In the body of your essay you should do several things. You need to examine all parts of the question. Remember there is often more than 1 question contained in the essay question text. You need to look at all that is asked and look at both sides of every issue. IELTS essay questions usually ask you something which has two or more points of view, and you need to consider both sides of every argument no matter what your opinion is.

Look below at the example. The question asks whether or not you believe whether societies should use capital punishment. There are, of course, two points of view:

(1) capital punishment should be used and

(2) capital punishment shouldn't be used.

Let's say for example that you don't believe that capital punishment should be used by societies. No matter what point of view you have, you should look at both sides, though naturally your writing will favour the position that you have taken. Give the reasons why you don't believe in capital punishment but then look at the opposing view and say why you don't accept it. In this way you will show the reader your powers of analysis when looking at such an issue.

Don't forget that when you have finished looking at this issue there is a second part of the question to be analysed too.

As we said earlier, your ideas need to be supported by examples and it is in the body of your essay that they should appear. For every idea that you present try and give an example from your own experience that shows that your idea is right.

An example from your own experience means something that you know from your life, from your country's news or history or anything that you have read anywhere. You can actually invent examples if you need as long as they seem realistic and believable. The examiner is probably not going to research anything you write about.

The example below should illustrate what we have been discussing here.

3 The Conclusion

This doesn't need to be a long paragraph. You need to sum up your points providing a final perspective on your topic. All the conclusion needs is three or four strong sentences, which do not need to follow any set formula. Simply review the main points (being careful not to restate them exactly or repeat all your examples) and briefly describe your feelings about the topic; this provides an answer to all parts of the question. An anecdote can also end your essay in a useful way.

An Example of the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

It's very difficult to visualize and understand all the things that I have said above. Here I will try and provide you with an example question and then go through the stages of thought to show you how to approach an IELTS Task 2 essay.

Here is a possible question that would be typical for a Task 2 essay question.

"Do you believe that societies ought to enforce capital punishment or Are there alternative forms of punishment that would be better used?"

First of all you need to consider the question. What does it ask? Straight away, you can see that it asks 2 things.

It wants to know if you believe that society should use capital punishment and it also wants to know if you can offer any alternatives to capital punishment. Your answer should give a balanced view of both parts of this question. What is important to realize is that there is no correct answer here. You can present any point of view as long as you can support it.

So, in your planning stage you should have a roadmap for the introduction, each paragraph and the conclusion. Here is my brief plan for the essay.

Intro

What cp is. Where it's used. (not my country). Differing opinions.
I don't believe in cp.
There are alternative punishments.
Body
Inhumane - we shouldn't sink to the level of criminals.
We can get convictions wrong; prisoners can be released if there's an error. Mentally ill. Examples.
Alternative punishments: life means life; hospitals for criminally insane. Costs more but society has a duty to care.

Many countries favour it and they say it works. Prisons too full. Killers deserve nothing less. Some crimes deserve it. Not my morals though.

Conclusion

I don't agree. We can do other things. Avoid mistakes and make modern society a humane one.

The above is a basic plan of how I want to write my essay. It's not rigid. I can change my ideas and format as I write if I feel I can do better.

I can also add things that I've forgotten as the essay goes on. It's normal of course for you to have new, good ideas as you write and the skill is to get them into your essay without upsetting the balance of the essay. How do you do this? It's practice again. You won't get good at writing essays and adapting your writing well without practice.

So, below is an example essay using the plan above as a basis.

Example Essay for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

Capital punishment is the killing of a criminal for a crime that he has committed. Previously most countries employed this method of punishment but nowadays it is much less widely used. I personally do not believe that societies today should use capital punishment and I also believe that there are alternative punishments that can be used.

My main argument against capital punishment is that I believe we do not have the right to kill another human being regardless of the crime. I don't believe in the old religious maxim of "an eye for an eye." Modern societies shouldn't turn to such barbaric punishments.

Another argument against capital punishment is that people can be wrongly convicted and executed. If a man is in prison, he can be released if later proved not guilty. If he is dead, there is nothing that can be done. In the UK, a group of supposed terrorists were convicted of murder in Birmingham in the 1970s. They were proved innocent about 15 years later and released. If they had been executed, innocent people would have died.

There are alternative punishments available. For bad crimes prison life sentences can be given with criminals imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Also a lot of horrific crimes are committed by people who are mentally sick. These people are not responsible for their actions and can be kept safely and permanently in secure hospitals. Yes, this costs a lot more but I believe it is the duty of society to do this.

There are arguments for capital punishment. Many people feel its threat stops serious crime and that criminals deserve nothing less. It's cheaper and keeps the prisons manageable. I can understand this point of view but I cannot agree with it.

So, in conclusion, I don't believe in capital punishment, as there are less barbaric alternatives available. We can avoid horrific mistakes and make modern society a humane one.

Final Comment for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

I hope that this essay shows how to approach the Task 2 question and illustrates the ideas that I have written above.
Finally I will leave you with the message that I always do. To really improve your skills at writing essays, you need to practice. Get some essay titles, sit down when you get the chance, give yourself 40 minutes and write some essays. Try and do it as I have directed with a couple of minutes for planning, as this will train you to make a better-constructed essay in the long run.
You can get essay titles probably from surfing the internet or you can use the ieltshelpnow.com tests, along with other practice, which are available to download on this site at a fraction of the cost of books in the shops.

THE IELTS ACADEMIC WRITING TEST - TASK 1 TUTORIAL

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The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing is not an easy part of the exam. Describing a graph well in 20 minutes is not something most people can do straight away whether they are English speakers or not. The fact that it is in a foreign language for you as well doesn't help. Practice is the magic word though. Even good English users need practice for the IELTS exam and it could mean all the difference between pass and fail. There is limited practice available and it's quite expensive. That's why we would recommend you download our practice material. You will get more practice for less money. Go to the Home Page to find more information about our Practice Tests and other Practice Tests available.

The Task
Basically The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing is an information transfer task related to the factual content of an input text(s), graph(s), table(s) or diagram(s). It can be combinations of these inputs. Usually you will have to describe the information given in 1, 2 or 3 three inputs but sometimes you have will have to describe a process shown in a diagram.

Marking for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing will be marked in three areas. You will get a mark from 1 to 9 on Task Fulfillment, Coherence & Cohesion and Vocabulary and Sentence Structure. Your final band for task 1 will be effectively an average of the three marks awarded in these areas. Task 1 writing is less important than task 2 and to calculate the final writing mark, more weight is assigned to the task 2 mark than to task 1's mark. To get a good overall mark for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing though, both tasks have to be well answered so don't hold back on task 1 or give yourself too little time to answer it properly.

Task Fulfilment This where you can really make a difference through careful preparation. This mark grades you on basically "have you answered the question".

Cohesion and Coherence These two are interrelated which is why they are done together. Cohesion is how your writing fits together. Does your writing with its ideas and content flow logically? Coherence is how you are making yourself understood and whether the reader of your writing understands what you are saying. An example of bad coherence and cohesion would be as follows:

1 We went to the beach because it was raining.

Probably the writer of this sentence does not mean "because" as people don't usually go to the beach when it is raining. The writer should have written:

2 We went to the beach although it was raining.

Sentence 1 has made a cohesion and coherence error (as well as a vocabulary one). "Because" does not join the ideas of the sentence together correctly and, as a result, the reader does not understand what the writer wants to say. This is an exaggerated example but it shows what I mean.

Vocabulary and Sentence Structure This area looks at the your grammar and choice of words. The marker will look at whether the right grammar and words are used and whether they are used at the right time in the right place and in the right way. Many people are worried about their grammar but, as you can see, grammar is only half of one section of three used to grade your writing. IELTS is much more interested in communication rather than grammatical accuracy.

Paragraphing for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the intelligibility of your writing. Very often people use no paragraphing in The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable. For teh IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing, you should have a paragraph for your small introduction, a paragraph for each graph that you are describing and a paragraph for your ending. If there's only one graph to be described, then you should split your writing into 2 or maybe 3 paragraphs for the one graph.

For a longer section on paragraphing and how useful it can be, see Academic Writing Task 2 Tutorial.

Scales for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
What I mean by the scale is whether the graphs are marked in hundreds, thousands, millions, pounds, dollars (US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, etc.), kilograms, tons, metres, kilometres, percent and so on. It's important for you to make clear what your numbers mean for an accurate report of the graph. Don't just say that something cost 1000 for instance. Say it cost 1000 US dollars. You can either specify the scales at the start in your introduction so the reader knows it for the whole report or you can use the scale each time you quote a detail in the report.

Writing the Task for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

The Introduction

You don't need much here. You only have 150 words to fully answer the question and this is not much. So, you need 1 or 2 sentences describing the following:

The type(s) of graph you are describing
The titles of the graph(s)
The date of the graph(s)
The scale (see the paragraph above)
You might not have all this information but you should report what you do have. So, for example, your beginning could look like this:

In this report I am going to describe 2 graphs. The first one is a bar chart showing the relationship between age and crime and the second is a pie chart showing the types of reported crime in the UK in 2002.

