I am a ESL teacher. I have made a  quick guide for a student who is taking the IELTS general training exam. Here it is:

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IELTS General Training: Listening Test Structure & Strategies

IELTS Listening Test Structure

1. Duration
- The listening test takes about 30 minutes.

2. Sections
- Part 1: Two speakers in a conversation about everyday information (e.g., making a booking).
- Part 2: One speaker giving a talk on a familiar topic (e.g., facilities in a building).
- Part 3: A conversation between 2-4 people in an academic or work-based setting (e.g., students discussing an assignment).
- Part 4: One speaker delivering a lecture on an academic topic.

3. Question Types
- Multiple-choice, completion (notes, table, forms), matching, diagram labelling.

4. Scoring
- Each question is worth one mark.


Strategies for the IELTS Listening Test


- One-time Audio Play: Stay focused; the audio plays only once.
- Preview & Review: Use breaks to read upcoming questions and review answers.

1. Before the Audio
- Read Instructions: Pay attention to the word limit for completion questions.
- Skim Questions: Get an idea of the topic and main ideas.
- Predict Answers: For completion questions, consider what type of word (noun, verb) might fill the gap.

2. During the Audio
- Focus on Questions: Keep your eyes on the questions as the audio plays.
- Keywords: Identify and underline key words in the questions.
- Sequential Listening: Be aware that questions usually follow the order of the audio.
- Avoid Distractors: Listen to the entire statement before deciding on an answer to avoid being misled by distractors.

3. After the Audio
- Review Answers: Check spelling, grammar, and ensure compliance with the given word limit.




Special Considerations for Listening Section 

1. Structured Listening
- Familiarise yourself with Lecture Structure: Introduction, main points, and conclusion.
- Signposting Language: Recognize phrases that indicate sequence and logical relationships (e.g., “led to,” “resulted in”).
- Note Completion: Predict the type of word needed and pay attention to parts of the notes without questions to guide your listening.

2. Map and Diagram Labelling
- Understand Instructions: Know what you are labelling (e.g., buildings on a map, parts of a machine).
- Location Vocabulary: Familiarise yourself with words describing location and position (e.g., “opposite,” “next to”).

3. Accent Practice
- Practice listening to a variety of English accents (British, American, Australian, etc.).
- Within British accents, listen to different regional variations (e.g., Scottish, Welsh).




IELTS General Training: Reading Test Strategies

IELTS Reading Test Structure

1. Duration
- The reading test lasts 60 minutes.

2. Sections and Articles

Section 1 has multiple short texts (e.g., advertisements), Section 2 covers work-related texts (e.g., procedures, policies), and Section 3 contains a longer article.

3. Scoring
- 40 questions in total, each worth one mark. No penalty for wrong answers.


Question Types

1. Completion
- Fill gaps in notes, tables, diagrams, flowcharts, or summaries using words from the text.

2. Matching
- Match headings to paragraphs or sections.
- Match information, features, or sentence endings to specific parts of the text.

3. True/False/Not Given & Yes/No/Not Given
- Identify if statements are true, false, or not given based on the text.
- Determine if statements reflect the writer’s views (yes/no/not given).

4. Multiple Choice
- Choose one or more correct answers from a list of options.

5. Short Answer
- Answer questions using words from the text, typically one to three words.


Preparation Strategies

1. Before the Test
- Read Instructions Carefully: Ensure you understand how many words are allowed and specific details needed.
- Skim Read: Quickly read the text to understand headings, subheadings, and main ideas.

2. During the Test
- Keywords: Identify and highlight key words in the questions.
- Synonyms: Look for words/phrases with the same meaning in the text as in the questions.
- Logical Guess: If unsure of an answer, make an educated guess instead of leaving it blank.

3. Time Management
- Divide Time Equally: Roughly spend 20 minutes per section.
- Skip and Return: If stuck on a question for over 90 seconds, skip and return later.
- Flexibility: Use the time effectively; there’s no fixed order for answering questions.


Strategies for True/False/Not Given & Yes/No/Not Given Questions

1. Definitions
- True: Statement matches information in the text (paraphrased).
- False: Statement contradicts information in the text.
- Not Given: Not enough information to say if the statement is true or false.

2. Preparation
- Predict what the text might say to indicate whether the statement is true, false, or not given.
- Avoid using prior knowledge; rely strictly on the text.

Practice Tips

1. Skimming and Scanning
- Skim for main ideas; scan for details like names, dates, and specific terms.

2. Practise Different Question Types
- Familiarise yourself with all 11 types of questions to build confidence.

3. Build Vocabulary
- Enhance understanding and recognition of synonyms and paraphrases.

4. Reading Fluency
- Practise reading diverse text types quickly and accurately to improve reading fluency.

Test Day Tips

1. Strategy Application
- Use appropriate strategies for each question type based on your preparation.

2. Efficient Use of Time
- Allocate time wisely across all sections, and avoid spending too long on any one question.

3. Answer Every Question
- Attempt every question; there’s no penalty for guessing.


Top 3 Tips:

1. Know Your Strategies
- Familiarise yourself with strategies for answering all the different question types.

2. Skim First
- Don’t start answering questions until you’ve skim-read the text and questions to understand the main ideas.

3. Practice Time Management
- Ensure you can answer all questions within the 60-minute timeframe.



IELTS General Training Writing Test Structure & Strategies


IELTS Writing Test Structure

1. Duration
- The writing test lasts 1 hour.

2. Tasks
- Task 1: 20 minutes (150 words)
- General Training: Write a letter (formal or informal).
- Task 2: 40 minutes (250 words)
- Respond to a general statement (common everyday type topics) with an opinion, discussing solutions, reasons, or both. 



3. Scoring
- Each task is marked by two independent examiners.
- Four assessment criteria: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy.


Key Strategies

1. Word Count and Time Management
- Aim for 150 words in Task 1 and 250 words in Task 2.
- Don’t write significantly more to avoid errors and maintain clarity.
- Allocate time appropriately: 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 minutes for Task 2 (Task 2 is worth twice as much as Task 1).
- You can start with either task.

2. Task Achievement
- Ensure all parts of the task are covered.
- Carefully read and understand the question.
- Create a brief plan before you start writing.

3. Coherence and Cohesion
- Coherence: Logical organisation; clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
- Cohesion: Use connectors and linking words (e.g., furthermore, however, because).
- Focus on main ideas in each paragraph.

4. Lexical Resource

- Use a wide range of vocabulary naturally and in the right context.
- Practise learning words in context and understanding collocations.
- Avoid overusing complex words; clarity and appropriateness are key.

5. Grammatical Range and Accuracy
- Use a mix of short and long sentences.
- Include complex sentences with subordinating conjunctions (e.g., because, although) and relative pronouns (e.g., who, which, that).
- Ensure punctuation, articles, tenses, and prepositions are used correctly.


Common Student Concerns and Tips

1. Generating Ideas
- Read widely on general interest topics (environment, education, technology).
- Practice brainstorming and outlining essays quickly.

