IELTS

IELTS Exam Highlights

International English Language Testing System or as popularly known as IELTS is one of the major international standardised test for English Language, conducted to check the proficiency of non-native English Language candidates in the English language who are aiming to move outside India for the purpose of education, employment or simply migration. The IELTS results are accepted by 10,000 associations, including educational institutions, companies and governments, in 140 nations around the world. IELTS is conducted with the assistance of two major organizations the International Development Program (IDP) and The British Council. These are two of the most professional organizations which follow set standards for evaluation of candidates. The test has types depending upon the candidate’s preference and the test is conducted in two modes: Computer Based & Paper Based.

Notification

IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is conducted throughout the year. These tests are conducted every month on four different days.Four times for Academic and two times for General Training. Candidates can choose the test date as per their convenience. The registration for the IELTS test can be done in three ways: Online, Courier or Personally. Most of the candidates may prefer ‘online’ option due to the availability of internet everywhere. The IELTS results are accepted globally in around 140 nations, thus making it the obvious choice for educational, employment or migration purposes. The IELTS test as discussed above is conducted by two institutes International Development Program (IDP) in collaboration with the British Council. Thus we can expect the standards of the test to be quite high.

Exam Pattern

IELTS follows a certain criteria when it comes to the IELTS exam pattern. The IELTS test will be conducted in two modes: Computer Based Test & Paper Based Test.Candidates can choose any one of these two as they feel suitable. There are not many differences in both the types. Apart from this choice, the candidates will also come across another change in the form of the formats that the IELTS test is conducted in. IELTS is conducted in two formats: IELTS General Training Test & IELTS Academic.Refer to the table given below to get further details about the IELTS exam

Eligibility Criteria

IELTS or International English Language Testing System is a test whose score is accepted globally in around 140 nations. A candidate needs to be eligible for any exam that he/she is taking up or appearing for. Therefore, a candidate needs to be fully aware of the exam details. One of such important details is the ‘eligibility criteria’. All the candidates going to apply for IELTS Exam should know that they will be eligible if the two conditions given below are fulfilled

Marking Scheme

The IELTS exam will follow a band system. The scale of these bands ranges from a score of 1-9. There are four main tests which includes Listening, Writing, Speaking & Reading. All these tests follow a set pattern and contain questions accordingly. Later on, the result is compiled and finally presented in the form of scores ranging from 1-9 accordingly.Those candidate who didnot attempt the test will have a band score of 0. The description what each band stands for is given below.

Exam Dates

IELTS is a test that is held throughout the year globally on various dates and four times a month. Interested candidates can select the dates as they find suitable according to their time-table. IELTS is held in two modes, as mentioned earlier: Paper Based & Computer Based. Candidates can choose the exam dates accordingly for whichever test they wish to take. Since IELTS exam take place four times in a month so a candidate has the option to choose any of the four dates according to the type of IELTS exam he/she has choose

Exam dates city wise

Ahmedabad

Ambala

Amritsar

Anand

Angamaly

Bangalore

Barnala

Bhatinda

Bhopal

Calicut

Chandigarh

Chennai

Coimbatore

Dehradun

Gurgaon

Hyderabad

Indore

Jaipur

Jalandhar

Jammu

Kannur

Karnal

Khanna

Kochi

Kolkata

Kollam

Kothamangalam

Kottayam

Kurukshetra

Lucknow

Ludhiana

Madurai

Mangalore

Mehsana

Moga

Mumbai-South

Mumbai-West

Nadiad

Nagpur

Navi Mumbai

Navsari

Nawanshahr

New Delhi-South

New Delhi-West

Noida

Patiala

Pune

Rajkot

Rudrapur

Sri Ganganagar

Surat

Thane

Thimphu (Bhutan)

Tiruchirappalli

Tirupati

Trichur

Trivandrum

Vadodara

Vijayawada

Visakhapatnam

Exam Centres

The IELTS test is conducted in almost 140 nations globally with 1600 test centres and looking at the ever-increasing craze of Indian citizens to take the IELTS test, there are a number of institutes that help such candidates to take up the IELTS test while providing the correct guidance to them, so that they may achieve their dream. The two conducting bodies for IELTS test are the British Council that has 40 test centres across India and the IDP Education is another popular organization conducting tests that has its presence in around 37 cities.

How to Apply

The candidates who are interested in taking the IELTS test have to choose a suitable date and then go on with the registration/application process.

• Visit the official website of IELTS:https://www.ielts.org/
• You have to choose an examination centre from the list of centres given
• Find the nearest test centre in your city.
• You will have to fill in the IELTS test application form.
• You can do it online or download the application form and fill the details and submit the IELTS application form at the nearest test centre which you booked to take the test.
• You will have to pay the IELTS test application fee.
• Once the application is completed, your test centre will send a written confirmation intimating your date and time of the test.

