Self-Study English

Category: IELTS

  • How to Use Sample IELTS Writing Answers

    I have already shown how you can use IELTS reading and listening texts to help you develop your language skills to help you prepare for the IELTS test, and in this blog post, I will show you how you can use sample writing answers to help you prepare for the IELTS writing test.

    First of all, before reading a sample answer, it would obviously be beneficial to think a little about the question or task. Even if you don’t want to write an answer yourself first, you can still take some time to think about the question and what you would include in your answer. For part 1, this might include:

    • thinking about how to change the language in the question to write the first sentence
    • identifying the main features and thinking about what information to include in an overview
    • thinking about what specific details you would include and what data to describe
    • thinking about how you would organise these specific details into two or three paragraphs
    • thinking about what language you could use to describe the data, map changes, process, etc.

    For part 2, this might include:

    • understanding what you need to do to answer the question
    • thinking about your opinion on the topic
    • thinking about what ideas you could include and how to develop these ideas
    • thinking about how to organise these ideas into paragraphs
    • thinking about what language you could use to show your opinion and link ideas together

    Once you have done these, you can then read a sample answer and compare against your own ideas and make a note of any differences. For part 1 answers, probably the most useful thing you can do is focus on what information is included in the overview, identify what data has been reported and identify any language that has been used to describe the data, map changes or stages in a process.

    For part 2, the most useful thing to do probably involves identifying the overall opinion, the organisation of the main body, how ideas have been developed with reasons and examples in each paragraph and any language that has been used to show opinion and link ideas together.

    However, when using sample answers, you need to make sure that you are using reliable answers as there is a lot of material available that is of questionable quality. Here are some websites that I think have quite reliable samples answers that you can be helpful for you:

    Part 1 Sample Answers

    IELTS Buddy (Part 1)

    English Exam (Part 1)

    IELTS Focus (Part 1)

    Part 2 Sample Answers

    IELTS Buddy (Part 2)

    English Exam (Part 2)

    IELTS Focus (Part 2)

  • How to Use IELTS Listening Texts

    In the previous post, I showed you a procedure for using the reading texts. Here, I will show you a similar procedure for using the IELTS listening texts for both practice and developing your language skills.

    The main difference between difference between the reading and listening tests is that when listening, you only have the opportunity to listen once. However, obviously when preparing for the exam, you can listen as many times as you want, so it makes sense to use this opportunity in order to increase understanding.

    Before starting to listen to the recording, you will be given some time to look at the questions. It is very important that you use this time carefully in order to help better understand when you are listening. Depending on the type of questions you need to answer, doing some of the following will be useful:

    • using any headings (if there are any) to predict the topic of the listening
    • reading and highlighting/underlining key words in the questions
    • predicting what kind of information will go in the gap

    After listening once and entering your answers, it is a good idea to listen again as you likely missed some answers or were unsure about some answers. You may want to write your answers after listening the second time in a different coloured pen, so you can see which answers you got correct on the first time of listening. If you find the text very difficult, you may want to listen a third or even fourth time. Regardless of how many times you listen before checking your answers, I would always recommend listening again to just focus on the main ideas in the text. This will help you have a better understanding of the whole text, and as with reading, better understanding of the text, leads to more processing of language, and therefore more language learning takes place. Depending on the type of listening, you may also want to ask yourself some of the questions suggested for reading texts.

    You may also want to listen again to help you understand why you got any answers wrong. Alternatively, you could use the transcript (the text of the listening) to help you understand why you got any answers wrong.

    As with reading texts, you may also want to look for new vocabulary (both general and academic) that could be useful in the future, though you are likely to find less new vocabulary in listening transcripts compared to reading texts.

  • How to Use IELTS Reading Texts

    When doing practice IELTS reading tests, it’s important that you do not just to use them as test practice, but also to use them to help develop your language skills. Here is a suggested procedure for how you can use IELTS reading tests to help you both practice the test and also develop your language skills at the same time.

    First of all, I would suggest that you get a general idea of what the text is about before looking at the questions. If you are a fast reader, you may decide to quickly read the whole text first before looking at the questions, but for most students, I think this will take too much time.

    To get a general idea of a text, I would suggest looking at the following parts of a text:

    • Title of the text (most important part)
    • The first paragraph (this is likely to include some kind of general introduction to the topic, and will therefore help to give a general idea of the text)
    • The first sentence of each paragraph (these are often similar to topic sentences that you use in your writing, and often give a general idea/summary of what the paragraph will be about)
    • The final paragraph (these often contain some kind of conclusion or summary, which includes more general ideas than much of the rest of the text)

    By reading these parts of the text, you should be able to get a general idea of what the whole text is about. This will give you a better understanding of the text, and therefore should help you when answering questions about specific parts of the text.

