I scored 8.5 in my IELTS with only five days to prepare I did not buy any course because the only thing IELTS needs is practice you need to know what you're going to get on your test day and today we'll be discussing exactly that so in today's video we're going to see the IELTS format which includes the listening Reading Writing and speaking wrong we will practice IELTS test questions for all the four sections along with tips on how to improve your score for each section A list of free resources where you can practice more and in the end I'll share with you my test experience specifically about choosing the speaking slot just FYI in case you decided between TOEFL versus IELTS I've made a complete tutorial for TOEFL as well its link is in the description after watching both tutorials on this channel you will be able to decide which tests you personally find easier and must book now without further Ado let's dive into the IELTS format [Music] IELTS tests are English language skills using four rounds listening Reading Writing and speaking and the score is valid for two years you must choose the IELTS academic test if you're applying to universities abroad but if you're giving IELTS for immigration purposes then you must choose IELTS General training be very careful about the option you choose when I was appearing for the test there was one person in my Batch who was giving IELTS for the second time he actually wanted a score to apply for his uh Canadian PR but earlier he had appeared for IELTS academics which is not valid for immigration so choose your option carefully based on your requirements coming back to the format listening and speaking grounds would be the same for both IELTS academics and general training but the reading and writing rounds are slightly different we will look at how when we discuss each of these four rounds in detail along with specific examples the duration of the exam is approximately 2 hours 45 minutes listening reading and writing nouns are done continuously with no breaks in between them them but the speaking round can be scheduled up to a week before or after the test but in my experience this heavily depends on the options your test center gives you my test center was giving me same day slots we'll talk about selecting speaking slots in the last section you also have the option to choose if you want to take the test on paper or on a computer I personally chose a computer option because it makes editing easier especially when you are writing your essay but that's just my preference you can comment below and tell me which option you prefer and why because I think a lot of people prefer paper as well and that was the IELTS format if you have any questions about the format then let me know and I will get back as soon as I can now let's look at each of these rounds in detail and do some practice questions [Music] listening round is the same for both academics and general training it lasts for 30 minutes you will hear four recordings that have to answer 40 questions these questions can be multiple choice sentence completion matching map labeling so on and so forth we will see some examples in a moment to understand them better but what makes listening tricky is that you can hear the recordings only once and you have to answer the questions while you're listening to the audio but if you understand basic English then it is not that scary all you need to get a good score for this round is practice so let's start by practicing each of these four recording types recording type number one in the first recording you will hear an everyday conversation set in a social context before you hear the recording you will see the questions on your screen just like this as soon as you see your questions the first thing you must do is read this instruction right here that specifies how many words you need to write for each answer for this example it says no more than three words or a number if your answer doesn't meet this word limit then it'll be automatically considered incorrect so always keep this word limited mind after reading the instruction next look at the questions every audio file will give you some time to go through the questions for this example we can see that the conversation will be about some shipping agency and the missing information is name address postcode width height of some container contents of the container which also includes clothes and some total value in the end going through the questions is the most important step because only then will you know what information to look for in the audio you're about to listen to now it's time to listen to the audio file for this example I'll be writing the answers on your screen as and when I hear it in the audio file so that you understand the pace at which you're supposed to note down the answers let's go good morning packham's shipping agents can I help you oh yes I'm ringing to make inquiries about sending a large box a container back home to Kenya from the UK that'd be great thank you first of all I need a few details from you fine can I take your name it's Jacob mkere can you spell your surname please yes it's m k e r e is that M for mother yes thank you and you say that you will be sending the box to Kenya that's right and where would you like the Box picked up from from college if possible yes of course I'll take down the address now it's West all college is that w-e-s- a double College and where's that it's downlands Road in Bristol the S8 9pu right and I need to know the size yes I've measured it carefully and it's 1.5 meters long 0.75 meters wide and it's 0.5 meters high or or deep great so I'll calculate the volume in a moment and get some quotes for that but first can you tell me you know very generally what will be in the Box yes uh there's mostly clothes okay and there's some books there's also some toys okay and what is the total value do you think of the contents well the main costs are the clothes and the books they'll be about 1 500 pounds but then the toys are about another 200 so I put down 1 700 pounds here are some tips to do well for this type of recording include the unit of measurement if your answer is 0.75 meters then include M or meter in your answer but if the unit of measurement is already mentioned like the pound symbol over here then you don't have to write 1 700 pounds just the Number 1700 is enough listen to the names carefully and don't just assume the spelling of a name let's assume they mentioned a name as Robert White now you might be tempted to write w h i t e for white but the speaker might say that the name is spelled w h y t e so don't just assume spellings but listen to them carefully you're also given a little bit of time in the end to go through the answers use it to check for any