Welcome to the introduction to the IELTS Academic exam training series. In this series you will learn everything you need to know to get the best possible score in the exam. See you in class!
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EXAM OVERVIEW
IELTS is the world’s most popular test for higher education and migration. Last year, over 2 million candidates took the IELTS test. Interestingly more than 80% of those candidates took the “Academic” version of the exam, so today we’re going to talk about the Academic version.
But before we do, let’s take a little look at the structure of the IETLS exam. It’s divided into four sections;
Listening (3o minutes)
Reading (60 minutes)
Writing (60 minutes)
Speaking (11-14 minutes)
What is most interesting about IELTS is that there is no pass or fail, but a score between 1 and 9. 1 means that you can say a few words, like “hello” and “goodbye” and 9 means that you are fluent.
Now, let’s have a look at the exam results from last year (2013). The overall average for women was 6.0 and the overall average for men was 5.8, which is the “competent user” category, which means that you have general command of the language, but with some inappropriate words and misunderstandings.
Now let’s look at the percentage of candidates who received a 9. Guess what percentage of people received a 9 in the exam in 2013. 0%. That’s right. Nobody. Now guess how many people got an 8.5. 1.6%. And how many people scored an 8? 5.2%.
Now, the most interesting thing. Some people who take the exam use English as their first language, so they are native English speakers. Now guess how many of them scored a 9. 1%. That’s right, even native speakers have problems scoring a 9. Only 3% of people whose country of origin is England scored a 9! So you can see that getting a high score is very very difficult.
Why am I telling you this? Because one important thing before you do any exam is that you understand your capabilities and that you are realistic about what results you expect. You cannot “hack” or “trick” this exam. There are no secrets or shortcuts. Either you are ready and well-prepared or you are not. If you are watching this video because you want to get a 6 but your level is 2, then stop this video and go and study some more. You are not ready!
If you are well-prepared, then let's start!
