Understanding the Question Task – IELTS Writing

It is important to fully understand what is being asked of you in the IELTS writing test to be able to perform the task properly. If you are still unfamiliar with the IELTS Golden Rule please visit my post on it. To understand what is being asked in the IELTS writing test, we need to find out what the topic is and what the topic question/task is.

Please check the IELTS.org test sample here

The task 2 writing task states:

A Guide to IELTS Writing Presentation

While it is true that the IELTS writing test is not marked for presentation, there is the psychological aspect you may want to consider.  Imagine attending an IELTS review class where the center has litter everywhere and the place doesn’t look like it has been cleaned for months; you would probably be able to focus more intently on the lectures if the place was cleaner and smelled better to.

You are not there in person to present your work to the examiner, try to always make your writing look presentable and easy to read as possible; I’m not suggesting that you have to have the penmanship of a scribe to pass the IELTS, all I’m suggesting is that make sure your work is easily read, I’m sure the examiner will appreciate it and hopefully be kinder when marking your work.

Here are some suggestions you may want to consider when practicing your IELTS writing:

Matching Task – IELTS Reading Task

There are several types of matching task in the IELTS reading test; aside from matching headings there are matching information, matching features and matching sentence ending.  I separated these from matching heading because I believe that these matching tasks assesses the candidates ability to scan for specific information rather than the general information needed for matching headings.

Here are some methods to help you complete the matching tasks:

Matching Headings – IELTS Reading Task

This task is pretty straight forward; you are given a set of paragraphs without their headings, you are to select the right paragraph heading from a list.  In most cases you will be given more paragraph heading choices, than the actual paragraph; if you have 5 paragraphs, you can expect to have up to 7 or 8 paragraph headings.

This task is designed to test your ability to read passages quickly and get some general information about the passage or paragraph.  With that said, the best way to practice this task is to read newspaper and magazine articles.  Understand that reading everything in detail, will not be the best thing to do in this instance; try to notice when reading a

Scanning the Reading Passage – IELTS Reading Test

With 3 passages to read and 40 questions to answer, how are you supposed to manage getting a good score on the reading sub-test?  You can try reading and remembering the details of all 3 passages and answer the questions, if you have a very good memory and an above average reading speed.

Scanning is the method you can use when you need to search a page or passage for specific information as quick as possible.  A good example of scanning is when you are using the White Pages to search for a specific phone number of someone you know; reading all

Time Management – IELTS Reading Test

Most inexperienced IELTS candidate would just start reading the passage right of the bat, and try to answer the questions following the passage.  Unless they have a photographic memory, chances are they will have to refer back to the passage and look for answers or verify some of the answers that they aren’t so sure of.

This technique is of course very time consuming and inefficient.  The IELTS Reading sub-test is to a certain degree, about time management.  This is not a leisure reading session in a café; you are not reading a self help book, trying to absorb all the details the book is offering; you are not reading a novel, where you want to picture in your mind all the details given in the book; nor are you reading a newspaper article to get an idea of what is happening around you; you are reading a passage to be able to answer some general information and some very specific questions.

Short-answer Questions – IELTS Listening Test

In this listening task type, candidates are required to write short answers using information from what they just heard.  A word limit is sometimes given, for example, “NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS and/or NUMBERS”.  Candidates will not get a point if they exceed the stated maximum number of words.

Short-answer questions focuses on specific information.  You should always accurately work out what the topic of the question is, in order to give the correct answer.

An example of this would be if the question was asking “What is the main benefit of joining a fitness club?” The speaker may give several benefits to joining a fitness club, but none of them are the correct answer.  The speaker will mention that the main benefit is…

Sentence Completion – IELTS Listening Test

Sentence completion is one of many tasks you will run into during your listening test.  Some consider this as one of the most difficult task in the listening test.  The reason for this is your grammatical knowledge is as important as your ability to listen, the answers given needs to be grammatically correct within the given sentence.

Sentence completion requires you to know general information and specific information about the topic or event.  It is generally good practice to listen to the news on television or radio, but it would be even better to listen to a news clip that you can play again, to check if you understood or heard the details.

A good practice exercise woul