PREPARING FOR IELTS
IELTS, short for International English Language Testing System is an international standardised English language examination. It tests the English language proficiency of English language speakers whose mother tongue is not English. It is conducted by the British Council, and the test score is valid for two years.
IELTS scores are used by a vast number of institutions and organizations to examine whether your English Language skills will be suited for the position you are applying for. It is used by immigration services, admissions and for job hiring purposes. The test is available in around 130 countries at more than 1,100 locations.
There are two kinds of IELTS tests. Depending on the reason behind why you are applying and where you are applying to, you can take the IELTS Academic or IELTS General Training. For academic purposes, you should opt for the IELTS Academic test. If you wish to migrate to an English-speaking country then you need to appear the IELTS General.
IELTS coaching is the best way to proceed for preparing for the exam to get perfect preparation and ace IELTS in the first go.
The IELTS test lasts for a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes. The Listening part consists of 40 questions which you have to complete in 30 minutes. The Academic Reading part consists of 40 questions which you have to complete in 60 minutes. The Academic Writing part requires you to complete two writing tasks within 60 minutes. The Speaking part s about to 14 minutes long and has three parts. During the speaking part, you need to have a conversation with an examiner.
According to the British Council, if you score a 9 on the exam, you’re an expert in English, whereas if you score an 8, you’re very good at English and so on.
Table of Contents
IELTS Writing Components
A test taker’s IELTS Writing score/ bands will be the average score of each of the following four skills:
Task Achievement:
Students have to correctly follow the instructions in the given prompt, and answer the question or perform the task completely and clearly.
Coherence and Cohesion:
Coherence and Cohesion measure the structure and ability of the student’s writing. It tests how well-organized the essays and paragraphs are, whether or not the writing is useful and clear and the relevance of the ideas and details to the writing.
Lexical Resource:
This measures the student’s ability to use a range of vocabulary words clearly, accurately and appropriately.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy:
In this section of writing, test takers have to use varied sentence structure as needed, while using grammar which is correct and appropriate.
IELTS Speaking Component
IELTS Speaking Descriptors are divided into four categories:
Fluency and Coherence:
This is the ‘master category’ which tests the student’s ability to speak in English.To be fluent and coherent, a student must show comfort and confidence with their grasp of the language while answering the interview questions.
Lexical resource:
This category is all about vocabulary, and whether or not the student uses a good range of English words and idioms accurately while speaking.
Grammatical range and accuracy: To score well in this category, students have to use a variety of grammatical forms, and use them correctly and appropriately.
Pronunciation:
This category measures how well students make the consonant and vowel sounds in English words while the speaker says them out loud. Proper word stress and intonation are also important for scoring well in this category.
This IELTS preparation guide will help you score well:
- Start your preparation early. You should ideally begin your preparation for the test a couple of months before you are supposed to appear for it. You should be consistent with preparing for it and monitoring your progress frequently, in the form of practice tests.
- Learn English grammar in a systematic way, without trying to rote learn. Try to apply grammar syntax in sentences and spoken sentences and do not try to learn them blindly.
- Practise using your English skills in four ways: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
- Take every chance to communicate in English, orally and in writing. Whenever you can, choose to speak in English and practice writing as well. The more you practice, the more fluent you shall become.
- Try to enrich your vocabulary of the English language. Aim to learn at least 10 new words from different areas every day. If the words are difficult or different, you can maintain a notebook to keep track of them. You can keep going back to this list for revision.
- Read longer texts specialised in different areas like economics, finance, culture, history, sciences and so on.
- Watch visuals in English. You can do this by listening to the news and by watching documentaries and movies in English.
- Practise talking with other English speakers about yourself. This can entail you describing your hobbies, interests, everyday life or anything of your choice.
- Towards the end of your IELTS preparation, start practising full-length tests with a timer under realistic conditions for several weeks before the test date. You should continue doing this repeatedly until you are satisfied with your English proficiency.
Following this guide, along with an optimistic lookout for the test will help you score well.