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June 2010

IELTS test in the UK – June 2010 (Academic Module)

IELTS exam in the UK was shared by our kind friend N., who said that he found IELTS-Blog.com extremely helpful in his preparation and wanted to contribute as well, to help other test takers. N remembered the following:

Listening test

Section 1. Inquiry about treatment facilities with a receptionist at a hospital. The patient asked about whether he can get a doctor, and the receptionist asked about his details, what kind of injury, previous medical history, some present details and gave some first aid advice.

Section 2. A talk about a tourist place and facilities, why it has become a tourist attraction, about its history and facilities for aged people.

Section 3. A discussion between a tutor and students about a project concerning pollution.

Section 4. Extinct animals and the reasons to study them, or activities to protect them (mainly to maintain eco-balance, some of the species are useful in medicine).

Reading test

Passage 1. Food production and health problems all over the world and in the US in particular, different people’s opinions.

Passage 2. Pollution (weather conditions, ice caps melting), history of ships and how people in the old days used to study about weather conditions. Evidence found in different years from 1871 to mid 19th century. The questions were mainly on what evidence was found in which year.

Passage 3. Scientific research on child cognitive behavior / different opinions of writers and scientists and whether research really helped to improve education system for children.

Writing test

Writing Task 1 (a report)

There were two pie charts comparing years 1958 with 2008, how working adults spent their time during the day. The bars represented working, sleeping, relaxing, hobbies, traveling to workplace, going out with family and friends. Two activities have increased, two activities have decreased, one has shown a slight change, another remained the same.

Writing Task 2 (an essay)

Many people think that the government should pay the tuition fees for all adults who interested in university studies. Do you agree or disagree?

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name?
– Do you work or study?
– Are you going to continue working the same job in future? Why?
– What kind of food did you like to eat when you were a child?
– What food would you like to give to your children? Why?
– Why is healthy food important?

Cue card

Talk about the most popular music in your country, please say:
– what it is,
– why it is so popular,
– on what occasions people like to hear it,
– explain why people like this music in general.

Discussion

– Do you like such music?
– Do you still listen to such kind of music, when and where?
– Do you think the choice of music is different for old and young people in your country? Why?
– What are the reasons some types of music become so famous?

IELTS Preparation tips from high achievers

We can never have too many preparation tips, can we? Especially when they come from people who have proven themselves as high achievers, by securing IELTS results of Band 8 or above. Melvyn, Ahmed and Sumit, the winners of our IELTS results competition in May, wrote and shared their tips for success.

Melvyn said:

“My main advice is to be confident during the reading test. I realised that I answer more questions correctly when I’m confident. This is because the answers are very similar and if you are doubtful, you tend to keep making changes and mess it all up.

For the listening, I practised by listening to English songs on my mp3 daily and trying to understand every single word until I can sing the whole song. It really helped in my listening test as I was able to put together words and also repeat the words/sentences in my head after they were played.”

Ahmed said:

“Practice allot. Read articles and books, and when you don’t know the meaning of a word use English-English dictionary. Listen to different sources of English audio – TV, radio, or the Internet. When you listen to songs, radio news, etc, try to repeat what they say and imitate their accent. Read the questions in the listening part, so that you prepare your mind to collect the answer once you hear it. And above all relax, and try to enjoy the exam.”

Sumit said:

“I must say you have a wonderful web site for IELTS.

I did not prepare much for IELTS, but took a few practice tests a few weeks apart and monitored how I was progressing. I listened to a few good speaking test recordings and read essays that had low and high scores, which helped me figure out the difference. Spelling is important. I should acknowledge my English teachers at school who were very particular about spelling and I inherited those qualities.

Be alert, learn from your mistakes and have fun.”