(This example gives an introduction to the Academic Writing Task 1 in Test 3 from ieltshelpnow.com.)

Describing Graphs for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
What you need to do here is factually describe the graphs. You don't need to analyse the data, For example you don't need to give reasons for why figures are high or low. Sometimes, when there is more than 1 graph, there is a relationship between the two and you can bring in some comparison but more than this is not necessary. In the same way, no specialised knowledge of your own is needed or wanted nor your opinions.

Remember the function of many graphs is to describe a trend so be sure that you describe the trends. A trend is how values change generally over time and it is important to describe the changes along with some of the individual values. We will look at trends a bit later under line graphs.

One important issue with The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing is how much detail to include in your report. This depends really on how much detail there is in the question. If there is only 1 graph and it doesn't have much numerical data in it, then you will be expected to include all or nearly all of the numerical detail. If, however, you have 2 graphs, both of which are very complicated with lots of values, you will not be expected to include everything as you only have 150 words to do the job. What you will have to do is to include a selection of what you feel is the most important and significant detail that needs to be included to accurately describe the graph.

You must always have some numerical detail though.

Now let's look individually at the types of graph that you are likely to meet in the exam and how to describe them.

Bar Charts for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
Hopefully you will have described the title of the bar chart in your introduction so you can go straight into the description. Basically, with a bar chart, you need to describe the bars and their values. When describing a bar chart you first have to decide in what order to describe the bars, highest value to lowest value or lowest value to highest value. It may be a mixture of this. If there are very many bars, you can sometimes group together for description 1 or 2 or 3 bars which have similar or the same values. If there are very many and you can't group them, then just describe the ones that are the most significant.

Pie Charts for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
Pie charts are relatively straightforward as they only usually have a few sections though this is not always the case. You need to describe the segments and their values. If there are very many then just describe the ones that are the most significant. The values are often expressed in percentages but not always so be careful what scale you are using.

Tables for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
These can sometimes be tricky as they provide a lot of information and it is often awkward and difficult to describe every piece of information. You have to decide and describe the values and sections that are the most significant.

Line Graphs for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
The function of a line graph is to describe a TREND pictorially. You therefore should try and describe the trend in it. If there are many lines in the graph(s), then just generally describe the trend. If there is only one or two, then use more detail. So, describe the movement of the line(s) of the graph giving numerical detail at the important points of the line.

To describe the movement, there is some language which will always be useful. Below is a list of language you can use. Check with your dictionary words that you don't understand and practice using the words/phrases so you use them in the right way. As you will see, there are a number of words which are similar in meaning. This means that you will be able to use a variety of vocabulary which gives a good impression to the examiner who will read and mark your writing. The words below are particularly useful for line graphs but they can also be used where appropriate to describe the other types of graph.

Expressing the Movement of a Line

Verbs Nouns

Rise (to) a rise
Increase (to) an increase
Go up to
Grow (to) growth
Climb (to) a climb
Boom a boom
Peak (at) (reach) a peak (at)

Fall (to) a fall (of)
Decline (to) a decline (of)
Decrease (to) a decrease (of)
Dip (to) a dip (of)
Drop (to) a drop (of)
Go down (to)
Reduce (to) a reduction (of)
A slump

Level out a leveling out
No change no change
Remain stable (at)
Remain steady (at)
Stay (at)
Stay constant (at)
Maintain the same level

Adjectives Adverbs

Dramatic dramatically
Sharp sharply
Huge hugely
Enormous enormously
Steep steeply
Substantial substantially
Considerable considerably
Significant significantly
Marked markedly
Moderate moderately
Slight slightly
Small
Minimal minimally

Describing the Speed of a Change

Adjectives Adverbs

Rapid rapidly
Quick quickly
Swift swiftly
Sudden suddenly
Steady steadily
Gradual gradually
Slow slowly

The Ending for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
You do not need a long and analytical conclusion for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing, but I do feel that you need to write something to end the report for reasons of structure. All you need to do is to write:

This ends my report.

This is all you need to end your Task 1; I think it's important to do this as it rounds off the report for the reader.

Describing a Process for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
We have looked at the various types of graph that you might be asked to describe but you also might have to describe a diagram representing a process.
First of all, the introduction and the ending should be more or less the same.

Then, work out the various stages of the process. Take each one separately (it's only probably going to have a limited number of stages) and describe them fully. Fully is the important word as reaching the word limit has proved harder in this task. If you have this problem, don't be afraid to use your imagination to add to detail about the process.

Other Hints for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing
DON'T copy any part of the question in your answer. This is not your own work and therefore will be disregarded by the examiner and deducted from the word count. You can use individual words but be careful of using long "chunks" of the question text.
Don't repeat yourself or the same ideas. This gives a bad impression and the examiner realises that it isn't adding to the content of your report.
If you are weak at English grammar, try to use short sentences. This allows you to control the grammar and the meaning of your writing much more easily and contributes to a better cohesion and coherence mark. It's much easier to make things clear in a foreign language if you keep your sentences short!
Think about the tenses of your verbs. If you're writing about something that happened in the past, your verbs will need to be in the past tenses. If you're describing the future, you will need to use the future tenses. If it's a habitual action, you'll need the present simple tense and so on. If you have time, a quick check of your verbs at the end of the exam can help you find errors. For describing graphs you will probably need past tenses whereas, for describing a process, you will probably need the present simple. Think about the verbs while practising and then it will become easier when you do the exam.
As I just said, if you have finished the exam with time to spare, DON'T just sit there!! Check what you have done. If you have time after the check, check again. And so on....
Don't be irrelevant. Although you can use your imagination to expand on your answer, if any part of your report is totally unrelated to the question and put in to just put up the word count, then the examiner will not take it into account and deduct it from the word count.
If you want to improve, there's no secret. Practice. Practice. Practice. You won't get better sitting and doing nothing. Even good English users need practice for the IELTS exam. It could make all the difference between your getting the band that you need, and getting half a band less than you need and having to wait 3 months to do the exam again.
Finally, there are no correct answers or methods. Here I've given you some ideas to guide you and hopefully to help you but the questions can be answered well in different ways. Good luck with the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing. I hope that this tutorial has helped you!

Tips for Writing !!

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The writing part has two tasks: minor & major.

The minor task should be done in 20-25 minutes. Usually three things asked in the minor task; 1. Object (eg a cycle is shown & various parts are

labeled)

2. Process (eg the various ways in which solar

energy is used)

3. Data; (graphs of all types eg line graph, bar graph, pie charts, tables etc)

For data one have to write;

1. Introduction (what it is about do not copy the question what. Use your imagination & write in your own words what the data is about)

2. Then in the next Para write three things, this is very important.

The three things are General trend, Comparisons, differences.

3. In the last Para write conclusion.

Use pencil to write & take with you a new good quality eraser & sharpener. Write at least twenty words more than required. This way examiner gets an idea that you are confident & can write

ELTS Writing Topics

Task 1
1. The tables compare the amount of students who study at different levels of education in different countries?
2. Compare people's income and tax in different countries.
3. Compare the different household tasks and who does them.
4. Compare the difference between the rates of car theft, insurance costs and number of policemen.
5. Describe what kind of jobs people do in relation to their university major.
6. Describe how water is gathered?
7. Compare the construction of houses and how well they insulate the houses in summer and winter.
8. The tables compare the amount of students who study at different levels of education in different countries?

Task 2:
1. Most high level jobs are done by men. Should the government encourage a certain percentage of these jobs to be reserved for women?
2. Are famous people treated unfairly by the media? Should they be given more privacy, or is the price of their fame an invasion into their private lives?
3. Should developing countries concentrate on improving industrial skills or should they promote education first?
4. Safety standards are important when building people's homes. Who should be responsible for enforcing strict building codes - the government or the people who build the homes?
5. Does modern technology make life more convenient, or was life better when technology was simpler?
6. In your opinion what factors contribute to a good movie?
7. Does modern technology make life more convenient, or was life better when technology was simpler?
8. Does travel help to promote understanding and communication between countries?
9. If children behave badly, should their parents accept responsibility and also be punished?
10. What should a government do for a country to become successful?
11. Should sports classes be sacrificed in High School so students can concentrate on Academic subjects?
12. Nowadays doctors can become very rich. Maybe they should not focus on profitable activities such as plastic surgery or looking after rich patients and concentrate more on patients health, no matter how rich they are?
13. Will modern technology, such as the internet ever replace the book or the written word as the main source of information?
14. Discuss the advantage and disadvantage of giving international Aid to poor countries.
15. Should criminals be punished with lengthy jail terms or re-educated and recapitulated, using community service programs for instance, before being reintroduced to society?
16. Computers can translate all kinds of languages well so our children don't need to learn more languages in the future?