spelling mistakes or to just Guess answers for questions you might have missed there's no negative marking so don't leave out anything in my opinion regarding one of the easiest because you just have to listen and connect information but one thing they do to make it tricky is that they can mentioned the wrong information first and then the right one or the right information first and then the wrong one so don't lose your focus at any point during the entire conversation now let's move on to recording type 2 of The Listening section this will be a monologue set in a social context like someone talking about some local facilities to understand it better let's look at an example I will not be writing the answers on the screen for this one instead I want you to take a piece of paper and write the question number and the answer next to it while you're listening to the audio I will display the correct answers at the end of the section for you to cross check since this is your first practice question you might not get all of them correct and that is okay but try you will improve with practice let's now look at the example don't forget to read the word limit written at the top and most importantly skim through the questions in the time provided to you with that let the audio begin thank you for calling the phone line for The Pact in on C bus tour this is a recorded message lasting approximately four minutes and it provides general information on the town bus tour packed and on sea is a beautiful West Coast Town and has attracted tourists for many years one of the best ways of getting to know the town is to take the bus tour which provides a wonderful viewing experience from one of our open top buses the tour is a round trip of the town and there are a total of four stops where passengers can get on and off the bus a lot of people start at the first stop which is at the train station as this is where many tourists arrive in the town the next stop after the station is the aquarium which is famous for its dolphin show and which has recently expanded to include sharks this is well worth a visit and is very reasonably priced leaving the aquarium the bus tour goes along the coast Road and after a few kilometers comes to the old fishing village where you can get off to stroll along the waterfront there are some original buildings here but most of the area has been modernized and is now used as a harbor for all kinds of sea craft including yachts and some amazing power boats the tour then heads off to the last stop and this is where most of the shops are so for those of you Keen to do a bit of shopping this is the place for you Our advice is to go to this part of the town in the morning when it is relatively quiet it does get very busy in the afternoons especially at the height of the season this area of the Town includes an ancient water fountain where many people like to have their photograph taken so do look out for this now some details of the costs and timings a family ticket which includes two adults and up to three children costs thirty dollars an adult ticket costs fifteen dollars children under the age of 15 are five dollars and student tickets are ten dollars as long as you have a student card all tickets are valid for 24 hours which means that you can get on and off the bus as many times as you like within a 24-hour period so you could for example start the tour in the afternoon and complete it the following morning the first bus of the day leaves the station at 10 A.M and the last one of the day leaves at 6 pm buses leave every 30 minutes and each tour takes a total of 50 minutes there are many attractions at each of the stops so wherever you get off the bus there will be plenty to do the bus tour tickets do not include entrance to any of these attractions apart from the museum which is located near the Aquarium some buses have local guides who will point out places of interest and will provide information on the town however we cannot guarantee that every bus will have a guide and so we also have an audio commentary that has been specially recorded for the bus tour by the tourist office headphones are available on the bus and these are easy to operate there is no extra charge for these just plug in select the required language and adjust the volume due to the winter months being rather cold and wet in Paxton on sea the bus tours only operate from March to September the weather is usually warm and sunny during these months so remember to bring some sun protection especially on hot days and of course it does occasionally rain here in the summer so if the weather looks bad remember to bring some rainware the bus tours are available no matter what the weather at the height of the summer the tours can get very busy so you are advised to book you can book tickets online over the phone and also at the station and at any of the other tour stops when booking over the phone you can collect your tickets at any of the stops at the start of your tour when you do it online you can print your e-ticket which you must remember to bring with you thank you for calling The Pact and on c phone line and we look forward to seeing you soon on one of our tour buses I want you to comment below and tell me what your answers were for questions 9 to 18. don't worry I will display the correct answers for you to cross check at the end of the section so keep that paper safe now here are few tips to perform better for this type of conversation before the audio begins read what's given on the screen if it's a table read its headers check the rows and see what information is missing so that you know what you have to look out for predict the obvious answers you can tell that this answer will be some other water creature just like dolphins it might be whales or sharks or walruses prediction might help you be more attentive when the audio is played do not forget the plurals Dolphins has an S so obviously answer nine must be in this plural form don't write synonyms for the answer you hear for example the answer of 17 is rain where so if the weather looks bad remember to bring some rainware that's what the audio mentions do not write real code for an answer or rain attire your answer must be exactly what the audio mentions and number five you might hear synonyms for the keywords mentioned in the question for example the keyword here is very old but the audio mentions ancient which is its synonym this area of the Town includes an ancient water fountain so don't just stick to the actual keywords while you're listening to the audio expect to hear the synonyms as well I know it sounds complicated but trust me it gets better with practice and I will show you where you can practice more for free for now let's move on to another example of recording