How to Prepare for IELTS

How to Prepare for IELTS

I took IELTS-General test for migration purposes and thought to share some useful information with you all. IELTS General Test is typically for those who are moving to English-speaking countries for working purposes. Altogether, there are four modules, Reading, Listening, Speaking & Writing. Most of the time, you are required to have 7 in each section for countries like Australia.

First thing to do is self-evaluating your strengths and weaknesses in these four modules. For this, you can take couple of tests in Cambridge ITELS series and check how good you are in Reading and Listening.
Below is the link to download Cambridge IELTS guide as well as other related materials for free. http://dxschool.org/ielts/

However, for writing and speaking you might need some experise help to assess you skills. Don't worry; there are some Skype and Facebook study groups for IELTS. You can post your essays there and can get feedback from peers on your writing.

After you get some understanding on where you are on your journey, keep on practicing to achive your targeting band. Keep in mind that the success of IELTS is only through practicing, practicing and practicing. Now, I will walk you through each module and provide you some valuable tips.

• Reading

Some people find this section easy while others find it extremely difficult. I believe, most academic people can score high for reading module as they have improved their reading skills for many years. Though, some people say it is really hard to complete all 40 questions with limited time which is an hour. Hope following tips will help to improve your reading score;

1. Try completing first few sections as quickly as possible using skimming and scanning techniques. This is the most easiest of all. So that, enough time(20-25 minutes) will remain for the last hadest section.
2. Since true/false/NG questions are quiet tricky, I used to save more time to answer this type of questions.
3. First read the topic of the text and then go to questions. Thereafter, try to find the answers for each question. Never try reading through whole passage first and then to questions. Do scanning to find the place in the text for an answer of a question and you should do intensive reading only after finding the exact place.
4. If you can't find an answer, do not spend much time on it and just mark it for later reference and continue with other sections

Finally, for reading module, if you clearly know the skimming and scanning techniques + how to utilize time effectively, then it is not a big deal to score above 7.

• Listening

This is a section where you need most concentration on what you hear and you should be able to parallel reading while listening. The only way to improve this skill is by listening to day to day news and programs in English channels and by doing IELTS listening practices.

• Speaking

Here, you will have 3 parts in the test which are gradually becoming difficult to the end. First section examines your ability to express ideas of your personal, dad to day life. In second section, you have to make a speech and you will be given 1 minute to prepare. Here, try utilizing 2 minutes time for the speech properly. Practise by recording your speeches and then do self corrections by listening to recordings. At 3rd part, you will have an active conversation with the examiner and throughout this section express your ideas without any hesitation, be talkative, build up meaningfull conversation, show your speaking skills to the examiner.

• Writing

This is known to be the most difficult to score band 7 of all 4 modules for many students and for me, it was the same as we are not used to write much in our day to day work. There are two tasks; Task 1: writing a letter & Task 2; Writing an essay. You will be given 20 minutes for the letter writing and 40 minutes for the essay.

1. Never consume more than 20 minutes for the letter as it worth only 3 marks of all 9.
2. Essay is worth 6 marks, so that try completing the essay within 35 minutes, keep 5 minutes at the end for proof reading.
3. You have to use enough/rich vocabulary for the given topic.
4. Use different grammatical structures and lexical resources in your writing.
5. Write more complex and compound sentences along with a few simple sentences. Then only you can achieve more than band 7 because examiner measures how well you are handling complex sentences.

If you are weak in writing; I strongly recommend this book because it is rich in everything that you need for IELTS writing.

Some useful blogs;

http://ieltsadvantage.com/
http://www.ieltsbuddy.com/

IELTS Reading Skills

• The IELTS Academic/General reading module lasts 60 minutes (an hour).
• There are 40 questions to be answered.
• The passages are taken from newspapers, journals, books or magazines.

Question Types

Questions in reading module may include any or some of the following;

• Multiple choice
• True/False/Not Given
• Completing notes or sentences
• Completing or labeling diagrams , charts or tables
• Classifying
• Matching
• Writing short answers
• Choosing paragraph headings

Time Tips

• No extra time is given to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.
• Time yourself. try to improve your reading speed.
• The IELTS reading module is not just a test of comprehension skills but also of skimming and scanning. It is extremely important to manage time properly by using these two skills.

