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IELTS Preparation tips

The best ways to study for the four IELTS sub-tests: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking

The IELTS test in Sri Lanka – how to prepare for free

It really makes me happy to see how more institutions start helping people prepare for the IELTS test, for free. Today I discovered another great service that the British Council in Sri Lanka has launched for IELTS test takers. Recently I wrote about free IELTS preparation in India and today I found similar help in Sri Lanka.

Here’s the deal: anyone (not just people already registered for the exam) can attend a free 90-minute IELTS seminar. Well, it’s more like an orientation session, because they don’t coach students and help them with the actual preparation, but they do answer basic questions, such as what’s in the exam, how it is scored, etc – including your own questions about the IELTS test.

The registration is done online (click here to register) and the seminars are held every month, once a month.

Nice, right? Hold on, it’s getting better – there are free practice sessions for registered test takers. If you’re in Colombo or Kandy, come to the British Council library, show your IELTS exam fee receipt and you will get access to all the practice materials you need for IELTS preparation.

They have study books, test papers and tapes for the Listening test, come any day of the week and practice at the library – if you ask me, things don’t get any better than that. For any questions call (011) 4521592 in Colombo and (081) 4473543 in Kandy. More details about working days and hours are here.

I will keep on posting about similar services in other countries as I find them. Let’s hope it’s a new trend!

Free IELTS Listening tests for your exam preparation

Today I have more free Listening resources for you. I’ve had several requests this week to find and publish links to some Listening practice tests. This is the list I’ve compiled, feel free to let me know if you’ve found additional resources – every little bit helps.

1. Here you will find a short listening sample (mp3) with 5 questions, the correct answers are provided too. Click here to proceed to the test.

2. This test was prepared by the British Council, and I think it’s great. There are four Listening sections, just like in a real IELTS exam. You can take this test under real exam conditions (without breaks between sections) or in a practice mode – start and stop the audio as many times as you like while you’re working on your listening skills. Note: if you are going to do this under real exam conditions download and print all the question files and the blank answer sheet for your answers, and also save audio files for the four sections on your computer before beginning the test.

Click here to go to Section 1

Click here to go to Section 2

Click here to go to Section 3

Click here to go to Section 4

The question types you will see are Notes completion, Table completion, Information matching and Multiple choice, and the accent types are English and American.

On each Listening Section page you can download the questions in PDF format, or simply read them off the screen. The audio can also be downloaded from the same Section page, or you could listen to it online, if you’re on a fast internet connection.

Download a blank answer sheet here

Download the correct answers here

3. Another useful piece of software is the IELTS Listening Conqueror 2.0.

It’s a program that you need to download and install on your computer (some will see this as a downside). It allows you to run 4 full listening tests for free (there are many more in the full version but it costs some money), and the transcript is displayed as you listen, sentence by sentence.

You also have the option of typing as you listen (they call it the method of dictation). The speed is adjustable and you can set the software to repeat every phrase as many times as you like. I have tried it, the quality of the recordings is not bad and the software is pretty easy to use.

The file size is 7 Mbytes, not an issue for any broadband users, people with dial-up will have to take a coffee break while the file is downloading.

That’s all for today, enjoy!