Taking IELTS exam

JR1210

Hi
I am taking the IELTS exam in Dublin in 2 weeks and was hoping someone might have some advise on studying for it... It looks very basic but still need to prepare for top marks
Has anyone completed it recently and have any advise on it?
Do you get paper for making notes on the reading/listening and for the writing do you have enough time to re-write the essay to correct any mistakes after proof reading or can you type this section?
I take it for the talking you can prepare by watching some Russell Brand youtube videos and confuse the examiner by using plenty of unnecessary long words
My biggest concern would be maintain concentration for that amount of time on a Saturday morning

My_Sharona

Hi, I'd definitely recommend preparing for it, it's trickier than you'd imagine when you're in the exam situation. The speaking bit is all about your command of language, you don't need to use any complicated words. It can feel a bit weird if they ask you to talk for a while about "foods that are typical in your country" like I was, but you have to make a stab at it

The best way to prepare is probably to look at the sample test materials, you can also buy some practice materials. I found these to be a good way to prepare.

JR1210

Thanks for the quick response

How did you get on when you did it? What did you find the most difficult part? I have tried some listening and it can be tricky, I think concentration is the big requirement.. The writing and reading I cant see being a problem, but I will study to get the timing right

What practice material did you use?

s.c

I posted this about a year ago in another thread.

s.c wrote: »

I did mine just over a month ago in Melbourne. This is what I taught of it.

Listening – First 20 or so questions pretty easy. Last 15 or 20 are a little bit trickier as they come a bit faster, just pay attention and you should be fine. Some of the last ones are multiple choice and each one of the answers could be mentioned but it could be the speaker dismissing it as an answer so just be careful. Also in some questions they say answer using no more than two words and they are supposed to be very strict on this. I just did 2 or 3 of the samples from this website beforehand to get used to it.

Reading was fairly straight forward and I taught it was the easiest of the lot. I didn’t do any prior practice for this. There was maybe 4 or 5 question which required reading over the passage a couple of times to be sure of the answer but ok overall. Just make sure the answer to the question is actually written on the page and don’t assume an answer.

Writing. This was the one I was most worried about but went very well for me. I got 2 good topics so was pretty happy with it. I would say to do a little practice just to get used to how long 150/250 words actually is.

Speaking. This was actually the one I found hardest. Not because I couldn’t speak English, but because I couldn’t think of a whole pile to say about the topic I was given. I was asked to speak about a product that you would like to buy that isn’t made in this country. This is probably a fairly regular question but because I hadn’t done any practice for this section, it wasn’t something that I had a lot of info on.

Anyway overall it was ok and I ended up getting 8.5 in each section so I was very happy to get the 20 points.

Hope it goes well for you.

My_Sharona

JR1210 wrote: »

Thanks for the quick response

How did you get on when you did it? What did you find the most difficult part? I have tried some listening and it can be tricky, I think concentration is the big requirement.. The writing and reading I cant see being a problem, but I will study to get the timing right

What practice material did you use?

I did well enough to get the points I needed. Same as s.c I thought the listening was a bit tricky. You have to read the questions very carefully and time is a bit tight, but it's ok if you've prepared for it.

I used the official practice material - it was pricey but worth it.