General Tips

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Success in the IELTS exam requires a candidate to know the test format and the specific techniques for answering questions. Make sure you are fully equipped with this knowledge. ( Please see Resources on the Internet and Books )

Don't believe people who tell you that IELTS needs no preparation if your English is good. Even if it is, you still need to learn the right skills for the test. I would suggest a period of two weeks as preparation time, though this would vary depending on your level of familiarity with English. The test fees are high and if you don't get the band score you need, you have to wait for three months before you can take the test again.

Like in all other exams, practice is the key to doing well in the IELTS. Make sure you have plenty of it before you appear for the test.

Answer all questions. There is no negative marking for incorrect answers.

Preparing for the test

Start by familiarizing yourself with the test format. Then read the online resources I have suggested. After that you could start with Step Up to IELTS to build the basic skills that you will need to do the test. Lastly, go on to doing the 4 tests in Cambridge IELTS 3 under test conditions. This should get you ready to take on the IELTS.

The British Council offers preparatory courses for IELTS. A placement test is held first to assess the candidate's level of English. This costs Rs 400/-. A four day intensive course is held before the date of the test. This costs Rs 5600/-. If you can afford the fees, the course might be a good idea as it gives you an insight into IELTS along with lots of practice. I think it would not help those whose level is very poor (possibly they would not do well in the placement test itself) or very good (they may not need the course). It would be most useful for those who lie somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

Test day

Make sure you have visited the venue of the test a few days before the test date. Arrive at least half an hour earlier than the reporting time specified. Arriving late could send your tension levels soaring and the exam requires you to be absolutely relaxed and ready to give of your best.

There is no break between the four components of the test. This means that for around 3-3.5 hours, you can't eat, drink or visit the restroom. However, water was provided in the test hall where I took the exam and students were allowed to visit the restroom, but only while the test was in progress ( not in the period between different modules ). Since time is such a crucial factor in the exam, no one would want to waste time going to the toilet in the middle of the test. Make sure you visit the restroom before the test starts.

Carry your original and valid passport as it is mandatory. Also take the letter which gave you the venue of the test and your roll number. The receipt for the IELTS fee is another document that is sometimes asked for. Take it too.

Take a number of sharpened pencils, a pencil sharpener, an eraser and pens. Do all the components of the test in pencil. For listening and reading, use of a pencil is mandatory. For writing, it is much easier to erase what you write in pencil when you want to modify a sentence. If you use a pen, deleting sentences or words creates a mess.

Time is a crucial factor in the test. Make sure you take a watch that works and shows the correct time. Keep it in front of you on the desk as you work. It is all too easy to forget how much time has elapsed.

You can write anything you like on the question sheet. It is not read by the examiner. You can underline words, jot down your ideas for the writing test or write the answers for the listening test.

New Policy 90 Day Re-Take Rule

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From 1 May 2006 the policy on candidates re-taking IELTS will be amended. The restriction on re-taking IELTS within 90 days will be removed and candidates will be able to repeat the test whenever they wish.

The current restriction on repeating the test within 90 days at any centre will remain in place for all candidates until the end of April 2006. All candidates from 1 May will be able to repeat at the next available test, regardless of the date of their previous test.

IELTS is now used by a range of receiving organisations across the world and many of them require candidates to demonstrate adequate performance overall as well as by individual skill. It is possible for candidates to attain their required overall band score but fail to achieve a specific module score in a particular skill area. As a result they are required to re-take the test but have to wait 90 days and this can result in hardship and distress. It is in the nature of tests that scores on individual components may vary to some extent from occasion to occasion and a candidate may be able to make limited improvements in their performance when repeating the test. In consideration of this the decision was made to remove the re-take restrictions.

It should be noted however that IELTS scores are not substantially improved merely by taking the test on multiple occasions. To significantly improve a score it is necessary to engage in further study of a serious nature. Gain score studies carried out under the IELTS funded research programme indicate that scores are unlikely to improve dramatically without extensive English language tuition in the interim.

Candidates will still be asked to indicate on their application form whether they have taken the test before. This information will appear on the Test Report Form and will only be used for monitoring purposes.

The Test Day

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Reach the test center in time.

Make sure you look your best. Wear your best apparel and your best smile.A formal/ semi formal attire is the most suited for the purpose.
Don’t try to show off your casualness by moving in a pair of shorts nor overdo things by wearing a jazzy party dress.

Be confident. This is also one important aspect they are going to judge you on.

Don’t try to talk to candidates coming out of the interview room. By doing this you will be breaking the examination rules and invite a disqualification for yourself.

I always advise to talk calmly to the other candidates waiting for the interview in the same waiting room as you are. Its always a good warm up.

Knock and enter the interview room confidently.
Think before hand how exactly you would like your sitting posture to be and in which you r most comfortable.

Keep your hand movements or other gestures you use during conversing, in control. You should not sit like a statute either. Just that you should not over do such things which looks unnatural in a day to day conversation.

Keep your cool. Be calm and be polite.
Make an interesting conversation. Smile and involve the interviewer in your conversation.

Remember that the interviewer is all too exhausted and bored by interviewing so many candidates before you. Your conversation should refresh him up.

If the interviewer keeps a view in front of you tell him if you fully agree with him, that he is right or if you have another view, be polite and say that you think some thing else.

Did he say he enjoyed talking with you? Tell him that it was nice speaking to him too.
Thank him in the end.

The Mantra

The mantra for a great score in speaking is to be confident, calm and cool.

Project yourself as an interesting person. Be yourself.

Talk clearly, loudly, pronounce correctly and no grammatical mistakes.

You will come out with flying colors.

Good Luck!

Test day advise

Advice and Information
Make sure you attend on time

Know the date, time and place of your test and arrive before the scheduled starting time.
If you arrive late for any of the papers, report to the supervisor or invigilator. You may not be allowed to take the test.
Bring what you need

Take into the test room only the pens, pencils and erasers which you need for the examination.
Correction fluid and highlighters must not be used.
Leave anything which you do not need, or which is not allowed, either outside the test room, or as instructed by the supervisor.
You may not lend anything to, or borrow anything from, another candidate during the test.
Examination instructions

Listen to the supervisor and do what you are asked to do.
Tell the supervisor or invigilator at once if you think you have not been given the right question paper, or if the question paper is incomplete or illegible.
Read carefully and follow the instructions printed on the question paper and on the answer sheet.
Fill in the details required on the front of your question paper and on your answer sheet before the start of the test.
Advice and assistance during the test

If you are in doubt about what you should do, raise your hand to attract attention. The invigilator will come to your assistance.
You may not ask for, and will not be given, any explanation of the questions.
If on the day of the test you feel that your work may be affected by ill health or any other reason, you must inform the invigilator at the time.
Leaving the test room

You may not leave the test room without the permission of the supervisor or invigilator.
You can not leave your seat until all papers have been collected and you have been told you can leave.
When you leave the examination room you must leave behind the question paper, your answer paper, any paper used for rough work clearly crossed through and any other materials provided for the test.
Do not make any noise near the examination room.

IELTS Examination Tip - Timing Yourself

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While the IELTS Examination is carefully monitored by proctors, no one will tell you how to use the time you are allotted for each section of the test. Watch your watch, or the clock in the examination room, closely. The examiners time each portion of the test very strictly. It’s important that you monitor your own progress carefully, so you don’t leave portions of the test unfinished – or even unstarted!

The IELTS Listening test is more or less self-timing, in that the tape is played without pauses. Even so, making the wisest use of your time makes a difference.

- At the end of the Listening test, you are allowed 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet. That’s more than enough time to accomplish that.

- So, instead of putting your answers directly onto the separate answer sheet, put them in the question booklet you are given. Not going back and forth between the booklet and the answer sheet can prevent you from getting lost, which is one of the worst things that can happen in IELTS Listening.

- If you are unsure of your answers, you can note your best guesses in the question booklet and make your final decision at the time you are transferring your answers to the answer sheet.

- The IELTS Reading test consists of three readings and about 13 questions about each, all of which have to be finished within 60 minutes. Monitoring yourself here is of critical importance. If you spend too much time on either of the first two readings, you may not have time to complete the third – and you will have lost one-third of the points toward your reading band score.

- So, even though the readings become slightly more difficult over the course, limit yourself to 20 minutes for each. Once you get into the rhythm of the test, you will start working faster, which will compensate for the increasing difficult of the readings.

- If you finish early, you can always go back and work on questions from earlier readings about which you are unsure. In contrast to our recommendation for the IELTS Listening test, we suggest that you write your answers on the answer sheet as you go along.

- You can always change them (the answer sheets are hand-corrected) later, and it saves time – and keeps you on schedule – to record your answers directly.