type 2 where you will be given a map or a diagram and ask to label it just like this we are given a map of the town library and we have to figure out what the rest of these rooms are out of the options provided right here before the audio begins here are few tips to answer this type of map labeling question number one know your directions in the audio file when they are talking about the rooms they might mention north south east and west know which direction to move to when these get mentioned number two as soon as you see the map immediately look at what sections have already been labeled starting from the entrance as you can see in this example there's a librarian's death to the right of the entrance there's a library area somewhere in the center it has fiction books to the left non-fiction to the right there's a seminar room in the corner and the library office right here this navigation creates a mental map in your mind before the audio begins which makes labeling the rest of the rooms a little easier and most importantly while you're listening to the audio if you miss labeling one room just forget it and move on to the next there is no point dwelling over oh wait what was that direction again just move on to the next room because it's all going to go very fast just so that you know I'm not good with directions so map labeling always made me nervous but after practice I'm realized it's not as scary with these three tips in mind I want you to attempt answering these questions all by yourself and we will check what the correct answers are at the end of the section let's now listen to the audio file okay everyone so here we are at the entrance to the town library my name is Anne and I'm the chief librarian here and you'll usually find me at the desk just by the main entrance here so I'd like to tell you a bit about the way the library is organized and what you'll find where and you should all have a plan in front of you well as you see my desk is just on your right as you go in and opposite this the first room on your left has an excellent collection of reference books and is also a place where people can read or study peacefully just beyond the librarian's desk on the right is a room where we have up-to-date periodicals such as newspapers and magazines and this room also has a photocopier in case you want to copy any of the articles if you carry Straight on you'll come into a large room and this is the main library area there is fiction in the shelves on the left and non-fiction materials on your right and on the shelves on the far wall there is an excellent collection of books relating to local history we're hoping to add a section on local tourist attractions too later in the year through the far door in the library just past the fiction shelves is a seminar room and that can be booked for meetings or talks and next order that is the children's Library which has a good collection of stories and picture books for the under 11s then there's a large room to the right of the library area that's the multimedia collection where you can borrow DVDs and so on and we also have cd ROMs you can borrow to use on your computer at home it was originally the art collection but that's been moved to another building and that's about it oh there's also the library office on the left of the librarian's desk ah okay now does anyone have any questions yes thank you sir it's all right if you were able to label just two rooms or no rooms at all it went over my head the very first time too take a deep breath go back to the recording and listen to it as many times as you need to and in one of those tries you will get all the answers right only by listening to it over and over again will you get used to the speed of the conversation and know where to look when they mention directions don't forget to comment below and tell me what your answers were for questions 19 to 23 I will display the correct answers at the end of this section so keep that answer sheet safe moving on to recording type 3 this one will be a conversation among up to four people set in an educational or training context for example a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment let's look at an example to understand it better before we listen to the audio here are few tips to answer this type of question as you would have noticed these have the most number of words we've seen so far the questions are long and so are the answers so obviously tip number one is to practice increasing your speed of skimming through them tip number two in the audio keywords of all of the answer options will be mentioned but the conversation will be about how the rest of the answers are wrong and one of them is correct so don't be just keyword driven and don't select the first keyword answer you hear tip number three sometimes when we listen to the audio we only wait for the question keyword to appear hoping that the answer would come immediately after but unfortunately the conversation will first discuss an answer and then the question keyword will be mentioned this keyword catches your attention and brings back your focus but by then it's too late because the answer just went away so why are you listening to the audio your focus must be on the conversation while the questions remain at the back of your head it should not be the other way around you will know what I mean once we listen to the audio let the conversation begin hello I'm Randy gotra from the Technologies Department ah yes good I'm Dave Hadley thanks for coming to see me that's okay I believe you want us to do some work for you yes that's right um I'm responsible for students admissions to the college and I use a computer system to help process student enrollments and to do the timetabling but it really doesn't suit the way we work these days it's over 10 years old and although it was fine when it was first introduced it's just not good enough now okay what problems are you experiencing well 20 years ago the college was quite small and we didn't have the numbers of students or tutors that we have now so the system can't handle the increasing volumes well there's a lot more data now and it sometimes seems the system has crashed but in fact it just takes ages to go from one screen to the next right is that the only problem well that's the main one but there are others in the past doing the timetabling was quite simple but now we have a lot more courses and what's made it complicated is that many of them have options right but the system should allow you to include those well no it doesn't it was supposed to and a few years ago we did ask someone from the Technologies Department to fix it but they never seemed to have the time hmm are there any other issues with the system well I've been given extra