2. Using Phrasal Verbs
- Learn common phrasal verbs in context and their appropriate usage.
- Incorporate them naturally into your writing for better lexical resource scores.

3. Use of the First Person
- It’s acceptable and often necessary to use “I” in Task 2 when giving personal opinions or experiences.

4. Spelling
- Both British and American spellings are accepted.

5. Appropriate Tone in General Training Task 1
- Formal: Use polite, respectful language for letters to strangers or officials.
- Informal: Use friendly, conversational language for letters to friends or acquaintances.

6. Addressing Both Sides (Opinion Essays)
- While not always required, acknowledging the opposing view can strengthen your essay and help reach higher band scores.

Top Tips:

1. Careful Reading
- Always thoroughly read and understand the task before starting to write.
- Misunderstanding the question can lead to a lower score.

2. Time Management
- Practise managing your time to ensure both tasks are completed within the 60-minute limit.
- Allocate time for planning, writing, and proofreading.



IELTS General Training Speaking Test Strategies


Speaking Test Structure

1. Components
- Face-to-Face Interaction: Conducted either in person or via video call with a live examiner.
- Three Parts: Introduction and Interview, Long Turn, and Discussion.
- Duration: 11-14 minutes in total.

2. Commonalities
- Same format for both Academic and General Training tests.
- Designed to test everyday conversational English skills.


Parts of the Speaking Test

1. Part 1: Introduction and Interview (4-5 minutes)
- Focus: General topics (e.g., preferences, habits).
- Questions: Simple, familiar topics.
- Advice: Feel free to ask the examiner to repeat questions if needed.

2. Part 2: Long Turn (3-4 minutes including 1-minute preparation)
- Focus: Monologue on a given topic.
- Preparation: 1 minute to make notes.
- Speaking: 1-2 minutes.
- Advice: Use the preparation time to jot down key points and ideas.

3. Part 3: Discussion (4-5 minutes)
- Focus: General discussion based on Part 2 topic.
- Questions: More abstract and analytical.
- Advice: Discuss multiple viewpoints to demonstrate depth and breadth of language.


Key Strategies

1. Asking for Repetition
- It’s perfectly acceptable to ask the examiner to repeat or clarify a question to ensure you understand.

2. Time Management
- Examiners will guide you on timing, so focus on speaking naturally and clearly.

3. Use of Notes
- For Part 2, use your 1-minute preparation wisely. Jot down key points to help structure your 1-2 minute speech.

4. Dealing with Unfamiliar Topics
- If the topic is unfamiliar, you can:
- Be honest and explain why you don’t know about the topic.
- Relate the topic to something you are familiar with.
- Use it as an opportunity to show your language skills, not just your knowledge.

Fluency and Confidence

1. Pacing
- Fluency does not mean speaking quickly. Aim for a natural speed and clarity.
- Use fillers and pauses naturally (e.g., “let me think,” “well”).

2. Expressiveness
- Use a wide range of vocabulary and expressions.
- Read or listen to native speakers (podcasts, talk shows, etc.) to enhance your language use.

3. Complex Sentences
- Mix simple and complex sentence structures.
- Avoid using only short sentences; incorporate subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns.

4. Common and Uncommon Words
- Use a variety of vocabulary, including less common words, to impress examiners.

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Handling Mistakes

1. Self-correction
- Occasional self-correction is fine, but frequent corrections can disrupt fluency.
- Focus on maintaining the flow of conversation.

2. Examiner Interruption
- Don’t worry if the examiner interrupts; it’s merely to keep the test on track and manage time.

3. Part 2 Topic: Speak for 2 minutes; the examiner will ask follow-up questions if you run out of content.

Top Tips

1. Communicate Clearly
- Focus on expressing ideas clearly using English, regardless of the topic’s familiarity.

2. Engage Like a Conversation
- Treat the test like a friendly discussion where you share stories and ideas.



Test Day Essentials

1. Arrival Time
- General Rule: Arrive 30 minutes early.
- Check Confirmation Email: For specifics on arrival time.

2. What to Bring
- Valid ID: Must be the same one you registered with (typically a passport in Australia).
- Other Items: All additional stationery (pencils, erasers) will be provided by the test centre.

3. What Not to Bring
- Electronic Devices: No mobile phones or any electronic devices, including watches.
- Storage: Secure lockers or a locked room will be provided for personal belongings.

4. Special Considerations
- Sickness: Leave the test and get a medical certificate for a transfer or refund.
- ID Issues: Inform the test centre beforehand if you don’t have a valid passport for verification procedures.


Test Procedures and Security

1. Cloaking Belongings
- Place all personal items in secure storage provided by the test centre.

2. Registration and Security Checks
- ID Verification: Staff will check your ID for all parts of the test.
- Fingerprint Scanning: Required to ensure the same person completes all test sections.

3. Late Arrivals
- Arriving late means rescheduling; provide evidence like train delays to potentially get a transfer or refund.


Boosting Confidence on Test Day

1. Preparation
- Visit Test Venue: Consider visiting the day before to reduce anxiety.
- Practice Online: Use the IELTS familiarisation tests online for the computer-based format.

2. On Test Day
- Rest Well: Ensure a good night’s sleep and a nutritious meal.
- Hydration: Stay hydrated to maintain focus.
- Pre-test Relaxation: Listen to music or a podcast to stay calm.

3. Handling Stress
- Deep Breaths: Take 10 seconds to breathe deeply if feeling anxious.
- Focus on Context: For unknown words during the reading test, rely on contextual clues.
- Clarify When Needed: Ask the examiner to repeat questions if needed, without penalty.


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I want to check if i've missed any key information. Please examine the following transcripts to let me know if i should include anything else in my presentation:

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This lesson provides an overview of the format of the IELTS exam. Let's take a look. So the IELTS exam has four sections. You're gonna take the reading, writing, listening tests in one session. And there aren't any breaks in between those sections of the test. The speaking test is scheduled separately, most people take the speaking test on the same day that they take the other parts of the exam.

But you can actually schedule the speaking test up to a week before or a week after the other portion of the test. Some of this depends on the test center where you're taking the test. So when you sign up you should check on when they have availability for the speaking test. The speaking test is an in person interview, okay?

So you're going to be meeting with an examiner in a room and that examiner is going to ask you interview questions, for about 12 to 15 minutes most of the time. So lets talk about the timing of the test. So the test is gonna take you about two hours and 45 minutes to complete, okay, so it's a long experience The reading lasts one hour, the writing portion also takes one hour.

Listening takes 30 minutes. Okay, there are gonna be 30 minutes where you're listening to people speaking. So dialogs or monologues in some sections, and then on the paper test, if you're taking the paper IELTS, they're going to give you 10 minutes after the last speaker talks, okay? After the last dialog you listen to in section four of the test, you're gonna get 10 whole minutes to take the answers that you wrote down in notes in your test booklet.

And you can transfer those answers over to the final answer sheet. Okay. On the computer test, that's different. At the end of the test on the computer exam, you only have two minutes to check spelling. And the reason for that is because on the computer test, you're entering answers directly on the screen throughout the test, so you don't need to transfer answers at the end of the exam.

