Please summarise the following transcript:

""

 This
 lesson
 focuses on
 the
 format
 of
 the
 IELTS
 exam.
 So,
 the
 IELTS
 has four
 sections.
 The
 sections
 called
 papers
 include
 reading,
 writing,
 listening,
 and
 those
 are
 all
 taken
 in
 one
 session,
 in
 one
 sitting.
 There
 are
 no
 breaks in the reading,
 writing,
 and
 listening portions of the paper exam.
 Then
 a separate section,
 the
 speaking
 section,
 you will
 schedule
 separately
 from
 your
 paper
 exam.
 That
 is
 an
 in-person
 interview and you
 will
 have
 about
 11
 to
 15
 minutes
 with
 an
 examiner
 to
 ask
 you
 questions that you need to answer for your
 exam.
 So
 the
 timing
 of
 the
 test,
 the whole
 thing,
 so
 both
 sections,
 the
 paper
 and
 the
 in-person
 interview,
 take
 two
 hours
 and
 45
 minutes
 to
 complete.
 The
 reading
 section
 takes
 one
 hour.
 The
 writing
 section takes
 an
 additional hour.
 The
 listening
 takes
 30
 minutes
 to
 listen
 to
 all
 the
 passages,
 but
 then
 you
 have 10 minutes
 after
 the
 passages
 are
 complete
 to
 transfer your answers from your
 question
 booklet
 to
 the
 answer
 sheet
 that
 you
 have.
 When
 we
 go
 through
 listening
 lessons,
 I'll
 describe
 this
 more
 in
 detail
 and
 talk
 about
 strategy
 related
 to
 this,
 but
 just
 know
 right
 now
 that the listening
 section has 30
 minutes,
 but
 then
 an
 additional
 10
 at
 the
 end
 to
 transfer
 answers.
 And
 as
 we
 said before,
 the
 speaking
 section takes
 11
 to
 15
 minutes.
 Okay,
 so
 an
 important
 distinction
 for
 anyone
 taking
 the
 IELTS
 is
 whether
 you
 are
 taking
 the
 academic
 or
 the
 general
 training
 IELTS
 exam.
 If
 you
 don't know already,
 you
 definitely
 need
 to
 go
 to
 your
 institution
 that's
 requiring
 you to
 take
 the IELTS
 and
 figure out which version
 of the
 exam you need
 to
 take.
 They
 are
 both very different from each
 other in
 some
 ways,
 and
 in
 some
 ways
 they
 are
 similar.
 So
 let's
 talk
 about
 the
 two
 versions
 of
 the
 exam.
 So
 first, the
 similarities.
 Excuse
 me.
 The
 IELTS
 exams
 have exactly the same listening and
 speaking
 sections.
 So
 there's
 no difference between
 the
 two.
 And
 in
 your lessons
 with Magoosh,
 when
 we
 get to
 those
 sections,
 there
 will
 be
 no division
 between
 general
 training
 topics
 and
 academic
 topics
 in
 the listening
 and
 speaking
 sections.
 Okay,
 but
 let's
 talk about the
 differences between
 the
 two.
 First,
 let's
 start with reading.
 In
 academic
 IELTS,
 you
 will
 have
 three
 academic
 articles
 or
 essays
 that
 you
 need
 to
 read.
 These
 will
 be
 longer in
 length,
 okay,
 so
 full
 articles,
 full
 essays,
 and
 each
 will
 take
 you
 approximately 20
 minutes
 to
 read
 and
 answer
 questions.
 Remember,
 you
 have one hour
 for the reading
 section, so
 each one is expected to take you 20 minutes to
 read and then answer questions
 for.
 For
 the general training, it's
 different.
 So
 in
 the
 general
 training,
 the first
 two
 sections
 contain
 short
 reading
 passages,
 okay.
 So
 an example of
 a
 short reading passage
 is
 like
 a
 community
 notice
 or
 an
 announcement
 of
 some
 kind.
 Definitely
 not
 a full essay
 like in the academic IELTS.
 Okay,
 then
 at
 the
 end of
 the
 general training exam,
 there
 will
 be
 one
 or
 sometimes
 two
 articles
 that
 are
 a
 little
 bit
 longer
 in
 length.
 Sometimes
 they
 are academic
 or
 journalistic
 articles, and they're
 similar
 to
 the
 kind
 you
 would
 find
 in
 the
 academic IELTS.
 But
 you'll
 only
 have one
 or maybe two of these depending on the
 test you're
 taking.
 To
 see examples
 of the
 kinds
 of reading
 you will
 do
 on the academic and the general training IELTS
 exams,
 please
 look
 at
 the
 links below
 and
 they
 will
 take
 you
 to
 examples
 of
 reading
 passages
 so
 you
 know
 what
 they
 will
 look
 like.
 Okay,
 now
 further
 differences are in
 the
 writing
 section.
 The
 writing paper has
 two
 tasks for both the academic and the
 general training IELTS,
 but
 the
 tasks are
 a
 little
 different.
 So
 in
 the
 academic
 IELTS,
 you will
 have
 for
 your
 first
 task
 to
 analyze
 data
 from
 visual
 information,
 but
 you'll
 basically need to write a report about
 this,
 about
 what you
 see
 for
 the
 visual
 information.