IELTS Reading - Skills

Skimming and scanning, involve reading very quickly, but each strategy has a different purpose.

1. Skimming means reading quickly to get the main idea of a text.
2. Scanning means reading quickly to look for a specific piece of information or specific words.
3. Reading for detail means reading every word in order to really understand the message of the text.

Use All Three Skills

On the IELTS, you will need to use all three techniques at different stages. For example;

• You may start by skimming through the entire text to get a general idea of the passage.
• Next, you may look at the questions to see what kind of information is required.
• Then, you may scan the text for a specific piece of information or read particular section in greater detail to discover the information you need to answer the question correctly.

Multiple Choice Questions

How to answer?

• The candidates are asked to choose from four choices. A, B, C, D. The best answer should be chosen.
• Remember that the questions are in the same order as the information in the passage.
• This means that your answer to the first question is found before the answer to the second question, and similarly the answer to the second question appears before the answer to the third question. The pattern continues to next questions.
• It may also be a sentence completion task.
• Don't forget to write on the answer sheet the letter of your answer.

True/False/Not Given Questions

• This type of question may ask whether the given statement agrees with the view or claim of the writer, or whether the statement agrees with the information in the text.
• The objective is to determine your ability to identify opinions or ideas, or to recognize particular points of information that a passage conveys.

What is the best approach?

• Read the statement carefully and thoroughly and find the keywords in the statement. These keywords will help you to identify the area in the passage that possibly contains the answer. Then, skim the passage looking out for the keywords. Next scan the passage again in that area for the information that will confirm(true) or deny(false) the given statement.
• If the information in the passage neither confirms nor denies the statement , then the answer should be Not Given.
• This question type may confusing - but remember the information required is given in sequence (in order). 
• ** Save time - You don't need to return to the beginning of the passage to check each statement.   

Please await: I will explain other questions types in coming days...................

Education is the single most important factor for the development of a developing country

Education is the single most important factor for the development of a developing country. Do you agree or disagree?

Education is an indispensable factor for constant growth of a developing country. The quality of the people is the essence of a nation's economy, while education is the only way to enhance people's quality. Therefore, the education is the fundamental for the development due to brilliant generation which is breed by it.

First and foremost, a complete education system provides fully-fledged individuals with advance knowledge and skills. Thus, it offers a citizen an opportunity of finding a moderate career. A profession gives people decent income that allows them to improve they living styles and standards. Eventually, these jobs will lead to economic stability which is the key for a developing nation.

Secondly, educated citizens can positively contribute to build up gross domestic product of a country. Individuals with desirable knowledge and skills always seek for entrepreneurship and they will initiate new businesses. Improvement of small and medium scale enterprises will result in a rapid growth of economy which opens up more job opportunities for a country. In this way, national economy will apparently witness a boom in a few years.

Thirdly, people may believe that there are several other factors which affect the development such as natural resources, geographical position, etc. However, if there are no talented people in a country then it will be difficult to utilize these resources productively.

In summary, education is the exclusive and the most efficient form to approach lasting development in long-term.

Money management should be taught to all high school students

Question: Some people say that all secondary school and higher school students should be taught how to manage money as it’s an important life skill.Do you agree or disagree? [This was the IELTS General writing task 2 question on 30th May 2015]

Financial literacy, a mandatory life skill for everyone in this money-lead economy, apparently contributes to uplift the social and economic health of an individual. Thus, the writer firmly believes that money management should be a compulsory component in high school curriculum. This essay will discuss how this knowledge enormously attributes to personal economy and ultimately to the national development.

Financial awareness is of great importance for an adult in understanding day-to-day monetary transactions like banking and taxation. High school students will sooner step into the society as adults with fresh occupations and then they will in need of this skill to manage their income. Most importantly, if they are not financially literate, they will then vulnerable for fraudulent investments and scams.

Many young adults are mostly criticized for not having future savings plans and this would not be the case anymore. When young people are well aware of the value of money, they will implicitly tend to initiate savings schemes and pension plans. Consequently, domestic credit of a country would be raised and, thereby, it will boost up the national economy.

When high school students start to earn money through their careers, they could easily seek for prospective investments and start lucrative businesses with the advance knowledge that they have. For instance, this skill set is particularly useful for an individual in analyzing the current state of the stock market and purchasing top rated shares. In this way, people's standard of living would be improved due to higher income levels that they earn.

