IELTS Preparation 

IELTS at CQU English Language Centre, Rockhampton

To help our students and IELTS candidates prepare for IELTS we have written the following study guide. Please read the notes carefully and make sure you understand and act on the advice. It could make the difference between getting the band score you need and missing out.

Prepare for the exam correctly

One of the most common mistakes is incorrect exam preparation. It is important to remember that IELTS is an English test. In exactly the same way that a driving test tests whether someone can drive a car, a spelling test measures how well someone can spell and a running race measures who can run the fastest, IELTS measures how good someone's English is. 

No one would practice for a driving test by not driving a car, a spelling test by studying arithmetic or a running race by lying in bed; however this is the sort of thing people do by accident when they prepare for IELTS. The problem is they study the exam and they don't study English. The result is that they know a lot about the exam but they don't know enough English to get to the band they want.

This happens because candidates prepare for the exam by studying examples of the exam questions as found in IELTS preparation books. The problem with this is that this is not studying English. It is studying the format of the exam. While it's true that candidates should know what the exam is like, familiarity with the exam is about 10 to 15 percent of succeeding at IELTS. The rest is English ability and this is not learned by studying the format of the exam's questions. It's learned by studying English.

 Make sure you are familiar with the exam format but study English to prepare for the exam.

Another mistake is to believe that if the exam is studied long enough a way will be found to get to the band score that they want - regardless of English ability. This is a waste of time. In this respect IELTS is like any test: if you have learned what is being tested you will be able to give the correct answers.

To succeed at IELTS you need to do the following things:

 To get the band score you want make sure your English parallels the indicators for the band you are aiming for. To see if it does, have a look at the public versions of the band descriptors. These are less detailed versions of the marking guide the examiners use and are available at the following web addresses:

Speaking: https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/digitalAssets/114292_IELTS_Speaking_Band_Descriptors.pdf

Writing:  https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/digitalAssets/113300_public_writing_band_descriptors.pdf

Learn Vocabulary

If you think about it for a minute it is obvious that in all languages there will be words that are used far more often than others. Furthermore, some will be used a lot by all speakers of the language; others less and some will be known and used by only a few people.

In fact, the average literate English speaker has a working vocabulary of about 8000 to 10000 words. Consequently part of "knowing English" means knowing the words in this group. 

As these words are common they will often be key words in questions in all four parts of the exam. Therefore the candidate who knows most of them should have a good chance of answering the questions. On the other hand, someone who does not know enough of them won't be able to answer the questions and this will negatively affect their band score.

A weak working vocabulary shows up clearly in the reading section. Candidates often believe they are weak at reading, but when asked to do some practice questions it becomes clear that their reading skills are quite good. Instead the problem is they don't know the meaning of key words in the questions. Consequently they can't answer the question because they can't find the key word's semantic equivalents in the text.

The solution is to learn common vocabulary. To do this you should buy an exams dictionary like the Longman Exams Dictionary.  http://eltcatalogue.pearsoned-ema.com/Course.asp?Callingpage=Catalogue&CourseID=TC

An exams dictionary shows how commonly used a word is and ranks it in groups of the top 1000, 2000 and 3000 words in the language. The idea is that if you come across a word you don't know, you look it up and if it is in the top 3000 words you make sure you learn it. These dictionaries also show synonyms, antonyms, collocations and related words. You will need to know these too, as the exam will probably use them in the text or listening instead of repeating the key question word in the text.

Here's an example of this sort of thing. It is practice test question taken from the popular textbook Focus on IELTS, page 77, by Sue O'Connell.

According to an exams dictionary, the key words in this question have the following rankings:

(AC indicates the word is often used in academic contexts.)

Clearly, not knowing these words will place the candidate at a considerable disadvantage. In addition, the word that is semantically related to impure in the text is contaminated. This shows that to answer this question quickly, it is not enough to be able to recognise the written form pure. You also have to know the words semantically related to it.

Learn How to Use Higher Level Grammar

To obtain a higher level band score candidates will need to demonstrate that they can use more complex grammar. To do this you should be able to use the following structures reasonably accurately when writing and speaking. The list is organised in a hierarchy of importance:

1. The passive
2. Relative clauses
3. Participle clauses
4. Nominalisation

At a minimum you should be able to use the first two items on the list. As well as being able to produce the form (i.e. what the structure looks or sounds like), you should also understand the contexts (where the structure is used) and the function (what it is used for).

Here are some examples of the passive:

1. Visitors are requested not to smoke.
2. Man attacked in Centennial Park.
3. English spoken here.
4. Students have been told not to write in our textbooks.
5. The mixture is stirred for five minutes.
6. The Harbour Bridge was built from the best materials.

The context of sentence 3 could be a sign in a shop and the function could be informing customers. The context of 2 could be a newspaper headline and the function could be reporting news. An additional function could be to hide the name of the attacker (assuming it is known).

The important point here is that knowing a piece of language is not only knowing the form (what it looks or sounds like). It's also knowing where it should be used and what it should be used for. Without this knowledge you can't always use the language accurately or effectively. This, in turn, may lower your band score.

Understand How Ideas are Organised in More Formal English

There are determinate ways for organising ideas in more formal spoken and written English. Understanding how this is done will help you a lot in all four parts of the exam. In the reading and listening it will help you find the answer quickly as you will know where to look in the text or when the answer will occur in the listening.

In parts 2 and 3 of the speaking this skill will help you produce coherent well-structured answers and should stop you from giving a response which does not answer the question.

