IELTS Preparation Booklet

What this booklet is about

This guide is here to teach you the IELTS test, not the English language. Why?
Because even if English is your main language – forget about getting a good score in
IELTS, unless you are prepared for it. Two main problems will get in your way: time,
tricks and logical traps.
When it comes to IELTS, time is your worst enemy. You need to do things fast. Of course you would get all the answers right if you had the time. But the reality is that there are a lot questions to be answered, a lot of writing to be done, and a very little time to do it.

This guide teaches you HOW TO:

• Listen, hear the right answers and write them down FAST
• Scan through the text and deal with all kinds of questions FAST
• Get your essay written FAST
• Build a speech in your head on any topic FAST
• Know and avoid the traps when you see them
This book might not give you the perfect English, but it sure will help you to get in shape and ACE the IELTS!
Attitude tips
In my opinion (which was validated by IELTS scores of the people I trained) you don't need more than 4 weeks of daily training. Set aside 3 hours that you devote to practice for IELTS – and it will get you the desired result. I believe that if you can read and understand this e-book, your English is good enough. Just stick to the guidelines of this book and they will help you get the best
IELTS score you can with your current level of English. You can even give yourself a day off once a week, and still be able to ACE the IELTS!

How to use this booklet
The way this manual is built makes it possible for you to read main chapters (Listening, Reading, Writing or Speaking tips) in any order you like, there is no dependency between them. You don’t have to follow the order in which the book is written.
If you don’t have much time, I suggest reading this book and doing only the exercises that are included in it, no extra work. This is not the ideal way, though. In case you do have the time, I highly recommend that you read and pay attention to all the tips in this manual and then try to use them in practice on real IELTS tests. There are links to IELTS materials in the end of every main chapter and a detailed study plan in the end of the book.
In the end of the book there are Pocket tips – short summary of most important hints for all the chapters - Listening, Reading, Writing or Speaking. Read them every time before you start practicing – they will refresh your memory and focus you on what’s really important.

The IELTS Routine
The IELTS test consists of four parts in the following order:
Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.
Listening takes about 30 minutes - 30 minutes to listen to a tape and to answer.
Questions on what you hear, and 10 minutes extra to transfer your answers to Answer Sheet.
Reading takes 1 hour and your task is to read 3 passages of text and answer questions according to what you have read.
Writing takes also 1 hour and is divided into 2 sub-parts: 20 minutes to write a report and 40 minutes to write an essay.
Speaking takes up to 11 15 minutes and consists of 3 parts: Introduction/ Interview, Cue Card (Little Speech) and a Discussion.
All the parts continue one after another, and only before Speaking you get a little break.
Listening at a glance
Listening consists of 4 sections. There are about 38-40 questions in total. You need to answer all the questions as you listen to the tape. Tape is not paused at any time and you hear it only once. The questions get more difficult as you progress through the test. Are you scared yet? Don't be! There is a technique to get you through it. A huge relief is that spelling is not important in Listening, except for the words they spell for you on the tape. Just make sure that your answers are readable and understandable, when you copy them to the Answering Sheet. You may write in pencil only.
Reading at a glance
Reading consists of 4 text passages and about 40 questions in total. Your job is to read the passages and either answer questions, label diagrams, complete sentences or fill gaps. For every type of task there are instructions and example. Passages are taken from books, newspapers, magazines and the topics are very diverse, from scuba diving to space exploration. Passages progress in difficulty, with first being the easiest and fourth the hardest.
Good news is that you don't really have to read the whole passage, thanks to technique I will refer to later. Not so good news is that there is no additional time to copy your answers to Answering Sheet and you need to squeeze it in the 60 minutes that you have. Please, don't forget to do it – I witnessed someone who did, and it was not a pretty sight. Poor guy was crying, he received score 0 for the whole Reading test. Here too you may write in pencil only, no pens are allowed.
Writing at a glance
Writing has 2 sub-tasks. First one is to write a letter according to scenario you receive, using about 150 words. The second task is to write an Essay on given topic, present and justify opinion or give solution to a problem, using not less than 250 words.
Nothing to worry here! Once you’ll start using a certain structure which I’ll explain later on for the letter and the essay in addition to your imagination, it is a piece of cake. This task requires a bit of training, but after you write a few essays and letters you will be well-prepared for it and you will feel confident.
Speaking at a glance
This is the fun part of the test, for many reasons. You get to rest before it, you are a little tired from previous 3 parts and therefore more relaxed. The examiners are trained to smile no matter what, so you feel as if you were speaking to your best friend.
First sub-part of Speaking test is an interview, which means that the examiner asks you questions about yourself, your work, studies, parents, brothers/sisters, pets, etc. This is an easy task to prepare for.
In the second sub-part of Speaking test you receive a card with 3-4 questions. After one minute, that you have to think about something to say, you should give a little speech for one to two minutes, which answers those questions. In the end the examiner might ask you a couple of additional questions.
In the third sub-part of the test you have a discussion with examiner. The topic is somehow related to the one from section two, but it is about more abstract ideas. You have to express and justify an opinion.
The examiner will record your session on tape. Don't worry about it; the tape is to test the examiner and not you.

