IELTS Basics - Introduction to the IELTS Exam

Hi, I'm Rebecca and today we'll be speaking about the IELTS exam.

IELTS is an acronym which stands for International English Language Testing System, IELTS, and

basically the IELTS is an English proficiency exam to test your knowledge of English, how

well you can read, write, speak, and understand English, alright?

If you're considering doing the IELTS, it's possibly because you're planning to study

abroad or you're planning to move to another country or for some other purpose.

The IELTS is generally taken by students who are planning to study in a university or college

in an English speaking environment or to move to countries like Canada or Australia where

IELTS is the English proficiency exam which is accepted for official purposes by them.

The IELTS is also requested at times when people have already immigrated to countries

such as Canada or Australia to certify their English language ability in terms of their

profession, okay?

So that's another reason why we have students who come to us at our school here in Toronto

for the IELTS exam, okay?

Now, another question that people have is about the type of IELTS exam.

There are basically two types of IELTS exams, alright?

There's the general exam and the academic exam.

It seems somewhat self-explanatory but let me clarify.

The academic exam is the slightly harder one because it's meant for academic purposes.

That's if you're planning to go to university or to college, you are asked to do the academic

IELTS.

The reading section and the writing section is slightly different in the academic one

and slightly more challenging or difficult in terms of English level.

The second type of IELTS exam is the general exam.

The general IELTS is usually taken for those people who are planning to immigrate and it

is a little bit easier, not completely easy.

It's still challenging.

You may still have to prepare for it in order to do well but it's still a little bit easier

than the first one.

The writing section is different here and the reading section is a little bit easier,

alright?

Another question that we are often asked about the IELTS is regarding the scoring.

In the IELTS, if you get a 9, that would be fantastic because that's considered the highest

score which you can get on an IELTS exam.

The IELTS scores are represented in terms of bands from 0 all the way to 9.

You can get a full band like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or a half band score like 6.5,

8.5 and so on.

If you get a 9, that would mean that you are an expert user of the English language and

I hope you can aspire to that.

Alright, now what happens on the exam in terms of scoring?

Well, as I mentioned, there are four sections, reading, writing, listening and speaking and

you get four separate scores on each of these sections.

So you could get a 7 in listening or a 6 in reading and so on.

You could get different scores in each section and then finally you get a fifth score which

is an overall score for the entire IELTS exam.

Now, depending on the purpose for which you are doing the exam, you might be asked for

an overall score, usually a 6.5 or 7 or you might be asked for a specific score in a particular

section or some combination of that.

So, for example, if you are planning to study journalism in university, they might care

very much how well you write.

So they might request that you have a minimum of 7 or 8 in your writing section even though

your overall score in other sections might be lower.

Now, in terms of time, the IELTS is about 2 hours and 45 minutes long.

First, there is the listening section.

In both the general and the academic IELTS, this section takes about half an hour and

everybody does the same listening section.

The thing to remember about the listening in the IELTS is because the IELTS was created

by the British Council and, let me just check, the IELTS Australia and the University of

Cambridge ESL exams, this tends to be an exam of British English and sometimes Australian

English.

So you have to be prepared to understand British accents, not American accents, not Canadian

accents, not South African accents, but primarily British and sometimes Australian accents and

not only the accents but also the English.

Occasionally they use terms which are used more in British English than in North American

English.

So if, for example, you've been preparing for the TOEFL, you want to make sure that

you also spend some time listening to British English in order to prepare for this exam.

So that's the listening section.

Then you have a division.

If you're doing the academic, you have a reading section, which is a little bit harder,

60 minutes.

If you're doing the general IELTS, you also have a reading section, also 60 minutes,

a little bit easier.

Next we come to the writing section.

In the academic IELTS, you have two tasks and 60 minutes.

In the general IELTS, you have two tasks and 60 minutes also.

In both of them, you have to do an essay, which you should take about half an hour for.

You are asked to write about, I'm sorry, you should take 40 minutes for that one.

And you have to write about 250 words, about four or five paragraphs, something like that.

An essay topic, one essay topic.

The second task in each case varies.

In the academic IELTS, you are given a graph or a chart or a table and you're asked to

describe that information in writing.

In the general IELTS, you're given a letter assignment and you have to write a letter.

It could be a formal letter, a semi-formal letter, or an informal letter to a friend

requesting something.

And for this second task, you are given about 20 minutes.

The essay in both cases scores more points and you have more time for it.

The last section is the speaking section.

This is an interview with an actual examiner.

It takes about 11 to 14 minutes and it's the same test whether you're doing the general

IELTS or whether you're doing the academic IELTS.

So the last question is how do you do well on the IELTS?

Well, like in all English proficiency exams, there's really four ways, four things you

need to do.

You need to have knowledge of the test.

You need to have the skills, the English skills.

You need to have a good attitude and you need to have resources available to you.

By resources, I'm referring to books, materials, online, lessons, and perhaps live training

in a school in your country or overseas.

All right?

So if you're planning to do the IELTS, one very good website which can help you is www.goodluckielts.com.

It has a lot of information there which can be of help to you.

There's also ways you can ask questions if you have any further comments or questions.

All right?

So if you're preparing for the IELTS, I wish you a lot of luck.

It is a difficult exam in many ways, but I'm sure you can do very well if you prepare and

follow some of the instructions we've laid out here.

Thanks very much.

Bye for now.