responsibilities and so I have even less time to do the timetabling if there was anything you could do randir to make the process more efficient that would be really helpful well it sounds like you could do with an assistant but that's obviously not possible so what about having an online system that students can use to do their scheduling how would that work well it may mean less choice for students but we could create a fixed schedule of all the courses and options and they could then view what was available and work it out for themselves that sounds great okay so um we'll need to decide whether or not to improve the existing system or to build a completely new system well I'd much prefer to have a new system quite frankly I've had enough of the old one okay that'll probably take longer although it may save you money in the long run when were you hoping to have this in place where well it's January now and the new intake of students will be in September we need to start processing admissions in the next few weeks really hmm well it will take more than a few weeks I'm afraid as an initial estimate I think we'll be looking at April or May to improve the existing system but for a new system it would take at least nine months that would be October at the earliest don't forget to comment and tell me what your answers were for questions 24 to 29 even though you don't get enough time to Sprint through all of the questions for this recording type you would notice that there is some sort of redundancy in the conversation which will give you time to go through the next question very quickly you will get better at identifying it with practice listen to the previous conversation again and notice how After figuring out the correct answer you do get just a little time to go through the next question one more time at the end of the day it's all about practice and the final recording recording type number four is a monologue on an academic subject for example a university lecture this recording can get a little exhausting because you have to answer all the 10 questions in one go before the audio begins here are some tips to attend a question like this these are sentence completion type questions you have less time and More Words which means you must increase your pace of skimming through them but the Silver Lining here are these subheadings I have noticed that usually lectures are neatly divided based on these subheadings which means if you lose track of the lecture and miss an answer or two you can get back on track at the next sub headache you will know what I mean when you listen to the lecture and as always don't forget to read the word count limit before you move on to the questions let the audio begin hi everyone today I'm going to be talking about the origins of ceramics so first of all let's start off with what is a ceramic well generally speaking Ceramics are what you get when you apply heat to certain inorganic non-metallic solids and then allow them to cool and examples of Ceramics are everyday things like earthenware pots Crockery glassware and even concrete so how did it all begin well it all started around 29 000 years ago when humans discovered that if you dig up some soft clay from the ground mold it into a shape and then heat it up to a very high temperature when it cools the clay has been transformed into something hard and rigid and so what did those first humans do with their Discovery Well they created figurines which were small statues and which depicted animals or gods or any shape that the clay could be molded into and all this activity was centered around southern Europe where there is also evidence of ceramics that were created much later the early humans also found a practical use for their Discovery such as storing things like grain although there were drawbacks the pots were porous so that although they could carry water in them it wasn't possible to store it over a long period and also they were quite brittle and shattered very easily if they were dropped but despite these problems it was many thousands of years before there were any improvements in China at around 200 BC they discovered that by adding minerals to the clay they could improve both the appearance and the strength of the ceramics but it took nearly a thousand years before they perfected the process to produce high quality Ceramics known as porcelain and once they had perfected the process they kept it a secret for another Thousand Years compared to the first Ceramics porcelain was lighter finer harder and whiter and became an important commodity in China's trading with the rest of the world for hundreds of years in fact it became so valuable that it was known as white gold and spies were sent to China to discover what they did to the clay to produce such high quality merchandise it wasn't until the 18th century that the secret began to unravel a German Alchemist called Johan Friedrich vodka was asked by the king to make gold out of lead unfortunately bodka failed to achieve this and soon gave up but in order to please the king he attempted to make high quality porcelain and after many years of experimentation he discovered that by adding quartz and a material called China's Stone to very high quality clay he managed to get the same results that the Chinese had been achieving for the last 1 000 years we'll now look at another ceramic which is made from mixing sand with minerals and heating to over 600 degrees Celsius when this mixture cools the result is of course glass the main difference between Ceramics made from clay and glass is that Clay is made up of crystalline plates which become locked together in the cooling process whereas glass cools too quickly for crystals to form apart from that the process of heating up naturally occurring materials to transform them is the same the origins of glass date back to 3500 BC but it wasn't until the Roman Empire two thousand years ago that the art of glassblowing and the practical uses of glass became more widespread one of the more Innovative uses was to use it in Windows as up until then they had just been holes in walls it must have been very drafty in those days the Romans were also responsible for inventing concrete and although the origins are uncertain experts think that this is largely due to the high level of volcanic activity in the area the Romans observed that when volcanic ash mixes with water and then cools it gets extremely hard and almost impossible to break up the chemical reaction that follows is very complex and continues for many years and the concrete just keeps getting harder evidence of this are the numerous Roman remains that are still standing many of which are almost completely intact one of the most important facts about concrete for the Romans