Guide for IELTS General Module
I took IELTS-General test recently(April 2015) for migration purposes and thought to share some useful information with you all.
IELTS General Test is typically for those who are going to English-speaking countries for working purposes. Altogether, there are four modules, Reading, Listening, Speaking & Writing. Most of the time, you will be required to have 7 in each section for countries like Australia.
What you have to do first is understand your strengths and weaknesses in these four modules. For that, you can take couple of tests in Cambridge ITELS series and check how good you are in Reading and Listening.
Below is the link to download Cambridge IELTS guide as well as other related materials for free.
http://dxschool.org/ielts/
However, this will not help you in grading your level for writing and speaking because you need someone’s assistance who knows well about IELTS. Do not worry; there are some Skype and Facebook groups of students who are preparing for IELTS. You can post your essays there and can have a feedback from peers on your writing. Check with following groups;
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IELTSPLAB/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ielts.chase7/
After you acquired a general idea about your skills, keep on practicing for your targeting band. Keep in mind that the success of IELTS is only through practicing, practicing and practicing.
Now, I will go through each module and provide you some valuable tips.
- Reading
- Try completing first few sections which are the easiest of all as quickly as possible using skimming and scanning techniques. So that, enough time(20-25 minutes) will remain for the last big section
- Since true/false/NG questions are quiet tricky, I used to save more time to answer this type of question.
- First read the topic of the text and then the questions. Thereafter, try to find the answers for each question. Never try reading through whole passage first. Do scanning to find the place in the text for an answer of a question and you should do intensive reading only after finding the exact place.
- If you can't find an answer, do not spend much time on it and just mark it for later reference and continue with other sections
Finally, for reading module, if you clearly know the skimming and scanning techniques + how to utilize time effectively, then it is not a big deal to score above 7.
- Listening
- Speaking
- Writing
- Never consume more than 20 minutes for the letter as it worth only 3 marks of all 9.
- Essay is worth 6 marks, so that try completing the essay within 35 minutes, keep 5 minutes at the end for proof reading.
- You have to use enough vocabulary for the given topic.
- Use different grammatical structures and lexical resources in your writing.
- Write more complex and compound sentences along with a few simple sentences. Then only you can achieve more than band 7 because examiner measures how well you are handling complex sentences.
WRITING MADE EASY
(This book is available @ British Council Library)
Guide for you to choose the test venue.
- Try reserving a test date at least 2 months in advance. Otherwise, your desired test date might not be available. (@ACBT, there is a heavy queue compared to British council)
- There are mainly two institutes providing IELTS tests in Sri Lanka; British Council and ACBT (IDP center)
- British council exams are well organized compared to ACBT, BC conducts exams under real examination conditions.
I have taken the test in both of these centers and following are my observations;
- For listening, BC provides head phones while ACBT is providing class room speakers. For me, this makes no difference. However, if you feel more comfortable with head phones then choose British Council.
- For Speaking, most of the ACBT examiners are friendlier and tend to score more than those examiners in British Council. For example, if a student gets 6.5 from British council, it is more probable that the same student getting 7 for the same speech test if he does the test at ACBT. Thus, if you are weak in Speaking, put this fact into consideration in selecting a test venue.
- For writing, it is the contrast of speaking. British council people tend to score more than ACBT people in writing. This is what I have observed from my friends and myself. It is quite hard to get 7 or more at ACBT if you are in average level. Thus; I would recommend British council for scoring 7 in writing.
- Moreover, I recommend you to get the membership of British council library (which cost about Rs.2500 for annual membership) since their library is very rich with IELTS materials. Even though you do not have the membership, you will be granted a reference membership for free until you take the exam if you book your test @British council.
- ACBT conducts one-day workshops for reading and writing. For me, writing workshop was a useless, but reading workshop was really helpful; the teacher who conducted reading workshop did a great job.
- If you have registered for the test @ACBT then you are entitled to use their IELTS resources library for free one week prior to the test date. There is a teacher in that library to help you to check your writing and all. But only a few IELTS materials are available there
Some useful blogs;
A really good site ===> http://ieltsadvantage.com/
http://www.ieltsbuddy.com/
Feel free to leave a message if you need any help regards to IELTS.
Good Luck......
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