IELTS Exam Practical Guide

Author: / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-05-01
Features: The title requires clear reading, for example, NOT MORE THAN x WORDS, TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN, AGREES/(CONTRADICTIONS/NOT MENTIONED, YES/NO, etc. Also, the sections marked with may not be difficult, but for many who couldn’t finish on time, it’s truly a pity.
Essay Writing: For immigration tests, the small essay is mostly letter writing, while the large essay is either an argumentative or expository essay. Most topics are related to society, education, environment, media, etc. It’s recommended to practice some old topics to get a sense of time management and develop a direct understanding of 150 and 250-word limits. As a friend once said, essay writing is a bit like the "eight-legged essay" of the imperial examination system. IELTS essays are indeed similar—mastering different patterns is key. For your arguments, at least two to three supporting points are needed, and pay attention to the "call and response" at the beginning and end of the essay. Practicing writing essays on old topics is also beneficial to broaden your. This way, even when facing difficult new topics, you’ll be confident.
Speaking: I believe a good examiner should be helping you achieve a good score. They are kind and encourage you to show your best side, then score based on your performance. However, getting a high score is not easy. You must prepare for various questions beforehand—not by rote memorization, but by developing answer strategies. Even if someone asks you a question in Chinese, it’s hard to organize your thoughts clearly and coherently in a short time. Also, practice with cuECARD training, don’t keep asking HOW ABOLIT. Of course, examiners may have different styles, so if you encounter a strict one, your true abilities will be tested. In short, some adaptation training before the exam is essential—first, to get a sense of time management, and second, to find your rhythm in reading and writing. Although IELTS doesn’t test vocabulary, the size of your vocabulary directly affects your understanding of the text. In practice, the difficult sections often arise because of unfamiliar keywords, creating obstacles. In the exam, if the author describes a character with adjectives, the following questions will often ask about the author’s attitude toward the character. For example, in one reading test, the last section on the "circus" had many unfamiliar words.
IELTS Preparation Experience
My Scores:
Pre-exam Prediction | Post-exam Prediction | Exam Result
Listening: 3.0 | 3-5 | 5.0
Reading: 7.0 | 5-7 | 5.5
Writing: 6.0 | 6 | 7.0
Speaking: 5.0 | 4-7 | 6.0
I didn’t attend a training class and used materials from Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) for listening, New Oriental for writing and speaking. I only had a few mock tests for reading because I thought I was doing well and didn’t buy New Oriental’s reading textbook. Additionally, I had a basic reference material and a set of Liu Yi’s vocabulary books, which I kept listening to for the first two volumes. The total time spent was about three months, but since I studied intermittently, it was probably less than two months.
I. Why did my listening score predict 3.0 but I actually got 5.0?
Simply put, because I used BLCU’s listening course. I strongly recommend it to those who are very worried about listening. Although listening was my weakest part, it was also the part where I saw the most significant improvement and satisfaction. I had at least a 5-point confidence in the other three sections, but I knew I wouldn’t score well in listening. My situation was: during my university’s CET-4 and CET-6 exams, I relied on guessing, always choosing B to ensure about a 25% correct rate. If I had to answer myself, getting 10 correct would have been a miracle. Also, I strongly disliked British English pronunciation—listening to them speak was truly painful. In the mock tests I took before the exam, my highest score was 3.5, and my lowest was below 2.0. It almost made me give up on taking the exam. After repeated failures and heartbreak, I picked up BLCU’s listening training book again. For those who don’t aim for high scores, mastering the first four units will definitely get you to my level. My Unit 5, I only listened to once and didn’t understand it—whatever, it affected my mood. The first three units, I listened to countless times. It was these simple exercises that taught me at least how to listen for numbers and keywords. I felt BLCU’s speed and accent were very close to the actual exam. My listening version was 20. The first part was about a couple having a child and discussing how to go and what gifts to bring. I only remember writing "chocolate" and "toy," but I don’t know if it was correct. The second part discussed noise problems, the harm of loud noise to society, and who is sensitive to noise (I heard "housewife" but wrote it as singular—I later realized it should have been plural). It also talked about how to prevent noise, etc. I don’t remember the rest.
The second part emphasized that you must be very familiar with the format of the listening exam, such as knowing the total time and how to use it. You must make full use of the available time to read the questions, otherwise, you won’t catch the keywords needed for the answers. During practice, develop the habit of not wasting a second on daydreaming or listening to unnecessary things. If I hadn’t been fully familiar with the exam format before and stayed calm during the exam, using every available second to read the questions, my performance would have been normal for my level—3 points might have been expected. In summary, effort leads to results. My reading, a strong point, didn’t go as planned, while my listening, a weak point, actually got a decent score.
II. Why did I think I could score 7.0 in reading but only got 5.5?
"The proud army will surely be defeated" is an undeniable truth. As mentioned earlier, I didn’t even have a decent reading textbook. Since I spent a lot of time reading English at work, I felt I could grasp the gist. So, I didn’t spend much time on reading, just memorized some words, and did a few reading tests before the exam, with scores ranging from 5.5 to 8.5. Before the exam, I already felt my reading method was flawed because I always ran out of time, while others had ten minutes left for review. But I still didn’t take it seriously enough, and to this day, I haven’t figured out what the problem with my reading method was. During the exam, the first two sections took me half an hour and were relatively easy, but the third section took another half hour. I reread it countless times, even when there was still plenty of time left, reading every sentence word by word, feeling like I understood them, but I still couldn’t determine T, F, or NG. My reading version was 17. The first part was about providing courses as needed, with one passage about some teaching center—I don’t remember it well. The last one was about Australia’s fish market. These fish really gave me trouble. A harsh lesson—friends, you must get a reading book to see, BLCU’s material is out of the question—I bought it but didn’t look at it because it was for academic tests.
III. Why did I get 7.0 in writing?
This score was unexpected both before and after the exam. Since the score was decent, I had to come up with some success stories for those who might be concerned about writing. Writing took up about half of my preparation time. The material was New Oriental’s writing book. I wrote about twenty essays myself. First, I planned to write one or two essays a day, but I was interrupted by listening issues, which affected my progress. Later, I resumed writing but only wrote outlines, following New Oriental’s examples to get a structural impression and familiarize myself with writing styles for different topics. Additionally, I went through all the essay topics I could find to ensure I wouldn’t encounter unfamiliar ones or words I didn’t recognize. But in the exam, I still encountered an unfamiliar topic. Task 1 was about community youth crime, asking me to write a letter to the community committee to suggest measures. Task 2 was about whether the country should invest in space research or focus more on problems on Earth. My exam situation was as follows: I wrote Task 2 first. I quickly brainstormed the content, then started writing. One lesson I learned was that I spent too much time erasing, wiping back and forth, and as the teacher said there were twenty minutes left, my Task 2 body was only half done. Panic set in—I thought I wouldn’t have time to write the second essay! I hastily finished.