was that it can be created under water as the Roman empire grew the Romans needed to take control of the Seas and for this they needed to build Harbors capable of holding a fleet of ships pouring concrete mixture into the sea immediately started the hardening process and rather than just dissolving in the mass of water the substance was tough and long lasting this strange characteristic of concrete made a significant contribution to the success of the Roman Empire I hope you had fun answering those questions don't forget to tell me what your initial answers were for questions 30 to 39 so those are the four recording types that you might encounter during your IELTS test before we end this section here are some general tips to perform better during your listening round never miss the word count instruction always came through the questions before the audio begins this one habit will improve your score significantly the first keyword answer you hear is usually not the answer so keep your focus turned on throughout the conversation if you miss one answer move on to the next there is no point brooding over it because if you do you will miss another one or two at the end check your answers for spelling mistakes and make educated guesses so the answers you have missed there's no negative marking so don't leave out any blanks with that here are the answers for all the examples we've discussed in this section take a moment to cross check it with your answers that you've written in your answer sheet if you've gotten very few answers correct don't worry the beginning is supposed to be difficult it will get better with practice I'll tell you how you can practice more in the last section of this video for now let's move on to the next round which is the reading now [Music] for the reading section you'll get three reading passages and you will have to answer 40 questions these questions can be multiple choice matching headings sentence completion four chart completion so on and so forth the reading passages will be slightly different for academic and general training if the test is academic then the passages you'll get will be descriptive factual analytical there will be appropriate for people entering university courses but if the test is General training then the passages would be from books newspapers company guidelines so on and so forth you will have 60 Minutes to complete this section which I think is plenty if you learn how to use that time efficiently today we'll be looking at examples of three question types which will apply to both academic and general training paragraphs so pay attention even if you think that a paragraph doesn't apply to the test you're appearing for it's all about the paragraph It's about the technique to approach that question type with that let's look at our first question type which is something that most of us have trouble with the identifying information aka the true false and not given question I want you to pause the video and take a moment to go through the paragraph and the questions right next to it whenever you see a para the first thing you must do is just skim through the text to understand the flow of information don't read the entire text or spend time highlighting keywords you don't have that kind of time if it's a short paragraph like this just read the first line of every paragraph So from this example we find out that learn with us courses are flexible there are hundreds of such courses in a whole range of subjects from Reading to management step one is to have a chat with a member of their staff in one of their centers around the country we can try a tester lesson first step two is to register for the course and that's all that's to be done now we know what information is where let's quickly move on to the questions the instructions here state that we need to decide based on the information given in the text whether these six statements are true false or not given true means that the statement says exactly what's written in the paragraph false means that the statement States the exact opposite of what's written in the paragraph and not given means that the paragraph neither confirms nor denies the statement to understand it better let's go through these statements one by one question one you can work through parts of a course more than once after you read a question you will know which para to look at for that information thanks to the skimming you just did in this case it's para one now is the time to read it thoroughly reading an entire paragraph makes sense only when you know exactly what you're looking for so the answer to question one is true because this line in the paragraph says that you can go back to any session whenever you want so the paragraph confirms the statement question two the answer to this is not given after reading this paragraph thoroughly we find out that it doesn't mention any increase or decrease of courses it just says that it offers hundreds of courses but why is the answer not false because there is no line in the paragraph that denies the statement either if the paragraph would have said that the number of courses offered by learn with us has decreased enormously then this statement would have been false because then it would have stated the exact opposite of what is given in the paragraph but the paragraph does not say anything about an increase or decrease so the answer to question two is not given answer to question 3 is also not given we know that staff members are mentioned somewhere in this paragraph after reading it thoroughly we noticed that it says nothing about whether or not the staff have gone through a course themselves so the answer is not given the answer to statement four is true because this line right here reads whether you qualify for funding which means that yeah you have to pay to take a course statement 5 is a little tricky it states that everybody takes the same tester lessons let's go back to the test lesson paragraph and read it completely this time this line says that the tester lesson is a single computer session the use of the word single might make you believe that yes everybody takes the same tester lesson but immediately after is another line that says in any subject of your choice which means that people might take different tester lessons depending on the subject they are interested in which means statement 5 is false everybody does not take the same test lesson the answer to question six is false if you look at the para this line says that they operate on normal working hours and normal working hours as you know do not include weekends that makes statements 6 false you will get better at answering these type of questions with practice but I would like you to go back and go through the explanation of