IELTS Exam Basic Information

Instructor: Okay, so let's get into the IELTS exam structure. It's really important that you understand the structure of the exam so that you know how to attack it. Now, in terms of the format, there are four equally graded parts that are scored from zero to nine on a rubric. Each part has a rubric. The reading and listening parts are objective, which means that you either get it right or get it wrong. The speaking and the writing sections are subjective, which means that another person or a grader is going to be grading you, and that is subjective, meaning that it's open to a person's interpretation of the rubric or how you score it against the rubric. Now these people that are scoring your exam are experts. They've been trained in how to score the speaking and the writing sections, but it's still done by a human being. That's what makes it subjective. The listening, reading and writing occur on the same day. The speaking might occur one to five days before your exam date, and in some countries, it may even occur one or two days after the exam date. Keep in mind that the IELTS exam is a measurement of your English ability. They are measuring your English ability, not your intelligence. It's not an intelligence test. They're measuring ability. And finally, it is standardized testing, which means that everything must be consistent. The scoring must be consistent, the reading levels must be consistent. There are rules. Now, what's great about that is when you know the rules, like I know the rules and you know the structure, like I know the structure, I can teach you how to really excel on the exam. Because once you understand the structure and the rules that the examiners are governed by, you can tell somebody else how to surpass that. You can teach somebody else how to overcome that. So that's why it's important to have a really good instruction. In terms of the section descriptions, the listening section is 40 total minutes. There are 40 total questions. We're talking about the paper exam. There are 30 minutes of the test and 10 minutes to transfer your answers. On the computer based exam, is 30 minutes of test of answering questions for the listening section, but only two minutes to check your answers because on the computer based exam, your answers are automatically transferred. There are four alternating sections. The exam gets progressively more difficult. Section one is really easy, basic level English. Section four is much more difficult, educational and training. You have conversations, solo presentations, multiple choice or fill the blank questions. In terms of the reading section, you have 40 questions you have to complete in 60 minutes. Those 40 questions are divided up over three sections. Again, progressively more difficult as you go. There are about 14 different question types. Now in this course, I go through each and every question type, telling you the strategy and illustrating for you how to score well on that question type. Some questions go in order, some questions do not. Again, we teach you that. With the writing section, you have an academic task one, which can be a chart, a graph, a process, a diagram, or if you're doing the general exam, you have to write a letter. Now, whether you're doing the general exam or the academic exam, you have to do a task two standard essay. Finally, the speaking section. Three parts. Three parts, everybody. Section one is basically an interview, is face-to-face. Section two is a two minute presentation where you read some background information that you have to speak on for two minutes. And then section three are follow-up questions on the same topic that governs section number two. Now, very briefly in terms of the academic exam versus the general exam, because a lot of students ask this question a lot. The academic has listening, reading, writing task one, writing task two, speaking section. For the general exam, the listening section is the same as the academic. For the reading exam for the general is different. It's much easier in terms of the content and the level of English that's given. Writing task number one is different on the general exam. Writing task two is the same and the speaking section is the same. Now, within this course, we teach the academic and the general exam. There's certain sections that apply only to the academic and certain sections that apply only to the general. Now, if you look at the curriculum, you can clearly see it divided up by section, so make sure you pay attention to that. In terms of the paper exam versus the computer exam, it's the same exam, same difficulty level, same question types. The difference is the results. With the paper exam, it takes about 13 to 14 days for your results, for the computer exam, about five to seven days. So that's an advantage of the computer exam is that you get your results much faster. Now, let's go over some of the specific exam part information. Like I said earlier, in terms of the listening, you have four parts, four sections. Parts one and two are everyday social situations. Parts three and four are educational and training situations. In terms of academic reading, all the topics are of a general interest. General interest means that common topics, common interests, and they are done at the level of the undergraduate and postgraduate level. The information can come from a book, from a journal, from a magazine, from something online, and this is really important. It's for a non-specialist audience. so you don't have to worry about, well, what if I don't have any knowing. it is not for a specialist. This is information that's for a non-specialist audience. Now moving on to the general reading, again, this is less difficult than the academic. There are three sections is still increasing difficulty. Section one is about everyday topics that you might encounter in a English speaking country such as, you know, filling out a form at a hotel, some information about a bicycle renting or renting a bicycle or joining a club. Really easy information in section one. Section two is gonna be on work topics, job descriptions, information like that. Section three is going to be at the same level as the academic, so section three is the more difficult part on the general reading. Now, moving on to academic writing task one. You're gonna have to describe some visual information based on some graph or chart, line graph, diagram process. You only have about 20 minutes to do it, everybody, 20 minutes. So you have to write really fast, you have to understand how to do it. We teach you exactly what to do, exactly what to do. General writing test number one, you have to respond to a situation by writing a letter. We're going to give you a universal format that you can use. We're gonna teach you how to write in a way and in a style that's gonna make sure it's well developed that you address each part you need to address so that you can score really, really well. And then finally, in terms of the writing task number two, you have to write a four to five paragraph essay that follows the conventions of essay writing. Really important, the conventions of essay writing. And in our writing section, we teach you how to do that. Thank you so much and I'll talk to you soon.