WHAT IS IELTS TEST?

Know Why IELTS Test is Essential For Applicants Seeking Immigration Or to Study Abroad?

Executive summary by Ajay Sharma

In immigration to certain destinations and under some specific programs, like Australia General skilled migration program, the immigration programs require that both the principal applicant and their spouse appear for the IELTS test as well. While this makes the Immigration process more expensive and tougher, what applicants do not realize is the fact that IELTS test is only for their benefit.

Importance of IELTS test

So why has the IELTS test become such an integral part of the immigration applications for almost all Immigration destinations and programs? And why are the applicants made to undergo the strenuous IELTS preparation process and spend huge amount of funds in undergoing these tests? 

Earlier system of assessing English language skills

In the past the Immigration officers used to take one-to-one interview to judge the English language skills of the applicant and decide how many points they would like to credit to the applicant.

But this kind of system created animosities and unfair situations, for both Visa processing office and immigration applicants. There are several reasons why this system of evaluation of language skills of the applicants is replaced by the IELTS test.

Introduction of IELTS

IELTS test is thereby based on evaluating applicant's skills in all four components of the language, including speaking, listening, understanding and reading.

Language is clearly one key area that can and does create difficult situations, especially when applicants do not have English as their primary language and have never had exposure to international language accents.

The IELTS test thereby gives an opportunity to all such immigrants to avert any such difficult situation and check on their language skill levels, before they select the course and university for studying abroad. Most of the international educational institutions offer Language development courses for international students, who are not very fluent with the language. It has therefore become an essential part of the Immigration visa process and for study overseas applicants. Hence, an applicant is advised to prepare well, if they wish to earn some points by scoring well in various test modules. Seeking advice from an immigration expert is a wise decision to give a direction to your IELTS preparation as well as your immigration process, in general.

IELTS - 10 Tips For Passing the IELTS Exam

Executive summary by Mike Wattie

To improve your score in the IELTS exams, you should focus on the following ten areas:

1. Improve your overall English ability

The IELTS exam has been designed to test your ability to communicate in English, so ultimately you cannot score well without a high level of English. Learning any language is a slow process that requires hard work and perseverance. The best way to improve your English is to immerse yourself in English...take every opportunity you can to read, write, speak, and listen to English. In addition, try to develop regular habits for doing things in English, such as, reading the daily news in English or starting a blog in English. Research shows that it is important to interact in English frequently as opposed to big chunks of infrequent study.

You can improve your listening skills by listening to the BBC news or watching movies. Reading can be improved by regularly reading English newspapers and novels. Speaking can be a tricky one if you are in a non-English speaking country.

2. Understanding the Exam

The exam always follows the same format, so you should learn about the different question types, and how to answer them. Reading: You should know about the different text types that are used in the reading exam, and also the different question types. This will help you develop reading skills and strategies to answer each type of question, and also let you develop time management skills for each question type. Note: many students have trouble completing the reading section and as a result their grade is often lower than their actual level of English.

Writing: All candidates will write a 250 word essay, so everyone should practice writing a complete 250 word essay within 40 minutes. Many students practice essay writing, but they fail to practice with the time requirement - as a result they are unable to complete their essay during the actual exam. You need to make sure you are preparing for the correct type of exam because general candidates will write a letter whereas academic candidates will write a report based on a graph/diagram.

3. Understand how the exam is graded.

Although your exam grade is a single number for each of the four section of the exam, this is not how all sections are assessed. In the speaking and writing sections there are four criteria for assigning a grade. Understanding how each of the criteria is evaluated is essential to maximising your score. 

How the writing test is graded

Vocabulary: To score highly you must use higher level words, pay attention to collocation, and also control your word endings (correctly use singular/plural and use the correct verb ending for the correct tense).

Special Note: In some instances errors can count in two categories; for example, many grammatical errors also result in a lower score for coherence. On the positive, it is useful to learn lots of connective devices because they can count for Coherence & Cohesion as well as vocabulary. Part of your self-study should be aimed at efficiently using your time to maximize your grade.

How the reading test is graded

Your speaking test is graded and marked from 1-9 in accordance with four key criteria, as follows:

Coherence refers to your speaking being easy to understand.

Vocabulary: To score highly you must use higher level words, pay attention to collocation, and also control your word endings (correctly use singular/plural and use the correct verb ending for the correct tense). 

Grammar: To score highly you need to use a variety of sentence types (simple, compound, complex) and also avoid grammatical errors, such as with articles and prepositions and sentence order especially when they make your speaking difficult to understand.

Special Note: In some instances errors can count in two categories; for example, many grammatical errors also result in a lower score for coherence. On the positive, it is useful to learn lots of connective devices because they can count for Coherence & Cohesion as well as vocabulary. Part of your self-study should be aimed at efficiently using your time to maximize your grade.

4. Do lots of practice exams and receive feedback

Doing lots of practice exams is the best way to familiarize yourself with the specific style, requirements, and necessary success factors of the IELTS exam. Practice tests also give you insights about the types of questions you will be asked and the answers they require. For instance, many of the answers in the reading exam are synonyms (word with similar meanings) of words in the text. This avoids you wasting time looking for words that are not there!

Doing practice exams is not enough. The next step is to learn to overcome these errors. If they are grammatical errors you should do some grammar quizzes focused on that area, an excellent site is at grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar.

Of course if you are doing practice writing exams you will need a professional to give you feedback on your mistakes and how to avoid them.

5. Developing skills

In addition to improving your general level of English and doing practice exams, you also need to work on many skills that will help you to perform better on the test. Reading skills such as skimming (which parts you should strategically read) and scanning (best choices for searching for information) are essential to deal with the time pressure of the reading exam.

Writing skills such as how to structure an essay and how to highlight your key points are necessary to score 7 and above. For the speaking exam you need to learn how to structure answers to questions and to quickly paraphrase words you don't know (part of the criteria for level 7 and above) and you will need to develop skills in note making and speech making for the part 2 long answer.

To score well in the listening exam, you should develop excellent pre-listening skills, so that you can predict answers and establish listening objectives.

6. Work on your time management

In the IELTS test, time management is a vital element and so part of your preparation should focus on how you will manage your time in the exam. In order to improve upon your time management, you should improve your general English ability, do lots of practice exams under time restrictions, and work on skills that assist your ability to deal with the time pressures of the exam (such as skimming and scanning in the reading exam).

7. Get a tutor or join a class

8. Find a study partner

9. Set realistic goals

Part of knowing the exam and understanding the grading criteria is about knowing where you personally are and what you must do to get to the next level. It takes about 10 weeks of full-time study for most students to rise to the next IELTS level. It is best to be working on raising one level. To illustrate this if you are a level 5 student you should be focusing on things like correctly using complex sentences, learning to paraphrase unknown words, and the overall structure of an essay.

10. Establish a timetable and reward system

As mentioned above it takes about 10 weeks of full-time study to raise one level - so if you really do want to jump two levels within 10 weeks, you will need to work twice as hard as a full time student - and study about 10-12 hours per day! Watch TV and films, listen to the radio, visit English websites and have as many conversations with native English speakers as you can.