There's much more on that part of the computer test in some of the computer based IELTS lessons that you can review and get more details about the timing on that. But the timing for the listening section, a little bit different between the computer and the paper based tests. Then as we talked about before, the speaking test is usually 11, 12 minutes to 15 minutes.

Speaking test won't go longer than 15 minutes. Okay, let's take an overview now of what you can expect to find in each section of the test. So in the readings test, you can expect to find three long reading passages. They may get a little more challenging as you go through but most of them are about the same length, the same difficulty, and you've got to answer, you know, about 12 to 15 questions per passage, okay?

So the total number of questions you're going to answer is 40. Okay, so the numbers do vary a little bit among the three reading passages you read, the questions related to those, but they will always add up to 40 for the entire section. The listening test also has 40 questions and each section of the listening test has ten questions in it, okay?

So you can expect 10 questions for each separate recording that you listen to, okay? There'll be four of those throughout the test with 10 questions. On the listening test the questions do get harder as you go. Section one is easier than section two and so on throughout the test. Section four of the exam is basically, is usually an academic lecture.

Okay, you gonna hear a professor or some expert talking about a topic and that tends to be quite a bit tougher than the earlier sections of the test. Again, get to your listening lessons, you get more detail on the different sections of the listening test. Okay, the writing test, you're gonna have two tasks. Task one is a short report based on a set of prompts that you have.

There are gonna be visual aids there of some kind, you may have to look at a map. You may look at some charts and graphs, okay? So, you're just gonna look at that visual information and you have to write a report about it okay? You're supposed to take 20 minutes to do task one and then task two you're supposed to use 40 minutes, at least 40 minutes to write and that's gonna be a standard essay, a five paragraph essay, where you've got a thesis statement in the introduction, some body paragraphs and a conclusion.

Okay? Again, go to your reading lessons, you'll get details about how to strategize timing, how to approach these question types. The last part then is speaking, we already talked about it a little bit. Speaking section has three different parts. You have different types of questions in each part of the test from the interviewer.

Part one tends to be more basic questions, sort of small talk questions about daily life kind of conversational topics. You'll have a short little speech you have to give in part two of the test, a monologue. And the last part you get back to the interview style questions back and forth between you and the examiner.

But the questions get a little more complicated to answer and your answers are supposed to go a little bit longer. Okay, more details about that in each section of your lesson. So to review, we learned in this lesson that IELTS consists of three parts that you take in one sitting. That's the writing, reading and listening sections of the test, okay?

So you'll do all of those without a break, and then you schedule your speaking test separately, okay? Most people take it on the same day they take the other parts of the test. But you have some flexibility there. Just check with your test center when you can schedule your speaking test. Okay, and then the other thing we learned about is that each part of the test is divided into different sections or tasks.

And part of your job as you're studying for the IELTS exam is to really learn about each of the different sections, tasks that you have to do, how they're different, how to strategize for them. What kind of timing you have to prepare for, all that kind of stuff, okay? So that's all in your lessons on each of these separate parts of the IELTS exam that we looked at very generally in this lesson.


Your overall score is just really your average score from the scores you receive in listening, reading, writing, speaking. Okay, I'm gonna describe that a little more in detail later in this lesson. For now, just know that you'll receive all those types of scores after you take the exams. And the scored will be reported in half point increments from 1 to 9.

So for example, you may receive a score of 6, or you may receive a score of 6.5, okay? But there will not be other decimal points to your score. There will not be 6.75 or 6.25, those don't occur, it's in half-point increments. All right, so your scores 1 to 9 are called band scores, all right?

So what is a band score? Well the easiest way to think about it is to look at how the IELTS defines what each band score means, okay? So we could look, starting with Band 1. A Band 1 is basically a non user of English. This person can not really understand English, can not speak, can not write.

This person basically has no skills in English. As you go through the band all the way up to 9. 9 is an expert user of English. So at each step along the way from 1 to 9 is a different level of English. And each level has its own set of characteristics or defining qualities that make a person that level or the next level.

If you want to see a more detailed description of each band level in general for your overall scores. Go to the link directly below and you can see a description from IELTS. All right, so how is band score calculated? Overall band scoreis just as I said before an average of your scores from all four sections of the exam.

So for example if this student gets a 6.5 in reading, 5.5 listening, 6 in writing, and a 7 in speaking. Then we would just add all of these up and divide by 4. When you do that you get 6.25, okay? So remember, scores are always in half-point increments. So this lucky student would have their score rounded up to the next half-point, 6.5.

Okay, so how our overall scores rounded? All right, so if you average your four scores and the number end in 0.25, it's going to round up to the next half point. See? And if your score after it's been averaged ends in 0.75, you're very lucky because your score is going to go up to the next band, right?

A person who gets 6.75, we'll have their score rounded up to 7. Unfortunately, if you're score after it's been averaged ends in a 1.125 or lower than point 25 that we have up here, when it's going to round down, okay? It's going to round down to the band score. So 6.125, average of all 4 sections would end up being an overall band score of 6. Okay, so what is a good score?

That is a common question among students. And the answer really does depend on whatever institution it is that you plan to apply to. Different institutions have different requirements. And you should definitely check to see what your band score should be for whatever you're using your IELTS score for.

So check your specific institutions. That's very, very important. Okay, but if we're looking at colleges and universities, we can say a score of 5.5 to 7.5 is considered usually a good score. And most academic institutions will set their minimum scores somewhere in that range.

Okay, let's talk about specific sections in the scoring involve in blue sections. So on reading and listening sections the scoring is very straight forward, okay? You're going to be filling in support answers and multiple choice questions. And the types of questions you receive in that section are pretty direct and standardized. So both sections, reading and listening, each will always have 40 questions, all right?

And your band score for listening and reading will just be the score you received out of 40, okay? So for example, if you get 30 out of 40 correct in reading, all right? If you're taking the general training exam, that means you'll get a band score of 6, okay? For the Academic reading section getting 30 out of 40 means you get a band score of 7, okay?

They're different exams and they each have their own grading criteria, okay? But just know that there, it is just a table they follow. And the number of correct you get out of 40 will be your band score for that section, all right? You can see the tables for academic and general training reading scores and listening scores if you follow the links below.

Writing is a little different and a little more complex. Writing is scored using what's called a rubric, okay? A rubric is just a use different categories to analyse your writing. And each category has things that they're looking for, that they will see. Did you do this well or did you not do this well? And if you didn't, then they're gonna move your score in that category down.

And if you did do it, well they're gonna move your score in that category up. Okay, so you again, you can look up the rubric for writing. In general, we could describe the categories they're looking for in the following ways. All right, the first thing they want in writing is that you share coherence and cohesion.

Coherence and cohesion are all about how you're writing and your ideas really stick together and make logical sense together, okay? Coherence is all about how the ideas fit together, so one idea leads to the next, and it's very easy to follow what you're saying. And cohesion is about how you use words like pronouns, okay? Or transition words like, for example, for instance, things like that to hold your writing together.

