Complete IELTS Guide

IELTS

With your high hopes and aspirations to pursue your dream career abroad, you have decided to take the first step and that is getting a good score in your IELTS test. But what is IELTS? What is it about? How do you ace this test? Why is getting a good band score considered difficult? If you’re searching to find answers to these questions, you’ve landed on the right page.

WHAT IS IELTS?

IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System. IELTS is one of the most popular English proficiency tests worldwide, it’s a standard requirement for any person wishing to study or work in a place where English is used as the language of communication to take up the IELTS. The IELTS provides a nine-band scale to measure the language proficiency of people who take up the test where Band 1 ranks them a non-user and Band 9 ranks them as an expert.  Dedicated efforts and prominent hard work are all you need to get a high score.  With that hard-earned IELTS score, you can explore various career choices abroad.

WHO CAN TAKE UP THE TEST?

If you’re a student who has always aspired to pursue your higher studies in an English speaking country like the UK or USA, taking up the IELTS is probably the first thing on your list.  Or, if you’re looking to migrate to an English speaking country, IELTS is mandatory.

TEST PATTERN

No matter which tests you’re preparing for, getting to know the test pattern is always the best place to start from. The IELTS test format is designed in such a way that it encourages the use of English in different scenarios in real life.  There are two versions of the IELTS test, General and Academic Training. Both the versions consist of four major sections namely, Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Only the Reading and the Writing sections vary in the two versions.

Listening – 30 minutes

In this section, the candidate will be required to listen to four recordings and to answer the series of questions that follow.

Reading – 60 minutes

This section comprises of a set of 40 questions which test your reading skills such as understanding the main idea or purpose of a passage, skimming, etc.

Writing-60 minutes

The IELTS Academic test requires you to summarise and explain based on a given graph, chart or diagram.  The second task includes writing an essay in response to an argument or a problem.

The General version includes letter writing in response to a given situation and an essay writing task.

Speaking – 11-14 minutes

This main purpose of this section is to test your use of spoken English.

The first part is more like a self-introductory phase where the examiner will ask you general questions about yourself and your family and other similar topics. Following that, you will be asked to talk on a particular topic with a one minute preparation time. Finally, you will be asked further questions on that particular topic.

IELTS SCORING

IELTS makes use of a band marked from 1-9.

 

PREPARATION

Now that we know what IELTS is all about, how do get a good score. Well, the answer to this lies in your preparation. You need to be specifically prepared to answer the kind of questions that appear in your IELTS. A lot of online study materials are available to help you out in this tedious process. You can make use of the various online sample tests to get familiarized with the type of questions and to grab the overall idea. Your IELTS preparation cannot happen overnight. That would just be considered preposterous. If you’re aspiring to succeed in your career abroad, start today, start now.

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