Get Ready for IELTS!

By Rachel Abbott (ABC School’s Academic Coordinator) The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a reliable way of assessing the English language ability of those who need to work or study in places where English is the language of communication. The IELTS exam assesses candidates’ language competence on a scale from 0-9. The IELTS exam consists of four parts: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing. There are two versions of the IELTS exam, Academic and General. The Academic format is, usually, for those who want to study in an English-speaking country within an Institution of Higher and Further Education. Admission into undergraduate and postgraduate courses is based on the results of the Academic test. The General training format focuses on general survival skills within social and workplace situations and is usually for those who are going to English-speaking countries for secondary education or for work experience. This is the course we shall be offering from 26^th September.

Why study IELTS?

IELTS is the most widely accepted English language test around the world and is designed by experts in the field of English languag e assessment. More than 9,000 organisations worldwide accept IELTS as proof of language ability. You can be completely confident that IELTS will give a fair and consistent assessment of your English language skills and of your ability to communicate for work, study or life in an English-speaking country.

What will I study?

IELTS preparation courses offer exposure to actual IELTS tasks and are all taught by qualified and experienced IELTS teachers. On an IELTS course you will:

• Learn tips and strategies to help you with each component of the exam.
• Be able to practise all parts of the exam and receive detailed feedback from your teacher.
• Become very familiar with the format of the exam and have timed practice of each exam component.
• Expand your vocabulary and improve your grammar.
• Make new friends with people from all around the world.

IELTS courses cover the most common topics featured in the exam, such as:

• Health
• Education
• People
• Crime
• Energy and Environment
• Media
• Work

Your teacher will teach you useful phrases and expressions needed to achieve a high score in the IELTS speaking component and will teach you lots of new vocabulary useful for all sections of the IELTS exam. The key to achieving a good band score in the exam is learning the right words. The course will also cover important skills, such as skimming and scanning. Skimming and scanning are two specific speed-reading techniques, which enable the reader to cover a great deal of material very quickly. When reading you don’t always have to read everything in detail but you sometimes need to read a text quickly to find specific key information. For example, if you need to look up the word ‘educate’ in the dictionary, you wouldn’t need to start at the letter A and read every word. You would turn to the E section of the dictionary first and look for words beginning with Ed-. Skimming is another skill needed for fast reading and you might use this skill when reading a text in order to understand the general idea. For example, if you want to find out what is happening in the news today, you might skim through the BBC News homepage to find out what has been happening in the world! You wouldn’t find out all of the details when skimming but you would find out the main points. Both skills are essential for the exam but they are also important skills to have for your future. Listening skills are essential to achieving a high band score in the IELTS exam and during your course your teacher will teach you these skills. Some of the listening skills you will cover are Predicting and Identifying keywords. Predicting is not the same as guessing. We make predictions based on information we already have. In the IELTS listening section, you are given time to consider the type of information that could be the answer before listening to the recording. This helps you to focus on the information you’ll need to listen out for. You will learn how to identify key words in questions (usually nouns, verbs and adjectives) and be able to come up with synonyms (words of similar meaning) for these key words. Key words in the questions are not likely to be the exact words mentioned in the recording. On your IELTS course, you will learn how to write essays and how to interpret and explain, in writing, information given on line graphs, pie charts, tables, maps and diagrams. All of the skills and vocabulary you will learn on your course are extremely important for achieving a high band score but these skills are also useful for improving your score in any Cambridge English exam such as FCE and CAE. Take a course with us and you can be confident that you will be taught by English specialists who will prepare you for one of the most important exams you will ever take in your life.

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