Lexical resource is a fancy way of saying that you have a really good vocabulary. And you show your vocabulary knowledge in your writing. Grammatical range means that you use a variety of structures and you use them accurately when you write. Task achievement and task response are a little different. We'll talk about both of these in the writing section in more detail, you writing lessons.

But basically task achievement is for task one responses in the writing section. And that just means that you fulfilled all of the requirements for the task, you followed the directions carefully and did everything they wanted you to do. Task response means it's very similar but it means that you, excuse me, it's for task two writing exercises. And it means that you wrote a good academic formal essay in the correct fashion.

Okay, again when we get to your writing lessons, we're going to talk about each one of these with a lot more detail. These are the four categories that they're judging you writing on. Speaking is very similar, okay? They also use a detailed rubric, and again, you can go click on the link below the video.

And you can go look at what the grading criteria are for speaking. The categories are similar to writing, they want fluency and coherence. Fluency means well, you're able to speak how not really how quickly, but maybe you don't have a lot of long pauses. And your ideas flow together easily and you don't struggle to come up with sentences and words a lot.

Coherence means that your ideas stick together, just like the writing concept we just discussed. Lexical resource is the same as with writing how well can you use vocabulary, how much vocabulary? And also how accurately do you use the words that you use? Grammatical range and accuracy again, about how much variety and how varied your grammar structures are.

And whether you use them correctly or whether you have a lot of mistakes. Pronunciation basically how easy it is to understand you, okay? That you don't have a lot of sounds that are really not very natural sounding in English or that cause confusion. They're looking for individual sounds and stress patterns in sentences. Okay, so to summarize.

The first point, after taking your exam, you will receive a score report with your overall score and your sections scores. The overall score will just be your average score for the entire test. And scores are rounded up or down to the nearest half point. So remember how we do that depending on what your average score is and what decimal point is at the end.

Most colleges and universities are looking for band scores somewhere around 5.5 to 7.5. But you need to check with your institution to see what they require. Reading and listening, following score tables. And we have links below where you can see those scoring tables, 30 out of 40 will be a band scores, 6 general training, for example.

And writing and speaking you just need to learn the rubrics well. So you need to know what you need to be able to do for the band score you're trying to achieve. If you're trying to achieve a 7 band score in speaking or writing, go look at what is required for those and try to achieve those tests. We'll talk about those a lot in our lessons coming up for each section of the exam.


This lesson is an introduction to the reading paper. Lets talk about what to expect. So you're gonna encounter three different articles or essays on the reading paper and these are gonna be written at a college level. Now that doesn't mean they're going to be text taken from a college textbook for example, they could be articles from a newspaper or a magazine.

What we mean is by college level, the language in it is going to be written for a college level audience, it's gonna be the same kind of level that you might encounter in your college course work. Okay? So there are gonna be a range of topics possibly in a range of different kinds of materials, but all are going to reflect that kind of level.

You don't need any specialized knowledge in order to do well on the reading paper. In other words, you don't need to be an expert in biology or social science or something like that. You should be able to do just fine on the aisles without this kind of specialized knowledge. What they're trying to do is test you on your language abilities, okay, so there's no need to go and steady extra, different kinds of academic topics for example in order to prepare for IELTS.

However, it is important to read broadly because you may encounter vocabulary and language from different kinds of domains, from different types of sources, okay? So some of your passages on the test may be more academically oriented, so it will help you to do a little reading in history and some other topics that you might encounter in school. Other topics may be more like current events or journalistic in some way, so it will help you to read magazines and newspapers as you prepare, okay?

If you look down below, you can follow the link and see some example passages that are there to give you a sense of what they look like and what kinds of materials they cover. Now a key feature of the reading paper, something we talk a lot about in lessons for the reading section is timing. So the strategies you develop for timing are going to be very important for getting the best score you possibly can.

So, in general here, just as an introduction to the timing issues you're going to encounter. So there are 40 questions on the reading paper, and you only have one hour to complete all 40, okay? Now, the questions are divided, basically, equally among the three different reading passages you have.

So there are gonna be somewhere around 12 to 14 questions per passage that you have to answer. Now, each reading passage has usually 2 or 3 different sets of questions. If you look at the reading lessons, there are lessons on each type of reading question you might encounter. So you'll find possibly two to three different sets of questions per passage that you need to answer, okay?

Now, some reading prompts, some types of questions may seem harder than others to you, okay? In general, the reading paper might get a little harder from beginning to end, but in general all three passages you're going to read have about the same level of difficulty on their academic paper. But you may find that these sets of questions, certain types of them might feel more challenging than others.

Just keep in mind that every single question on the IELTS reading paper has the same number of points, one. Each question is worth one point. So you don't want to lose easier points because you're spending too much time on a particular set of questions. Again, as you learn about the question types and the strategies for each one as you go through your lessons, this is something you're gonna want to consider.

How can you time yourself so you make it from beginning to end, maximizing your effort to get as many questions correct as possible? A key to this, and again something you're gonna study in detail in your reading lessons, is something we call the SUN method here, but it involves basically a set of strategies that help you approach these passages so you'll have enough time in order to answer all of the questions, questions 1 to 40 on the test, okay?

Because as you're gonna find as you go through these readings passages, most people do not have enough time to answer all 40 questions and read each reading passage carefully from beginning to end. When you read at home for fun, you probably read slowly and carefully. When you read for school, where you have to remember information for class, you probably, again, read pretty slowly, pretty carefully, maybe you re-read certain things you read to make sure you understand it.

On the IELTS reading paper, you simply don't have time to do all of that. You have to move more quickly. So what you're going to learn related to this SUN method we're looking at is strategies for skimming. Skimming is to really look over something more quickly to not read carefully, but to gather information by quickly going through a text and trying to find basic information that's there.

That's something you're gonna learn about in your lessons, strategically underlining and note-taking. Those are the kinds of things that are gonna help you answer IELTS reading prompts efficiently and quickly, and you're gonna need some of those strategies in order to get through all 40 questions within the time limit. All right, then some information on scoring.

So it's pretty straightforward on the reading paper. As we already noted, each question is worth only one point. And what you can do is look down below, there's a table there that gives you the basic breakdown of band scores for the raw score that you get correct. So if you get, for example, 34 problems correct out of 40, you can see that in general, that's gonna give you the band score that's listed down below.

Now just keep in mind, that table is kind of a guide. Each IELTS exam has a slightly different breakdown of band scores for your raw score, but the table you see down below is a pretty accurate estimate of what your band score will be if you achieve a particular raw score, if you get a certain number of questions correct out of 40 during your practice. Okay, so some ideas on how to boost your score.

Now a key to help you avoid missing easy points on the reading paper is to make sure you're developing a habit of following the task directions carefully. Many reading question types involve short answers where they give you a kind of word limit, okay? You need to follow those word and number limits very closely and make sure you're paying attention to them because if you exceed the limit provided, you're going to get the question incorrect, okay?

