Skip to content

February 2009

IELTS exam in Sydney, Australia – February 2009 (General Training)

These are the topics and the questions from IELTS exam in Sydney, Australia – thanks C!

Listening test

The test was quite easy. Question types: multiple choice, finding places on a map, filling in the blanks less than 3 words.

Reading test

There were many True/False/Not given questions, which was annoying. The last long passage was about a woman artist and her life.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (letter)
You organized 90th birthday party in a local hotel and it was very successful. There were some elderly guests and one of them made a contribution. Write a letter to the hotel manger to tell about
– what activities were there at the party
– why it was successful especially to the elderly guests
– identify the contribution that an elderly guest made

Writing task 2 (essay)
Some people think the competitive sports have positive effect on the child’s education, while others argue it is not so. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages and give your own opinion.

IELTS Essay, topic: Financial education

Financial education should be a mandatory component of the school program. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

It is an obvious fact that financial aspects are a major part of the daily life, as an adult and even as a young individual. Each and every one of us has to make financial decisions concerning recreation, health, education and more. The question is whether to start with financial education as part of school program or to postpone it for a later stage in life.

To begin with, being able to understand the value of money, the way the economic system works and to interpret financial news and its implications is a virtue. Without this virtue, an individual, even a young one, might suffer to some extent. For , a child who doesn’t understand the concept of money might find it more difficult to choosing only one present out of more possible ones.

In addition, many adults are lacking capability of financial analysis. Quite often, the reason can be the lack of sound foundations or insecurity when it comes to financial terms and concepts. Starting from an early age, building a strong background, can very likely prevent such situation.

However, financial education necessarily involves quantifying and setting prices and value for services and goods. It can easily turn young people into cynical human beings who lack emotion. Furthermore, a tendency to self-concentration and egoism might rise when one measuring everything from a profit-making perspective.

In conclusion, financial education has both pros and cons. In my opinion, the advantages are more significant than the disadvantages, making financial education an advisable component of the school program. The disadvantages should be thought of as a certain price that young people have to pay due to the characteristics of the world that we live in.

This is a wonderful essay. It covers the task, is correctly structured, the paragraphs are logically connected, the structure of sentences shows excellent command of the English language. The vocabulary is fine and both spelling and grammar are very good. See comments underlined in blue for some minor corrections. Overall, looks like a Band 7.5 – Band 8 essay.

example
accept
starts