each of these statements one more time so that you really understand the difference between false and not given if you have any questions related to this example don't hesitate to ask moving on to the next question type matching features pause the video and take a moment to go through the paragraph and the questions right next to it let's first look at the text since this text has more information while skimming read not just the first but also the last sentence of each paragraph this will give you an idea about where is what after skimming the text go through the questions these instructions are asking us to match these question numbers with these options based on who first invented or used these items the first option is black powder let's go back to the para that mentions black powder and read it thoroughly this time this line right here credits the Chinese for its discoveries so the answer is a the next question is rocket proper arrows for fighting do you know that it was mentioned somewhere here after reading these lines thoroughly we know that this was also a Chinese invention so the answer is a remember that in question types like these it's okay for more than one question to have the same option I want you to try answering questions 9 and 10 all by yourself and comment and tell me what they are don't worry I'll display the correct answers for you to cross check at the end of the section but make sure you pause this video and give it a try moving on to the last question type the summary completion I want you to pause the video and take a moment to look at the paragraph and the questions there is text which talks about plain English material and then there is another paragraph which summarizes the given information we just have to fill in the words that are missing here are three tips to answer these types of questions read the instructions written at the top in this case our answer must not be more than two words because if it is it will be automatically considered incorrect always write words from the given passage never write their synonyms or your interpretation of those words for example the answer of number 11 is frustration as mentioned by this line right here don't write irritation or annoyance for an answer use exactly the same word or phrase mentioned in the paragraph another useful tip to know is that the use of a hyphen between two words makes it one word for example the answer to question number 12 is first time user as mentioned by this line right here and first hyphen time is one word and user is second which means we are meeting the set criteria of Maximum words if you are lucky summary completion questions might also have a set of options that you can choose your answers from just like we saw in the previous example but if that's not the case remember to always use the words that are mentioned in the passage I want you to pause the video and try answering questions 13 to 15. also don't forget to tell me what your answers are now here are three General tips to do well in the reading realm while skimming just read the first and last lines of all of the paragraphs and then quickly move over to the questions when you are trying to answer the questions go back to that paragraph again and read it thoroughly this time around I have noticed at least in general training that the questions are in the same order as the information in the passage the first questions answer will be in the first few lines and the second questions answer will be in the ninth after that so far I've not seen the answer to the fifth question being in the first para do not answer questions based on your previous knowledge reading tests your ability to recognize particular points of information conveyed in the text that's given to you so always base your answers on what's written in the paragraph especially when it comes to true false and not given questions with that here are the answers for the examples we've discussed today for you to cross check [Music] there are two tasks in writing task one and task two and you have 60 Minutes to complete both of these task one is a little different for academic and general training for taskmon academic you'll be given a graph table or a diagram and you will have to summarize or explain that information in your own words for task one of General training you'll be asked to write a letter requesting information or explaining a situation this letter might be personal semi-formal or formal you should write at least 150 words for task one and you are advised to spend no more than 20 minutes on it because Task 1 carries less weight agent marks when compared to task two task 2 is the same for both academic and general training you will be asked to write an essay in response to a problem or a point of view your ideally advised to spend 40 minutes on this task and write a minimum of 250 words we will look at examples of both of these tasks to understand it better but remember that if you are appearing for the academic tests your responses for both of these tasks should be in a formal style but for General training your essay style can be fairly personal but your letter can be personal semi-formal or formal depending on the situation being presented to you to get a better understanding let's first look at an example of task one for academics if you're appearing for General training and are not interested in this example then you can directly skip to this minute to move on to the general training task one example as you can see on your screen in this example you're given a diagram that shows the process of brick manufacturing and are asked to summarize the information report its main features and make comparisons where relevant the main goal of a task like this is to see if you can identify important information given in a diagram and give a well organized overview while you use the English language accurately in an academic style here's a sample answer of the brick manufacturing process which got an 8.5 from The Examiner pause the video and take a moment to read the response as you can see this sample responds clearly summarizes the key features of each stage it covers everything from the first stage where Clay is extracted and then rolled molded dried heated cooled the packaging and then the delivery notice how even the temperatures mentioned in the diagram are included in the essay response the response also uses paragraphing to convey The Logical flow of information and a range of accurate vocabulary has been used to describe the process for Task 1 your score based on task achievement which is how you fulfill the requirements of the task without giving speculative explanations that lie outside the given data which means in this brick manufacturing process example your answer