IELTS EXAM OVERVIEW

By: Ridwan Sa'at

It is nice to know what the IELTS exam is composed of for those who would like to take the exam. Knowing the composition of the exam will increase your confidence in handling the IELTS questions. It is like you know the mapping of the questions.
Following is the brief summary of all sections in IELTS exam:

1. Listening Section 

In this section, you will hear recording of dialogues and individual talks. Briefly, this section consists of 40 question and there are 4 parts to the section. The recording itself is 30 minutes with 10 minutes transfer time after the recording has finished playing. 

Part 1 is a dialogue in non-academic setting. So it could be a telephone conversation between someone who would like to register for a course and a receptionist who take the details of the conversation. This part 1 has around 10 questions and a break after each 5 questions. The time for the dialogue to take place is around 2 minutes. 

Part 2 is a monologue in non-academic setting. The speech could be about a manager speaking to the visitors  (they are not talking) about the map or facilities of a hotel or someone describes the routes of subways in a big city. This part has around 10 questions too with a break after each 5 questions. 

Part 3 is an academic dialogue. It is between a student or students with a lecturer or teacher. They may talk about the progress of the students research or a discussion on study plan for next semester. There are 10 questions in this part with a break after each 5 questions. 

Part 4 is a talk or speech in academic context. It could be a teacher speaking about part of the subject. For example; a lecturer describes what manic depression is. This part also has 10 questions. However there is no break. The exam candidate needs to look at the 10 questions straight. 

We can understand now that the Listening Section of IELTS Exam runs from the easiest to the most difficult.There are various types of questions in Listening Section varying from filling form, multiple choice, completing a summary and other questions.

2. Reading Section 

There are three reading passages to the Reading Section of IELTS Exam. Each passage is roughly 1,700 words. All together within 1 hour time, the participant needs to read around 3 passages of 5000 words. There are 40 questions to the section with around 12 to 13 question to each passage. 

There are also a number of reading question types that need special care to handle. You will find true, false and not given questions, labeling diagram, flowchart completion, multiple choice, main idea questions and many more. 

3. Writing Section

There are two tasks in Writing Section; Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2. In Writing Task 1, you are required to write a report based on the given chart or diagram. Your report should be based on facts and statistics you observe. You must not write your opinion in this task. There are several rules in handling Writing Task 1, see an example of how to handle line chart question. The time for completing the response to this question is 20 minutes. You need to write a response between 150 to 200 words. Make sure you organize your writing well within the given time.
The second is Writing Task 2. In this question you need to write an essay based on the given context in the question rubric. Make sure you are aware of whether you need to present an opinion essay or a discussion/argument essay. There are of course also special approaches to these special context-questions. We will discuss them further later. So, in this Writing Task 2, you need to write a response of an essay of 250 to 300 words within 40 minutes time. If you are accustomed to planning your essay, this shouldn't be a problem. 

4. Speaking Section. 

This section of the exam is usually conducted on a different day while listening, reading and writing are arranged on the other day. In the Speaking Section, the candidate will sit with the examiner and they are engaged in three parts of Speaking Section. Part 1 is a conversation between the candidate and the examiner on common ideas of introduction. The topic varies from family, study plan, work place or hobbies. In part 2 of the test, the candidate is given a card on which there is a topic the candidate needs to describe within 1 to 2 minutes. Of course the candidate is given a minute time write notes on what to speak. The examiner just observes and evaluates. In part 3, both the candidate and the examiner will be involved in a dialogue based on the topic in part 2. The types of questions may be an opinion question, compare and contrast or even an evaluation question. The Speaking Section lasts for 15 minutes for each candidate. 

So that is a brief summary of IELTS Exam, I hope you find it useful.