Timing yourself is perhaps most critical in the IELTS Writing tasks. The test is in two parts, Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2. You should write the Writing Task 1 report first, timing yourself strictly to a maximum of 20 minutes. Then you should write the Writing Task 2 essay in the remaining 40 minutes.

- It probably will not feel like enough time for either task. However, since the band score given your Writing Task 2 essay counts more heavily toward your overall Writing band score, you must make sure you give it at least 40 minutes. Most candidates find completing the essay in that amount of time difficult anyway.

- You probably will feel like you need more than 20 minutes to write a complete Writing Task 1 report, too. Just do the best you can in 20 minutes and then finish the report and move on to Writing Task 2.

- Remember: By writing concluding paragraphs to both writing tasks, beginning them with “In conclusion,…” and then repeating the information summary (in Writing Task 1) or the Thesis Statement (in Writing Task 2), you technically have completed the task.

- In the IELTS Speaking task, timing yourself is important only in the central section, called the Long Turn. In it, after one minute’s preparation (which the examiner will time), you are to speak, unassisted, on a topic for a minimum of one minute and, ideally, two minutes.

- If you feel you are running out of things to say on the topic but are unsure whether you have spoken for an entire minute, look at the clock or your watch to see. Make sure you reach the one-minute mark at least, or there will be a lowering of your band score.

- If you speak beyond the two-minute point, the examiner will give you some indication, probably a hand signal, that you should conclude your remarks in this section.

Svend Nelson is a university lecturer and Internet entrepreneur. He is director of UniRoute Limited, a Hong Kong based company with offices in Bangkok and London providing IELTS preparation and a free online application service to study abroad including courses like tourism management. Svend lived and worked in various countries across Latin America, Europe and Asia before settling in Thailand.

Tips for Speaking and Speaking Test Tutorial!!

2006-12-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

It is now made up of three parts :-

In Part 1 the candidate answers general questions about themselves, their homes/ families, their jobs/studies, their interests, and a range of similar familiar topic areas. This part lasts between four and five minutes.

In Part 2 the candidate is given a verbal prompt on a card and is asked to talk on a particular topic. The candidate has one minute to prepare before speaking at length, for between one and two minutes. The examiner then asks one or two rounding-off questions.

In Part 3 the examiner and candidate engage in a discussion of more abstract issues and concepts which are thematically linked to the topic prompt in Part 2. The discussion lasts between four and five minutes.

The speaking part is usually a conversation about you, your plans for the future, your past studies, the reason for which you are taking the IELTS, your country, your town. Therefore be prepared for these subjects. You should prepare something to say about them. In addition, the examiner will show you a card with an argument you are supposed to discuss about. The thing you have to remember is: use easy words and expressions if you are not very confident and everything will go well. To be able to communicate what you think is far more important than doing it with a perfect English accent. Therefore, don't wary if your pronunciation is not exactly a British one. That's not the main point. Your understanding of what the examiner says and the ability to communicate without grammar mistakes is more important. The conversation lasts usually 15-20 minutes and will be recorded. Don't panic about that!!

The Test

How good are you at chatting? Are you fluent? Are you aware of the particular accent with which you go around speaking English? Do people understand clearly what you speak?

Well,this is what the speaking component of IELTS is all about. This is a test to find out how well you can converse in English while carrying out your daily activities.

The test is divided into 3 different steps, not very discrete, but you will be definitely able to point out when one step conclude and other step begins.

The entire interview is recorded in a tape as you go ahead with the conversation.

This is just a formality and it is in your own interest that the conversation is recorded, so that in case you are not satisfied with your score, this tape will help in RE evaluating.

Let the tape not bother you and you go ahead with the speaking freely.

However, keeping in the view of importance of the tape recording your voice,make sure that you are loud and clear enough. The interviewer’s voice will also be recorded and you are at an advantage here that 1st the interviewer will ask you if he/she can start the tape and then the interviewer starts with the 1st question.

Note his loudness level and the clarity with which he is speaking.Make sure your quality of sound should matches with his, for a conversation which isn’t clear and loud will produce more irritation than any favorable effects on your score.

Remember at all steps that this is a test to check your ability to converse efficiently. So you should not be quiet.

You have three main aims here
1.yap,
2.yap and
3.yap!

The interview has three main parts:

1st part :

1st part of the interview starts with introduction.

The interviewer will ask your name, where you coming from ,your job ,your life and your interests.

The topic will change swiftly to some thing very common like the weather that day, or even traffic. Or you might be just asked to describe how did you reach the test center from home.

Do not hesitate.Sit back relaxed and make the conversation enjoyable.

The aim is to impress the interviewer and I believe that each one of us have our own style to do this;Use yours!

This part of interview lasts for not more than 4-5 minutes.The topics are of general interests and usually deal with the following :

. Your country of origin
. Your hometown
. How long you have lived there
. What you do: work or study
. Your interests and future plans
. why u want to go abroad
. are you aware of the situations there
. why this particular field interests you
. Shopping
. Your hobbies
. your family
. interesting places in your hometown - which one u like the most? Why? Whats the most interesting thing there? Would you like to change some thing there?
. climate/seasons
. festivals in your country
. traditions in your country

This is just a general overview to give you an idea of what exactly the 1st step consists of.
The topics may vary with the interviewer’s choice.

Make sure that you are fully aware of your future plans, the reasons why you are planning to go abroad, the competition in your field and any alternative plans you have if this one do not materialize.

Prepare your mind for these sort of questions.

Its definitely impossible to predict the questions but the idea is that always be prepared, for processed speaking always better than random speaking.

2nd Part :

Though its totally upto the interviewer to decide when the 1st part ends and 2nd part begins,you will be able to clearly identify that you are into the 2nd part when the interviewer says, “ Now I will give you a topic to speak on (and will hand over the card with the topic). You will be given 1 minute to think over it. You are allowed to make notes if you wish.”

The topics will be of general interest and something on which any one can speak on. It is carefully selected that it doesn’t requires any professional knowledge to speak on these topics.

Common Topics are :

-Your Favorite Tourist Destination : Where would you like to go? With whom?
-Your Favorite Home/place of living
-Men- Women Relationships
-Sports and Fitness
-What you think is the best way to combat stress
-Country living or City life : what you prefer and why
-Why do you think people go abroad for
-Family or friends : who is more important to you
-Pollution in cities
-Your view on technology : is it helpful?
-Education

There can innumerable topics here and this list is just to help you with the TYPE of topics usually allotted.

There will be sub topics or suggestions following the main topics, giving you the idea on which you need to elaborate.However, you should note that you can speak on any idea which isn’t mentioned in the sub topics,but should be related to the main topic.

The card will look something like this :

"Q. Describe a person from your youth who had a great influence on you:

You should say:
where you met them
what relationship this person was to you
what was special about them
and explain how they influenced you so much."

Utilize the one minute efficiently.Prepare your mind of what exactly u will speak on! Write down the key words quickly on the paper provided. Can remember any interesting incident or example? Quote it! This will make the conversation more interesting. Get ready and plan how exactly you r going to start.

For e.g. for the sample question above :
If say,I want to tell about one teacher who had greatly influenced me, my rapid 1 minute note will be something like this :

-Ida Borrison (note that, writing just the name prepared my answer for the main topic and next 2 sub questions as well.)
-teaching style
-school journal

These 3 words did not take more than 30 sec for me jot down, but will provide me enough matter for me to speak for the next 2-3 minutes.

Make sure that your start is correct and your every sentence is ‘propagative’ (i.e. automatically helps you start with the next sentence), rather than dead sentence ,which starts and ends by itself.

for the given e.g.,

a dead sentence would be like : My school teacher, Ida Borrison influenced me the most.

Note that though this sentence is on the topic asked and is grammatically correct , it will not help you much with your fluent conversation.

Perhaps I found that,if the FLOW of the conversation is good and you could involve the interviewer in whatever you speak, the interviewer will have no choice but to give you a great band.

A good start for the above e.g., could have been like,

O well, Ida Borrison was one person I just cannot forget. She was our English teacher when we were in 9 th standard. She taught us just for an year and then she got transferred .But that one year was so influencing that ....!

Note that,

Here the essence is, the candidate first told the name and then explained who she was. He met her when he was in 9th standard and he wants to talk about just 1 year he was in contact with her.

Note how gradually the conversation is propagating rather than jus saying , “ My school teacher, Ida Borrison influenced me the most.” and STOP!

Learn to master this when you start practising.
Learn to use sentences which automatically leads to the next one and there is no thought blocking.

This is the 2nd part of the interview and is regarded as the most important determinant of the final score.

You are supposed to speak for 2-3 minutes on this following which the interviewer will ask you to elaborate on certain points you have mentioned.

Don’t bother if the interviewer stops you and asks his question. Immediately change your concentration on the immediate question put forth to u.

3rd Part

Step 3 of the interview deals with the same topic but the interviewer will ask you more deeply and into the topic.