should only include the data that's present inside the diagram and nothing beyond that how well your response is organized using logical connectors pronouns and conjunctions which means that notes or bullet points are not really accepted as answers the vocabulary used and its accuracy and the use of grammar let's now look at example one for General training if you are paying for the academic test and are not interested in this example then you can directly skip to the task 2 example of academic by going to this minute as mentioned earlier for Task 1 of General training you asked to write a letter requesting information or explaining some situation you can be asked to write a letter to your employer or to a local newspaper or renting agency or the city council let's look at an example to understand it better pause the video and take a moment to read the question as you can see on your screen in this example you're asked to write a letter to the accommodation officer asking for a change in accommodation because you're finding it difficult to work while you're sharing your room with your current roommate here's a sample answer to this question pause the video and take a moment to read the response this response scored a band 7 from The Examiner according to the examiner this letter is relevant to the task the first two bullet points of the question which are describing the situation and explaining the problem are covered in detail in the response but according to the examiner's feedback the third bullet point which is about the room preference could have been covered in more detail by mentioning what kind of accommodation the writer prefers the information is logically organized vocabularies use well it has some grammatical errors but they don't affect the reader greatly now here are some tips to approach this task number one meet all us this example has three hours in the letter to the accommodation officer you are asked to describe the situation explain why it is difficult for you to work and mention what kind of accommodation you would prefer you must include all of this information in the letter and it's a best practice to organize all of these in separate paragraphs so that the examiner knows that you've met all us don't include unnecessary information that's not a part of the task for example you don't have to mention details about how you ended up getting it better into this college or when you first met your roommate because that's not what the letter asks you to do take care of the style of writing if you are asked to write a letter to a friend then it can be informal but if it's to a manager or some officer that it needs to be semi-formal or formal keep a track of the time don't spend more than 20 minutes on this task and don't write bullet points or short notes you're given points on fluency of the message and how the idea years are linked through logical sequencing so write complete sentences let's move on to task two of writing task two is the same for both academic and general training you're given a topic and I asked to write an essay of about 250 words let's look at an example to understand it better pause the video and take a moment to read the question in this task you are asked to write an essay about shopping just like we did for Task 1 even in task 2 it's important to cover the main ass of the question in this case we are asked to discuss why shopping is popular the effects it has on individuals in society and are asked to include any relevant examples from our own knowledge or experience now let's look at the sample answer that scored in 8.5 pause the video and take a moment to read through the answer as you can see on your screen the sample answer covers why the writer thinks shopping is a popular activity by mentioning the experience of shopping in detail talking about how it can be an excuse to meet friends a pleasant distraction a means to inculcate self-confidence then the writer touches upon the second ask of the question which is the effects shopping has on society this writer discussed a positive aspect of shopping by describing how it can improve the economy and the consumer experience the feedback this essay got from The Examiner was that it is well developed and all the parts of the ask are explored in depth with a wide range of vocabulary The Examiner wished that the final paragraph ending could have been structured better so that it summarizes the question asked here are some general suggestions to help you with your task to divide the main points of your essay into paragraphs so that it is easy for the examiner to see that you've met all of the AFT mentioned in the question use the last paragraph to summarize your point of view and connect it to the question asked in the task in the last example the writer could have summarized his reasons for believing why shopping is popular and the positive effect it has on the society in two to three sentences and the third most important tip I can give you is to leave with time to edit your essays one of the major mistakes I made in my writing round was that I went overboard with the word count instead of 150 I think I wrote 250 word for task one and for task two instead of 250 I wrote 500 Words I wrote all of it within exactly 60 minutes which means I had no time to edit my essays I'm sure my answers are a lot of redundancy grammatical error spelling mistakes which could have been corrected if I hadn't spent all of my time writing so try to stick to the minimum word count plus 30 words maybe and instead use the extra time you have to refine your essay and correct what you can let's now move on to the final round speaking [Music] the speaking round will last for 11 to 40 minutes formally it has three parts let's first discuss what these three parts are and then we'll discuss how you can perform better for this round in part one The Examiner will ask you questions about familiar topics like work family studies and interests in my experience it won't be a simple tell me about yourself question they might ask you a range of questions my examiner had asked me which area I stay in how well is it connected to downtown how friendly are the people where I'm staying how have they helped me move in and so on and so forth this part is going to be all about you and you're going to know the answer to everything they can ask so use this opportunity to calm your nerves and get comfortable part two is where you'll be given a paper with a particular topic a pencil to write down any bullet points for reference and given one minute to prepare after one minute The Examiner ask you to speak where you can speak uninterrupted for one to two minutes think of this part as a just a minute round the Silver Lining being that you are actually given a minute