How to prepare for IELTS

prepration guide if IELTS institutes in Pakistan

International English Language Testing System IELTS is one of the most renowned exam of twenty first century taken up by the students for studying in foreign universities or for immigration to a foreign nation.

One of the very key features of IELTS exam is the sectioning of the whole exam into parts. This proves beneficial if the student fails, so that they can easily locate the part where improvement is needed.

Prior to preparation of IELTS test in Pakistan, the Pakistani student must first decide the IELTS test date and apply for the date on time.

Before appearing for the IELTS exam the Pakistani student must familiarize themselves with the format of the exam. It’s difficult to appear in the test without going through the phases

There are Two Types of IELTS Tests:

IELTS Academic
IELTS General

Both types of tests are graded in the same way.

Setions of Both IELTS tests:

Listening
Reading
Writing
Speaking

The test analyses the students listening, reading, writing and speaking abilities in less than a span of three hours.

Listening and Speaking Test for both types of IELTS is same. However, Writing and Reading Test for Academic and General Training are different. Make sure what test you are going to take and prepare accordingly.

The Listening, Reading and Writing components of all IELTS tests are finished on the same day, with no breaks amongst them and one Test of Speaking, that is an interview, might be taken 7 days earlier or after the standard Test. Your IELTS test center in Pakistan will endorse you about it. The total test time is 2 hours and 45 minute.

IELTS Listening

This test as the title declares is trial of your listening skills. They will check how good you are in understanding verbal communications in English language.
The duration of the test is 30 minutes.
The Pakistani students will have to listen to four recorded text that has been spoken by a native speakers i.e. a Pakistani for easy understanding of accent. After listening the student would be required to answer a series of questions that would determine their main ideas of understanding capabilities as to what has been said, developing opinions and the purpose of the speech.
Different types of native speakers are used with varying voices and the student will be allowed to hear them only once.

Remember. Listening test is same for both types of test.

Recording one: A discussion between two people in everyday context e.g. a conversation in an agency.
Recording two: A long speech set in an everyday social context, e.g. an oration about local facilities.
Recording three: A discussion set up in an educational environment e.g. a lecturer discussing an assignment with a student.
Recording four: A long speech on educational topic e.g. a lecture.

Different patterns of questions will be asked after completion of discussions like-

Multiple choice pattern questions.
Sketching out plan and map, labelling of diagrams.
Filling up the gaps in forms.
Completion of a table.
Completion of a flowchart.
Answering short answers.

After marking of the answer sheets they are sent to Cambridge assessment English for further analysis.

IELTS listening Practice Online British Council and AEO.

They will provide an MP3 Audio file and paper sheets. Each answer sheet specifies which recording to listen to and/or you will be provided a transcript with it.

Following is a Sample Test taken from the official site of IELTS with details so, Pakistani students may be able understand it easily. You should first open the Answer Sheet, and then start the recording. Then start filling the form as told or when it is better. Do remember, you have 30 minutes to complete all these 4 recordings.

IELTS listening samples.

Recording 1:

Here is an Answer Sheet 1 to fill, by listening the following Recording.
Here is a Sample Recording 1 which you have to listen

Recording 2:

Here is an Answer Sheet 2 to fill, by listening the following Recording.
Here is a Sample Recording 2 which you have to listen

Recording 3:

Here is an Answer Sheet 3 to fill, by listening the following Recording.
Here is a Sample Recording 2 which you have to listen

Recording 4:

Here is an Answer Sheet 3 to fill, by listening the following Recording.
Here is a Sample Recording 2 which you have to listen.

IELTS Reading:

The duration of the reading section is about 60 minutes, it consists of 40 questions. Varying range of questions are asked to test the reading skills.
The reading section comprises of reading for gist, detailed reading, understanding of arguments and developing opinions.
The student will be required to read text extractions from magazines, journals, newspapers and books.