So, following task directions is very important. Other types of reading prompts, let's say, matching features questions. When you go through a matching features question lesson later on in your studies, you're gonna find that, okay, for that question type, you're allowed to use certain answer choices more than once, okay. So you need to become familiar with those directions, familiar with the question types so you know what you're supposed to do, and don't miss easy points because you're doing the wrong thing, things like details like spelling, okay, again, for the short answer prompts, spelling is counted.

You will miss point if you misspell words taken from the text, okay? So, little details like spelling help you to avoid incorrect answers. Being careful about that as you transfer answers from the text to your answer sheet, is an important thing to keep in mind. Finally then just a quick tip here that there is no penalty for guessing on the reading paper, okay?

The only penalty, if you're guess incorrectly you're gonna get that question wrong, but if you're running out of time or if you're wasting too much time on a particular question, you might as well guess and move on so you can hopefully find the answers to questions that come after that one that you're struggling with, okay? So, if you're wasting time, or if you're running out of time, in particular, go ahead and guess.

All right, so, to review. The academic reading paper has 3 academic passages or at least the language is academic, college level. The passages may be taken from a newspaper or a magazine in some way, but they're going to have a level of language that is reflective of a college level reading passage.

You're gonna have 40 questions to answer in one hour, okay? So timing is extremely critical and that's something you're gonna learn about in your strategy lessons. You're gonna learn how to skim and scan for answers. You're also gonna learn about each question type so you can master the directions and how to approach each one.

So that's our very general overview here of the academic reading paper.

This lesson provides an overview of the listening test on IELTS. Okay, so as you probably know, the listening test has four different sections. And each of the sections is slightly different. And one of the differences is that you're gonna hear different kinds of listening passages, different recordings, different situations, different kinds of topics discussed throughout the test, okay?


So, let's get a look at what you can expect in each of those four sections. The first two passages are going to be more about everyday social context, okay? They tend to be simpler, okay? Less complicated, less difficult vocabulary, and the topics being discussed are things you would hear in daily life. For example, passage 1, in this scenario, you're going to have two people talking, and usually just exchanging information of some kind, okay?


So, an example of this something you might hear in the first recording on the listening test. Would be two people talking maybe one person is calling into a store and asking a store employee for some information about a product. Or maybe there's a problem that the person calling in is trying to solve with one of the products they purchased at the store.


Okay, that would be a tip scenario passage 1. Passage 2 is going to be more informative, there's gonna be one person talking, and that person is going to be providing information about something, okay? So it's going to be more like a monologue, a speech of some kind, but it's still not a formal speech, it's gonna be a casual scenario, okay? So, for example you, often find people leading tours, okay?


A tour of a city or of a building, things like that. This is often a section of the test where you get map questions, because somebody is giving you a basic tour of some place, some building or city where you're supposed to be looking at a map and following along. That would be a typical situation for passage 2. Okay, then passages 3 and 4 are going to be more academically oriented, okay?


These get a little bit tougher, the language gets a little more academic, and the vocabulary a little bit harder to follow, and the complexity of what they're saying is a little more dense, is a little more complex. So passage 3. Now, this is gonna be a conversation. There could be two people, three or four people talking that you might have to follow along with in the conversation.


And this is going to typically be a situation where you have some students maybe working on a project of some kind. Maybe they're just working together all students in the group discussing something that's coming up in class that they're preparing for. Or maybe they're talking to a professor, or a teaching assistant of some kind. So somebody might be more of an expert in the group, and the the students are asking questions or getting information from that person.


Okay, but this is going to be a conversation. Passage 4 is going to be a lecture, one person speaking. The professor is going to be telling you about some topic, and it's going to be difficult content, the kind of content you might expect in a college level lecture, okay? So passage four quite a bit more difficult, especially than passages one and two of the exam.


Most students tell me that passages 3 and 4 are pretty equal in difficulty, except that the the passage 4 lecture will be much more dense. You'll have to follow along as the professor gives a lot of information about a particular topic. Okay, so those are the four types of passages, recordings you can expect in the listening test.


If you wanna get examples of these, you can do your practice questions with Magoo sheets, we have all four sections for you to practice. You can also look down below I've got some links to some official listening passages for you to check out. Okay, so let's look at some important features of the listening paper, things you need to know in order to be prepared for it.


You are only gonna hear each passage once, okay? So there's no going back, you need to be listening carefully because you're not gonna get it again. In the IELTS listening paper, this may be different from other listening tests you've taken. Often in English classes teachers will let listen to something, take notes, and then you got lots of time to think through your answers.


Not on the IELTS, on the IELTS exam one of the key parts, one of the more difficult things about it, is that you need to answer questions as you listen, okay? So as the people are talking, you're gonna be following along in your questions and trying to supply answers as you go. It's not easy, okay? It's not an easy thing.


When you get to your listening lessons, we're gonna provide lots of information about how to do this challenging part of the listening test, okay? So, there are going to be breaks, okay? Little audio breaks throughout the test, okay? So, before the speaker begins speaking there's a little time when you're gonna have to look over the questions about 30 seconds or so.


In between each recording, each section you're going to have a little break to look over your answers, and then to look at the upcoming questions that you're going to need to answer. And then at the end of the entire test after all four sections, all four recordings have played, you do have a little bit of time, okay? So you use this time to check answers, to make sure that you didn't make any spelling mistakes, things like that.


All right, but it's important to keep in mind that it does differ the timing and the amount of time you're provided to check your answers is different. If you're depending on whether you're taking the paper test or the computer IELTS test. So on the paper test, at the end of the listening section, you have 10 minutes, okay?


This is extra time where you get to, basically, take your answers from your answer booklet, and transfer them over to your final answer sheet. The thing you submit with your final answers, okay? They do this because as you're listening they know you're scribbling notes in your test booklet. And you need to have a little time to take all those notes and correctly input them on your answer sheet that you'll hand in for grading, okay?


Computer test is different than that. On the computer test, you don't have any transfer time, because as you're listening to the speaker's talking, you're actually entering your final answers into the computer screen, okay? So they give you much less time on the computer test to check your final answers after the last recording has played.


You only have two minutes on that test, okay? So, definitely keep this in mind, if you're taking the computer test, I've had students come and say well I expected to get ten whole minutes to go back through the whole test and check my answers. Actually that doesn't happen on the computer test. You only have two short minutes so there's a little different strategy on that, okay?


Again, in your listening lessons there's a short strategy lesson for the computer based test. And you can think through how to strategize timing for this part of the computer test, where it's a little more difficult than the paper test because you have less time. Okay so, and some other important features about the listening test, you can expect different accents.


British accents, American, Australian, New Zealand. Okay, different native English speaking accents will be represented on the test. So you have to practice listening to people from different parts of the world. Again, in your Mogoo sheet IELTS listening practice questions we do have different accents for you to listen to. You should also look at visual content as well, getting used to hearing people with different accents speak English.


Okay, so what kind of listening skills are tested on the listening section of the IELTS exam? Well, they're gonna test you listening for details. They wanna see especially in parts three and four of the test that you can follow an in-depth argument, that you can follow a professor's lecture and understand the key concepts in the lecture.


