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Your IELTS Guide Newsletter

In this edition:

• Introduction
• IELTS Marking and Scoring
• IELTS Tips - Speaking
• The Listening and Reading Tests: Using the IELTS Handbook to help you improve your score

Introduction

Welcome to the fifth Your IELTS Guide newsletter.

In this issue we continue our series of IELTS Tips. Each month we discuss factors that cause candidates to lose marks in the IELTS test. Here we look at the Speaking Module.

We also continue our series of articles explaining how you can use the information in the IELTS Handbook to improve your IELTS score. This month we discuss the Listening and Reading modules.

Use these links to read previous issues:  April 2005  May 2005  June 2005  July 2005

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends!

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IELTS Marking and Scoring

The official IELTS website has a new page that discusses how IELTS is marked and scored. It is well worth reading if you are interested in who marks the test and how the individual module scores and Overall Band Score are determined. You can go straight to the page here.

If you haven't already visited the official IELTS website you ought to do so. It has a lot of information about IELTS for candidates, teachers and organisations with an interest in IELTS. While the site has a lot of useful information, it isn't always easy to find your way around and the information isn't always where you might expect it.

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IELTS Tips - Speaking

For some candidates the Speaking interview is the most nerve racking of the IELTS modules. Here we give you some tips on how you can achieve your best possible score in the Speaking module.

Relax

This is very important. If you can control your nerves you will find that everything else falls into place. Arrive in plenty of time, rest the night before and use any relaxation techniques you find helpful prior to the interview. Why not take a book or newspaper along to read while you are waiting?

Extend

Candidates often let themselves down by not extending their answers. Examiners can only use the language you produce to give you a score. If you say very little you cannot expect to get a high score.

Clearly 'Yes' and 'No' answers are not adequate but many candidates only answer with a few words. Where appropriate you should extend your answers, perhaps with a 'because…' phrase.

Turn taking

Turn taking is the process of allowing the other person to interrupt. This means that you are aware of when the other person wants to speak and react accordingly. This is an aspect of fluency and coherence.

While extending your answers is very important you should be careful that you don't over do it. When asked a question, some candidates launch into a monologue that the examiner finds difficult to break into.

Use a variety of sentence structures

As mentioned above, your interviewer can only assess you on the language you use. That is why you should extend your answers. Try to use a variety of sentence structures so that your examiner knows what you are capable of and can assess your grammar. Be sure to use your sentence structures appropriately.

Use varied vocabulary

You should also use a variety of vocabulary to show your interviewer that you have a wide range. However, it must be used appropriately.

If you don't know - make it up

Your interviewer is limited as to the questions that can be asked. The questions in the first section are very tightly controlled. Also, the topic asked in section two cannot be changed once given.

The questions and topics are designed to be appropriate for everyone so they shouldn't be a problem. However, if you don't have a good answer, feel free to make one up. You are assessed on your language, not whether what you say is true. As an example, if your section two topic is something like "Describe an exciting experience from your childhood" and you don't have anything interesting to say, why not make up a story? The disadvantage is that it is usually easier to be fluent and coherent if you are telling a story from memory rather than making it up.

Be coherent

Your interviewer needs to be able to follow what you are saying. Coherence is how what you say 'hangs together' or flows. If you frequently repeat what you have said or have to backtrack because you forgot to say something this could affect your score.

It is possible to over extend what you are saying because you feel you should keep talking. In section one, when you have given your answer, extended appropriately, you should stop. Some candidates try to keep going for as long as possible with a consequent loss of coherence.

In section two you are given a topic that you have to talk about for 1 to 2 minutes. Your examiner will stop you at two minutes but you don't have to continue this long. As long as you have spoken for at least a minute you can finish. Try not to feel you must continue talking just because the examiner hasn't told you to stop. Some people have no problem continuing for two minutes but others finish what they want to say earlier. If you finish in less than 1 minute your examiner will indicate that you should continue a little longer.

Be fluent

Your fluency will affect the score you receive. To be as fluent as you can be, the best advice is to be natural. Your score for fluency will decrease if you speak too slowly - or too quickly. Short pauses during your speech will not affect your fluency score provided they are for thinking about a question or what you should say next. Longer pauses could affect your fluency score, as will pauses through trying to find the right word or grammar.