    Once you have completed the IELTS answers, I would suggest that you read through the whole text again, and try to summarise to yourself (you can make notes if you wish) what the main ideas of the text were. You may also want to ask questions to yourself about the text such as:

    • What did I learn from reading this text?
    • Is there anything from the text that was surprising? If so, why?
    • Which parts of the text did I most agree with? If so, why?
    • Is there anything that I disagree with? If so, why?
    • Are there any parts that I didn’t understand? If so, what made them difficult?

    Asking yourself these kinds of questions can help you think about the text more deeply and therefore be more likely to better understand the text. This means that you will then thus process some of the language better and improve your language skills more.

    After doing this, you can then focus on some individual words and phrases that you have found in the text, which may be new to you. However, you do not necessarily want to try and learn every new word you see in a text as there will likely be quite a few words that are not very common, and so will not be very useful for you to learn. Instead, it is better to focus on those words which are more common, and so more useful.

    There are two types of vocabulary that students should focus on. The first type is frequent general vocabulary as these make up most words in a text. You can find out how to use a dictionary and other resources to help identify these words in this blog post. More advanced learners may also like to also focus on mid-frequency vocabulary too (see this blog post).

    The second type of vocabulary to focus on is academic words. These words are especially important for the IELTS exam (and when studying at university). You can use this blog post to learn more about academic words and help you identify academic words from a text.

  • IELTS – The Paper Based Test (PBT) vs the Computer Based Test (CBT)

    One factor that you need to consider when doing the IELTS test is whether to do the paper-based text (PBT) or the computer-based test (CBT). Although both tests are the same (i.e. same questions in the reading, listening and writing) test, there are number of reasons why you might prefer to do one over the other.

    For me, probably the biggest consideration is time. Firstly, if you are in a rush to get your results back, then doing the CBT test would be better as you get your results back in 3-5 days versus up to 14 days for the PBT. However, perhaps a more important factor related to time is how long it will take you to read and write in a CBT versus the PBT, especially given how much time pressure you are likely to experience during the IELTS exam.

    Obviously, there is no simple answer to this as the time it takes will depend on each individual, but it has generally been accepted that reading on paper is faster than reading on a screen (Thompson, 2019). However, this may be changing due to better screen quality and people being more used to reading on screens nowadays. Perhaps more importantly though, especially when doing tests like the IELTS, is that it seems reading on paper leads to better understanding of a text compared to reading on a screen (Barshay, 2019). Therefore, although it may not be 100% clear, it seems that reading on paper might offer an advantage over reading on a screen.

    However, when it comes to writing, the opposite is likely to be true. For most people, typing will be faster than writing by hand, but this again depends on a number of factors. For example, if you are more used to writing by hand than typing in your second language, then there might not be such a big difference in speed. Also, there are other factors that might come into consideration, such as the number of typos (which will take more time to check and correct), being able to edit more easily on a computer as well as the words being counted automatically for you. Again, there is no easy answer, but it seems like the CBT may be better for most people when it comes to the writing test.

    In the end, the only way to really know which test is better for you is to try both of them, maybe time yourself and see which one you feel more comfortable with. Both test providers (IDP and British Council) offer a practice online test, so it’s worth trying the online test a couple of times before deciding whether to do the CBT or the PBT.

    For more information about the CBT, you can view these helpful YouTube videos:

    There is also a useful summary of advantages and disadvantages of both the PBT and the CBT in the following article:

    https://ieltsliz.com/computer-delivered-ielts-pros-cons/

    References:

    Barshay, J., 2019. Evidence increases for reading on paper instead of screens. [online] The Hechinger Report. Available at: <https://hechingerreport.org/evidence-increases-for-reading-on-paper-instead-of-screens/&gt; [Accessed 11 October 2021].

    Thompson, A., 2019. Study: Paper Reading More Effective Than Screen Reading. [online] VOA. Available at: <https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/study-paper-reading-more-effective-than-screen-reading/4876473.html&gt; [Accessed 11 October 2021].

  • Should I apply for a remark of my IELTS test?

    One conversation that I have had a few times recently is whether it is worth getting a remark (officially called Enquiry on Results) of your IELTS test if you feel that you got a lower score than you deserved.

