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February 2009

IELTS exam in Australia – January 2009 (General Training)

This update arrived from Australia where our friend S had his General IELTS exam. Thanks, pal!

Reading test

My performance in the Reading test was affected by the fact that all of the questions were of either one of these two types:

1) True/False/Not given type – they were very tricky

2) This task I have seen for the first time, there were 22 sentences given and we had to find them in the text. The sentences were written in such an odd way that I couldn’t get them done easily.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (letter)
You have to leave your current job. Write a letter to your manager explaining your reasons for leaving and what did you like about this job.

Writing task 2 (essay)
Some schools prefer to have uniforms for there students, however the students prefer to not have a dressing code. Discuss, what is your opinion?

Speaking test

The interview was as usual – general questions, the cue card was about different phases of life and which I enjoyed the most, and then there was a discussion of the same matter.

IELTS exam in Nigeria – January 2009 (Academic Module)

This update came from Y, a Nigerian student who recently had an Academic IELTS exam. Thanks, Y!

Listening test

The listening test was not what I had prepared for, I was expecting a one on one with head phones and a system, but it was a general sound system for everyone. It went well, because I had really practiced the listening. The only bad thing happened towards the end, when I lost track of the recording and after the exams I realized that other people were affected by this too. I was wondering if it was a tactic used in the test. I still got Band 7.

Reading test

Reading was good, we had 3 reading exercises. The 3rd was more difficult as usual, so I started with the 3rd. The passage was about the English language evolution. For Reading I got band 6.5.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (report)
The 1st part was about numbers of students enrolled in a school within a specific time; male ,female, day and evening students.

I did the 2nd part which carries more mark first, so I had enough time. In the first part I made a mistake which I was quick to correct, but it meant that I had to rewrite my report on this section. By so doing I lost some time and had to finish in a rush. I think student should be very careful when they are given figures in thousands with the zeros only written in ( ). Imagine where you were suppose to write 243,000 and it was formally written as 243. This was where I made a mistake and had to cancel and rewrite my report. My score was Band 6.

Speaking test

Thanks for the info about the dress code, I was semi-formally dressed. I had a nice time, being very prepared thanks to your site. My interviewer was just nodding and kept saying: “Go on”. I got band 7.5 and my total score is Band 7 as you would have guessed by now, though I was expecting Band 8 or 8.5. Thanks for all your help!

The questions were about

– Advertisement,
– To describe something I would love to have
– My job
– My opinion about shopping
– Whether the youth shop more than the older generation
– Cycling and whether I ride a bicycle
– What things I use for my job