Understanding IELTS

Miftahul Munir
Ninuk Ragil Prasasti
Content
• Overview
• Listening
• Reading
• Writing
• Speaking
• Recommendation
Overview
• General Strategies
• Familiarize with test
• Practice
• Time management
• Computer Based vs Paper Based
• More locations and schedules for computer based
• Result in 5-7 working days (computer) vs 13-15 working days (paper)
• Summary
• Main accents are British or Australian
• Accept both British and American spellings
• Accept both capital or lower case letters
• No penalty for incorrect answers
Listening
• 30 mins → 4 sections → 40 questions
• Real world situations for conversation
• Format
• Section 1 : conversation – 2 speakers
• Section 2 : monologue
• Section 3 : conversation – 4 speakers
• Section 4 : lecture
• Gradual Difficulty : section 1 (easiest) → 4 (hardest)
• Tasks
• Identify specific information (names, dates, times, places, numbers)
• Understanding point of conversation
• Resume opinion or attitude of speaker
Listening (Cont’d)
• Questions
• Multiple choice
• Matching
• Labelling (plan, map, diagram)
• Completion (form, note, sentence, summary, table)
• Short-answer question → one/two word(s), one/two number(s)
• Strategies
• Read Question carefully before recording starts
• Familiarize with page look and question types
• Completing a chart
• Selecting pictures
• Taking a note
• No example at the beginning, get ready for directly first question
• Skip to next question if previous one is missed
Listening (Cont’d)
Computer
• Using headphone for listening
• Listen and type at the same time
• Additional time 2 mins for checking
• No instruction for different type of
questions
• Tab key shortcut for moving between
sections
• Remaining time on screen
Paper
• Using speaker for listening
• Listen first then write
• Add time 10 mins to transfer answers
• Have instruction for different sections
• No shortcut between sections
• Manual Time keeper
Reading
• 60 min → 3 passages → 40 questions
• Taken from books, magazines, newspapers, journals
• Questions
• Heading/Paragraph Information/Sentence Endings matching
• True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given
• Summary/Sentence/Table/Flow Chart/Diagram completion
• Multiple choice
• List Selection
• Title Choosing
• Classification
• Short Answer
Reading (Cont’d)
• Tasks
• Understanding general content of paragraphs/information in the passage
• Identify main idea and supporting point
• Find specific information
• Understanding opinions/ideas/details
• Words selection
• Locating/categorizing information
Reading (Cont’d)
• Strategies
• Practicing reading skills
• skimming and scanning the passages
• Scrolling up and down
• Read question first then the text
• Read the headings first before the passage
• Understand the meaning of answers → Yes/True – No/False – Not Given
• Paraphrase the statement/question
• Identify the type of word (noun/verb/adjective)
• Focus on the beginning and ending of the passage
• Check the grammar of complete sentence
• Pay attention to the spelling
Reading (Cont’d)

Computer Paper
• passage and question are on side- • Text and question may be on
to-side different sheet
• Highlight and note feature • Manual underline and note-taking
• Font size can be increased for • Fixed font size
comfortability
• Type-based with copy-paste • Handwrite-based with no copy-
feature paste feature
•
Recommendation
• https://ieltsliz.com - https://www.youtube.com/@ieltsliz (General)
• https://www.ielts-writing.info/EXAM/ (General)
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIgELCOfrcYA9jWF4TOJUnQ
(Listening)
 Recommendation

• Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS