Contents

1. Sample Essays ................................................................................................................................. 2

1. Understanding the Test Formats
The IELTS test assesses your abilities in listening, reading, writing and speaking – in less than three
hours.

There are two types of the IELTS test: IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training. Listening and
Speaking are the same for both tests, but the subject matter of the Reading and Writing components
differs depending on which test you take.

The Listening, Reading and Writing components of all IELTS tests are completed on the same day,
with no breaks in between them.

The Speaking component, however, can be completed up to a week before or after the other tests.
Your test centre will advise.

The total test time is 2 hours and 45 minutes.

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Test format – Listening
30 minutes

You will listen to four recordings of native English speakers and then write your
answers to a series of questions.

 Recording 1 – a conversation between two people set in an everyday social

context.
 Recording 2 - a monologue set in an everyday social context, e.g. a speech
about local facilities.
 Recording 3 – a conversation between up to four people set in an educational
or training context, e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an
assignment.
 Recording 4 - a monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture.

Assessors will be looking for evidence of your ability to understand the main ideas
and detailed factual information, the opinions and attitudes of speakers, the purpose
of an utterance and evidence of your ability to follow the development of ideas.

Test format – Reading

60 minutes

The Reading component consists of 40 questions, designed to test a wide range of

reading skills. These include reading for gist, reading for main ideas, reading for
detail, skimming, understanding logical argument and recognising writers' opinions,
attitudes and purpose.

IELTS General Training test - this includes extracts from books, magazines,
newspapers, notices, advertisements, company handbooks and guidelines. These
are materials you are likely to encounter on a daily basis in an English-speaking
environment.

Test format –Writing

60 minutes

IELTS General Training

Topics are of general interest. There are two tasks:

 Task 1 - you will be presented with a situation and asked to write a letter
requesting information, or explaining the situation. The letter may be personal,
semi-formal or formal in style.
 Task 2 - you will be asked to write an essay in response to a point of view,
argument or problem. The essay can be fairly personal in style.
Test format – Speaking
11–14 minutes

The speaking component assesses your use of spoken English. Every test is
recorded.

 Part 1 - the examiner will ask you general questions about yourself and a
range of familiar topics, such as home, family, work, studies and interests.
This part lasts between four and five minutes.
 Part 2 - you will be given a card which asks you to talk about a particular
topic. You will have one minute to prepare before speaking for up to two
minutes. The examiner will then ask one or two questions on the same topic.
 Part 3 - you will be asked further questions about the topic in Part 2. These
will give you the opportunity to discuss more abstract ideas and issues. This
part of the test lasts between four and five minutes.

2. IELTS Calculating Language Points

You must take an approved language test to prove your language levels.

To measure your English or French levels, we use:

Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) for English

Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadien (NCLC) for French

You must get a minimum level of CLB 7 or NCLC 7 for your first official language in all four language
areas. To get points for your second official language, you must meet the minimum level of CLB 5 or
NCLC 5 in all four language areas.

You won't get accepted into the Express Entry pool or be eligible to apply if you don't include test
results for either English or French. Your results must also show you meet the required level.

If you want to get points for your skills in both English and French, you must provide your language
test results for each language in your Express Entry profile.

Once you take the test, you can use it to see exactly how many points we'll give you for the language
selection factor.

Find out more about language testing and how to get it.

First official language (Maximum 24 points)

Check the table below and add the points that matches your skill level:
3. Sample Essays
I would to share with you all the latest Writing tests in 2017 to help you be well-prepared for the
IELTS test.

IELTS Writing Actual Tests with Band 8.0+ Sample Essays:

January

It is neither possible nor useful for a country to provide university places for a high proportion of
young people. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Nowadays many young people spend their free time in shopping centers. This has a negative effect
on the youths and the society. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give
your opinion and relevant examples.

In schools and universities, girls tend to choose arts while boys like science. What are the reasons for
this trend and do you think this tendency should be changed?

The main aim of advertising campaign is to increase sales of a certain product, but people don’t
really need it. To what extent you agree or disagree? Give your own opinion and relevant examples.

When new towns are planned, it is more important to include public parks and sports facilities than
shopping centres for people to spend their free time in. To what extent do you agree or disagree
with this statement?

New parents should attend parenting classes to learn how to bring up their children well. To what
extent do you agree or disagree with the statement? Give your opinion, supported by examples from
your own experience.

International sporting events could contribute greatly to peace and stability in the world. Do you
agree or disagree? Give your opinion and relevant examples.

Some schools start teaching a foreign language in primary school years. Do advantages of teaching
languages to young children outweigh the disadvantages? Give your own opinion and examples.

February

It is better for college students to live far away from home than live at home with their parents. Do
you agree or disagree?
Many people think modern communication technology is having some negative effects on social
relationships. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Government should invest more money in science education rather than other subjects to develop
the country. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Some people think international car-free days are an effective way of reducing air pollution, others
think there are some other ways. Discuss both views and give your own opinion

Some people think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others,
however, believe there are better alternative ways of reducing crime. Discuss both views and give
your opinion.

