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June 2009

IELTS exam in Qatar – June 2009 (General Training)

Our friend L reports about recent IELTS in Qatar, here are the topics and the questions she remembered. Thank you, L!

Listening Test

Section 1: Reservation of a hotel – short answer questions.

Section 2: It was about a musical concert. some short answering questions and filling in the blanks.

Section 3: A discussion between a student and a tutor about a research. All the questions were are multiple choice.

Section 4: A speech about a ship. All the questions were filling the blanks. This section was more difficult for me than all I practiced earlier.

Reading Test

All the sections were too difficult for me to understand, and too long. Time management was a big challenge for me.

Passage 1: A few advertisements about university accommodation; the questions were short answers, selecting suitable text. Then there was more information about the entry requirements of the university. There were few questions, no more than 3 words type.

Passage 2: There were 5 or 6 articles about an Australian historical architecture. The questions were to match expressions / sentences.

Passage 3: It was about a work shop and there were short answer questions related to paragraph summarizing. It was the most difficult one for me.

Passage 4: The text was about herbs, too long and there were 13 questions to match paragraph with the answers and no more than 3 words questions.

Writing test

Writing Task 1
You didn’t keep an appointment as scheduled with a friend. Write a letter to the friend, mentioning
– why couldn’t you keep an appointment
– apologize to her/him
– suggest any other date to meet.

Writing Task 2
People believe earning good salary in a job is more important than satisfaction, but people who get satisfaction from their work are more useful to the society. Explain your ideas.

Speaking Test

Interview
– What is your full name?
– Explain about your home town
– Do you like living there? For what reasons?
– Are the bicycles used and popular in your home town?
– Why do children most like to riding bicycles?
– How often do visitors come to your home?
– What do you arrange for them?
– Do you like visitors? / Why?
– Were there any other occasions with lots of visitors coming to home?
– What are those?

Cue card
Describe an educational trip you have gone on in your school time
– Where to was the trip ?
– What did you do and learn there?
– What are the experiences you have had?

Then my examiner asked few questions about the trip and asked whether the field trip helped me to gain better education compared to studying in the classroom.

Discussion
– Why is there a trend for children to be learning at home?
– How do people help their children to study at home?
– What do you think about learning at home?
– Studying without a teacher: is it good or bad? What is your opinion?

IELTS exams in Kazakhstan and London – June 2009 (Academic Module)

IELTS in Kazakhstan and London was identical to the exam in Liverpool, according to some good people who were also kind enough to share the questions in Speaking, which, as you know is different for everybody. Here are the 2 versions of Speaking test that W and Z had:

Speaking Test 1

Interview
– What city are you from?
– What do you like about your city?
– Do people in your city use bicycles?
– Why do children like bicycles?
– How often do your friends visit you?
– What preparation do you do to meet them?
– Do you like to visit them? Why?

Cue card
Describe a dress you wore on a special occasion:
– What dress was it?
– Where did you buy it?
– What others said about it?
– Do you still have this dress?

Discussion
– Why do people wear uniform?
– Do people feel different when they wear uniform?
– Does lifestyle affect clothes people wear?
– Why does fashion change so often?
– Have a number of people who wear informal clothes increased?

Speaking Test 2

– What is your name?
– Do you work or study?
– Why did you choose this occupation?
– Do you write a lot?
– What do you write in your work?
– Is it rather handwritten or processed by a computer?
– Did you learn handwriting in school?
– Do you think is important to teach handwriting/calligraphy in school?

Cue card
What can we do / what do you do to stay healthy?
– what activity?
– why is it important?

Discussion
– Should schools be involved in promoting healthy life style? How?
– What could employers do to help their employees stay healthy/ promote healthy life style?