    First of all, I should say that I don’t have any specific knowledge about this issue. I am only using my own judgement along with publicly available information from IDP and the British Council. Mistakes do happen sometimes and so there might be some occasions where applying for a remark could be worthwhile.

    However, there are also a few questions that are probably worth asking yourself before deciding whether to apply for a remark.

    Can I afford it?

    The cost for a remark is 4,100 NTD with the IDP and 4,000 NTD with the British Council. The price is the same regardless of whether you have one component marked or you have all four components remarked. If your mark increases in any one of the components that have been remarked, then you will receive your money back.

    Which part of the test do I feel I underachieved in?

    For the reading and listening tests, there are correct and incorrect answers, so the chances of a mistake being made in the marking are much smaller than for the writing and speaking tests, where there is some degree of subjectivity in how the marking criteria is applied. Therefore, if you are surprised by a low score in reading or listening, then it is much less likely that your score would increase as a result of a recheck. However, if you were surprised by a low score in writing or speaking, then it might be worth applying for a remark.

    How much does my score need to improve by in order to achieve my target score?

    If you need to improve your score by 0.5 of a band in one component to achieve your target score, then you have a much greater chance of success. For example, let’s imagine you need 6.5 overall and when you did the test you got:

    R:7 L:6.5 W:5.5 S:5.5 = Overall 6.0

    *See here for how to calculate IELTS scores.

    In this example, increasing your score by 0.5 in just one component would increase your overall score to 6.5, so in this case it might be worth applying for a remark, especially if you feel your performed much better than your score suggests in either writing or speaking.

    However, if you need to achieve a score of 6.5 overall and a minimum of 6 in each component, then you would obviously need to increase your score by 0.5 in both writing and speaking. In this case, obviously the chance of your score increasing enough to achieve your target score are much smaller.

    Likewise, if your score needs to improve by a whole band in one component, the chance of your score increasing by one band are much smaller than 0.5 of a band.

    Was my score much lower than previous tests that I have done?

    If you have done the IELTS test previously and got a higher score in one component the first time you did the test, then this could be a sign that there was some mistake the second time round. For example, imagine you need to achieve a score of 7 overall and a minimum score of 6.5 in each component and the first time you did the test, you got the following score:

    R:7.5 L:8 W:6 S:7 = Overall 7

    Imagine you did the test a second time, and got the following score:

    R:7.5 L:8 W:6.5 S:6 = Overall 7.5

    In this situation, your score in speaking has dropped by a whole band from the first test to the second test, which is quite unusual. This could suggest that there may have been a mistake in the marking of the speaking component in the second test and it might be worth applying for a remark, especially as your speaking score would only need to increase by 0.5 of a band to achieve your target score. However, it’s also worth remembering that both speaking and writing both depend on your performance on the day of the test, so it is quite possible that a poorer performance in the second test will result in a slightly lower mark.

    How long am I prepared to wait for the results of the remark?

    According to the IDP website, ‘the process will take approximately 2 to 4 weeks.’ The British Council website states that ‘The remarking process takes 2-4 working weeks after submission of the re-marked form, excluding time for posting to UK.’

    Did I make any mistakes in the test?

    It is important that you be honest with yourself here. The most serious mistakes that you could make are probably in the writing component, such as not properly answering the question in part 2 or not having time to finish your answer. If you feel that you may have made these kinds of mistakes, it might be better to accept your result and try again.

    Conclusion

    Before finishing this blog post, there are a couple of further points I would like to make. First of all, we are all human, and just like you or I, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and that includes examiners. So, if you do get a lower score then you expected, try to spend a bit of time to calmly reflect on the situation instead of getting angry and telling all your friends how unfair the IELTS examiner was to you. If a mistake was made, it will be a genuine mistake and it does not mean that the examiner is a bad person!

    The second point is that if you are thinking about applying for a recheck, it probably means that you only just missed out on getting your target score. In the best possible situation, applying for a recheck might mean that you get your target score. However, that would mean that you only just managed to achieve the target score. These target scores have been set by universities as the absolute minimum possible score in order to be successful in your studies. However, do you really want to pay all that money to study abroad on a course where you have only just met the minimum score? Maybe it would be better to spend a little more time studying and making sure that your language level is as high as it possibly can be, so that you have the best possible chance of success when you go on to study in English.

    Ask other people who have studied in English abroad and they will most likely tell you how difficult it was, how much they had to read on their course or how much time they spent writing assignments, etc. Studying for IELTS is a piece of cake compared to studying in English at university, so be kind to yourself and give yourself the best possible chance of making it easier for yourself once you got there.