It will usually depend on what you have described in the 2nd part.

Don’t bother much. Speak as much as possible. Don’t bother if the you don’t know the exact answer to the question put forth by the examiner.

Don’t sit back and think that , “You don’t know”! Speak this aloud!

You are being judged on your speaking skill not the depth of your knowledge about traffic controls or teaching styles of different people(for e.g.).

The interviewer puts forward a certain question to prompt you to speak; The question should not make you silent.

This is the last part of interview and lasts for around 3-4 minutes.

Total duration of the interview varies from 11-14 minutes approximately.

Be polite through out. Do not overdo things. Just be yourself.

The Practice

Its always a good idea to practice speaking with a partner. Form a group, make a list of the topics and go ahead discussing one by one.

Make sure the number of persons in your study group should be just optimum.In my view, 2 are best and more than 3 is crowd. Of course,it also depends on ur own convenience and preference.

Don’t bother much if you r alone and cant find a study partner. Take a topic and practice speaking for 2-3 minutes at a stretch.

Record ur conversation while speak. Play ur recorded conversation later to find out what exactly are your mistakes and weakness and where you need to improve upon.

Fluency :

This measures your ability to speak without too many pauses and hesitations. It is also to do with how easily and clearly your ideas can be understood.

Some pauses are normal and acceptable for a good conversation. However, check if your pauses are just too frequent or too long.

Learn and choose, how exactly you would pause. “...aahhmm” is the most commonly used one.You can even use a gesture with your eyes,eyebrows or hands.

Watch interviews on TV and try and observe these small things and try to adopt it in your style.

Vocabulary :

A good vocabulary is a very strong point for your interview. But do you use all that you know when you speak? Well, most of us don’t!

Listen to your recorded conversation when you practice. Identify if you are using one particular word repeatedly. Find out if you can replace that with some another word (and same meaning).

Try using thesaurus and list down various words with similar meanings which you would use while speaking.

Do this for every topic you speak on.

You will be rich in no time.

However, learning new words is never easy and more difficult is to use a new word in your conversation,especially when you will be under stress at the time of the interview.

Keep this in mind when you learn a new word. Make sure you will be able to use it as easily as you use the other words you know.

New words can be learnt from dictionary, thesaurus. What I found as the best way for this is to sit with newspaper article with a pencil in hand and a dictionary by your side.

Mark any unfamiliar words, search the real meaning in the dictionary and then see how it has been used in the article. Try and use these words as much as u can till your brain gets adjusted to the new addition.

The following bbc link I found very useful for improving vocabulary :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/index.shtml

There are more resources here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml
Explore and find out what you need the most.

Pronunciation and Accent

Pronunciation is the most important factor in speaking. Most of the time it actually doesn’t matters if you don’t show off much of your vocabulary power with complicated words, but whatever you speak should be correctly prononunced.

You wont be aware of your wrong pronunciation till you actually think over it. Watch BBC (or even HBO or Star Movies). Note if your pronunciation is wrong.

How do u pronunce “HEART”, as ‘hurt’ or as ‘hart’.These are small things which you might have never thought on before,but beware, the interviewer is going to mark you on these.

Don’t bother much about the accent.Its always good to maintain a ‘neutral’ accent.

Remember that the Interviewer is usually a trained person from the city, where u r taking the test.Don’t TRY to introduce any foreign accent for the interview sake, the interviewers are trained to catch these.

Grammatical mistakes :

The variety of grammar you use and how correctly you use it are both judged by the interviewer. So, the range of tenses as well as the appropriate use of them is important in all parts of the Speaking test.

Don’t panic if you realize that you just spoke a grammatically wrong sentence. Go ahead and correct it. This is what we do in our day-to- day conversation, isn’t it? and the interviewer also gets to know that you actually know correct English.

Listen to your recorded conversation while practicing. Is it grammatically correct?

Ideas to speak:

Most candidates complain that though their English is good ,they have a good vocabulary and are strong with the grammar, too, yet they stop as soon as they start the conversation.Do you experience the same problem?

It is usually because we don’t get actually what we want to speak or rather it’s the scarcity of ideas.

You are what you know and you know what you read. So improve your ‘Idea Bank’.

Read articles on Men-Women,Technology, Sports, Pollution, Tourism and such general topics.

Prepare your mind for the ‘Personal Topics’ say, your most funny experience. Am sure you must have had many,but which one would you like to quote? Make sure its interesting and that you talk on it for at least 5 minutes at a stretch.

Prepare beforehand, what you will talk if you are asked to describe about yourself, your family, your job, your future plans or even your favorite tourist destination.
These topics should be at your finger tips.

Don’t mug up preformed speeches.Interviewers are trained to catch these.

Also, you should develop your own spontaneous conversation which should be as unique and interesting as you are.Try giving interesting examples.

The following link gives you a wide range of topics to practice on.Hope you find it useful.
http://www.writefix.com/ieltsspkg/

THE IELTS ACADEMIC SPEAKING TEST TUTORIAL

The IELTS Academic Speaking test is the shortest of the components of the IELTS test - only 11 to 14 minutes. In this short time you have to convince the examiner who will be speaking with you of your level of English.

The IELTS Academic Speaking Test is the same for both the Academic and General Training modules. The test is conducted with 1 examiner and 1 candidate. The Speaking test is recorded. The Speaking Test is divided into 3 sections:

Section 1

Section 1 begins with some general introductory questions. This is followed by some questions on personal information similar to the type of questions one would ask when meeting someone for the first time. Finally the examiner asks a series of questions of 2 topics of general interest. (4 - 5 minutes)

Section 2

Section 2 is a monologue (1 person speaking) by the candidate. The examiner will give the candidate a card with a subject and a few guiding questions on it. The student must talk for 1 to 2 minutes on this subject. The examiner decides on the exact length. The student has an optional 1 minute in order to prepare for his talk and is provided with some paper and a pencil in order to make some brief notes. After the candidate's talk the examiner will ask 1 or 2 brief questions in order to finish off the section. (3 - 4 minutes)

Section 3

Here the examiner will ask some more questions generally related to the subject spoken about in section 2. These questions will be more demanding and require some critical analysis on the part of the candidate. (4 - 5 minutes)

Question Types

The types of questions that come in the IELTS Academic Speaking Test are very general in nature and are designed so that anyone around the world, regardless of what background or culture they come from, should be able to answer them. The questions will not be overly personal and will avoid contentious subjects such as politics, *** or religion.

All the questions will be open questions rather than closed questions. An open question asks the candidate to give an extended answer, and so have the opportunity to show how good his English is. A closed question is one that can be answered by a single word or a couple of words. So, you will not get a question like:

Do you like living in your town?

A student could just answer yes. Any answers like this will just be followed by the question why? so you have to extend your answer (what you should have done after the "yes" anyway). Anyway, the question is more likely to be:

Why do you like living in your town?

Here the candidate has to give an explanation and therefore the examiner hears plenty of English which will help him or her evaluate you.

Marking - IELTS Academic Speaking Test Marks, Bands and Results

In the IELTS Academic Speaking Test you will be marked in 4 areas. These 4 areas are: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy and Pronunciation. For the first 3, you get a mark out of 9. For Pronunciation you get a 2, 4, 6 or 8. Finally an average is taken to give you your final band for the Speaking. Let's look at these areas in more detail.

Fluency and Coherence: The examiner grades your fluency, which is how easy, smooth and flowing your speaking is. To get a good grade here, any gaps in your speaking should be associated with searching for the right idea rather than hesitancy with finding the right word or structure. For the coherence part, the examiner looks at how easy you are to understand. Does your flow of ideas run smoothly, logically and with consistency? Do you communicate well?

Lexical Resource: This mark grades the range of words that you use in your speaking test and whether you use the words in the right way, at the right time and in the right place.
Grammatical Range and Resource: This mark grades your range of grammatical structures, your accuracy at producing them and whether you use the right structure at the right time and in the right place. This is the area that worries the candidates the most as it is the dreaded grammar. Remember it is only 1 part out of 4.

Pronunciation: This mark grades you on how clearly you speak English.

The Three Sections of the IELTS Academic Listening Test
Here we will look at the three sections in more detail. Remember, the IELTS test always tries to mirror situations that you will encounter as a student or immigrant in an English speaking country. The speaking test is no different and each of the sections has a specific purpose. Like all the different modules of the IELTS, the speaking gets more difficult as it goes on. The questions that are asked in Section 1 are easier than in Section 2 and so on. This does not mean that by Section 3 they are impossible but they are more demanding linguistically.

Section 1 (4 - 5 minutes)

This section is divided into three parts.
i) The first part involves general introductions. Here the examiner checks that he or she has the right person by checking the candidates name, origin and identification. This only takes a few seconds.
ii) In the second part the examiner asks some personal (not too personal so don't worry) questions about some familiar topics such as yourself, your family, your home or your work/study. These questions are the type that people would use when meeting someone for the first time. This should last for a couple of minutes.
iii) In the third part the examiner chooses 2 sets of questions from his selection. These sets of questions will cover general ideas on a theme of general interest.