They're gonna test you vocabulary, okay? So getting many listening questions right, simply means being able to recognize difficult vocabulary in what the speaker is saying. And then recognizing a paraphrase of those words or of those phrases in the questions that they ask you, okay? So vocabulary is a key piece of the listening test.


Okay, following directions and directional vocabulary. There's often a map style question on the exam where you have to listen to somebody leading you through some physical location, a city or a building or some park or something like that. Being able to follow directions is often tested. Some questions ask you to identify attitudes or opinions.


They don't ask this directly, but when you analyze the questions they're asking you, you can tell that what they're seeing is whether you are able to identify what someone thinks about something. Okay, so that can be kind of material tested. Lots of questions on main ideas. They're gonna see if you comprehended the main ideas of a professor's lecture, for example, in part four of the test, okay?


So they do all of these things, they test these different listening skills by using different types of questions, okay? And part of your job as you're studying for the listening test, is to really become familiar with all these question types and what you can expect with them, okay? And so that's why, in your lessons, we have lots of lessons, a lesson for each type of listening question you might encounter on the test, so that you can become familiar with it.


They have just standard multiple choice questions. They have matching questions where you have to match them items with maybe some different people that were discussed by a speaker in in the listening passage you're listening to. You may need to fill out a diagram, okay? Or they sometimes have tables or flowchart you have to fill out.


Sometimes they give you a summary, a paragraph summary, and you need to fill in the blanks with missing words that the speaker said, okay? Sometimes they have incomplete sentences, and you need to listen to what the speaker said, and use the words from the speaker to complete the sentence that you have in front of you. All right, so there are examples again below.


If you follow those links that I've got for you down below, you can go look at examples of all of these prompts. And we have each one represented in your practice questions within the Mogoo. So you can get practice with each of these types there. Definitely do go through and watch the lessons on them, so that you become very familiar with each of these question types.


So that you don't have any surprises or any uncertainty when you take the actual exam. Okay, now let's look at scoring. How is the listening test scored? Well, it's pretty straightforward for the IELTS listening test. You have 40 questions on the test, okay?


So ten questions in each section, and each question is worth one point, okay? So keep that in mind. The questions from the end of the test, the hardest part, sections three and four, are worth exactly the same number of points as the questions from the easier part, the sections wanting to have the test. Okay, so you definitely need to get all the points you can towards the beginning of the test, cuz those points are worth exactly the same as the more difficult questions that you get towards the end.


Okay, now, if you wanna band score breakdown. How your raw score, the number you get correct out of 40, compares to the band score you can expect, you can see the chart down below. Now, keep in mind, there can be some variation in this. That chart gives you a good sense of what you can expect to see usually. But there can be some variation, okay?


Depending on the difficulty level of the listening paper, IELTS can adjust those band scores up slightly up or down a little bit, okay? But again, down below gives you a good sense in that chart of what raw score the number you get correct out of 40, converts to what band score? Okay, let's have a recap here of what we learned in this lesson.


So, number one, there are four kinds of passages, four different types of recordings you're going to listen to. Two of them are going to be conversational, two of them are going to be a monologue, a professors giving a lecture about a topic, and some expert often giving a tour or giving some information about some topic, okay? So, two monologues, two conversations in the listening test, okay?


Each of the sections is gonna have 10 questions for a total of 40. Okay, number two, in a key strategy for IELTS listening is that you're supposed to answer questions as you're listening to the speaker's talk, okay? So unlike other listening tests you've probably taken where you get to take notes and really think about your answers for a sometime after you've heard the speakers talk.


On IELTS listening you're supposed to enter answers as you listen, okay? So on the computer based test, you're entering answers on the screen, okay? And you are supposed to do that as you listening to the speaker talk. On the paper based test you have a test booklet, and you're writing answers in that booklet as you're going. Then at the end of the time after the last listening passage is played, you have some time to take those answers and transfer them over to your final answer sheet.


But on both versions of the test a key strategy is to answer the questions, as you're listening to the speakers talk. Number three, one of your jobs now is to prepare strategies for the different question types on the listening test, okay? So we've got lessons for each type of listening question you're going to encounter.


You wanna become very familiar with those so there are no surprises for you, on exam day. You don't have to even read the directions for the different sections because you know exactly what you're supposed to do. Okay, and then number four we looked at how to understand scoring. On the listening test pretty simple.


Each question is worth one point, and we've got a chart down below to give you a sense of how the number you get correct converts into your listening band score. Okay, so that's our overview of the listening test on IELTS.


This lesson introduces the speaking section of the IELTS exam. The General Training and Academic versions of the IELTS have exactly the same speaking section. So we don't need to discuss differences between them in this lesson. Okay, so as an overview, your speaking section is an in-person interview. You will meet with an examiner who is going to ask you questions and give you some tasks to do to demonstrate your speaking ability.

An interesting part of the IELTS exam is that you can take your speaking section on a different day as you work paper test. Your paper test is your listening, reading and writing sections, those you need to take on the same day. But the speaking section, can be on a different day. Some students like to do that, they like to split up the two parts of the exam.

Usually because maybe they feel more rested or focused by separating them and putting them on different days. I know other students really prefer to take them on the same day. And most of the time I think thats because those students want to get mentally prepared for their big IELTS day. And then just get past it, get it all over with, okay?

Think about what will work best for you really make your decision based on what's going to give you the best chance at a high score. So the speaking exam is not a long portion. It's only 11 to 15 minutes, okay? But it is intense, all right? You are going to be speaking almost that entire time.

And so you do need to prepare for it very, very well. The interviewer is going to be in control. So thinking about the time, 11 to 15 minutes. Your examiner needs to get through all the different parts of the exam in a very short amount of time. So your examiners going to be in control of the time.

He or she may cut you off or maybe ask you to change topics or answer a different question before you feel that you've answered something completely and fully. The reason the examiner doing that is because he or she needs to get through of everything, right? So you should be worried about it or get upset about if the examiners pushing things in way that you feel is maybe a natural.

They're not trying to be rude, they're just trying to control the time, right? The examiner will ask you the questions they want to hear. Your only job is not to worry about what they're doing, but just worry about answering their questions the best you can. So let's look at the exam format. What can you expect?

Well there are three sections to the speaking test. Section one is the easiest part of the exam. The questions are going to just be about basic personal information, about your family, questions about your hometown. Maybe your hobbies or academic interests, places you've traveled, that kind of thing will be what the examiner will ask you to discuss.

This part lasts 4 to 5 minutes, and really you should think about it as kind of a warmup section for parts two and three, which do get more challenging. So just answer the simple questions the best you can. If you've been speaking English for a while and using it in your life in any capacity at all, you probably have discussed these topics that will come up in part one of the exam.

Okay, so a monologue is the part two. A monologue is basically another word for a speech, right? You're going to give a very short speech. So here's how it works, the whole section, the whole part two, lasts about 3 to 4 minutes. You're going to have a card that your examiner give you and on the card is going to be a topic, all right?