    More Useful Links to Read:

    https://ieltscharlie.com/ielts-remark/

    https://www.ieltsadvantage.com/2016/03/29/should-i-get-my-ielts-test-remarked/

    http://blog.myieltsclassroom.com/request-ielts-remark/

    https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-remarking-success-story/

  • When should I take my IELTS test?

    In the previous blog post, I showed how long it might take to increase your IELTS score. This is especially useful to know for students who are around the intermediate (B1) level and want to study in English at university and need an IELTS score of between 6 and 7.

    However, it is obviously also useful to know what your current level is now and what kind of score you could expect to achieve if you took the IELTS test tomorrow. This information can help you to decide if you are ready to take the IELTS test. Here are the different steps that can help you decide:

    1. Know what your target score is

    This includes knowing both the overall score and the minimum requirement in each skill (reading, listening, writing, speaking). If you know that you are particularly weak in one skill, then this might mean you need to wait a little longer before taking the test.

    2. Do at least three IELTS test practice reading and listening tests using official IELTS test materials

    You will probably not get exactly the same score every time you take a test, so it is better to calculate an average score over a number of tests to be sure what your current level is. I would recommend doing at least three of these tests within a short space of time. The easiest way to do this is to buy (or borrow) one of the official Cambridge practice test books, which each contain four practice tests. For example, the most recent one is ‘IELTS Academic 15 with answers’. It doesn’t need to be the most recent edition, but more recent editions (e.g. 14, 13, 12, etc.) are better than the older editions as there have been some changes in the test over the years. Alternatively, there are also a couple of practice tests available online: here and here, which can be used. Note, that I only recommend doing this for the reading and listening as you can calculate the scores for yourself whereas it is obviously much more difficult to assess yourself accurately for the speaking and writing test.

    3. Calculate your scores for the practice reading and listening tests

    Once you have completed the practice tests, you can mark the tests* and calculate what band you would be likely get for both the reading and listening parts of the test. You can use an online calculator, such as this one to help you calculate your scores. Make sure that you enter the reading score in correct box (either academic or general training).

    * When marking the tests, words spelt wrong should be marked incorrect. Where there are brackets around a word, it does not matter if this word is included to get an answer correct, e.g.

    ANSWER: (the) information centre

    both ‘the information centre’ and ‘information centre’ would be marked correct. However, ‘the information’ or ‘centre’ would both be marked incorrect as they have an essential word missing.

    4. Calculate your average score for the practice tests

    Add your scores together and calculate your overall average for both reading and listening, e.g.

    Test 1 Reading: 6.0, Test 2 Reading: 6.5, Test 3 Reading: 7.0, READING AVERAGE = 6.5

    Test 1 Listening: 6.0, Test 2 Listening: 5.5, Test 3 Listening: 5.5, LISTENING AVERAGE = 5.67

    OVERALL AVERAGE (for reading and listening) = 6.085 (6.5+5.67/2)

    5. Compare these reading and listening scores with your target score

    You can now compare these reading and listening scores with your target score. However, as mentioned before, you need to be aware that you are probably stronger in some skills than other skills. As the table below shows, Taiwanese students tend to score more highly on the reading and listening sections compared to the writing and speaking sections.

    Taken from: https://www.ieltstaiwan.org/en/ielts-performance-test-takers-asia-2018/

    Therefore, I would suggest that your overall average score for the reading and listening practice tests to be at least 0.5 of a band higher than the overall score that you need. Using the example above, if you need an overall score of 6.0 with at least 5.5 in each skill, then you would probably want to wait a little bit longer before doing the test as the average for reading and listening was only just above 6.0 and most Taiwanese test takers perform worse on the writing and speaking (especially the writing). It is perhaps worth noting that although a score of L:6.0, R:6.0, W:5.5, S:5.5 would be enough to get a 6.0 overall, this is a low scoring 6.0. A score of L:6.0, R:6.5, W:6.0, S:6.0 would also be a 6.0 overall, despite getting a higher score in three of the four skills. See the IELTS website to see how IELTS scores are calculated.

  • How long does it take to increase my IELTS score?

    As with learning English, there are a variety of factors that can influence how long it takes to increase your IELTS score. However, I will attempt to use a variety of sources that should help to give an estimate.