to prepare before you ask to speak to give you an example the question I was given in part two was about a routine that I am doing lately and how it is helping me in my daily life I wish I could tell you that I picked up a smart routine to talk about like working out or writing a journal but no I spoke about the routine where I'm regularly applying night moisturizer on my face before sleeping I know but I was nervous and it's the first thing that came to my mind luckily I remember that it's an English language test so I spoke in detail about the Skin Care reels I had watched on Instagram about Meera rajput and her viral face massage video about the brand of moisturizer I'm using I felt so petty because I might have this kind of talk only with my girlfriends and here I was telling the examiner my idea of skincare routine but I scored an 8.5 because thankfully this is just an English language test so relax don't worry about sounding smart this is not an interview or a date just be as descriptive as possible because all they want to know is how well you communicate in English and finally after those two minutes that feel like an eternity comes part three part one and part two are about your personal experiences but in part three you will be asked to provide a general overview in response to the questions The Examiner asks to give an example for part three my examiner asked me what I think about how retired folks cope with this new change in routine where they don't have to go to work anymore I started talking about the retired Professionals in my family but the examiner kept reminding me to speak generally and not out of my personal stories so I spoke about what professionals can do after retiring like focus on their health give back to the society pick up new hobbies go on vacations Etc and I kept talking until she asked me to stop or ask another question so those were the three parts of the speaking ground now here are some tips to do well in this round be as descriptive as possible if you're asked about where you live don't just say I live in himayat nagar also talk about how far himayatnagar is from the main city uh how far or near it's from your office or school I personally think that it's better for the examiner to interrupt you and ask the next question instead of you giving one word answers and the examiner having to probe you to get out more information in part two read the question given to you carefully and try to meet all the asks of that question my question had two parts a new routine I picked up and how it is helping me so talk about all the parts of the question given to you for part two when you give it a minute to prepare no down bullet points and feel free to glance at them while you're speaking to make sure that you've covered all the points don't write four sentences because uh you won't have that kind of time while speaking just use regular English remember that nobody uses an excess of complex idioms or Proverbs in their everyday conversation use an idiom if it comes naturally to you in that conversation but if it doesn't don't sweat speak slowly if you have an Indian accent like mine then the examiner might not be used to hearing it often so for them to understand you better speak slowly with the appropriate pauses and that's it we reach the end of all of the four rounds let me tell you what you can do next to get more practice in your bag [Music] congratulations on completing this video it was not easy so give yourself a pat on the back now that you know what kind of questions you can encounter it's time to do more sample tests the links and resources I have used to practice are take aisles it has a set of free practice tests that you can use to familiarize yourself with the format we have ielts.org which has a set of example test questions for practice then we have road to IELTS which is the free version by the British Council for IELTS preparation and finally there are some free IELTS practice tests on the IDP website as well called IELTS prepare I've left the links of all of these four in the description and all of them are free I wanted to practice more listening tests so I got my hands on the official Cambridge guide to IELTS they are in charge of Designing and developing the questions files which is why only their practice tests are closest to the real test questions if there is one book you'd like to buy I'd advise you to buy this one I've left its Amazon Link in the description for you to check out in my opinion it's spending a few dollars on this book is better than not getting your desired score and wasting 300 something dollars that you've spent on that exam fee it's time to go into the last section but before that do not forget to subscribe to this Channel and hit that Bell icon because we make videos about career and finance that are crisp simple and easy to understand and if you're preparing for your interviews don't forget to check out our interview preparation playlist that helps you answer some of the most common behavioral questions like tell me about yourself what are your strengths and weaknesses where do you see yourself five years from now the links to all of these videos are in the description [Music] after you're done with all your practice to the point of being sick of it the only difficult part about IELTS are the logistics so check where your test center is located at least a day before figure out your mode of travel and carry all of your necessary documents reach early and use that time to try and relax because the first round is listening so it's imperative that you start with a clear head the next advice I have for you is to choose your speaking slot early I waited until the last minute to book my test and unfortunately got a speaking slot five hours after my test but before the test began I spoke to the test center manager and asked her if I could get an earlier speaking slot luckily one person did not show up and I got his speaking slot which was immediately after the test speaking slots are not final and are subject to vary depending on the situation of the test center on that day so if you don't get an ideal slot try speaking to the test center manager but my advice would be to avoid all that and book a design viable speaking slot early so that you don't have to rely on luck at the last minute that's all I have for you today if you've liked this video you'll also like my previous videos on Career finance and communication all of them are crisp and to the point because we at the urban fight respect your time and please don't forget to share this Channel with your friends and family our subscribers say that there's something new to learn every day I'm just Keen this is the urban fight and I'll see you in the next video [Music] foreign [Music]