IELTS Test 101 – Everything required for IELTS Test success

Get started on your IELTS Test preparation with a free resource before paying for IELTS Test preparation lessons, this free information, coupled with the articles on the website, is designed to get you up and running with the fundamentals of IELTS Test preparation.

On this page you will find links to more detailed free information describing each of the skills IELTS Test candidates need for IELTS Listening; IELTS Reading; IELTS Writing and IELTS Speaking.

What is the IELTS Test?

The IELTS Test is an English proficiency test and is used either for general or academic purposes. Most English speaking countries now require immigrants to those countries to demonstrate an appropriate level of competence in English before they are allowed to work, study or live in those countries.

What a student wishes to do is what decides the level of proficiency required. Doctors and other professionals, for example, are required to demonstrate very high standards in English.

My English is good; won’t getting a high score be easy?

No.

In fact, obtaining the highest IELTS Test band scores of 8 or 9 is extremely difficult. So difficult that only a small percentage of native speakers would achieve them.

This is where IELTS Test preparation and coaching helps. As with any test, there are techniques which can be applied to avoid mark-losing mistakes.

So if I just learn test techniques, will I get high marks?

No.

A lack of broader English knowledge will be uncovered during the test.

Being a standardised test, the IELTS Test is objective and accurate. The test, from preparation to actual examination, involves processes that cannot be taken for granted.

Fundamentally, the IELTS Test is an English test, so good English needs to be demonstrated to the examiner to earn high band scores.

To demonstrate good English proficiency, candidates must be able to combine a knowledge of the test format and skills with an extensive knowledge of English. This can only really be achieved through good knowledge of relevant aspects of the language, coupled with a detailed understanding of what is required to achieve the desired band scores in each part of the IELTS Test.

Candidates need good English AND a good understanding of the techniques needed to get higher band scores in the IELTS Test.

What are the Components of the IELTS Test?

The IELTS Test diagnoses the two receptive skills (Listening and Reading) and the two productive skills (Writing and Speaking) of the English language. Only the IELTS Reading and the IELTS Writing Task 1 tests vary between the general and the academic modules.

The receptive skills require practice, immersion, and testing, which can be undertaken individually with the aid of practice materials and resources. While the productive skills require the same, professional assistance is also invaluable. In fact, most students benefit most from preparation time spent with an IELTS Test expert or a coach.

Some, a very few, candidates are able to produce writing of very high standard without coaching.

However, for most IELTS Test candidates, writing needs to be honed through interactive feedback, mock assessments, and drills. Speaking can be practised with other candidates and English speakers, although it will only really be mastered through guided interviews, mock interviews, mock assessments, and interactive feedback with an IELTS Test professional.

IELTS Writing and IELTS Speaking is not the same as English writing and speaking.

To perform well and achieve high band scores, IELTS candidates should seek coaching from a professional to ensure their practise is focussed towards the skills required to be demonstrated in the IELTS Test.

What Skills are required for success in the IELTS Test?

The answer to this question is easy. The skills needed by IELTS Test candidates are those which enable enough of a high standard of English to be demonstrated to the IELTS Test examiner.

The single issue that almost every candidate faces in the IELTS Test is the lack of time to understand the questions asked and provide a sufficiently high quality answer – one which satisfies the IELTS Test criteria for the higher band scores.

So the skills needed in the IELTS Test are those which improve speed:

• of question understanding
• and, high quality English response – fit to be examined!

Skills List for IELTS Test Candidates

The following list details the range of skills IELTS Test candidates need to develop to perform well in the IELTS Test. Some of the skills are aimed at rapid assimilation of the IELTS Test questions, some help students to quickly prepare their question responses and some focus attention on using more complicated – and band score enhancing! – English vocabulary and grammar.

IELTS Listening

• Skimming any written instructions, question stems and choices
• Determining and relating key words and synonyms
• Multi-tasking: listening, thinking, and writing
• Predicting through common collocations
• Predicting and Time Management
• Language for direction and distance relations
• Spelling: Importance and Strategies for Improvement
• Unlocking Difficulties through Synonyms

Click here for a more detailed description of IELTS Listening and what is required.

IELTS Reading

• Identifying the main idea through keywords and paraphrasing
• Determining Topic Sentences and Paraphrases
• Understanding unfamiliar words/phrases using context clues
• Skimming
• Scanning
• Grammar: sentence structure and pattern
• Grammar: word classification and collocation
• Finding and understanding recurring words
• Understanding the introductory paragraph: thesis statement. Understanding the body: the topic sentence in each paragraph; major and minor supporting sentences
• Understanding the concluding paragraph: common types

Click here for a more detailed description of IELTS Reading and what is required.

IELTS Writing Task 1(Academic)

• Understanding the question
• Being able to paraphrase these words/expressions in the answer
• In the Introduction/Overview
• Describe the general information in  the diagram
• Comment on the general trend

In the body

• Decide on the necessary information
• The most/the least/similar
• Decide how to write about the information
• A paragraph each or compare all three ideas at a time
• How to link the paragraphs
• How to link the ideas inside the paragraph
• Know a variety of verbs to describe the 3 points
• Know expressions to compare and contrast
• Know useful collocations
• Know examples of complex grammar

The conclusion (not necessary if you have mentioned the general trend already)

• A review of what has been described

Click here for a more detailed description of IELTS Writing Task 1 and what is required.

IELTS Writing Task 2

• Reading and analysing the question
• Essay format: planning and outlining
• Brainstorming for good ideas and opinions
• The introductory paragraph: thesis statement
• The Body: topic sentence; major and minor details
• Time Management
• Linking Devices and Expressions/collocations
• Complex grammar
• The Conclusion: restatement or summary
• Common mistakes: syntax and lexis

Click here for a more detailed description of IELTS Writing Task 2 and what is required.

IELTS Speaking

• Reading and analysing the question
• Planning and outlining
• Brainstorming for good ideas and opinions
• The introduction: use the first line of the presentation question as a   speaking equivalent of the thesis statement
• The Body: topic sentence for each bullet point of the question; major and minor details/examples
• Time Management
• Linking Devices and Expressions/collocations/complex grammar
• The Conclusion: a summary of the last line in the presentation question
• Common mistakes: syntax and lexis

Click here for a more detailed description of IELTS Speaking and what is required.

The members only area of the Pass IELTS Higher website contains lessons for each of these skills – covered through a straightforward lecture and demonstration, goal-oriented activities (with model answers), and practical applications. Click here to learn how to get access.

 

How to Prepare for the IELTS Exam

Assuming you have a substantial foundation of the English language already, you are now supposed to be ready to embark on a new journey – your IELTS Test Preparation.

Every person’s learning style is unique. So, when taking Preparation/Training courses/classes, try to tailor your IELTS Test preparation to your particular strengths and weaknesses.

A good IELTS Test coach will be able to help you with this.