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February 2011

IELTS test in Thailand – February 2011(Academic Module)

Our friend H from Thailand shared his IELTS exam. Here is what H remembered:

Listening test

Section 1. Information on a climbing course.
Questions: Filling in the blanks.

Section 2. Information about a tour in a desert.
Questions: Multiple choice / filling in the blanks.

Section 3. Information on Solar Purification Water System.
Questions: Multiple choice / filling in the blanks.

Section 4. Don’t remember.

Reading test

Passage 1. About a female student in the university of Bologna.
Passage 2. About the cooperation between cars and trucks on Euro zone roads.
Passage 3. Don’t remember.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (a report)

There were graphs showing sales figures of music CDs between the years 1998 – 2004.

Writing task 2 (an essay)

Do women play an equal role to men in the police force or military force? Discuss, what is your opinion?

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your name?
– What do you do for a living?
– When was the last time that you gave or received gifts?
– Do you like receiving gifts?
– What is more enjoyable, giving or receiving gifts?

Cue Card

Describe what type of books you prefer the most (Novels, Sports, Travel Books)? Please say:

– Why do you like this particular genre?
– When did you first discover it?
– Please name a few of your favorite books.
– How often do you read these days?

Discussion

Don’t remember.

A student goes from Band 6.5 to band 9 in 3 months

Today I have quite a story for you. A test taker, let’s call him Hardip, sent me an email and explained how he was able to improve his Speaking score from Band 6 to Band 9 in 3 months. To those of you new to IELTS preparation I should say that this doesn’t happen often, a jump of almost 3 bands is a very significant one. And here is Hardip’s analysis of his performance:

“I appeared in IELTS in October 2010 and got 6.5 in the speaking module. After 3 months I got Band 9 in the speaking module. So what did I do wrong the first time?

Here are the few mistakes I made:

1. I realized the mistake #1 after my first exam – I was speaking too fast for the examiner to follow. The reason is (this was revealed to me by one of the IELTS examiners I went to for feedback) – Indians try to speak too fast and Asians try to speak in the present tense. I am an Indian and was trying to speak too fast.

Tip: Speak slowly and clearly. Pause after sentences, not in between the sentences (IELTS examiners call it ‘chunks’). Don’t repeat your words or a sentence you already said.

2. During my first speaking test, in the cue card section, I did not use the 1 minute time effectively. I started speaking only after 20 seconds.

Tip: Use the 1 minute in full. Keep writing things to say until the examiner asks you to start.

3. During the first exam I was using technical terms like DSLR (instead of camera) PS2 (instead of PlayStation game console) and so on.

Tip: Keep conversation free of technical words. Use words from
every day English as the examiner may not be familiar with some terms.