The IELTS Form Full is “International English Language Testing System” (IELTS), which is the world’s most popular English language proficiency test. Every year, more than 3 million IELTS Exam Registration is done.
The IELTS exam is generally written by ESL students wanting to go to a foreign country either to study, work or migrate. The exam is taken by two international organizations: the British Council and IDP Education. It is the only English test that is accepted by all academic institutions and embassies worldwide.
There are two types of IELTS tests: General Training and Academic. Both the tests are for different purposes. It’s not rocket science to choose the right category for your visa application. If you are one of those who ask what is an IELTS exam
Note: There’s no difference between IELTS and IELTS for UKVI. Both are the same tests, just booked differently. IELTS for UKVI is for UK immigration. Similarly, Computer-Delivered IELTS/IELTS for UKVI a.k.a. CD IELTS/CD IELTS for UKVI is the same as the IELTS exam. It’s conducted on the computer and now offers an OSR (One Skill Retake) option.
Read why Voxcel is considered the best IELTS Institute in Ludhiana.
IELTS Academic
If you want to go to a foreign country for higher or further education, you will have to take the IELTS Academic test. All the reputed colleges and universities have set their minimum requirement of the test score for getting admission to their campus.
IELTS General Training
It covers work visas and immigration. The GT test ensures that you are accustomed to English for your survival in the English-speaking nation.
Note: Read how our IELTS Scepter can prove to be a milestone in your journey.
Preparation for IELTS
To get admission to your dream university in a foreign country or to secure a work/PR visa for another country, it is a must to achieve a certain set of scores called bands in the IELTS test. For this, you have to prepare in the right direction per the test format set by the official authorities to determine your English language skills. Moreover, it’s important to know the criteria of different modules to prepare for better scores.
Part 1: IELTS Listening Section
As clear from its name, the listening test will be a test of your understanding ability. A recorded CD will be played to you but only once. During the test, a set of questions will be given to you, which you have to answer while listening to the recording. You will also be given some time to check your answers. Candidates are allowed to write the answers on the question paper because they will be given 10 minutes to write their answers on the answer sheet after the completion of the whole audio. The different sections of the listening module in a native speaker’s accent will be played to the candidates.
- Part 1: A conversation between two people set in an everyday social context.
- Part 2: A monologue set in an everyday context.
- Part 3: A conversation between up to four people set in an educational context; e.g., university tutor.
- Part 4: A monologue is given on any academic subject. For example, lecture in a university.
Listening Evaluation – There will be 40 questions in this set. 1 mark will be awarded for each right answer. There is no negative marking or penalty for the wrong answers.
How does Voxcel help in Listening improvement?
The listening test is not as tough as it’s thought to be. Many students don’t know the importance of good grammar and they also underestimate the power of active listening. We encourage students to listen to podcasts, watch films, and sports commentaries, and also, listen to English songs. The main thing is whatever you do, do it actively. From time to time, we show students English movies in our smart classes and thoroughly discuss them. This not only develops their English listening skills but also develops their personality.
Moreover, over-listening modules are designed according to the current difficulty level of the exam. All of them have a map which students often find troublesome. We practice it on the Big screen TV using high-volume speakers so learners can see how to solve them without running from them.
Part 2: IELTS Reading Section
In this section, there are a wide variety of questions to test the candidate’s reading skills and his/her level of understanding of the language. The test includes reading a gist, reading for main ideas, skimming, reading for details, understanding logical arguments, and recognizing the writer’s opinions, attitude and purpose. This section will have 40 questions, which will be based on three reading passages.
It will have different contents for Academic and General IELTS.
Academic Training Test
In this section of the IELTS test, there are three long and descriptive texts, which also contain graphical images, if so then a glossary will be given to facilitate students. The topics will be picked from newspapers, magazines, journals, and other public publishing entities, which are written for a non-specific audience and are on trending and popular topics. So, students have an idea of what to expect from the article.
General Training Test
This version of the test includes materials from Notices, Books, Magazines, Advertisements, Company Handbooks, and Manuals. It contains mostly the data, one encounters daily in an English-speaking environment. The first section is known as the ‘social survival’ section. It contains texts that are related to basic linguistic survival in an English-speaking ambience. The second segment contains a more advanced level of the language and is known as Training Survival. It contains some elaborate expressions, which are used in the English Language. The third paragraph is mostly of descriptive and instructive instructions and is known as General Training.
IELTS Reading Marks and Assessment
One mark is awarded for each correct answer in the 40-question test. There is no penalty for wrong answers.