Section 2 (3 - 4 minutes)

In this section the candidate has to give a small "speech" or monologue on a general subject chosen by the examiner. The examiner will hand you a card with the subject written on it, along with about three questions on the subject in order to guide and help your speaking. The examiner will then tell you that you have 1 minute to prepare your mini-talk and he or she will give you some paper and a pencil to make some notes during that minute. You can refer to your notes while you are speaking. After the minute, the examiner will ask you to start talking and you must talk on the subject until the examiner asks you to stop. After he has asked you to stop, he may ask you 1 or 2 general questions about what you have been discussing. You cannot ask the examiner for another card. You must use the one that he gives you.

Section 3 (4 - 5 minutes)

In Section 3 the examiner will ask you a series of questions thematically linked to the subject that you spoke about in Section 2. These questions will be of a more demanding nature and will require a more analytical and thoughtful answer. You will also probably need to use more complex language as regards grammatical structure and vocabulary.

How to do Better in the IELTS Academic Speaking Test

There are a number of things you can do to have a better performance in the IELTS Academic Speaking Test.

First of all practice. This is the key to all the different modules of IELTS. Below you will find a separate section devoted to practising the speaking.

When you are in the test, smile and look the examiner in the eye. Try and be friendly and look as though you are enjoying the conversation. This has a big effect on the examiner. If an examiner has to talk with someone who doesn't talk much, doesn't smile at all and who clearly doesn't want to be there, then it has a negative effect on the examiner. Being nervous is fine. The examiner understands that and will try and put you at ease. But be friendly. It makes a difference.

Don't worry about the occasional mistake. The examiner will expect some mistakes - after all, English is a foreign language for you and people make mistakes in speaking foreign languages. The examiner is not making a note of every single mistake that you make. This would be impossible to do and concentrate on your speaking. He will more get a general impression of your English accuracy so individual errors don't matter. More important is your communication.

You have to talk. Without your talking input, the examiner can't grade you very well. Try and give as full an answer as you can so that you show the examiner that you are comfortable at talking at length and can communicate well. Don't do this to extremes though. When you have finished what you have to say stop. Don't try and force more out as it will probably be strained and repetitive. The examiner will see that you have finished and will give you the next question. Similarly, you won't be able to answer all questions at length. Different people can talk about different questions more and the examiner knows this. If you don't know much about something, say so and then say what you do know. When you're finished, the examiner will give you another question. You can't duck out of every question though - the responsibility is on you to talk.

Don't try and be too clever. Just try and talk normally as that is when you will perform at your best. If you try and extend yourself too much, then that is when you will make the most errors.

Perfection is not needed. You can still make some errors and get a 9 (not many errors though). So don't let making errors upset you. Get on with the talking and concentrate on your communication.

One thing that puts candidates off is that the Speaking test is recorded. This is done so that, if necessary, the speaking can be re-marked. If the bands for a candidate's writing and speaking for instance are very different, then the candidate's test is re-checked. If the speaking was not recorded, then this could not be done. This doesn't happen very often. Sample recordings are also sent to the IELTS administration to be monitored to make sure that examiners are doing a good job and assigning the correct bands. So, try and forget that the recorder is there and get on with answering the questions.

Don't forget your ID! You need it at the start of the test.

Don't give yes/no answers unless you continue with a because. It gives a bad impression. If you do give a yes/now answer, you'll probably get a why next anyway.

Practice
As in all parts of the IELTS, this is the one thing that will really improve your band. There are various things that you can do to improve your performance.

Prepare the types of questions for each of the different sections.

Section 1
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In section 1 you start with personal questions such as about yourself, your family, your home or your work/study. So, sit down with your dictionary and try and think of all the vocabulary you would need to completely describe all parts of your life, home, family and work/study. Then sit down with a piece of paper and write down every question you can think of about these ideas. Try and come up with about 20. You can then practice them in 2 ways:

i) Get a friend to ask you the questions and practice giving long, full answers. Do this again and again. It doesn't matter if you do the same question frequently, as you will give better and better answers with more and more information. The more often you practice this, the better you'll get.

ii) If you don't have a friend who can do this, then you can do it by yourself. You just look at your list and imagine that someone has asked you the question. Then, off you go. You can do this sat at home, you can talk to the cat, the mirror or do it driving on the way to work. It may feel a bit strange at first, talking by yourself, but it works and you will improve. You don't have to do either method i or ii, you can mix both. It all helps.

In the second part of Section 1 you have to answer questions on themes of general interest. These are not complicated but are more demanding than the ones that you did in the part before. Let's say for example that the theme the examiner chooses is travelling. The examiner will have a set of questions to ask you. How many he asks depends on how long you talk for in your answers. The first question could be:

Do you enjoy traveling and why/why not?

Then this could be followed by:

Where would you like to travel to and why?

You can find other sample themes and questions in IELTS Practice Now Question Papers and from other sources. Once you have an idea of the types of theme and question, you can start to make your own examples and practice answering them in the ways (i and ii) above. I have done this with classes and it works very well. Students doing this, more often than not, come up with actual themes and questions from the test itself!!

Section 2
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Preparation and practice for Section 2 is similar to the practice in Section 1.You have to talk for 1 to 2 minutes in English. Speaking for this time in your own language is quite hard, so in a foreign language it is harder. The reason it is hard is that you don't often talk uninterrupted for 1 to 2 minutes about anything, whether it is in your language or English. So, how do you get better at it? By practising it again and again. Let's say that your task is as follows:

Describe a favourite holiday destination that you like.

You should say:

When you first went there.
How you get there.
What you do when you're there.
And explain why this place is so special for you.
So, you can see the format of this section. The practice procedure is as before. Check out other question types and soon you're be able to develop your own. Then practice them with someone or by yourself. Soon, talking for 2 minutes without stopping won't be a problem. Remember you don't have to talk fast or without breaks. They want you to talk normally. Talk at a normal speed, pause to take breaths and take time to consult your notes to give yourself ideas about what to talk about next.

The follow up question to end Section 2 is not so important that it needs to be practiced as it only requires a few words as an answer. An example question from the examiner for the subject above could be:

"Do you think I would enjoy a holiday in this place too?"

The candidate would just be expected to say something like:

"Oh yes, I think so."

Or:

"Maybe not. It might be too hot for you."

You can see that nothing very long is required.

At this point I'd like to explain about the 1 minute preparation time and the notes that you can write during it. First of all, use your preparation time and make notes. Before you begin your monologue, you will have 1 minute to prepare for it. Some people think that they don't need the time at all and will start straight away. Very often these people will dry up early and be at a loss about how to continue. Use your time. Someone starting straight away does not get any advantage at all over someone who takes the full minute to prepare.

So, what should you write in your notes? First of all, don't try and write out your whole talk word for word. You don't have enough time. Looking at the question above (which is a typical layout for this section) you can see that there is a main question (Describe a favourite holiday destination that you like.) and then 3 mini-questions following (Say when you first went there, how you get there what you do when you're there and explain why this place is so special for you).

These questions are here to help you as they give you ideas to talk about and give your talk a bit of structure. However, it asks you to talk about these things so you should talk about them. In your notes quickly jot down one or two ideas for each of the questions, so that they will remind you about things to talk about when you look at your notes during your talk. Finally, if you have time, maybe make a note of something from your own experience connected to the talking theme. When you are talking about something from your own experience, it is easier to talk at length. For example, for the question above, you could be just finishing and still have 45 seconds left to talk. You could be saying why the place is so special to you. As you run out of ideas you could give an example out of your own experience. You could say:

"Actually why I like the place so much is shown from something that happened to me the last time I was there. I was in a restaurant having some food and..."

The subject of your story doesn't matter as you are still on the subject of your talk. The main thing is that it's keeping you talking.

Section 3
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Section 3 really carries on from where Section 2 left off. The examiner will ask you questions that are thematically linked to the subject that you talked about in Section 2. For example, for the question we looked at above about a holiday destination, the examiner might choose to ask you questions about tourism and the airline industry. The examiner will have a set of questions to ask you. How many he asks depends on how long you talk for in your answers. None of the questions will be of a technical nature or require any specialist knowledge as that would be unfair, but you will be expected to give your opinion on what is asked you.

So, let's look at some examples.

Tourism

Can you predict any major changes that could happen in the Tourist Industry over the next 50 years?
Can you compare the tourist industry in your country today with the tourist industry when your grandparents were young?Can you identify some of the factors that have led to the Industry success of the airline industry?
Airline

Can you suggest any ways in which air travel could be made safer?
You can see that the questions here are more analytical and require more thought than the questions in the previous sections.

