We answer nine most frequently asked questions about the IELTS Listening test.
Author: Adrian Raper, Director, ClarityEnglish
IELTS Preparation: Understanding your weak areas
It makes sense to want to work on what you’re good at over what challenges you. Dr. Adrian Raper suggests three ways you can work on your weak test areas and better prepare for your IELTS test.
IELTS Listening: The importance of good note-taking
This post discusses the importance of good note-taking in the IELTS Listening test. Dr Adrian Raper provides suggestions of how to improve.
IELTS Preparation: Get the band score you need in just one month
Dr Ammar Hadi Kadhim achieved his overall IELTS score of 8.0, finding time to prepare in the middle of his busy work schedule. How did he do it? He shares his experience of preparing with Road to IELTS here.
IELTS Preparation: 30 tips to improve your IELTS band score
To do well in IELTS, you need to understand how the test works. This is difficult to do quickly because there are so many task types, and so many sections to the test (Speaking Parts 1, 2 and 3; Writing Parts 1 and 2; and so on). Each part tests different things in different ways. So, there’s a lot to learn.
IELTS Preparation: The best way to prepare for IELTS
The IELTS test is critically important for most people. It can make the difference between studying overseas and staying at home; between having your immigration status confirmed or denied. So, with your IELTS test coming up, you should be studying non-stop to prepare and get the result you need, right? The evidence suggests that this is not the case. Yes, you need to study, but you need to study strategically.
IELTS Reading: How important is culture?
Will your culture affect your performance in IELTS Reading?
Back in 1978, researchers at the University of Illinois conducted an experiment in which they asked subjects from India and the US to read two passages: one about an Indian wedding and the other about an American wedding. They then tested their reading comprehension. They found that ‘Subjects read the native passage more rapidly, recalled a larger amount of information from the native passage, produced more culturally appropriate elaborations of the native passage, and produced more culturally based distortions of the foreign passage.’
In other words, they found that your culture does affect reading performance and the way you interpret a text.
IELTS Speaking: How ‘correct’ does your English have to be?
An IELTS test taker asked me this question: ‘In the Speaking test, I know I will be marked on how correct my grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are. But I don’t understand what this means. Do I have to speak in the same way I would write an essay?’