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Ielts

The IELTS test was introduced in 1989 to assess whether students have sufficient English proficiency to study in English-speaking universities and colleges. It consists of four sub-tests in Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking that together take just under three hours to complete. Students must choose between taking the Academic IELTS, which is required for university study, or the General Training IELTS, required for other English-language courses. The test format evaluates a student's ability to understand and use both complex academic language and everyday language skills depending on their intended course of study.

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56 views2 pages

Ielts

The IELTS test was introduced in 1989 to assess whether students have sufficient English proficiency to study in English-speaking universities and colleges. It consists of four sub-tests in Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking that together take just under three hours to complete. Students must choose between taking the Academic IELTS, which is required for university study, or the General Training IELTS, required for other English-language courses. The test format evaluates a student's ability to understand and use both complex academic language and everyday language skills depending on their intended course of study.

Uploaded by

chickribers
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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IELTS - The International English Language Testing System

Written by Rad Danesh   


Saturday, 12 June 2004

Not only has English become an international language; it is used by more and more people around the world as
a medium of post-school study.

To help universities and colleges select students with sufficient English skills to succeed in their courses, The
IELTS test was introduced in 1989 to assess “whether candidates are ready to train in the medium of English”. It
is now used for this purpose around the globe.

Depending in the course of study that students plan to take, students must elect to sit either the Academic
IELTS test or the General Training IELTS test. This choice must be made when applying to sit the test. The
Academic IELTS test is necessary for students who plan to study at university (undergraduate or postgraduate
courses), and will test the student’s ability both to understand and to use complex academic language. The
General Training IELTS test is required by other institutions, such as colleges and high schools, for courses that
require less complex language skills, and is also as a general test of English proficiency e.g. for immigration
purposes in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The Test Format


There are four sub-tests, or modules, to the IELTS test: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. Students
must sit all four sub-tests. While all students take the same Listening and Speaking tests, they sit different
Reading and Writing tests, depending on whether they have selected the Academic IELTS test or the General
Training IELTS test.

On the day of the test, the four subsections will be taken in the following order:

Total Test Time


2 hours 45 minutes

The Speaking test may even take place a day or two later at some centres.

IELTS listening test lasts for about 30 minutes. It consists of four sections, played on cassette tape, in order of
increasing difficulty. Each section might be a dialogue or a monologue. The test is played once only, and the
questions for each section must be answered while listening, although time is given for students to check their
answers.
IELTS Reading test lasts for 60 minutes. Students are given an Academic Reading test, or a General Training
Reading test. Both tests consist of three sections, and in both tests the sections are in order of increasing
difficulty.

IELTS Writing test also lasts for 60 minutes. Again, students take either an Academic test, or a General
Training test. Students must perform two writing tasks, which require different styles of writing. There is no
choice of question topics.

IELTS Speaking test consists of a one-to-one interview with a specially trained examiner. The examiner will
lead the candidate through the three parts of the test:
An introduction and interview, an individual long turn where the candidate speaks for one or two minutes on a
particular topic, and a two-way discussion thematically linked to the individual long turn. This interview will last for
approximately 11-14 minutes.

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