IELTS Reading for Academic Test- The academic reading part includes factual and analytical fact reading, which are comprehensive in nature. The text sample is selected on the basis of the level of the student for which they seek the admissions e.g. undergraduate and graduate level. The reading extractions are authentic in nature.

IELTS Reading for Academic Test- The materials that are provided for reading are generally from newspapers, company handbooks, all extractions that one encounters on a daily life basis in an English speaking environment.

Different patterns of questions will be asked after completion of the reading section:

Multiple choice questions
Identification of information
Matching of information, headings and sentence completion
Flowchart, summary and table completion.
Diagram labelling
Short type answers

IELTS Academic reading test practice

Academic Reading sample task – Diagram label completion

Academic Reading sample task – Matching information

Academic Reading sample task - Identifying writer's views

Academic Reading sample task – Matching features

Academic Reading sample task– Matching headings

Academic Reading sample task – Multiple-choice questions

Academic Reading sample task – Table completion

IELTS general reading test practice

General Training Reading sample task– Flow Chart Completion

General Training Reading sample task– Identifying Information

General Training Reading sample task– Matching Information

General Training Reading sample task – Matching Features

General Training Reading sample task –Matching Headings

General Training Reading sample task – Multiple-Choice Questions

General Training Reading sample task – Short-Answer Questions

After marking of the answer sheets they are sent to Cambridge assessment English for further analysis.

IELTS Writing General and Academic:

The duration of the test is about 60 minutes. It has two writing tasks, you need to describe each in about 150- 200 words in your own wordings.

Academic writing test- the academic writing test will include writing task on a topic that would interest any student who wishes to study in an undergraduate and postgraduate course abroad. Respond to any kind of argument and point of view in relevance to that. IELTS Writing tips and tricks can help the student score well.

There are two tasks in this test:

IELTS writing Task 1 – the student will be provided with tasks related to description any explanation of graphs diagrams and other information in their own words.

The student will be ask to assert the steps of process of anything, logical explanations of data and object.

Task one is assessed on the basis of-

Cohesion
Lexical resource
Task achievement
Grammatical accuracy

IELTS writing Task 2 – The student will be asked to present their point of view in relation to an argument in formal style. This task enable the examiner to view the ability of the student to handle any situation and usage of language under pressure conditions.

Task two is assessed on the basis of-

Response of the task
Coherence
Grammatical accuracy
Lexical resource

IELTS Writing Task 1 and Task 2 Sample:

Following are a few Sample Questions of IELTS Test for Reading, I took from official website of IELTS and filtered and sorted it for you. Read them carefully and try to solve it yourself.

Academic Writing IELTS Sample:

Academic Writing sample task 1

Academic Writing sample task 2

General Writing IELTS Sample:

General Training Writing sample task 1

General Training Writing sample task 2

IELTS Writing Answer sheet task 1

IELTS Writing Answer sheet task 2

IELTS Speaking:

The duration of the test is almost about 11 to 14 minutes. Last 4th Section of Speaking, tests your ability of conversation. Keep in mind that this test is conducted separately and they may call you 7 days prior or after the other test.

The Speaking test is the same for both Academic and General Training tests. They will check whether you have the ability to convey your message in English or not. This interview consist of three parts.

IELTS Speaking Format:

Part 1-In this part the student will be asked to describe their personal life for example family, friends and interests, this part just takes about four to five minutes in general.

Part 2- The student will be provided with a topic and asked to speak on it for two minutes, then will be asked questions relevant to the topic. The student will be given one minute to prepare beforehand.

Part 3- This part is dedicated to the questions and queries of the topic given above, to test the capability of a Pakistani student to participate in discussions held in English language.

The speaking section is so framed that the student does not get time to frame answers prior to the discussion, so that it proves their English speaking capability on the spot.

IELTS Test Tips and Tricks

Focus on inculcating the use of English language on a daily basis.
Take help or go to a coaching center for better guidance.
Don’t focus only on expanding your vocabulary but using those learnt woods too, framing sentences that would be defining meaning of the word.
Buy self-study material and study in a systemized manner.