Note: Read why our study visa services are different from the rest
How does Voxcel help in reading improvement?
The reading module is seen as a nightmare by many students. The teachers at Voxcel understand the mindset of the students and we prepare various strategies and conduct thorough and intensive reading sessions to increase the understanding of the students. Since the reading module is designed to check the vocabulary, we also work on developing the reading habits of the students and offer them novels, articles, journals, columns etcetera to read to do discussion later on.
Once the reading module is done by students, we discuss all questions in detail so the students can get their correct answers. This improves analytical thinking and helps in improving the scores. We only provide authentic reading modules designed and testified by the IELTS officials, so students can understand the real difficulty level and what to expect in the exam.
Part 3: IELTS Writing Section
This section comprises two parts. In the first section, the candidate has to write a paragraph of a minimum of 150 words for which they will be given 20 minutes. The second section has the word limit set to a minimum of 250 words, which should be completed in 40 minutes.
Academic Writing Training
This section of the test contains topics that are related to the students, who are trying to get admission to undergraduate, and postgraduate studies, or seeking professional registration.
- Task 1: The candidate is given graphs, tabular diagrams, charts etcetera. They have to explain the given graphical representation in their own words. In layman’s terms, they have to explain the process that is being shown in the graphs.
- Task 2: In this the candidate’s mental ability is checked through logical arguments or points of view. The candidates will be given a set of arguments, and statements and they will have to justify their opinion and compare the evidence and implications.
General Writing Training
It contains those texts, which are most common in one’s general life.
- Task 1: In this section, the candidate is given a situation and is asked to write down a letter explaining the given scenario or requesting information. The letter will be personal, formal, or semi-formal in style.
- Task 2: In this part, the candidate is required to write down an essay in response to an argument or stating their point of view. The candidate is required to assess the situation and has to give the solution to the given situation.
How does Voxcel help in writing improvement?
To be honest, we have thousands of fans of our writing sessions. We have helped countless students to score their desired writing band in the exam. The teachers at Voxcel are trained to keep an eagle eye on every little writing mistake and work around it. Every writing, be it Task – 1 or Task – 2 of GT or AC, is marked on four parameters, which make it very easy for students to understand where he’s lacking and what things he has to do to improve the writing band.
Every day, we conduct writing sessions, give at least one writing task to students and closely track their performances. We check their work in front of their eyes and do detailed discussions about the mistakes. Such healthy discussions produce great writing results in the exam. We have countless stories of students who failed their writing module, but with our IELTS writing sessions, they got their desired scores.
From Grammar Range and Accuracy, Lexical Resource, Coherence and Cohesion to Task Achievement/Response – we check everything in every minute detail. Very less people are skilled to do this, and with our years of hard work, practice and learning to hone our teaching skills, we can do it. Voxcel’s teachers’ performances are regulated through an internal parameter so they can do justice to every student.
Part 4: IELTS Speaking Section
This section is comprised to assess the fluency and command of the candidate in the English language. All the speaking tests are taken in a way that there is no chance for the candidate to give the rehearsed response.
- Part 1: It is the beginning of the interview section. In this phase, the interviewer introduces himself/herself to the candidate and verifies the candidate’s identity. The examiner usually asks 4-5 questions related to the candidate directly or indirectly. This section is considered easiest, as it’s viewed as a warm-up round for the following two.
- Part 2: The candidates will be asked questions based on a card, which will be given to them by the interviewer. A student is given a cue card topic and pen paper to prepare ideas for one minute. Afterwards, he is instructed to speak for up to 2 minutes. He has to express his ideas coherently and answer the task clearly and responsively.
- Part 3: The candidates take part in a two-way discussion on more abstract ideas that are related to part two. In simpler terms, part 3 is the continuation of part 2.
How does Voxcel help in Speaking improvement?
We treat every student like a beginner and teach them what works in IELTS speaking and what doesn’t. Most students fail to consider the sounds they produce, which lower their band in the pronunciation parameter. We teach them how to do it, staying very critical of these things.
When we take speaking, we do their assessment on our designed IELTS Speaking Assessment Sheet that has every speaking parameter (Coherence and Fluency, Pronunciation, Lexical Resource, and Grammar Range and Accuracy). Through our SAS, students track their performances individually and work on the weak areas.
Moreover, we have smart classes, so show them speaking videos of professionals and discuss how it’s done. Our training sessions can be stretched for hours because we want nothing but the best.