Many people believe that international sporting events can contribute to world peace while others
argue otherwise. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

March

Nowadays, some buildings such as offices and schools have open-space design instead of separate
rooms. Why is it so? Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

Professional workers like doctors, nurses and teachers make a greater contribution to society and so
should be paid more than sports and entertainment personalities. To what extent do you agree or
disagree?

Some people think that children should learn to paint or draw at school. Others believe it is just a
waste of time. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Nowadays schoolchildren and students are taught to be competitive towards their classmates and
aren’t encouraged to help the weaker students. Do the disadvantages of this outweigh the
advantages?

Some people say that mobile phones should be banned in public places and crowded places. Do you
agree or disagree?

Some people think that governments should ban dangerous sports, while others think people should
have freedom to do any sports or activity. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

The best way to solve the world's environmental problems to increase the price of fuels. Do you
agree or disagree?

I hope you guys can make use of it to practice at home or with your IELTS study partners to score
Band 7.5 or higher in IELTS.

In case you need Sample Essays, you can leave your email here or inbox me.

Good luck with your IELTS test!

4. Useful URls
ieltsmaterial.com

https://ieltsgeneral.net/

https://www.canadavisa.com/ielts/free-practice-tests.html

https://ieltscanadatest.com/test-results/ielts-and-clb/

https://ieltscanadatest.com/prepare-for-ielts/ielts-scoring-guide/

https://ieltscanadatest.com/prepare-for-ielts/ielts-scoring-guide/

http://www.immigratemanitoba.com/calculators/ielts_calculator.php

http://ielts-up.com/index.html

https://www.britishcouncil.in/exam/ielts/courses-resources/ielts-videos
5. Articles
Some Facts of IELTS exams:-
1. IELTS exam is conducted by British Council and IDP in India at the same time
(Usually 1.30 p.m.) on the same day all over country.
2. Tests in all 3 modules are same for British Council and IDP for same day.
Speaking is held on another day for both organisations.
3. Listening and Reading Tests' answer are written in OMR sheet, and one have to
write complete answer to achieve score for that question. So no biased nature
in these two tests. For writing and speaking, it depends on the nature of
examiner.
4. Exam is conducted in well equipped and most suited environment for both
organisations in same city but at different places on same day.
It's a myth that “If I give exam in British Council in XXXXX city, I can get 0.5
Bands more than IDP (vice versa).”

Prepare best for exam and you will have good bands in any organisation.

BEST OF LUCK FOR YOUR IELTS EXAM.

What are the tips to achieve CLB 9 in IELTS general exam to get Canada PR ?
This question previously had details. They are now in a comment.

Sandeep Mishra, Canadian Permanent Resident since August 2017

Answered Jun 6
Okay, this is what worked for me.

1. Buy the Barron’s 4th Edition IELTS book - Buy IELTS with MP3 CD (Barron's
Ielts) Book Online at Low Prices in India
2. Spend the first three days understanding the exam pattern. Barron’s has an
incredible introduction to each question type. They’ll teach you tips, tricks and
common mistakes that many people make. They even guide you in
understanding the question, skimming while reading, listening for key words,
etc. I was initially scoring in the 34–36 range for listening and reading, and
after reading this book, I was consistently hitting 38–40. This makes a huge
difference to your morale and your CRS points.
3. Take a General IELTS test to evaluate where you are. Don’t give excuses about
why you lost points. If you made silly mistakes in the practice test, you’ll make
it in the main exam again. Most people score between 32–35 and then excuse
themselves by saying if not for silly mistakes they would have scored 39–40.
Yeah, don’t do that!
4. If you hit CLB 7 or CLB 8 in your practice test, then you’ll need an hour of
practice daily. One listening, one reading and one writing test.
5. If you hit CLB 6 and below, you’ll need to put in two hours of practice daily.
Atleast two listening, two reading and two writing tests daily.
6. Practice tests are available at
a. Barron’s CD
b. Your IELTS registration
c. IELTS test preparation, full exam guidance
 d. Free IELTS Practice Tests
7. I really found the online tests to be very useful because the answers were
instantaneous and you can keep going on and on to improve your score.
8. Learning how to speak is a tricky thing. They’ll check for your pronunciation,
intonation, vocabulary, sentence formation, etc. The best way to prepare for
this is to go through many YouTube videos where sample speaking tests have
been conducted. Remember, a good speaking score comes from covering all of
the evaluation parameters. Many people find that simulating a speaking test
with a friend or a mirror is incredibly helpful. DO NOT under-estimate this.
9. Writing is where most people eventually fall. The Barron’s book is very useful
in this section. They’ll guide you on how to organize your thoughts quickly, how
to craft a meaningful write -up and how to avoid common mistakes. As of this
moment, make it a point to be grammatically correct (including Punctuation)
in your emails, WhatsApp chats, SMSs and any other forms of written
communication. Install Grammarly plugin for Chrome - this will help identify
your mistakes in real-time while you write on the desktop.
10. This is the most important one: none of the above will set you up for the real
test day as much as mock tests will. Sign up for at least 3–5 mock tests at your
nearest IELTS coaching institute to get a feel of how the real exam feels like.
This will help you immediately course correct your preparation efforts.

All the best!

L - 8.5, R - 8.5, S - 8, W - 7
I lost out on writing due to lack of practice. Got over-confident and on the day of the
exam my fingers started to freeze up with all the pressure.