Your IELTS Success Matters | Strategies for Listening and Reading Tests

Your IELTS Success Matters | Strategies for Listening and Reading Tests

  The Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) as well as the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) trust the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to evaluate a non-native English speaker's language skills. A language test result like the IELTS test result is necessary in order to migrate to Canada. An excellent IELTS score, often, if not always, play a major role in the outcome of a Canadian immigration application. A little change in a candidate's IELTS score can have huge impact on their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score in the Express Entry linked immigration streams. However, many test takers struggle to understand how the scoring system works and this article aims to help you improve your scores in IELTS reading and listening tests.

How does IELTS Reading module look like?

The IELTS General Training reading test is intended to assess a wide range of reading abilities. There are 40 questions in the module's three sections, each worth one mark. You have 60 minutes to complete the test.  Short texts about daily life in an English-speaking country make up Section 1; Section 2 concentrates on work-related topics like job hunting, company policies; Section 3 is typically time-consuming with more demanding comprehension. Among the various skills tested in general reading are gist reading, comprehensive reading, reading for the main idea, and comprehending the thought process of the writer and complex, with topics drawn from manuals, newspapers, advertisements, and other sources.

How does IELTS Listening module look like?

The IELTS Listening module is divided into 4 parts, each of which has 10 questions on subjects of "general interest." As a result, the exam taker must answer 40 questions, each worth one mark. The Listening module takes 40 minutes to complete, with audios taking up to 30 minutes and a 'transfer time' of 10 minutes for transferring answers from the question paper to the answer sheet.

Conversation between two individuals in a social setting is presented in Section 1. Section 2 is a speech or monologue in any social setting. In Section 3, a discussion on an educational or training context – usually between two or a maximum of four people – is presented. Section 4 concludes with a monologue.

4 practical tips we hope you will keep in mind…!

Here are some practical tips that will help you score good in IELTS Reading as well as Listening tests.

Tip#1 | Ensure correct spelling: in IELTS Reading as well as Listening tests, it is critical to ensure proper spelling; otherwise, your response will be marked incorrect. Remember that hyphenated words must be spelled correctly and are not considered independent words. For example, 5-year-plan (one word).

Tip#2 | Avoid using duplicate words: make sure that the words you use in your response have not already been used in the question being asked. This would be considered wrong.

Tip#3 | Give ‘Complete’ answers: consider whether additional words are required to make a more detailed response when you are only permitted to write up to 2 or 3 words for your response.  Extra clarification is occasionally required, especially when comparing two objects in an article or recording.

Tip#4 | Importance of punctuation: punctuation is crucial in both the IELTS Reading and Listening tests.  Particularly in the IELTS Listening test, which often offers more number responses, issues arise.  Punctuation might be challenging for test takers who use a different pattern than their mother tongue.

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