    The most useful source for this is a research article that investigated how much students improved their IELTS score after 10-12 weeks of a full-time English course (about 200-240 hours) in private language schools in Australia and New Zealand (Elder and O‘Loughlin, 2003). The research showed that students increased their score by an average of about 0.6 of a band overall after a course of 10-12 weeks. However, there were differences in how much students improved in the different sections. On average, students improved their score by almost 0.8 of a band in listening whereas it was only 0.4 for reading. There were also big differences between individual students as some students managed to increase their score by quite a lot in this period whilst some students saw very little improvement in their score.

    As with language learning in general, according to the research, it seems that it is easier to make progress at the lower band scores. For students who started the course at band 6, they had a less than 50% of increasing their overall band score over the period of a 10-12 week course (Elder and O‘Loughlin, 2003). Interestingly, the study also showed that the most successful age group were those students who were aged 20-25.

    Another useful piece of research investigated score gains in the writing section of the IELTS test (Green, 2005). It also showed that students are more likely to increase their score at lower levels, e.g. a student with a 5.0 is more likely to increase their score by 0.5 of a band (to 5.5) compared to a student who already has a 6.5 and is trying to increase their score to 7.0. The article also notes how previously (before 2002), IELTS partners (Cambridge English Language Assessment, the British Council and IDP: IELTS Australia) used to provide the following statement about score gains:

    ‘It has been shown that individuals can take up to 200 hours to improve by one IELTS band’

    (IELTS, 2002, p22 cited in Green, 2005). However, Green advised that this advice could not be supported by evidence and IELTS no longer provide such information about how long it may take a candidate to improve their IELTS score.

    It is also quite useful to look at some different universities and how long they estimate that it takes to go up an IELTS band. Most universities in the UK offer pre-sessional English courses to students as an alternative to achieving the IELTS band score that they need for their chosen course. Most universities (especially those with a stronger reputation) suggest that for each 0.5 of a band that students are below their target score for their course, they would need 10 weeks of full-time study (about 200 hours) to get to the required level.

    For example, imagine you wanted to study at the University of Liverpool on a course that required 6.5 overall.  If you currently have an IELTS score of:

    • 4.5, you would need to study on a pre-sessional course for 40 weeks
    • 5.0, you would need to study on a pre-sessional course for 30 weeks
    • 5.5, you would need to study on a pre-sessional course for 20 weeks
    • 6.0, you would need to study on a pre-sessional course for 10 weeks

    It is similar for many other UK universities – see entry requirements for Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Nottingham.

    Obviously, as with the research outlined above from Australia and New Zealand, students taking an intensive pre-sessional course will be in an English-speaking country and so would get the benefit of being surrounded by English much of the time. The only drawback of such courses is that there is relatively little time for self-study for each hour of class time (students would normally have around four to five hours of classes per day from Monday to Friday). However, if you are learning for 6 hours a week, then there is more opportunity for self-study between lessons and so slightly fewer class hours might be needed than in the examples above (but more self-study).

    What is interesting is the difference between how long is suggested it might take to improve an IELTS score above compared to how long Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press suggest it might take to move up one band on the CEFR, e.g. A2 to B1, B2 to C1, etc. It seems that these predictions are a lot more optimistic than for how long it takes to improve an IELTS score. One reason might be that the IELTS test is not just an assessment of general English level but an assessment of how well a candidate can communicate in an academic context. This is likely to mean extra preparation involved (e.g. learning how to do the writing part 1 and part 2 task) as well as learning more specific language that is common in academic contexts.

    However, I would guess that the biggest difference is to do with the first language of many students who take the IELTS test. Remember that the predictions by Cambridge Assessment (see here) were for learners in an ideal situation, e.g. learners who share the same writing script as English (e.g. French, German, Spanish, etc.) whereas most of the students who take the IELTS test and were involved in the studies mentioned were from either East Asia or the Middle East. This means that most candidates for the IELTS test are likely to have a first language (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) that is very different to English and so would take longer to make progress in English.

    Overall then, it seems that a figure of about 200 hours of lessons is probably the best guess of how long is needed to increase by 0.5 of a band on the IELTS test on average for students who have Chinese as their first language. Obviously, it is possible to do it in less, but this depends on many factors (see here, here and here), and especially on how much effective self-study you are able to do.

    References:

    Elder, C., & O’Loughlin, K. (2003). Investigating the relationship between intensive English language study and band score gain on IELTS. International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Research Reports 2003: Volume 4, 207.

    Green, A. (2005). EAP study recommendations and score gains on the IELTS Academic Writing test. Assessing Writing, 10(1), 44-60.