Listening

1) A discussion about a fridge and freezer, task: ordering form, fill in the address, etc.
2) A discussion between two students about a presentation.
3) A speech about electrical cars… was very fast and difficult to follow

Reading

Very hard…

1) A text about archeology, the history of trading and what they have found
2) The other one was about the history of laughing…
3) The difficult passage was about rare species of birds, about a woodpecker and a rescue project.
Tasks have been difficult, lots of T/F/NG, matching headings, multiple choice, summary gap filling.

Writing

Task 1
A graph about working hours and table with holiday days, 2 graphs in one task!

Task 2
Essay: Some people think that scientific work on plants and food is good - others deny, discuss the both sides of scientific work on food and farming, give your own opinion and examples.

Speaking

Interview
Questions about me

Little speech
A place were I have studied, like school, uni, work

Discussion
Books, whether or not I have read a lot in my childhood, do I think that books are good presents, do kids read today? And then Housework, differences between New Zealand and my country, kids and Housework, is it sociable?

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You should say:
What it is
Why it is important
What you use it for

And here comes the video, enjoy:

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It is a fact that many people prefer a hard copy to an e-book, which is why Target Band 7 was recently published in India by Educational Software Technologies.

Here’s how to get your copy:

A) Place an order by emailing mail@edusoftech.com

B) Place and order over the phone +91-22-2877-1591 / 3215-1200.

So, my Indian friends, I am happy to answer any questions or inquiries you’ve got. Please let me know what you think of the book, email simone[at]ielts-blog.com.

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Speaking Band 5.0

Candidate tries to keep the speech flowing but hesitation gets in the way. His responses are rather short, he tries to use linking words but does that un-naturally (they seem forced). Only simple sentences are fluent, in more complex ones the coherence is much worse. There are repetitions of the same words and the same sentence structures. His pronunciation is not very good, that includes incorrect words’ stress.

Speaking Band 5.5

Candidate gives short answers, not willing to talk at length. Responses are exactly what he’s being asked. He hesitates a little and sometimes uses linking words incorrectly. His vocabulary is simple but sufficient for him to talk on the subject and make himself clear. The grammar of simple sentences is mostly accurate, but there are several errors in more complex sentences, many of which are left incomplete. There are many mispronounced words.

Speaking Band 6

Candidate is willing to talk at length, not always directly answering the question. The speech is mostly fluent with some hesitation and repetition. Usage of linking words (like however, on one hand, then again, etc) is there, but not always they are used appropriately or accurately. The vocabulary is large enough for candidate to speak on the given topic and he is easy to understand, even if there are some grammatical errors. The candidate uses both simple and complex sentence structures; but it shows that the grammar in complex ones is harder for him to control. The pronunciation is mostly correct with occasional errors.

Speaking Band 6.5

Candidate can talk at length without much hesitation or repetition. His sentences are easy to follow ? the information has a sequence and he uses linking words to move smoothly from one idea to another. His vocabulary includes not only simple but also sophisticated words on the subject, even if sometimes the choice of a word is inappropriate, the meaning is perfectly clear. Strong accent gets in the way of correct pronunciation.

Speaking Band 7

Candidate speaks smoothly without much effort. The linking words are used naturally and in the right places. He doesn’t cover the whole subject in his answers. His vocabulary is appropriate but not sophisticated and doesn’t show variations, the language is fluent but relatively simple. He uses some idioms and sometimes does that inappropriately. The control of grammar is good, the mistakes are rare. His pronunciation is good and the accent doesn’t get in the way.

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Listening

1) University student wants to get a part time job
2) A girl called regarding courses at a university
3) Student project presentation regarding newspaper printing

Reading
1) Regarding robot development
2) Chimpanzee culture research
3) About scientist calculating distance between the Earth and the Sun (something about transit of Venus)

Writing

Task 1
A bar chart about number of students? application based on subjects area gathered from 3 UK university

Task 2
A discussion about children, should they just obey their parents or teachers orders

Speaking

Interview
Questions about myself, my hometown, the changes at my hometown compared to years before, what is the use of letters and emails.

Little speech
Describe a piece of equipment that you think handy / beneficial to you (not a computer)

Discussion
What is the importance of equipments or machinery as a general.

I guess i did okay for the test but i hate being cut off every now and then just because the tester wants to finish on time.

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Enjoy!

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Writing

Task 1
Write a letter to your friend whose son will go on holidays to your country. In your letter

Task 2
Essay: Some people prefer to be self employed rather than work for a company. Discuss, what your opinion is.

Speaking

Interview
General questions about name, etc.

Discussion
what is your opinion of reality shows. How TV shows are different in Australia and other countries.

Many thanks to Natalia for this report!

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Slowly but surely IELTS finds its way into USA - just recently another 57 universities joined the list of many others already recognizing IELTS in the States. This year more IELTS Test Centers will open in USA to meet the growing demand for IELTS exams.

UK has accepted IELTS as the official English test for immigration purposes and IELTS band score can be translated into equivalent Cambridge ESOL Certificate of corresponding level.

China has opened its borders to IELTS, and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) was the first school in People?s Republic of China to recognize IELTS ? surely others will follow and it?s just a matter of time.

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According to IELTS examiners, it is the quality of your writing that makes that half band of difference. Let me explain. I have written a post explaining how your Writing task gets graded, what things are important and what you can get marks for. So let’s take for example one of categories there, “Selecting what information to present”. If the examiner sees that you attempted to do that, but didn’t do it quite right (for example threw too much information away) - that could mean that you get half of band for attempting but not the full band because you didn’t do a very good job selecting information. Usually messing up in just one category is not enough to cost you half band; it would take two or three mess-ups of that kind.

Another example - weak grammar and poor choice of words can make the difference between band 5.5 and 6. The work can be written in beautiful English but if it doesn’t follow the IELTS format, you’ll never get beyond Band 7.

So I think the bottom line is - they introduced the half bands to make difference between students that know what IELTS writing rules are, try hard but do a poor job following the rules and students that do a good job in fulfilling all the requirements.

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