You have 1 minute to prepare a short speech based on the topic and the points that you need to discuss on that card, okay? So you'll take a minute, you'll brainstorm, you'll plan a little bit. And then you'll speak, you'll give your monologue in about 1 to 2 minutes. After that, your examiner will probably ask you some follow up questions about what you said.

Okay, Section 3 then is most challenging section. Here the interview will resume, okay? And for about 4 to 5 minutes, your examiners are going to ask you more follow up questions about the topic that you discussed in Section 2. But now the questions are gonna get more challenging. Your examiner is gonna ask you ask you for your perspective, your opinion about a variety of things.

And you're going to have to answer with more complicated responses, because they are more longer and more detailed. And the questions the examiner will ask you will require more advanced vocabulary, more advanced grammar in order to answer them successfully, okay? The questions tend to be more abstract, all right? And the topics just a little more complex.

In our speaking lessons, we will focus on Section 3 of the exam so that you know how to answer those questions the best you can. All right, for now you should go to the link below to take a look at some sample IELTS speaking questions. And they offer some example responses from students as well in order to sort of see what the questions and answers look like for each of these sections, okay?

Let's very quickly talk about scoring, we will describe scoring in much more detail, in the speaking lessons, but just so you get an idea. The following criteria are used to asses your speaking. Criteria is another word for just sort of what kinds of factors or what kind of measurement are they looking at when they're trying to assess how well you speak.

All right, so these are the four sets of measurements they're using. They're gonna try to measure your fluency. How smoothly do you speak? Do you really have a lot of pauses? Where you're looking for words and you don't really know how to describe an idea. Or can you speak very fluently and quickly, and really express ideas in an easy way, without a lot of effort, okay?

Coherence is your ability to connect ideas together, so all of your ideas make sense and flow together in a very logical way. Lexical resource is a really fancy way of saying you have a really good vocabulary. So lexical resource is a measurement of your vocabulary. Grammatical range, how many different grammatical structures can you use? How complex is your knowledge of English grammar and how easily and fluently can you use grammatical structures accurately when you speak?

Pronunciation is the last one. And for pronunciation, you don't really need to worry about your accent. It's not about accent, okay? Everybody, almost everybody who takes the IELTS speaking section has some kind of accent. Which is just the normal influence of your native language on your speaking in English.

No, pronunciation is more about whether or not you have problems that make you difficult to understand. Sounds that do not really sound like English at all or words you mispronounce. Any sentence, any patterns in your speaking that really make it tough for your examiner to comprehend what you're saying, that can be a problem on the IELTS.

Check out below the speaking criteria, I've put a link there to the IELTS exam. There you can go and look at the different band levels, right? So band six, band seven or eight, whatever you're targeting. And look at each of these four different ways that they're measuring your speaking ability. And you can see in detail what they expect for each band level on the exam, okay?

A final important point is that the examiner is not scoring you on your ideas, okay? So the examiner is not going to check whether or not what you said is true or false, okay? You shouldn't say things that seem unreasonable or unusual or strange. But you don't always need to give your true opinion or say things that are 100% factual.

If it's easier for you to say something that maybe isn't exactly true, you should do that on the speaking section. Because really, your examiner does not care, or and will not check with if whether your statements are true or false. Okay, so how to do well on the speaking exam? First one is to answer questions directly and you need to answer the question that has been asked of you.

You need to limit long pauses or confusing speech, right? So this is about fluency, you need to be able to speak without really struggling to find the words and the appropriate thing to say. You need to show off your vocabulary, you need to have a wide ranging vocabulary on the speaking exam to do really, really, really well, okay? Really this is about avoiding repeating the same words over and over, or just simply using very basic vocabulary the whole time, okay?

On the other side, you should not use vocabulary you're not really comfortable with. If you don't really have a strong sense of how do you use a word, you should use it in, you should use it on speaking section. Cuz if you do use it incorrectly the examiner will notice. You need to use a lot of different grammars structures, okay?

You don't need to worry about this very much. The questions your examiner asks you will require you to use a variety of grammar, okay? So it's not something you need to be really thinking about directly as you're taking the exam. But if you have problems with your grammar you should be studying grammar steadily before your exam dates, so you cn do better and better on the speaking test.

Okay, you'll need to practice timing especially for part 2 of the exam. So practise with example question cards taking one minute, preparing an answer and then giving a short speech, you should do that over and over and over. And again, when we get to our speaking lessons I'll give you advice on how to practice for section 2. Now another point, you want to avoid topics and ideas you don't know how to discuss, okay?

This is about that point, your examiner isn't going to check whether or not what you say is factual. Okay, if your examiner asks you a question about, let's say, your hobby, and you don't know how to discuss your hobby in English. You should really avoid that topic, and maybe think of something you can describe. If you don't know how to discuss your true hobby, then maybe you should say something like sucker or swimming or going to the beach whatever it is that you can describe better.

And that you'll be able to speak more fluently about that's a better choice, okay? So don't get in to things that you don't really know how to describe to the best of your ability on exempting, okay? Last point here, don't use memorized language especially for part one, I know some students have gone in and tried to memorize a little example sentences of things they could say about their family or their interests or things like that.

It's perfectly fine to study dialogues and other basic scenarios that you might encounter especially for part one. But don't go into exam day and expect you'll be able to use memorized language. The problem with memorized language is that you are going to have a problem answering questions directly. And if your examiner thinks you are using memorized language, he or she will definitely count your score down.

So don't study that way, you need to study to prepare to speak fluently to the questions that are asked of you on your exam. Okay, so to review IELTS Speaking section is an in-person interview with 3 sections, okay? Your only job on all 3 sections is to demonstrate your fluency. The 3 parts of the test are, Part 1 with the basic questions and topics about you.

Part 2 is a monologue or short speech where you give a responses to a prompt on a card. And the third part is more in-depth discussion more complicated questions about the topic that you gave a speech about in part 2. Let's go and study the criteria for the exam. Go look at the link below, you can find detailed information about how each of the band levels is scored.

And you should know and have a sense of what they're expecting for the band level that you are trying to achieve. Okay, so that is our overview of the speaking section. Go to the speaking lessons to find more detailed strategies and tips for each of these points.



This lesson provides an introduction to the writing paper. Let's go over some basics first. So the writing section has two tasks and you have one hour to complete both of the tasks. You can start with whichever task you prefer. Some students really like to do the second task first as we'll see in this lesson it's longer.

A task that you have to complete, it's a little more complicated. So some students like to start there while their energy and focus is high. Other students prefer to begin with task one. The point here is you should try some different thing. As you practice the writing section, you should definitely do two tasks in order most of the time and mix up the combination a little bit.

Start with test two first sometimes test one other times and see what works best for you. Okay, now, task one is worth one-third of your points. Okay, it's a shorter task. It has only a 150-word minimum. So it's much shorter than task 2, which is worth two-thirds of your points and has a 250-word minimum.

Because of these differences task one, it's recommended that for task one you spend less time than task two. You should spend about 20 minutes on task 1 and 40 minutes on task 2. Task 2 is worth more points. So for that simple reason, it's more important to your overall writing score. So you should definitely spend more time and effort on the second task.