Application Fee

Once the IELTS application is filled, the final step is to submit the application fee. Candidates taking the IELTS Exam have to pay the same amount of application fee ie Rs 13,250 irrespective of the type of mode and type of IELTS exam he /she has choose

Admit Card

According to the dates selected by a candidate who is planning to appear for IELTS Exam, the admit card will be released on the official website of IELTS. Candidates can download their IELTS test call letter from the official website and check their date and time of the IELTS test. This admit card needs to be produced at the time of the test

Free Mock tests

IELTS or International English Language Testing System is quite a popular exam in India.IELTS is taken up by a majority of students/candidates who might have various reasons to take this test. Some might be preparing to get into a good University, some might be trying to settle abroad with a well-paying job. The reasons may vary but the test or test level doesn’t. Therefore each candidates needs to prepare hard enough to get through the test. ixamBee is thus offering a set of free IELTS online mock tests to help an individual in her/his preparation. Practicing these IELTS tests online will prove helpful in analysing your performance and providing an honest feedback with the help of which you will be able to improve on your weaker areas and eventually your overall IELTS score.

How Score are calculated

Since IELTS exam take place in four sets- Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing. The Writing score is calculated in the areas of coherence and cohesion, task response, grammatical range and lexical resource. Based on these parameters a band score is evaluated which is as follows

Second comes the Speaking part where band score is marked by looking into criteria such as lexical resource, fluency and coherence, accuracy pronunciation and grammatical range. The band description is as follows

Third comes the Reading test which consists of 40 questionsThese questions will be of various types. For each correct answer one mark is given. The band score for Reading test in IELTS Academic and General Training can be deduced from the table below

Acedemic

General

The last test is Listening which again consist of 40 questions that relate to audio clips that will be played to each candidate. One mark for each correct answer. The table given below indicates the average number of marks required by candidate to achieve a particular band score in the Listening test

Marking Scheme for Listening

Difference Between Paper Based and Computer Based

Candidates applying for IELTS exam are often confused whether to go for a Paper based Test or a Computer Based Test. Given below are some differences that will help a candidate to decide whether to go for offline or online mode.The difficulty level and the marking scheme remains the same.

• In paper based IELTS exam result is declared in 14 days whereas in computer based IELTS exam it takes nearly 5-7 days.
•  Paper based IELTS exam centre is often crowded as there are four slots every month whereas computer based IELTS exam centre have numerous slots available.
• There is no option of getting noise-cancellation headphones in paper based IELTS exam whereas this facilities can be taken in computer based online exam for Reading and Writing sections for greater concentration.
• Rough Work / Notes can be done on the question paper blank spaces provided whereas in computer based IELTS exam separate sheet is provided for rough work / notes
• Paper based IELTS exam is handwritten and thus, handwriting matters a lot. Frequent changes or overwriting will make the paper look untidy and difficult to read where as in computer based exam multiple corrections can be done through regular text editor options such as Backspace, Delete etc.
• There is no display of the word count and one has to have a tentative idea of the number of words through manual count in paper based IELTS exam which is a waste of time whereas in computer based IELTS exam word count is constantly displayed as the student keeps typing the text thus getting a rough idea of how much more he/she should write.
• In Paper based IELTS exam after all the recordings, a candidate get 10 minutes to transfer his/her answers into the answer sheet whereas this time is reduced to 2 minutes in online exam.
• Navigation is done by turning the pages in offline IELTS exam whereas this navigation is done simply by scrolling up or down in online mode.
• In paper based IELTS exam there is no option of increasing font size though the question paper has an appropriate font size for comfortable reading but in computer based exam font size can be increased.
•  No option of copy-paste in paper based IELTS exam as it is a manual test whereas in computer based IELTS exam copy-paste option can be used, thus making editing easier

All the points listed above are some major differences where some common points in both mode are as follows

• Order of sections Listening, Reading, Writing
• Evaluation Process is same
• No spelling check and search option in both mode
• Speaking Test is taken by an examiner Face-to-Face in both the mode of IELTS exam.

Preparation Strategy

A candidate preparing for IELTS exam should first decide whether he/she aspires to study abroad or want to permanently reside abroad. For higher studies a candidate need to give IELTS Academic while for residing abroad he/she requires to take the General IELTS exam. Academic IELTS is a bit easier with respect to General IELTS as a lesser score out of 40 leads to a higher band score. Also, the requirement by colleges is around 6.5-7 while General IELTS require a higher score. Some basic tips that will help a candidate to succeed- 

• Give sufficient time for preparation as IELTS is a skill based exam and cannot be prepared overnight or in a day.
• Grammar, pronunciation, essay writing, ability to listen to English in different accents at a certain speed etc take time to learn and requires a lot of practice.
• Prepare a roadmap to reach the target by judging your current level
• A candidate do not have to memorize formulae or theory but implement skills of speaking, writing, sharp listening, quick reading etc.
• Studying continuously for 2 to 3 hours every day for 2 months gives a better shot at the exam compared to studying for 6 hours during the weekends only. Always remember consistency is the key to success.
• Cambridge is the official IELTS test creator ie administered by IDP and British Council and is the most authentic source for studying for this exam. So go for the official Cambridge books.
• Apart from books a candidate can also take help from a professional coaching institute. Get review and feedback of your work and mistakes by professionally qualified teachers and tips on how to improve them and score high band scores.
• Study the band descriptors closely to understand what the IELTS exam requires and do exactly that.
• A good way of gauging on IELTS preparation is to give mocks and see what is the band score.
• A candidate should be well versed with the topics and preparation and then go for mock tests.