All About IELTS

Welcome to IELTS Success Formula Challenge Day 3. If you’ve just joined IELTS-Blog today, read about the Challenge here.

Today we’re going to deal with a problem that troubles Raminder from India. He must have it solved to be able to further his studies in Australia:

“I have a few problems with the Reading sub test. I usually get confused with question types like True/False/Not Given, matching information and completion type of questions. Time management is also a problem, I have never been able to answer all the 40 questions in one hour.”

How IELTS Success Formula can solve Raminder’s Reading problem

Let me begin by saying that it’s not just Raminder’s problem – our research shows that the majority of IELTS test takers have difficulties with time management in the Reading sub test.

This is why we devoted a lot of attention to this issue in IELTS Success Formula – and I quote:

“Question. What if I’m almost out of time, and I still haven’t answered all the questions?

Answer. This can (and probably will) happen to you during the first practice sessions. The IELTS Reading test is time-intensive, meaning there is a lot of reading and answering in the 60 minutes, and anyone who doesn’t manage their time can end up in this situation. While it’s OK to run out of time at home, in the initial stages of your preparation, try not to let it happen to you during the actual exam. Proper time management will help you avoid such scary moments – please refer to
‘7 Fundamentals to Make Your Reading Test a Success’ on page 48.”

I will briefly mention here the 7 Fundamentals (because explaining these principles takes quite a few pages in the book):

1. Skim and scan instead of reading word by word
Did you know? ‘Skimming’ means reading fast to get the general idea and ‘scanning’ means looking for particular information. In the book we explain in detail which question types require skimming, and which require scanning, and then direct you to fitness activities to practice.

2. Use the text to guide you to the answers
This fundamental is talking about a few particular question types that appear in a sequential order in the text. You can save time if you know when you won’t have to go back in the text to find the next answer, you will always be moving forward.

3. Use words from the text
There are particular question types that require copying words from the text “as is”, which is a great – because you don’t even have to worry about spelling or grammar.

4. Read in detail only if you have to
When you know which question types don’t require reading in detail you can save time by scanning.

5. Pay close attention to task instructions in the test paper
If you write correct answers in more words than allowed, you will lose marks.

6. Know when to move on
Some questions are just harder than others. Don’t get stuck on a hard question, move on and keep answering the following ones – your score will benefit from this approach.

7. Manage your time

To manage your time well in the Academic Reading sub test you basically need to do two things:

1. Allocate a certain amount of time to each passage. Since the first passage is normally the easiest it makes sense to allocate the least time to it, then a bit more time to Passage 2, and even more time to Passage 3.

Note: this strategy will work better for people with stronger reading skills, but in the book we also offer an alternative strategy for those who have weaker reading skills.

2. Answer the questions on each passage in the most efficient and accurate way to save time. Because this is important, in IELTS Success Formula we give you techniques for answering the difficult question types quickly and accurately.

For example, Raminder mentioned True/False/Not Given questions confusing him. Here’s how we suggest to approach this question type.

The basic rule is that that if the statement clearly agrees with text, the answer is True, if the statement explicitly contradicts the text, the answer is False, and if the statement says something that the text doesn’t say, it’s Not Given. It works in a very similar way with Yes/No/Not Given.

Also, keep in mind that the answers to True/False/Not Given and Yes/No/Not Given questions appear sequentially in the passage. This narrows down the search for you, because once you’ve found the answer to question 1, the answer to question 2 will be somewhere in the sentences that follow, not in the preceding part of the text.

To learn more visit the IELTS Success Formula webpage and download a free trial copy (scroll down and look for the download link).

Welcome to IELTS Success Formula Challenge Day 2. If you’ve just joined IELTS-Blog today, read about the Challenge here.

Today we’re going to solve the problem that Laura P, a pharmacist from Spain, is battling with:

“I took the IELTS test about half a year ago and I got Band 6, which is OK, but not enough for my purpose. I am a pharmacist moving to the UK soon and I need to score Band 7 at least in order to have a proper job opening there.

I have been studying English really seriously for four years already at the Languages State School and I have made good progress, but not enough to reach Band 7. So, I feel stuck and frustrated because even though I have been devoting time to the task, it seems I will never reach the required proficiency level.

I have trouble with all IELTS skills, but what I particularly find tough is the Listening part. I just cannot cope with listening just once and writing down the information simultaneously. I train my ear totally by watching films and doing listening exercises, but I am still having trouble to get the right information after listening just once, even if I try to focus on which type of data is required.”

How IELTS Success Formula can solve Laura’s Listening problem

To be able to listen and write down the right information a few things are needed.

Firstly, writing while listening is an ability one needs to develop. You can use any opportunity to practice – a talk show on the radio, a podcast, a listening exercise you found online, etc. Just listen and make notes on a piece of paper of the most important things that you hear. You can use shorthand writing (such as writing “doc. ord.” instead of “doctor’s orders” for speed, as long as you can decipher your writing afterwards.

Secondly, in the IELTS Listening sub test you need to know what you’re listening for. So you need to look ONLY at a small group of questions at a time (not all the questions in the section), as instructed by the recording. For example the recording says “Now look at questions 7 to 10”, so that means you need to quickly read only questions 7 to 10, but not any further. By doing that you are focusing just on the necessary information, you are not getting distracted by other things that aren’t important in the following fragment of the recording.

Thirdly, you need know question types really, really well. Pages 3 to 6 in IELTS Success Formula (click here to see) show you the question types and give you an example of each question type, which is good to get started; they also direct you towards which Fitness Activities you should do to practice in answering that particular question type. By studying all the question types you will know in what form the answer will come, and it will be easier to recognize it on the recording.

Another thing to keep in mind is that details you hear on the recording are there for a reason. Quoting from IELTS Success Formula,

“Any specific information mentioned on a recording, such as names, phone numbers, dates, opening hours, locations, years, colors is usually mentioned for a reason. It is very likely that such details are contained in the answer.”

But what to do if you can’t see which question this would be relevant to? Quickly write those details down in the Listening booklet. After the recording has finished, you will be given 10 minutes to transfer your answers from the booklet to the answer sheet, and during that time you can match some of unanswered questions with the details you wrote down during the test.

One more hint that helps with IELTS listening is – you don’t need to rewrite or rephrase what you hear when answering a question. Write exactly what you hear, when you hear an answer. Don’t look for a synonym or change the word’s form, don’t lose time doing that, it’s the wrong thing to do.

To get more Listening tips, visit the IELTS Success Formula webpage and download a free trial copy (scroll down a bit and look for the download link).