Tips for the Listening Test
In general
The Listening Test is probably the one people get most scared of. To help yourself overcome that fear, start watching TV programs in English. It is better than radio or audio books, because you also see images that help you understand the words you hear.


Listening – a skill, not a gift!
From my experience, in many cases Listening is the least developed skill. So if you feel especially weak in that area - pay attention to the following tips, that will help you improve your Listening ability. Remember – nobody is born with it, it’s just a skill and you learn it. If you think your Listening needs no improvements – skip the “Teach yourself the words” part, move forward to the next tips.
Teach yourself the words
The only way to improve your Listening ability is to train your “ears” to separate and understand the words you hear in the flow of sentence. Often what you hear is a Blablablablabla”, which you can't to break into words, and for that reason it makes no sense to you. When training, take a recording of the news, lecture, television program movie or an actual IELTS Listening test and work with it. I suggest using MP3 player. You can easily record English from the radio or any other source to it. It is also easy to repeat (re-play) sentences you didn't understand. MP3 player is small and light, so you can use it in any spare moment that you have – riding the bus or tram, walking the dog, taking a walk yourself, etc.
First, listen, remember what you heard and stop the recording after each phrase. Even if you didn’t understand the phrase, play it in your head a couple of times, like a broken record – “Tonight we have a special guest”, “Tonight we have a special guest”, “Tonight we have a special guest”.
Then say it out loud. If you understood that phrase at first, this exercise will improve your pronunciation. If you didn’t understand the phrase for the first time, this repetition will give you more time to hear it better, break it into words and make sense out of them. And if it is still difficult, you can always rewind and hear the phrase again.
There is a big difference between seeing a word printed on paper while reading and hearing it. If you saw a word, it doesn’t mean you will recognize it when you hear it.
So every word you have seen, you must hear at list once.

Instructions will keep you safe
Every task in IELTS Listening test has its instructions. It may sound stupid, but you really need to read them carefully. Why? Because they will tell you exactly what to do with the information: how many words you can use to answer, is there a table you must fill, is there a list to chose words from, how many items you must name, etc. And if the answer must be in 3 words – write EXACTLY 3 WORDS, because writing four or two words will get you 0 score.
To make my point crystal clear, let’s take the following scenario for example:
The speaker on a tape says:
“Well, if you are dieting, try to avoid fruits with lots of fructose like watermelon, mango, peaches or grapes.”
The question in the booklet is:
“Name 2 fruits a person on a diet should not eat”.
The answer may be “watermelon, mango” or “mango, peaches” or any combination of two items, but never three or four!!! Anyone who writes “just in case” – watermelon, mango, peaches, grapes – receives 0 score for that question.
Note: when counting words – “a” or “the” don't count as a word.

