Every year, there are students who want to go to countries where English language is used for communication to pursue further studies or, probably, for working. International English Language Testing System aka IELTS is a test conducted for students all over the world to test their command in the English Language. Conducted, as a joint venture, by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL). British Council and IDP Education Australia, IELTS is a mandatory test for all those who want to work in the above mentioned countries.
IELTS Exam Pattern & Syllabus 2015:-
According to IELTS 2015 exam pattern and syllabus, students will be judged on the basis of their comprehensive understanding of English as a communication language. Also, reading, listening, speaking and writing skills of aspirants are tested.
IELTS is designed for two kinds of students:
- Students who want to pursue further studies in foreign universities (Academic Version).
- Candidates who want to undertake a non-academic training or to gain work experience (General Training Version).
IELTS is accepted by over 130 countries, is offered 3-4 times a month and is conducted online as well as offline. According to IELTS 2015 exam syllabus and pattern, the test takes 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete and consists of four modules: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking.
IELTS Exam Pattern 2015:-
- Listening section, Reading section: It contains 40 questions, each of one mark.
- Writing section: The students will be asked to do two tasks i.e. Task 1 and Task 2.
Task 1- Time limit is 20 minutes. Students have to submit a 150- word write-up by taking a look at a diagram or a table. Their vocabulary, expression and sentence formation will be judged on this basis.
Task 2- Time limit is 40 minutes. Students will have to give a plausible solution to a given problem or argument. They will be judged on the way they express their opinion.
- Speaking section: Students will be judged on the following basis
- Fluency and coherence
- Lexical resource
- Grammatical area
- Pronunciation
IELTS Exam Syllabus 2015:-
In Reading section, there are 3-4 passages of 700 words each, where students have to answer questions about main ideas, details, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas.
Listening section includes six passages of 3-4 minutes in length. In this section, there are passages that include two student conversations and four academic lectures or discussions. Each conversation is heard only once. Each conversation will be associated with five questions, whereas each lecture with six. Questions in this section will be asked to determine the main ideas, important details, speaker purpose and attitude.
Speaking: – Speaking section consists of six tasks: two independent tasks and four independent tasks. In independent tasks, candidate has to answer opinion questions on familiar tasks. Candidates are judged on their ability to speak spontaneously and clearly.
IELTS 2015 exam schedule
- G- General Training version
- A-Academic version
Good luck to all those appearing for IELTS. We hope this was useful.
