All You Want to Know About IELTS

IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System.

It’s an examination enrooted world’s foremost experts and used globally by Universities and colleges to measure the competency of people who wish to study or work in an English Speaking Country.

In United Arab Emirates, there are two registered centers i-e British Council and IDP. They give accreditation to test centers and examiners. Centers may be at colleges, universities or on British Council and IDP premises.

Candidates can opt for the Academic or the General tests. Both the Modules evaluate your aptitude in Listening, Reading Writing & Speaking. Students should be at least at the Intermediate level of English language acquisition.

Listening Test is same for Academic and General Test Taker. It is a recorded audio and the audio is played once only. There are four sections and 40 different types of questions such as:

• Multiple choice
• Matching
• Plan/map/diagram labelling
• Form and note completion
• Table completion
• Flow-chart completion
• Sentence completion

Section1: talking between two people set in daily social context (frequently telephone conversation)

Section2: monologue set in everyday social context (often talk from a guide)

Section3: a conversation between people set in an educational or training context (often academic discussion)

Section4: monologue on an academic lecture

Listening Test is marked clerically, grounded on correct and incorrect answers.  

Reading Test duration: 60 minutes, no answer transfer time

Recommended time for each part: 20 minutes

Questions: 40 items

Test Parts: 3 Paragraphs in Academic and 3 sections in General Training.

Academic Reading

• 3 Paragraphs 
• Authentic Text and taken from books, journals, magazines and newspaper articles
•  3 paragraphs with an overall text length of 2,150-2,750 words
• May contain non-verbal materials such as diagrams and articles

General Training Reading

• Section 1 comprises two or three factual texts. Topics are related to everyday life in an English-speaking country.
• Section 2 holds two factual texts focusing on work-related issues
• Section 3 contains one longer, more intricate text on topics of general interest.
• Texts are authentic taken from notices, ads, company handbook, books, magazines, newspaper, and official document.

Reading Test is marked clerically, grounded on correct and incorrect answers.  

Writing Test

There are two tasks (you should spend about 20 minutes on task one and about 40 minutes on task two. Task two is worth twice as many marks as task one.)

Task 1: You have to write at least 150 words.

Task 2: You have to write at least 250 words.

Academic Writing Test

Task 1: Presents a table, graph (Line/Bar), chart (Pie/Flow), Map, diagram etc.

Candidate will define in own words, information contained in graphs, diagrams, tables and charts given.

Task 2: Essay writing in response to a topic which is presented as a point of view, argument or a problem

Response for both tasks should be written in a formal style.

General Training Writing Test

Task 1 is a Letter writing in response to an everyday situation or problem.  The letter may be personal, semi-formal or formal in style.

Task 2 is an Essay writing in response to a point of view, argument or problem. The essay can be slightly more personal in style than Academic.

Writing is marked by TA/TR, CC, LR, GRA (Task achievement/Response, Cohesion & Coherence, Lexical Resource, and Grammar Range & Accuracy)

Speaking Test is same for General Training & Academic. The duration is 11-14 minutes. It is a face-to-face interview with an examiner. This test is given individually, so it’s only the candidate and the examiner however the speaking test is recorded.

Speaking is measured by Fluency & Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammar, and Pronunciation.

Importance of Spelling:

In listening and Reading Test, because the answer is no more than 3 words and or a number. So, if spelling is incorrect then your answer is incorrect. However, In Writing Test, 25% Score is for Lexical Resource that means vocabulary. So if your spelling is incorrect 25% Score will be affected. 

How IELTS Band Score is calculated?

An easy to use 9 - band scale clearly identifies proficiency level, from non-user (band score 1) through to expert (band score 9).

Overall, IELTS Band score is 9 that is an average of four modules Listening, Reading, Writing & Speaking. To be more specific:

Module	Total	Obtained (Example)
Listening	9	7
Reading	9	6
Writing	9	6
Speaking	9	7
Overall	9	26/4= 6.5

 

An easy to use 9 - band scale clearly identifies proficiency level, from non-user (band score 1) through to expert (band score 9).

If a student gets a score of Listening 7, Reading 6, Writing 6 and Speaking 7 then, 7+6+6+7= 26 / 4 = 6.5.