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July 2009

IELTS Speaking questions from Iran and the Philippines

Even though IELTS exams in Iran and the Philippines were the same as in IELTS in Pakistan, Speaking always has many different versions, so here are another two – thanks to the kind people who took the time to update me.

Speaking test in the Philippines

Interview
– What is your full name?
– Do you study or work?
– Where did you study?
– Do you drive? If not, why?
– At what age your children are likely to learn driving, you think?

Cue card
Talk about one of the happiest events in your childhood, you should say
– Why was it important
– Where it happened
– When was it?
– Does your family still remember it? Why?
– Are you still keeping something from your childhood, like toys or pictures? For what reason?

Discussion
– Fresh fruits and vegetables in the day to day life.
– Are you eating fast food? Why?
– Is it available in your place?
– Are people following the old traditions these days? Why?

Speaking test in Iran

Interview
– Talk about your place
– What kinds of transportation you use in your hometown?
– How often do you go out?
– How do you spend your spare time?
– How often do you read books?
– What kinds of books?

Cue card
Talk about a party you would like to hold
– What do you do to hold it?
– What special things you do at this party?

Discussion
– What are the differences between old and young generation’s parties?
– Which one do you prefer, friendly gathering or family gathering? Why?
– What special things you do in family gathering?
– Talk about national ceremonies in your country.
– Are they useful or not? Why?

IELTS exam in Germany – June 2009 (Academic Module)

This is a precise description of IELTS in Germany – many thanks to T. I hope your result will be much better than the overall feeling after the exam. And now to the questions:

Listening test

Section 1: a customer complaining about a flight at an airline help desk. Filling in gaps, multiple choice questions.

Section 2: a tourist tour to a harbor with several attractions. Shown was a map with areas named A-F and we had to identify things like meeting place etc.There was also completing a table and I think gap filling.

Section 3: two students talking about a maritime project about whales, the questions were completing a table and filling in gaps.

Section 4: I can’t remember.

Reading test

Passage 1: article about “The carbolic smoke ball”, a story about flu 150 years ago in London. The questions were multiple choice, True / False / Not Given and completing sentences.

Passage 2: an article about an Australian company producing a bathroom cleaner, how they restructured the company and earned a fortune after producing only 1 sort of cleaner instead of 700 different ones in the past. A bit complicated to read, it was easy to get confused. Questions: completing sentences, multiple choice, True / False / Not Given.

Writing test

Writing Task 1 (report)
A diagram (cross section) about the MontBlanc tunnel in Europe and a Japanese rail tunnel. Describe information and compare where necessary.

The writing test shocked me! I was mentally fixed on graphs, bar charts, pie charts and so on and the vocabulary so it was a shock to me when I saw the diagram.

Writing Task 2 (essay)
The government has to provide primary and secondary education, but for university education s.o. (students, their parents etc) should pay. To what extent do you agree.

Well, not a piece of cake actually, but I remembered the hints in your book, made a list for pros and cons and started writing. Finished the last word when the examiner said. “Stop writing, pencils on the table” so I couldn’t check for mistakes.

Speaking test

Interview
I entered the room and we had a little smalltalk (the examiner started this smalltalk) and I was very confident. Up to the moment when the examiner said: “Oh by the way, that’s not the test. I have to start the recorder first” Then she did, stated date, time , center number, my name and candidate number and so on.

The examiner was nice and very kind, no problem about our relation and so on but it felt like a bloody police questioning and I was not able to answer the bloody questions in two sentences.

Cue Card
What kind of course would you take if you had the time, you should say
– what would you learn in this course
– why would you chose it

Discussion
A few questions about
– quality of teachers
– sport facilities in my town,
– what kind of sports I’d like to do