Be natural

If we had to give just one piece of advice it would be this: be natural. If you can be natural you will find that your fluency and coherence is as good as it can be. Too often candidates try too hard to be 'correct' and their score suffers. Examiners are looking for candidates who communicate naturally.

For more information on the Speaking test check out our IELTS Speaking Module, IELTS Speaking Tips and IELTS Speaking Preparation pages.

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The Listening and Reading Tests: Using the IELTS Handbook to help you improve your score

Many candidates fail to use the information readily available in the IELTS Handbook to help them achieve the score they need. What does the IELTS Handbook say about the different tasks in the Listening and Reading tests? In fact, there is very little to help candidates with regard to these two tests, other than a list of possible task types for each of them; however, we will look at each test in turn.

Listening - this is the first test

This test takes around 30 minutes and there are 40 questions over 4 sections. Candidates will hear the recording once only. Candidates for both General and Academic training have the same listening test. Candidates should write the answers in the Question Booklet as they listen to the recording. There is space in the booklet for this. Ten minutes extra are given after the recording has finished to copy the answers onto the Listening side of the Answer Sheet, which is also used for the Reading test.

The Handbook says that " Care should be taken when writing answers on the Answer Sheet as poor spelling and grammar are penalised ". This is very important. What it means is that if your spelling is wrong, the answer is wrong, or if you use an adjective where you should use a noun, for example, the answer will be wrong, and you will not get a mark each time this happens.

There are 4 sections and the Handbook gives an idea of what is in each section.

" The first two sections are concerned with social needs ". The first part is a conversation between 2 speakers on a night out, for example. The second part has just one person speaking, probably giving a speech.

" The final two sections are concerned with situations related more closely to educational or training contexts ". The third part will be a conversation with up to 4 people, and the last part will again be one person speaking. These two parts will probably be with students, tutors and lecturers.

On the recording candidates will hear " A range of English accents and dialects ", which means candidates should have had practice in listening to many different English speakers, not necessarily native speakers.

There are different types of questions used such as multiple choice, labelling a diagram and matching. Read the instructions in the Question Booklet carefully as some types of question require " NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS " for an answer. If you write more than what is asked for, the answer will be wrong.

" One mark is awarded for each correct answerin the 40 item test ", so do not leave any blanks on the Answer Sheet as you may just guess the right answer if you are not absolutely sure.

Reading - this is the second test

Again, there are 40 questions, based on 3 reading passages. There is a different test for General and Academic so the Question Booklets are different, but the Answer Sheets are the same. The Reading Answer Sheets are on the back of the Listening Answer Sheets.

" All answers must be entered on an Answer Sheet during the 60-minute test. No extra time is allowed to transfer answers ". You should write the answers firstly in the Question Booklet and then write them on the Answer Sheet. We suggest you do this when you have answered all the questions for the passage you are reading. If you leave the transfer till near the end of the test, you may not have enough time to do this for all three passages.

Again, the Handbook says that " Care should be taken when writing answers on the Answer Sheet as poor spelling and grammar are penalised ". This is very important. What it means is that if your spelling is wrong, the answer is wrong, or if you use an adjective where you should use a noun, for example, the answer will be wrong, and you will not get a mark each time this happens.

For both General and Academic Reading there are different question types such as multiple choice, sentence completion, short-answer questions. Read the instructions in the Question Booklet carefully as some types of question require words specifically from the passage, or no more than three words. If you do not write what is asked for, the answer will be wrong.

The texts used are suitable for the appropriate test, either General or Academic. We suggest that all candidates read as widely as possible to become familiar with as many different types of texts as possible.

Again, " one mark is awarded for each correct answer in the 40 item test ", so do not leave any blanks on the Answer Sheet as you may just guess the right answer if you are not absolutely sure.

Reference: IELTS Handbook 2005

For more information on the Listening and Reading tests check out our IELTS Listening Module, IELTS Listening Tips, IELTS Listening Preparation, IELTS Reading Module, IELTS Reading Tips and IELTS Reading Preparation pages.

You can download the IELTS Handbook from our online IELTS resources page.