As regards practice, the procedure is as in the previous sections. You need to get someone to do the questions with you, or do them alone and then develop your own questions and practice with them. ieltshelpnow.com Practice Tests also provide practice and often we provide much fuller examples. Our tests are also at least half the price! The choice is yours.

Anyway, work hard and good luck with the IELTS Academic Speaking Test. I hope that this tutorial has helped you

Tips for The Listening Exam!!

2006-12-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

The IELTS listening part is RELATIVELY easy but this does not mean that you take it lightly and do not prepare for it.

Some tips:

1.The questions are in SETS and you hear tape recording for one set at a time.

2. Glance through the SET of questions for which you will be hearing the tape.

3.Read the questions & find out what SPECIFIC information is required (name, place, date, number etc)

4. Circle key words (Clue/trigger words)

5. When the tape plays listen intently when you think your specific information will come.

E.g.:

Q 1-5

1. Kevin is arriving London at __________

2. Dave will be waiting for Kevin at __________

3. Kevin will be wearing a ___________

4. Dave will be accompanied by ______________

5. Kevin is coming for______________

It is obvious from above that the key word for 1 is at & you will be writing TIME.

In 2 you will write a PLACE. In 3 CLOTHES, in 4 PERSON ACCOMPANYING DAVE & in 5 PURPOSE of visit. So you have already guessed what to listen for!

Listen to English program on RADIO at least half an hour a day. Two things are important; RADIO not TV, because TV is visual & scenes & visuals easily distract us. The next important thing is LISTEN & not just hear!

THE IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST TUTORIAL

2006-12-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

The Test Format

The IELTS Academic Reading Test has 3 sections. You have 60 minutes to complete the test. There is NO extra time at the end of the test to transfer your answers to the answer paper (you get 10 extra minutes in the listening test only); your answers must be on the answer paper at the end of the 60 minutes. The test has 40 questions based on a series of 3 texts. The total length of all the texts put together will be between 2000 and 2750 words. As in all the different parts of IELTS, the Academic Reading Test gets progressively harder through the paper. In each section of the Academic Reading Test there will be 1 text with 13 or maybe 14 questions to answer in 2 or 3 sets of differing formats. We will look at the types of question that you will meet later. The texts will come from magazines, books and journals and are written for general interest or for an academic though non-specialist reader. At least one text will contain a logical argument. One text may contain non-verbal materials such as a diagram, graph or illustration. If there are any words or terms of a specialist technical nature which candidates would not be expected to know, then a short glossary will be provided.

Marking
There are 40 questions in the IELTS Academic Reading Test and 1 mark is awarded for each correct answer. There are no half marks. Your final mark out of 40 is then converted to a band from 1 - 9 using a converting table and this band is then averaged with the other 3 parts of the test to give your final IELTS band. Band scores for the reading test and the final band are given as a whole band or a half band. The converting table used to change your mark out of 40 to the band out of 9 changes with every test. However, below you can see a rough guide that you can use to assess your practice. There is no guarantee that you will perform the same in the real test itself as the test converters vary with each test, but it can be a guide to your progress.

IELTS Academic Reading Test Marks, Bands and Results - Rough Guide Converter
Score Band
1
2-3
4-9
10-15
16-22
23-28
29-35
36-38
39-40 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

IELTS Academic Reading Test Question Types
Below is a list of the types of question that you could meet in the IELTS Academic Reading Test. It's useful to read the list of course, but the only way to really be familiar with the types of question is through practice. Click here to go to the Practice Page.

Multiple choice questions
Short answer questions
Completion questions: Completing sentences
Completing notes
Completing a summary (no word bank)
Completing a summary (with word bank)
Completing a diagram
Completing a flow chart
Completing a table
Matching a bank of headings to identify paragraphs or parts of text
Matching a bank of writers' views/claims/information with the writer
Identification of information in the text: yes/no/not given questions
true/false/not given questions
Matching lists/phrases
Classification questions
Some Tips for the IELTS Academic Reading Test
Don't spend too long on a single question as that will lose you time for answering questions that could be easier for you. Sometimes leaving a question and coming back later can help you answer it too. Leave any questions that you have spent too long on, and come back at the end of the test if you have time. Sometimes, if the question has a yes/no/not given answer, the answer you are looking for does not exist as it could be a not given. Be aware so you don't waste time looking for something that isn't there.

Read the questions and instructions so you don't make a silly mistake. For example, people often will mix the yes/no answers with the true/false answers and write yes as an answer instead of true or vice versa. Strictly speaking you are wrong although you have understood the question and answer.

If the question asks for one answer then give one answer. Giving two is wrong as it asks for one and you will be marked wrong. The type of question where this could happen would be: Give one example of... Writing two examples, to show you really understand, is wrong.

If the question asks for no more than 3 words, use no more than 3 words. Writing 4 words or more is wrong. You won't be asked to do it in 3 words or less unless it is possible so don't worry; it can always be done.

One area that students don't like is that, in the reading test, good grammar and spelling are important. The grammar part is not as important as you can't make many grammar errors in 3 words (the maximum you use in the reading test) but, if you spell something wrong, it will be marked as wrong. People think, quite rightly in my opinion, that the reading should test whether you understand what you read and not how you spell something but these are the rules. So, be careful about your spelling!

One constant discussion I have had with students is whether to read the questions first and then read the passage or read the passage first and then the questions. From my experience with many students my conclusion is that there is no correct answer for this. It depends on a number of variables. It can depend on the types of question and how difficult the questions are. It can depend on how good and fast a reader you are. It can depend on the length of the text and how much time you have. Let's look at these variables.

If the question type is difficult and asking something which is hard to answer then reading the text first can help. Just a quick read through using a technique called skimming (see below for an analysis of skimming) can give you the knowledge of the text that will help you find the answer more easily.

If you are a good, fast reader, then you can read the text quickly, getting good knowledge of the contents without using up too much precious time. This can help you answer the questions better.
If the texts are short then it doesn't take long to quickly read through them. On the other hand, if the texts are short it is easier to find the answers so you may not have to waste time reading the texts to find the answers quickly, especially if time is short.

If time is short then it doesn't matter how complex or long the texts are. You need to get some answers on the answer sheet as quickly as possible. So, you can see that there is not one answer to the problem of whether to read the texts or questions first. What I tell students is to experiment in your practice and see what suits you for the different types of question in different situations. As usual practising your techniques is the key.

Time management is an important thing to be aware of. You have a number of texts to read and 40 questions to answer in 1 hour. If you spend to long on one part, you may find that you have not enough time to finish all the questions and some of those questions could be ones that you could answer quite easily. As I said above, don't spend too long on a difficult answer but also keep an eye on the clock. It's a good idea to have your watch or a small clock on your desk so you know exactly how long you have left in the test at any given time. In addition to this, keep control on how long you spend on each section. Remember the test gets more difficult as it goes on so you will probably need more time for the questions at the end than for those at the start. Maybe a guideline could be:

17 minutes on section 1.

20 minutes on section 2.

23 minutes on section 3.

(If you can do things more quickly all the better as that will give you time to look at questions that you skipped and to check on your answers)
With experience and practice you will soon know how long things take you, and be able to manage your time well.

As I just said, if you have finished the exam with time to spare, DON'T just sit there!! Check what you have done. If you have time after the check, check again. And so on....

Reading Techniques - Skimming and Scanning
Skimming and scanning are the two main techniques that people use to read and answer IELTS reading tests. It's not a question of using one or the other but you will need both methods in doing the test. Let's have a look at the two techniques in turn.

Skimming
Skimming is reading fast to get the "gist" or the general idea of the text. There are different techniques of doing skimming. You can run your eyes over the text getting the general meaning, not stopping at words that you don't understand as this will slow you down. The important thing with skimming is speed. Another way to skim is to just read the first and last paragraphs of a text and summaries as well. You could also just read the title, subtitles and illustrations if there are any. I prefer for IELTS the first way - reading it all quickly to get the general meaning, but of course it depends on your reading speed. If you are a slow reader in English you really need to practise to improve. You don't need IELTS specific texts for this. A good English newspaper is fine. Get one every day and read the articles as quickly as you can. Do this with as many articles as possible every day and your speed will quickly improve.

Scanning
This is another very important technique for the IELTS Reading Tests. This is the technique that you use when you are reading a telephone book or a dictionary. You are not starting at the top and reading every line back and forth as you would read a novel. You are moving your eyes around the text, back and across and up and down. You are searching for some specific information: a word or name. This is an important technique in IELTS reading as you are often searching for some specific information. You read the question and then you search for key words or ideas associated with the question. This is a bit more difficult to practise than skimming. You get long texts (from newspapers, magazines or other sources) and get a friend to read it and then ask you to find key ideas or words as quickly as possible. Again, if you do this frequently, your speed will quickly improve.