Divide and concur!
The recording divides questions into groups, so every time you are instructed to answer a group of 4-5 questions. There are 20-30 seconds of silence before each group.
First thing you should do when the tape starts playing, is understand which group of questions you need to answer.
For example the tape says: “Look at questions one to four”. It means that you have about 20 seconds to look at those questions. Go over questions, read them and underline keywords. Keywords are words that contain the main idea of the question. They will help you guess what you will hear – numbers, opening hours, names, locations, etc. Draw a line under question four, so you won’t look further before it’s time.
Then you will hear a piece of passage and answer the questions one to four as you listen. It means that you should be able to write one answer and listen to another.
After that, the tape will say the numbers of questions in the next group. Repeat the same process, including drawing the line. This dividing technique is very efficient because every time you concentrate on limited number of questions, so it makes you more focused and in control.
Distractions
Don't get confused by all the different voices you are going to hear. The recording uses several different voices – of younger and older people, men and women. You may also hear different accents - Australian, British, American, Japanese, etc. The background noise is also varies. It can be of airport, cafe-shop, street, University lecture hall, you name it. Be ready for it and don't let it distract you – because that is exactly what they want. Ignore the noises and listen for the answers.
Listen for specifics
When you are listening, look for descriptions and details, such as dates, places, telephone numbers, opening hours, years (1995), transportation (car, bike, train) If you hear them, but don’t know where to place them yet – write them on margins of the Listening booklet. Later you will have some time to check your answers. Going over the questions that you couldn’t answer during the Listening passage, you might see that what you’ve written on the margins fits.
Answer as you listen
The reason you have to “answer as you listen” is that you immediately forget the sentences after you have heard them – because of stress, foreign language, constant flow of information, etc. After hearing the third sentence you won’t be able to repeat the first. It means that when any part of Listening is over – you won‘t be able to remember any of the answers. So write them as you hear them, leave nothing for later.
Keep moving forward
Always look one question ahead. You never know how quickly the answers will come one after another, so you need to look at the Question B while writing the answer for Question A. It sounds confusing, but after a little practice becomes very natural and helps a lot. Even if you have missed the answer to a question – admit it and move to the next one, otherwise you will loose it too.
Know your clues
The answer is usually pronounced louder and clearer, it is easier to hear and understand. If you can’t hear something clear (because the speaker swallows words or whispers), then probably the answer is not there. With some practice you will be able to tell the difference.
A good clue to answer is when you hear a repetition of a word, a word being spelled out (G A R F U N K E L) or a number dictated.
The following conversation is a classic example of repetition:
Mary-Joe: “These days there are many changes in our company policy”
Kathy:”Oh, what kind of changes?”
It is clear that the word “changes” is a clue of answer.
Spelling tasks
As simple as it sounds, the spelling task is not so easy. You should practice a little to be prepared for it. Just ask someone to spell the names of cities from the following list for you. If you study alone, you could record yourself spell those names and numbers, and then play it. The same goes for the list of telephone numbers I include here. It is a good practice and will only add to your confidence.
Note: in numbers "00" sometimes is read as “double o” instead of “zero-zero”.
Cities Numbers
Antananarivo 423-5207-0074
Brazzaville 628-2087-2311
Conakry 5167-832-0155
Gaborone 8746-221-0302
Johannesburg 5337-298-0132
Kinshasa 5900-231-7621
Libreville 4348-663-980

Typical Listening tasks
Remember my promise – no surprises in IELTS? The following table shows you every type of task you may see in the Listening test booklet. Different task types come with different instructions, so if you see and remember them now, it will save you time later. Of course, you won't get every type I show here in your test and the table looks a bit boring. Anyway, my advice is to get to know them now.
Don’t let them catch you off-guard!
Task Type What do you do Instructions in the
booklet
Eliminate
When you deal with multiple-choice questions, elimination is a good strategy. Usually only one answer is correct, unless instructions say something else.
This task is similar to True/False/Not Given. You should decide for every choice of answer - is it True, False or Not Given in the passage. After you have decided, choose the one that is True – this is the correct answer. Any other choice, False or Not Given, is incorrect.
Keep in mind that there are cases when all the choices are correct or none of them is correct. Read the instruction carefully and you will know what to do in such cases.
Gap-fill strategy
Look at the words around the gap to understand what’s missing, a noun (like boy, toy, truck), an adjective (little, pretty, shiny) or a verb (stands, looks, moves). For instance, if you see Noun before the blank (“The boy is___”), it means that it’s Adjective (“The boy is small”) or it’s Verb (“The boy is smiling”) is missing.
Once you have picked a word, write it above the gap and then read the whole sentence to be sure that it makes sense.
"Chameleon" questions
They might use different words with the same meaning to confuse you. For example, the tape says “All the candidates have to fill an application form” and the question says “The candidates must fill an application” – is it True, False or Not Given? The correct answer is True because "have to" means "must".