In view of these facts, it is quite evident that education practitioners should take up all necessary actions to foster financial literacy among high school students.

Families and Modern Life

Family system is the most conspicuous bond in the social scheme with its invisible strings of love and care. However, this attachment in family life appears to be less tight than in the past and generational differences, economy and technology have all played a part in this evolutionary process. It is everyone’s responsibility to sustain strong family bonds by addressing different aspects of modern day lifestyle. 

Today’s pace of life has drastically affected the quality of family relationships. Nowadays, establishing a standard living condition requires both parents to be working and, thereby, they will have less time to interact with their family.  Not only parents, but children also face the same difficulty with this competitive educational culture. Thus, it severely weakens the personal commitment of each family member towards the well-being of the family.

Moreover, the effect of technology on family relationships cannot be ignored.  The overuse of technology threatens the face to face communication which is the lifeblood of relationships. For instance, both parents and children become isolated using technical devices and social networks and this can be a hindrance to family attachments.  Thus, technology has threatened to push family members further apart, even though it has shrunk the world and brought the nations together. 

In order to build the family connections stronger, the vital role played by each member should be properly learned and understood. Everyone involved in the family should be ready to put a special effort to reinforce commitment and communication by spending more time together.  In addition, it is the role of parents to moderate the use of technology within the family without damaging valuable links among them. Therefore, the collective effort will build up the real love and caring while upholding the personal blending of physical and mental togetherness.

In conclusion, the work that everyone puts into making the family stronger can be well worth the vigorous effort. However, it is important to remember that if no one accepts their imperative role, the family system will then weaken and ultimately affect society too.

Do you think people who do the same work should get paid the same?

During our lives, we have witnessed the differences among personalities in completing a job. However, if two people do the same job over the same amount of time and equal quality, it seems right for them to get paid the same for that job.

Today, the business world drives towards the good practice of detailed performance evaluations. Thus, it concerns more on performance rather than gender, ethnicity, etc. In a world where it anticipates more performance, there is no chance for being paid differently for the same job. These excessive decisions damage the motivation which is one of the most crucial performance factors for workers.

Any income disparity among people nowadays is primarily due to education and career choices, as well as differences in work ethics. It seems acceptable paying differently for the same career over educational and other qualifications. Yet, it would be unfair if it pays differently for the same quality of work by depending on qualifications.

It is true that a person's pay has been always determined with respect to gender, colour or cast in the past few decades. Being a man or woman, an individual must be paid accordance with the work or post and nothing else. Not doing so is pure discrimination and this unethical practice should be discontinued.

Undoubtedly, there are some situations how a person suited differently to particular jobs. However, once someone is qualified to be in a particular position, then they deserve the same compensation. Otherwise, the only reason for the difference in pay is not work quality or efficiency.

In conclusion, it should eliminate the "glass ceiling" which seems unfair when it comes to salary and hiring in a world of equality.

Special Phrases and Words

• Stating Your Opinion.
  
  
  • In my opinion,
  • According to me,
  • From my perspective,
  • It seems to me that
  • It appears that
  • It seems to me that
  • I suppose
   
• Giving Examples
  
  
• For instance,
• For example,
• In other words,
• To paraphrase
• To illustrate

• Comparing
  
  
  • In the same way,
  • Either...or
  • Neither...nor
  • At the same time
  • In the same way,
   
• Contrasting
  
  
  • However,
  • On the contrary, 
  • On the other hand,
  • Nevertheless  
  • Although
  • Though 
  • Otherwise
  • Instead
  • Even though
  • Alternatively, 
   
• Generalizing
   
• Generally,
• On the whole, 
• In general, 
• It seems to me that
• Essentially, 
• All things considered
• As a rule, 

• Expressing Certainty
  
  
  • Certainly,
  • Undoubtedly,
  • No doubt, 
  • Definitely,
  • It is obvious that
   
• Expressing Partial Agreement
  
  
  • More or less,
  • To some extent,
  • In a way,
  • Up to a point,
   
• Showing cause
  
  
  • Due to
  • Because of
  • Owing to
   
• Showing effect
  
  
  • Therefore,
  • As a result,
  • For this reason,
  • Consequently,
  • Eventually,
  • Thus,
  • thereby
  • The reason why