A major focus of the writing is coherence and cohesion. Consequently if you can't organise your ideas into structured paragraphs you should not expect to get a higher band score in this part of the exam. To avoid this situation you should ensure that, at the least, your essay replicates the following schema:

1. An introductory sentence with a topic and a controlling idea

2. Supporting sentences

3. A qualifying statement (if necessary)

4. A conclusion (if necessary)

All paragraphs should have one topic only. This point is not negotiable.

It's important to realise that part 2 of the speaking is like an oral version of what is written in an essay as the ideas are organised the same way. As with most of the IELTS exam, the skills examined recur in all sections of the test. Consequently, if you are having problems with them you will be losing marks throughout the exam. Clearly then, the habit of treating the four sections of the exam as discrete (separate) is a mistake.

Understand Part 1 Writing Academic

Part 1 of the writing in Academic seems to cause people a lot of trouble. This is unfortunate as it is no more difficult than any other part of the exam. It seems that often people are unclear about what they are supposed to be doing and make a mess of the answer.

This section is usually an exercise on comparing and contrasting and reporting. Regardless of whether question uses a map, a graph or a set of pictures the task is always the same: Find the main idea and contrast it with the rest of the information.

In the graph, map, plan or pictures you will be given, there will probably be one feature which will be different from all the others and possibly another which is similar to it.  The correct approach is to compare and contrast these items with all the others. 

The incorrect way to answer the question is to report on every feature in the illustration as if it is a separate entity. To put it another way: write about groups of things not separate things.

Your answer should have a short introductory paragraph which says what the illustration is all about (About 30 words should do). Never repeat (copy) the question in your introduction. It's alright to use the same vocabulary and ideas but if you do this you must write a paraphrase of the original question.

The next paragraph should compare and contrast the two sets of information. In this section you should demonstrate that you can use the passive and relative clauses as well as being able to use the appropriate vocabulary accurately. This is sort of thing the examiner will be looking for. They will not be looking at how closely you analyse the material as this is not a data analysis task. They will be looking for how well you can use your English to compare and contrast so you need to show that you can do this.

You can wrap up you answer with a very brief concluding paragraph which sums up, or reiterates the main idea. This, however, is not absolutely necessary.

The other format which may appear from time to time (but not regularly) is reporting on a process. This requires the use of different vocabulary and a different text type.

With these questions you will be given a diagram of a cycle or a process and you will be asked to summarise it. In other words, you have to reproduce the process the diagram shows in words. To do this you should use the same format as the compare and contrast response. However, in the main paragraph you need to describe the sequence of events shown in the picture. This will mean that you will have to use sequence words like first, next, then and phrases like following this, after that, at the same timeand so on. You should make sure that you know these sorts of words and are clear about their meanings. Be careful with this as the meanings of these words can be quite tricky and it is easy to make a lot of mistakes if you don't understand the semantic nuances clearly.

There are a couple of general rules that apply to both types of question:

1. No more than 20 minutes on part 1. Part 1 is worth fewer marks than part 2 so you should spend no more than one third of your time on it. If you spend longer than 20 minutes you are probably losing marks.
2. Write no more than 150 words in part 1. Writing too much has the same effect as spending too long on the question. In addition, if you need more than 150 words to answer part 1 you are probably reporting on every feature in the illustration as if it is a separate entity. As explained earlier, this is an incorrect way to answer this question.
3. Take a minute or two to plan your answer so you are clear about what you are going to say before you start writing. This should help prevent you from getting confused when you start writing - something that is easy to do if you are a bit nervous.

Understand how to Tackle the Reading Section

It is probably not possible to read the entire reading text closely and answer the questions in the time allowed. Unfortunately this is what people often try to do. It is easy to spot them when marking the reading as they will have around two thirds of the questions answered and the rest with no answer. Where the answers on the answer sheet stop is how far they managed to read closely to before they ran out of time. Clearly then the first rule for the reading is:

1. Don't try and read the whole text closely.

 2. Make sure you understand and use the following reading skills:

• Predicting
• Skimming or reading for gist and main ideas
• Scanning
• Reading for detail
• Understanding the purpose and function of the text
• Understanding the textual organisation

When you answer a reading question you should predict what the text will be about by looking at the headings and reading the first paragraph (which will probably be an introduction to the rest of the text). Then you should read the whole text for gist. This will help you understand the author's purpose and the textual organisation. Next tackle the first question. Find the key words in the question and relate them to the correct section of the text. (If you have read for gist correctly you should know which paragraph they are related to). Scan the appropriate section for the key vocabulary or sentences and when you see it, read for detail for the answer. Easy!

Speaking Test

There are three parts to the speaking test:

• Introduction and interview
• Individual long turn
• Two-way discussion

Regardless of what part of the test you are doing the following rules apply:

• 1. Treat the interview like you are having a cup of coffee together.
• 2. Don't be silent. You will not get marks for not talking.
• 3. Focus on fluency rather than accuracy (It's better to talk a lot rather than worry about whether your grammar is accurate and risk saying nothing).
• 4. Always answer the question in the same tense as the one the examiner asks it in. For example: "How long are you going to stay in Rockhampton" I am going to stay in Rockhampton for 2 years". This will mean that you use the correct grammar (they have told you the answer already).

In the long turn question:

Make sure you answer the question. You should realise that this means structuring your answer in the same way that you would organise a piece of writing (one idea per paragraph and so on). You should use the preparation time to write down the main ideas of what you will talk about.

In the two-way discussion:

• 1. You can ask the examiner to rephrase the question if you don't understand it
• 2. Make sure you answer the question.

If you want any more help to prepare for your exam come and see us. We can organise tuition for you and suggest a study programme to improve your English.

 One more thing: good luck with your exam.