 So
 the
 kind
 of
 visual information
 they provide
 is usually
 something
 like
 this,
 something
 like
 a
 chart or
 a
 graph or
 maybe
 two
 charts
 and
 graphs.
 You
 need
 to summarize what's
 there,
 the
 important information,
 and
 provide some type of
 analysis of
 what's important
 about
 the
 visual
 information.
 In
 our
 writing
 section,
 we
 will
 have
 many
 examples
 of
 these
 types
 of
 questions
 and
 how
 to
 answer
 them.
 Just
 so
 you're
 familiar
 now,
 it's
 this
 kind
 of
 task that
 you'll
 do
 for
 task
 one
 on
 the
 academic
 IELTS.
 Task
 two
 is
 an academic essay,
 and for this one, you'll write
 250
 words
 as
 a
 minimum.
 For
 task one,
 the minimum was
 150
 words.
 Alright,
 so
 for
 task
 two,
 you'll
 write an academic
 topic,
 excuse
 me,
 you'll
 write
 an
 academic
 essay
 related
 to
 a
 topic
 like
 the
 one
 below.
 This
 essay
 will
 be, as we say, academic,
 it will be at least
 four
 paragraphs
 long
 with
 an
 introduction
 and
 conclusion.
 Again,
 in our
 writing
 lessons,
 we will
 go
 over in detail how to
 respond
 to
 these
 kinds
 of
 prompts
 for
 task
 two.
 In
 the
 academic
 IELTS,
 task one is worth one-third
 of
 your points and task two is worth two-thirds
 of your
 points.
 So
 it's
 better to spend a little
 more
 time, actually probably
 a lot more time
 on
 task
 two.
 Most
 students spend about
 20
 minutes
 on
 task one
 and
 then choose to spend about
 40 minutes
 writing
 task two.
 Okay,
 now
 for
 the general
 training,
 task one
 is very different.
 Instead
 of
 analyzing
 data
 like
 on
 the
 academic
 IELTS,
 in
 the general training
 exam, you're going
 to
 write
 a
 letter.
 Okay,
 and
 the task looks something like
 this. Okay,
 again, if you
 want to read the full description here, why don't
 you pause your video now and
 read
 the
 example.
 For
 this
 exercise,
 for task
 one
 on
 the
 general
 training,
 you'll
 have
 to
 write
 a
 letter and
 they
 will
 give
 you
 ideas
 about
 what
 needs
 to
 be
 included
 in
 the
 letter
 that
 you write.
 It's
 very important to
 include all
 the information that they
 request for you to provide
 in the
 letter.
 All
 right,
 then task two is very similar to task two on the academic IELTS where you're
 going to
 write an opinion essay to
 a
 general
 topic.
 And
 the
 topics
 are
 usually
 pretty
 similar
 to
 the
 academic
 task
 two.
 You'll
 provide some kind of opinion
 or perspective on an
 issue.
 Okay,
 finally, a few points
 to consider about
 the
 format of
 the
 IELTS.
 So
 the
 IELTS
 is
 a paper-based
 exam. Many exams you
 might take these days are on a computer, but
 the IELTS
 is
 on
 paper.
 So
 this
 makes
 a
 few
 considerations
 important.
 First
 of
 all, there's
 no spell checking on the
 IELTS
 exam.
 So
 you
 will
 need to have at least
 good enough
 handwriting
 in
 English that someone grading your exam can
 read
 what
 you
 say.
 This
 is
 especially important
 on the writing
 section
 where
 you're
 writing essays.
 The
 person
 who
 grades
 it
 needs
 to
 be
 able to read it.
 Spelling is also important.
 In
 fact,
 on
 every
 section of
 the exam, except for
 obviously the speaking section, you will have to write short
 answers,
 one-word
 answers.
 And
 if
 you misspell those
 answers, you will lose the point.
 You
 will
 not
 get
 points
 for misspellings.
 So
 spelling
 is important.
 As
 you're
 studying vocabulary,
 it's
 very,
 very important to study
 spelling as
 well.
 Okay, timing.
 So
 for the essay
 section,
 many of you maybe these days can type a
 lot
 faster than you
 can write by
 hand.
 You're
 going
 to
 write
 essays in
 one hour, two essays in
 one
 hour
 for the
 IELTS exam.
 And
 it's
 very
 important
 that you
 can write
 quickly
 enough,
 but still
 have
 somebody
 understand
 what
 you
 are
 writing.
 It's
 important
 as
 you
 practice writing for
 the
 IELTS
 to
 write
 by
 hand.
 Finally,
 there
 is
 one
 feature of
 the IELTS
 exam is
 that
 you will
 have
 a
 question
 sheet
 and
 an
 answer
 sheet.
 If
 you
 look
 below,
 I've
 provided
 examples
 to
 answer
 sheets
 and
 what
 they
 look
 like
 and
 the
 question
 sheets
 as
 well.
 So
 as
 you
 take the exam,
 part
 of the strategy we
 are
 going to study in each section of the exam is that you will take notes and do analysis
 on
 the
 question
 sheet.
 And
 then
 you will put
 your
 final
 answers on
 the
 answer
 sheet.
 Okay,
 so
 hopefully this overview
 has
 given you
 some
 good
 ideas about what the
 exam will look
 like in
 general.
 And
 then
 as we
 go
 forward,
 we're
 going
 to really go into
 detail about each of
 the
 sections and
 question
 types.
""