How to study and practice for the IELTS exam – part 1

It’s not easy having an IELTS exam, and some advices on how to complete it successfully are necessary to do it well. There might be many reasons you have to take the IELTS exam, most common reasons are either work or study related. But don’t worry; we will look at how to complete it somehow successfully.

In my first posting I will look a bit on how the exam is build up. By knowing how the exam is working we can more easily feel relax, and more easily get acceptable result. I am sure you worry a lot; and with good reason. The IELTS exam is among the most difficult tests to prove your English skills. However; it is necessary to prove your ability to use the language well during your studies or work period. Luckily we don’t have to memorize a lot for this exam. But we need to have the vocabulary prepared, and we have time as our largest enemy.

The exam is divided to four parts:

Reading: this test is divided to three separate texts with approximate 5-900 words. You will be presented with about 40 questions. For each question the difficulty will increase. This part will consume about 60 minutes of your exam.

Writing: This is a semi difficult task. Depending on how skilled you are in using the English language. The writing is divided to two separate parts; first task will be to describe graphs, or pies giving statistical information. This part requires writing 150 words and taking about 20 minutes of your time. Task two is bit simpler or more difficult, depending of you as candidate. It’s to write a essay on a chosen topic. The essay need to be about 250 words, and will take about 40 minutes to complete.

Listening: This is a relatively simple task; you will listen to four different units. The first units will be dialogs between people, and last units will be general purpose monologues of educational purpose. You will listen to these units for a total of twenty minutes. After listening, you as a candidate have about ten minutes to answer questions you are given.

Speaking: Many find this part the most difficult. Not because it’s any more difficult than any other tests, but it require you to speak. Many have a fear of speaking in presentations or interviews by nature. There is however no need to be afraid; the examiner is not there to launch you or make you fail. He/she will make a simple conversation with you; often starting to talk about you as a person. Often these questions are based upon the information you provided when you applied for the exam. Later you might talk some general topics. The most important to keep in mind is to keep a fluent conversation. Not to think or hesitate a lot while thinking as this could make it look as if you are searching for words to use. The spoken part will be finished after about 15 minutes.

Now we have looked briefly at the four parts of the exam. We will look at ways to improve our English before we enter the IELTS exam for a great result in later postings.