Watch out for traps
Trap Number One – change of mind You might hear speaker answering a question and then changing his/her mind. This is a trap, so make sure you don’t fall for it. For example, if the speaker says “I want to visit that gallery on Monday. No, wait – I’ve just remembered - it is closed on Monday, so I will go on Wednesday.”, and the question is “when” – the correct answer here is Wednesday, and Monday is a trap.
Trap Number Two – generalizations
You might hear speaker first gives a list of things and then says them all in one word.
For example: “Well, I like to swim, hike, and camp – to be involved in outdoor activities.” If the question is “What kind of activities…”, the correct answer is “outdoor” and not “swimming”, “hiking” or “camping”.
Trap Number Three – explicit answers
Big bow-wow style answers can be (and mostly will be) traps. The following example demonstrates what I mean: The tape says: “This course is a must for all first year students, excluding foreign students”.
The Question is “All the first year students have to take this course”,
The Answer should be F(alse), because there is an exception – foreign students. All the explicit answers that mean “no exceptions” are suspicious to us and call for more attention.
Check the grammar
If the answer you give is grammatically incorrect – it can not be the right one. Checking the grammar of your answers will give you an idea whether your answer correct or not, especially in tasks like:
• Gap-fill
• Sentence completion
Use your time wisely
During the test, you have a little time between passages. Use it to check and complete your answers

Copy answers smartly
After 30 minutes of Listening test, there are 10 additional minutes. During the test you have written all of the answers in the Listening test booklet. These 10 minutes are given you to copy your answers to the Answering sheet, and you should use them smartly.
The Answer Sheet has 2 sides, one for Reading test and one for Listening test, so make sure you are writing on the Listening side. I include here an example of Answering Sheet so you could get familiar with it and use it for practicing.
First, copy all the answers from the booklet to the Answering Sheet, and pay attention to the following guidelines (as simple as they sound – they are BIG time savers):
• For multiple-choice questions and picking pictures - just copy the letter of
correct answer, don't circle it.
• For sentence completion – just copy your answer, not the whole sentence.
• For True/False/Not given question – just copy T, F or NG, whatever your
choice is.
• For gap-fills – just copy the word you have chosen for the gap.
• For answers written in short (like prof. advise) – write the full version
(professional advise).
• Check that all the answers are clear and understandable.
Now, if you missed some questions – it is a good time to guess.

For those of you who wonder why all the answers have to consist of maximum 3 words – here is the answer: there is not enough space on the Answer Sheet for anything longer than that!
Practice, practice, practice!
I strongly recommend that you use all the tips while practicing. In order to practice you are going to need samples of Listening test, which can be found on the following internet site (good quality, free of charge):

http://www.esl-lab.com/ - for this one you will need Real Audio Player Play the Listening samples and start using the tips while searching for answers. This is the only way to really understand how these tips work. You may have to play the same Listening file more than once, to practice in different techniques.

Pocket tips

Listening
• Read instructions.
• Guess what is missing: is it a word, a place, a name, a number, how many?
• Divide questions into groups.
• Listen for details.
• Loud and clear – answer, whisper – not.
• Repetition and dictation – answer.
• Multiple choices – use T/F/NG method to eliminate all choices but one.
• Gap fills – look around the gaps for clues (Bad grammar = wrong answer).
• Traps: Change of mind, generalization, explicit answers.
• Copy answers: just the letter, not the circle, just your answer, not the whole sentence.

Study Plan
All the tips I shared with you until now are priceless, but they will be worth even more if you use them while practicing. As I said before, there are those who study and don’t pass, and there are those who don’t study and pass.