Now, let's talk a little more about the two tasks you have to do for the academic writing paper. So the first task is going to be a report. And in your report, you're going to have some type of visual information. It's going to be, usually some kind of chart or graph or diagram in some way. There are sometimes map questions where you've got some maps you need to look at and usually there are going to be more than one.

So two visuals for you to look at. They could be mixed in some way. You might have a chart and some type of diagram, as well. They're both gonna be related to some kind of similar topic. But in your prompt, what you're gonna be guided to do is to take a look at the visual information that's there to report about the main things that you see in the visual and then to make connections between the visuals in some way.

Okay, so you'll have lots of opportunities in your writing lessons to look at these tasks when responds, these task one prompts to think about how to respond to them. For now, if you like to, I've included a link to some official task one prompt down below. So you can take a look at what they look like just becoming familiar with how visual information is presented and what you need to do to respond to it.

But in your writing lessons, we'll look much more in depth about how to respond to these particular types of prompts. Task two is very different from task one. Task two is going to be a kind of opinion or argument essay. This is very similar to the kinds of essays you've probably written for school before.

You're going to have, usually a five paragraph response with an introduction, body paragraphs, a conclusion and there's gonna be some topic provided to you where you need to provide your perspective on that topic. Okay, let's look at an example here down below. So in this one, the topic is car accidents, right? So the number of car accidents has steadily increased since 2000, then they provide you a perspective of some kind.

It says, new regulations should be passed raising the minimum driving age and making driver training courses more challenging. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Okay, so in this particular kind of prompt, you need to write an essay talking about how much you either agree or disagree with this particular statement that we have here.

This is one type of test two question. A type where you have to sort of to express how much you disagree with the statement or how much you agree or disagree with a particular statement, but there are other types of task two prompts as well. So some prompts ask you several questions in a row related to a particular topic and you have to respond to all of those questions.

Other task two topics ask you to discuss both sides of a particular issue in some way. All right, again, in our lessons on writing, we'll have much more detailed information about each of these kinds of task two prompts and how you should approach them. Now, let's have a very quick introduction to how your essays are going to be scored for the writing paper.

There are four basic categories for you that they look at to score your essays. For task one, there is a category called task achievement and a very similar category for task two is called task response. The basic idea of this category is how completely did you answer or fulfill all the requirements for the prompt. So for example, for task one, you remember you have those three bullet points at the bottom of the task.

How completely did you answer all of the requirements of those bullet points? Did you discuss in-depth each one? That is going to have an impact on your task achievement score for task one, okay? So for this first scoring category, it's how well did you follow the directions. Did you meet the minimum word requirements, for example? So task 1 is 150 words, task two is 250 words and did you answer all aspects of the prompt completely?

The second category is coherence and cohesion. This is about how well your ideas stick together, okay, and how well they flow from beginning to end in a logical way. Okay, so for task two essays, for example, does your essay have an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion that makes sense logically with one another where the ideas seem to make sense from beginning to end because you presented them in a clear and logical way.

This also relates to things like transition words, do your ideas flow really nicely and clearly from one idea, from one sentence to the next? Okay, so coherent and cohesion is how well your ideas fit together. Lexical resource, this is just a fancy name for vocabulary. How well do you use vocabulary? Do you use words accurately?

Do you use a variety of words both basic words, but also more advanced or complex vocabulary words? Does it seem that you have a wide range of vocabulary you can use or do you use the same words over and over, and over again? That would show that your vocabulary is kind of limited. Okay, so this third category they're looking at how well, how large your vocabulary is and how accurately you can use words to express the ideas you want to express in your writing.

The last category then is grammar. It's called grammatical range and accuracy. Here they're looking for how accurately you use grammar, okay? So do you make a lot of mistakes? Do you make the same kinds of mistakes over and over? They are also looking for your range of grammar.

So can you use a variety of different structures and from simple to more advanced structures? Can you use those accurately and to express the meanings that you want to convey? So not only are they looking for whether or not you can use English grammar without making lots and lots of mistakes, but how many different kinds of structures you can use to express your ideas.

Okay, so this is an overview of these scoring categories. We have more detail about each one in your writing lessons. For now, I advise you to go down below and take a look at the IELTS scoring criteria. These rubrics that they provide you. I've got links to them down below for you to look at. These give you a more detailed view of what each of these scoring categories involves from the band scores of one to all the way up to a perfect score of nine.

They give you descriptions of what each of these scoring categories involve for each of those levels. You should look at closely at those rubrics in order to understand IELTS scoring and what they're looking for with your writing. Okay, so very quickly, how to get a good score on your writing? Well, again, these are things we're going to go in to depth with in your writing lessons, but just a quick overview here.

The first thing is to make sure that your responses directly respond to the prompt to provide it. So again, when you're looking at that prompt, you understand it, you understand what's being asked of you and your response is a very direct and clear response to that particular question or to that particular set of bullet points in task one for example.

Many students lose points, because their answers don't directly respond to the prompts that are provided. We'll look at that in depth in your writing lessons. Responding to the entire prompt, so making sure you respond to everything you're supposed to do in the prompt. Not only meeting the word minimums, but all of the different aspects of the prompt.

The bullet points, the different saying how much you agree or disagree or talking about both sides of an issue. These are all kinds of prompts that they are gonna give you, kinds of tasks you need to complete and you need to do everything assign to you for both test. That's another way you can get. You can boost your score in the writing section.

Time management is another huge issue. We already talked about spending less time on task one and more time on task two. We also talked about which task you wanna begin with. Do you wanna start with task two and then move onto task one later or vice versa. That's all important stuff for you to figure out as you're practicing, but there are other things to consider as well, right?

So IELTS is a pencil and paper test, so you have to write your responses by hand. So for some students, it takes much longer to write an essay by hand than it does to type essay. So this may be something you need to practice, okay? An in your practice as you go through as many essays as you possibly can, you wanna mixture that you are practicing in an authentic way.

You are setting a timer for yourself and limited yourself to an hour to complete two tasks, for example, or as we already talked about that you're trying to recreate the exam conditions by writing your responses by hand instead of typing them out. All of those things you can do to make your practice as realistic as possible will help you on the actual exam.

Okay, so to review. So IELTS writing involves completing two tasks in one hour. Your first task has a 150-word minimum and it's worth fewer points. It's only worth one-third of the points for the writing paper and that's why most people spend 20 minutes on it a little less time than on task 2. Task 2 has 250 words as a minimum and it's worth more points.

It's worth two-thirds of your points for this section, okay? So that's again, why most people choose to spend about 40 minutes on that particular task. Make sure that you go down and you study those scoring criteria, those links down below this lesson. Go look over those now and become familiar with the words that are there.

Maybe you're gonna have more questions about what's there and maybe you're unsure about it. That's all stuff we're going to cover in your lessons and you should learn more about the scoring criteria in detail as you prepare for the test. Then finally, make sure you're doing lots of practice questions. And as you do practice questions, you're trying to recreate the realistic exam conditions you're going to face on exam day.

Okay, so that's our very quick overview of the writing paper for IELTS.
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