hi there it's asiya if you need to take an ielts exam but you don't know much about it yet
then this video is for you i'm gonna tell you how to prepare for this exam quickly what resources
to use how to book your exam and answer other questions you might have ready? let's get started!
let's talk about the two types of the ielts exam ielts academic and general training
if you are going to study abroad you need to take ielts academic if you are going to join
your family in an english-speaking country you need to take ielts general training
if you want to work abroad you need to check what type of exam is required but basically 80%
of all people take ielts academic it's much more common but if you can select and both types are
accepted take ielts general training it's a little bit easier you might have heard about ielts ukvi
that is not a separate type of the exam it's the same ielts academic and ielts general training but
it's taken in a room with video recording that's because britain wants to be sure that the correct
candidate takes the test and in the past there were some incidents of cheating with other
english language exams so ielts uk visas and immigration is video recorded
that's the only difference otherwise it will be the same ielts academic or general training
it's a little bit more expensive though and when you're booking your exam it will be written if
it's your ukvi or not so make sure you choose the correct format ielts costs between 220
and 250 us dollars so it's definitely worth preparing for the exam and i would say that
you should start your preparation first assess how much time you need and then book your exam
and actually if you plan to take your exam in winter you can book it one or two weeks in advance
but at the end of spring and in summer the demand for ielts goes through the roof and sometimes
there is nothing available for weeks and months i had students who had to travel to another city or
even another country to take their ielts so make sure that you book your exam early during this hot
period okay how to book your ielts exam you go to ielts.org select book a test select your country
and if you're lucky your city and you will see all the tests that are available all the test
centers sometimes there is only one company sometimes there are several basically there
are two companies which administer the ielts exams british cancer and idp but test centers
in your country may have another name it really doesn't matter because all tests are the same
they're written by cambridge english all examiners take the same training
so there is no test that is easier or test that is more difficult the only difference is if you take
a computer-based or a paper-based test if you see a computer icon it means that
a computer-based ielts is available at this test center most ielts exams are still taken on paper
but more and more centers are rolling out the computer-based version i've taken both i prefer
to take it on a computer because i think it's easy to select answers in ielts listening and reading
i like that you're guaranteed to have earphones for your listening section in a paper-based exam
you may have loudspeakers but i think the deal breaker is how quickly you type do you prefer
to type two essays or are you slow typers and then you have to write them the speaking exam is always
the same it's a face-to-face interview i have a detailed video with all the differences between
a paper-based and a computer-based versions it will help you decide which one is right for you
that's the video will be linked in the description let's talk about the test format
ielts consists of four sections and i'm gonna tell you about the differences between aya's academic
and general training then when you be looking for information for your preparation you can easily
decide if this piece of information is for you or not okay ielts listening it's the same for both
academic and general training students it lasts for 30 minutes and you need to answer
40 questions the next section is ielts reading again 40 questions but 60 minutes
and here academic students get three longer texts which are more scientific and general
training students get five short texts which are less scientific and i would say they're a little
bit easier that's why in general training you need to answer more questions correctly to achieve the
same score in ielts reading as academic students next is ielts writing and here you're given 2
tasks and 60 minutes task 1 is different for academic and general training students academic
students need to write a report describing a chart a table a graph a map or a diagram
general training students need to write a letter task 2 is very much the same for both types of the
exam so these three sections are taken together either on paper or on a computer and ielts
speaking is separate you may actually need to travel to the test center on a different day for
your speaking exam and it's always a face-to-face interview with an examiner that lasts between 11
and 14 minutes it's the same for both types of the exam how to prepare for the ielts exam
there is nothing like taking a free practice test to get a taste of what the ielts exam is about and
i think you should really use official practice tests in your preparation because those are
written by the same people who create exam papers so they are the same the same level of difficulty
the same types of tasks the same wording other practice tests are not like that and several
official tests are available for free you can buy more if you need i'm gonna show you all of them
in ielts listening and reading once you take a practice test you count how many questions you
answer correctly and you know what your score is then you can learn about different strategies you
can learn how to approach each type of task you can practice and your score will improve
and actually because people know what this coin is listening and reading is they often
dedicate a lot of effort to these two sections but it may be a huge mistake
that's because statistically people get the lowest score in ielts writing and the second lowest in
ielts speaking partly that's because these two sections require you to actively produce english
while in listening and reading you only need to understand but also that's because ielts examiners
use a set of specific criteria to assess your answers in writing and speaking and if you don't
know what those are and you don't know how to meet them you're not gonna get a very good score even
if your english skills are actually quite good so you should really prepare for these two sections
i've prepared for you a free ielts study plan it will give you five steps for your preparation
links to all the free practice tests links to other resources and it will help you get started
please download it the link will be in the video description box below now let me show you a couple
of books for your preparation that's the book number one ielts academic practice tests you can
get the same book but general training practice tests this one is number 14 the latest is number
15 and number 16 will be released in summer 2021 at the end of the book you get a sample answers
with a band score that will help you understand what level you need to achieve in your writing
for a certain score so that's really good and this one is the official guide to ielts
it's really thick because it includes tips exercises and practice tests
i quite like the book particularly if you have a bit more time for your preparation
and you can work on your english skills as well as your ielts skills but i feel that the book doesn't
explain in depth how to improve your score in ielts writing but other than that it's quite good
and have a separate video with a full review of those books other books apps for your preparation
you can watch it now let's talk about when you should start your preparation and how long
it's gonna take and the third thing i wanna say is start preparing as early as possible
if you know you need to take this exam start preparing now basically with ielts it's pretty
difficult to assess what score you're gonna get before you start doing anything
i know people who freak out before their exam and then achieve an incredibly high score and i
know people who feel confident about their english and then fail their exam by quite a large margin
so you need to give yourself time to prepare and pass the exam for many people it's possible to
pass the exam quickly and then it's great because the certificate is valid for two years and you can
use it later but if not you still have time to change the result let's talk about ielts scores
your ielts result will depend on your english skills of course but it can still vary depending
on how well you are prepared for your ielts exam and the goal of your ielts preparation
is to achieve the best score you can achieve at your current level of english
so i call these ielts skills essential ielts preparation should take you just a couple of weeks
that's where you learn about different strategies different tasks you practice
and then if you feel ready you can go and take your test you can follow five steps in the ielts
study plan and it will give you everything for this essential preparation but then if you feel
that ielts writing and speaking are difficult for you then you may need more advanced preparation
you need to learn about each criterion that ielts examiners use you need to learn structures for
your answers you need to learn how to produce different types of answers so that will take
a little bit longer again depending on how much time you have i would say from one to three months
and that's where you can use my ielts courses they will teach you everything you need to know
about ielts writing and speaking in as little time as possible i will link them in the description
so by the end of this preparation you should really go and take your exam
and if you don't achieve the score you desire then the reason is your english skills and you should
take an intensive english course and you know if you really dedicate your time to improving
your english you can achieve amazing results in 6 months and if you start your preparation early
you will have these 6 months to improve if you need but hopefully you will pass your exam
much more quickly i think that's everything you need to know to get started with your ielts
preparation please download this study plan and see you in the next video good luck bye