If you want to improve, there's no secret. Practice. Practice. Practice. You won't get better sitting and doing nothing. Even good English users need practice for the IELTS exam. It could make all the difference between your getting the band that you need, and getting half a band less than you need and having to wait 3 months to do the exam again.

Finally, there are no correct answers or methods. Here I've given you some ideas to guide you and hopefully to help you but the questions can be answered well in different ways. Good luck with the IELTS Academic Listening Test! I hope that this tutorial has helped you.

ACADEMIC READING

2006-12-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

The Academic Reading Module takes 60 minutes. There are 40 questions. There are three reading passages with a total of 1500 to 2000 words.

Tests are taken from magazines, journals, books, and newspapers. At least one text contains detailed logical argument. One text may contain non-verbal materials such as diagrams, graphs or illustrations.

A variety of questions are used, chosen from the following types:

· -Multiple choice

· -Short-answer questions

· -Sentence completion

· -Notes/ summary/ diagram/ flow chart/ table completion

· -Choosing from a \"heading bank\" for identified paragraphs/ sections of the text

· -Identification of writer's views / attitudes/ claims

· -Classification

· -Matching lists / phrases

Texts and questions appear on a Question Paper which candidates can write on but not remove from the test room. All answers must be entered on an Answer Sheet during the 60-minute test. No extra time is allowed to transfer answers

In reading part one must follow the following part to solve it

(1) In the reading part one have to read & understand, THE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PASSAGE

(2). Read the questions FIRST & remember them. Circle key words on the QUESTIONS like dates, names, places etc. This is so that you can have an idea of the type of information you will be looking for & when you are reading the passage these key words/triggers will ring a bell.

(3). Read instructions carefully. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT because this is a READING test. You have to read instructions also

(4). Read the first Para & glance through the questions and think if you can answer any question.

(5). Read other paragraph & do the same

(6). While reading paragraph also encircle the key words in the paragraph.

(7). Remember one thing, all the questions in ONE PARTICULAR SET are in a sequence & order and SO is the information in the paragraph. So is you answer 1 of a SET then logically the info in the paragraph is for 2 and so on.

(8). Do at least one hour of reading daily in quiet place & try to read 6 pages.

(9). Daily in the night attempts just one passages (not three)& do it in 20 minutes.

IELTS: Facts Not Many People Know - by Simone Braverman

2006-12-10T11:15:00.001-08:00

There are many aspects in IELTS that people find surprising, usually when it hits them hard. It is quite a paradox – the information is right there, available to everyone, yet people are still in the dark. Allow me to draw your attention to several facts you don’t want to be surprised about.

Usually extensive answer is considered a very good one, but not in IELTS. When instructions say “give one answer” or “answer in 3 words”, it means “give us two answers or 4 words and we’ll fail you”. The reason for this limit is quite simple and obvious – there is not enough room for more than 3 words on Answer Sheet. By the way, articles “a” and “the” count as one word, while common assumption is that they don’t.

People tend to forget that they are graded by Answer Sheet and not by what they wrote in IELTS booklet. Any correct answer not copied to Answer Sheet will result in exactly 0 points. There is an option of submitting appeal and requesting to read your answers from the booklet, but it takes time and costs money.

Not many people think about what they are going to write with, pen or pencil. Yet there are rules: the Listening and Reading answers are to be written in pencil and Writing - in pen. This is another example of how small details can be very significant in IELTS.

Writing and Speaking are graded differently from Listening and Reading. There is no half band grade, which means it is impossible to get 6.5 in either Writing or Speaking. The reason is the way examiners are currently trained, but hopefully it will change in the future (according to official IELTS site maybe even in 2007).

In Reading and Listening tests the spelling is important, meaning one can loose points for misspelled words. The best way to overcome the spelling problem is to copy words. In case of Reading, copying words from text is a very easy and natural thing to do. In Listening test, as simple as it may sound, it is best to write what you hear and not to rephrase. It is acceptable to skip words – after all there is 3 words limit, as long as the important words are not substituted by their synonyms.

And at last some good news: starting from May 2006 candidates don’t need to wait 90 days to retake the test. The 90-day waiting period has been canceled to the joy of those who have no time to waste.

About The Author
Simone Braverman is the author of "ACE The IELTS" e-Book. She once had to take the IELTS test to open a door to a dream. Her curiosity pushed her towards researching into different aspects of IELTS test.

IELTS: 10 Mistakes You Must Avoid - by Simone Braverman

2006-12-10T11:11:00.000-08:00

The process of studying for IELTS can be overwhelming. It always is of great importance to one’s future and the stakes are usually high. Among countless rules of IELTS it is easy to loose focus and begin drifting in the wrong direction, especially when you have nobody to guide you. This is the reason why people don’t receive the score they really deserve. Here are the top 10 mistakes IELTS candidates make.

Give more answers than necessary
As I have already mentioned in one of the previous articles, instructions are there for a reason. If they say “give one answer” or “answer in 3 words”, this is exactly what the examiners will be looking for, and if they find two answers or four words – points are lost forever.

Write answers in the booklet, not on the Answer Sheet
Of course, writing answers on the booklet margins looks more natural then having to copy them to some special Answer Sheet. Well, surprise – the only answers IELTS examiners count are those copied to the Answer Sheet. Every answer written on booklet margins only scores zero.

Lose track of time
During Reading and Writing sections it is candidates’ responsibility to manage their own time. No one will tell you to stop working on the current task and to move forward to the next one. So, in worst case scenario, you could spend all the time working on just one passage, when there are 3 more to go.

Waste a lot of time on one hard question
All IELTS questions are of different difficulty. It is wrong to assume that every next question will be harder than the previous one. This is why getting stuck on one hard question is a bad idea. By moving forward to some easier questions you could win points, which otherwise would be lost.

Read the whole passage first in Reading section
Those passages are not meant to be read. It is enough to scan through the text, noticing what the text is about and what the purpose of each paragraph is. After getting familiar with the passage, it is the time to read questions and look for answers.

Assume they know the answer
There is an old saying “Assumptions are the mother of all mess-ups”. Many people walk right into this trap, by reading the question and assuming that they already know the answer from their experience or general knowledge. What a mistake! The answer is what is written in the passage and not what comes first to your mind. If, for example, the question is “Does smoking cause cancer” and your mind says ”Yes” but the passage says “No”, then “No” is the correct answer.

Copy the task in Writing section
Let me list reasons why this would be a mistake. First, instructions forbid this. Second, you don’t get any points for it. Third, it wastes precious time you could use writing something meaningful.

Not checking the answers
It is only human to make mistakes and there is nothing wrong in admitting it. This is a good enough reason to check and double-check your answers if there is time left.

Trying to impress the examiner
What usually happens when a person starts trying to impress the examiner is usually the opposite. Be the best you can at your level, don’t try to claim a higher level you are not at. Don’t start trying to use super complex sentences or big smart words (without being sure what they mean).

Answering with “Yes” or “No”
When examiner is asking you a question, it is not the answer he is after. His goal is to make you speak. As for you, every chance to speak is an opportunity to show how fluent your English is. Answering with “Yes” or “No” ruins every chance of good grade.

About The Author
Simone Braverman is the author of "ACE The IELTS" e-Book. She once had to take the IELTS test to open a door to a dream. Her curiosity pushed her towards researching into different aspects of IELTS test.

What is IELTS??

2006-12-10T10:49:00.001-08:00

What is IELTS exam

IELTS is International English Language Testing System. It is an exam intended for non-native English speakers. Its purpose is to find out what is your level of English (your result is a band score from 0 to 9). Usually you need to take IELTS if you are applying for a job/studies in a college or university in English-speaking country or if you are migrating to such country. There are 2 types of IELTS test - Academic and General. Academic is for future students and General is for immigrants.

The IELTS Routine

The IELTS test consists of four parts in the following order

1 Listening

2 Reading

3 Writing

4 Speaking

Listening takes about 30 minutes - 20 minutes to listen to a tape and to answer questions on what you hear, and 10 minutes to transfer your answers to Answer Sheet.

Reading takes 1 hour and your task is to read passages of text and answer questions according to what you have read. There are also other types of assignments which I will cover later on in following posts.

Writing takes also 1 hour and is divided into 2 sub-parts: 20 minutes to write a letter and 40 minutes to write an essay.

Speaking takes up to 15 minutes and consists of 3 parts: Personal Interview, Little Speech and a Discussion.

All the parts continue one after another, and only before Speaking you get a little break.

The IELTS test formalities

When it becomes clear to you that you need to take IELTS, you’ll have to go through some formalities - which are:

1. Call your local IELTS test centre and find out the dates when you can take IELTS and how much it costs. Note: the dates could be different for Academic and General IELTS.

2. Download and print the application form, fill it, enclose your photos, copy of identification and, of course, the money and send it to your local IELTS centre.

3. Make sure they received it and scheduled you to take the test on the date you have chosen.