Navigating The IELTS Exam: A Teacher’s Roadmap To Student Achievement

Have you heard of the IELTS test? If you’re teaching English for Academic Purposes or teaching English as a foreign language to adults, you might be required to prepare your students to take the IELTS test. 

Let’s look at the IELTS exam and the best ways for you to teach IELTS preparation classes.

What is the IELTS exam?

IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System.

There are two different IELTS exams – the IELTS General Training exam and the IELTS Academic exam. Which exam your students will be taking depends on their needs.

If they are looking to study at an English-medium university, then they will need a certain score in the IELTS Academic exam. If they need an IELTS score for work or for immigration, then they will need to take the IELTS General Training exam.

Why do EFL learners need English exams?

There are a few reasons our English as a Foreign Language learners need to write an English exam.

English exams are used to supplement a person’s application to a university or for immigration purposes. Learners need to prove that their English level is high enough to study in an English-speaking environment. They need to prove they can cope with living and working in an English-speaking country.

There are a number of different tests of English as a Foreign Language our learners can take, but the IELTS is a very popular one. This is possibly due to it being accepted by universities in many English-speaking countries and government agencies in countries like the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia.

Read more: Understanding Cambridge Exams for Adults

There is no pass or fail in the IELTS exam.

Learners are scored in bands, according to their ability in the test. The bands range from 0 (did not attempt the test) and 1 (non-user) to 9 (expert user). If you relate this to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) a score of 4 equates approximately to an A2 and a 9 to a C2.

The General and the Academic exams are similar but slightly different.

The IELTS exam is made up of four parts – Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. Listening and Speaking exams are the same for both General and Academic, but the Reading and Writing exams are different.

The IELTS General Training exam

This exam is to assess whether or not a person will cope with living and/or working in an English-speaking environment. The materials in this exam reflect this. The reading texts are job advertisements, company memoranda, community notices, and rules and regulations.

The General test readings relate to more general topics and are a lot of shorter texts rather than three long ones. 

The Writing exam has two tasks: 

1. A letter, usually asking for information, complaining to your landlord, or a letter of invitation to an event. 
2. An opinion essay on a topical issue.

The IELTS Academic exam

The Academic exam focuses on academic reading and writing. The reading texts are extracts from textbooks. The Academic test readings are dense and relate to academic topics, like textbooks. 

The Writing tasks are 

1. a description of a graph, table or diagram,
2. and an academic essay.

The Listening and Speaking exams

The Listening exam has four parts. Each part is an extract of a monologue or a conversation between two or more people. They are a mix of everyday conversation e.g. signing up for the gym, and academic situations e.g. a lecture.

 Tasks may include note-taking, filling in a table or sentence completion. It’s only half an hour but the difficulty with the Listening paper is that the different parts include a variety of accents and students can only hear each recording once.

The Speaking exam takes place individually. The examiner takes the candidate through three sections. 

First, there are a few questions about their personal lives. In the second part, the candidate must speak for a minute or two on a given topic, which is discussed further in part three.

Read more: Preparing Our EFL Students for Speaking Exams

Preparing for the IELTS exam

How can we prepare our learners for the IELTS exam?

Of course, you cannot teach for the exam. Passing the IELTS test is not the goal of taking an IELTS course. Students study IELTS in order to be accepted into a tertiary institution and to be able to survive in an English-speaking environment. Essentially, the goal of the IELTS test is to improve a learner’s English ability. 

These exams reflect real life. Therefore, the skills you need to teach them to do well in the exam mimic the skills needed in real life. So not only are they preparing for an exam but they are preparing to study or live surrounded by English.

A large part of IELTS preparation is introducing your students to the exam format. There is quite a tight time limit on the different parts! If students are not aware of what is expected of them, it’s highly unlikely that they will finish the test.

This knowledge of the exam also has a dramatic effect on students’ nerves, which can have disastrous consequences on test day if they are not kept in check.

To prepare your learners for the IELTS test, you will look for similar texts and do similar task types in your lessons to get them comfortable with the exam question types. 

IELTS students need to get to grips with a range of academic skills in order to pass the IELTS exam satisfactorily. These skills are useful in the real world, too.  These skills include: paraphrasing and summarising, critical thinking, and logical writing.

IELTS exam skill 1: paraphrasing and summarising

Paraphrasing is the skill of rewriting an idea in your own words. 

Paraphrasing is important in an academic context to avoid plagiarism. In general conversation, paraphrasing is a useful way to show that you understand what someone is telling you. 

Summarising is the skill of condensing information into its key ideas.

At university, students are required to research topics by reading various sources and then summarise these findings into their own research papers. They need to paraphrase the authors they read so as not to seem to be taking credit for other people’s ideas.

In the non-academic world, summarising is used in many contexts when relaying information to others.

In the classroom, activities that promote reformulation should be given. Attention should be paid to synonyms and nominalisation to help with this.

IELTS exam skill 2: critical thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to consider an idea critically – to have an opinion. 

Many students feel they cannot disagree with an author’s point of view, but this skill is a necessary one at university. The ability to question and take a standpoint is crucial to be able to construct an argument.

Critical thinking is necessary to analyse a problem, consider different viewpoints, and come up with a solution. Critical thinking is used in problem-solving and decision-making.

In the classroom, debate should be a regular part of the lessons. Students can be given a standpoint to argue or they can work in groups to construct solid arguments. This should give your students more confidence in presenting their own ideas.

IELTS exam skill 3: writing an argument

Real life involves a lot of writing, in an academic context and in everyday situations.

Writing well depends not only on the writer’s language skills but also their ability to write logically and construct a good argument. This means including an introduction and a conclusion and structuring paragraphs properly – most popularly, topic sentence, example, and clarification or justification.

Funnily enough, language learners are often able to make an argument adequately when spoken but fall down when it comes to doing the same in writing.

In the classroom, writing should not so much be done as be discussed. Writing assignments should be given as homework but time in the classroom should be spent analysing and dissecting model answers.

Read more: Teaching English For Exams Vs General English

What materials can I use to teach an IELTS class?

There are many coursebooks that relate to either IELTS exam. It’s also possible to find practice tests, either in books or online. But remember: you don’t want your exam classes to be boring! Even though these classes are more serious in nature than your other classes, this doesn’t mean they have to be dry and dull. They can be just as interesting as any other lesson, albeit with a serious side to them.

Bear in mind what the long-term goal of the class is as well as the short-term goal. You may find you need to supplement your course materials with authentic materials suited to your students.

Common questions about the IELTS exam

The thing about exams that can make learners nervous is the fear of the unknown. Think about how you felt the last time you took an exam! Especially for those who haven’t taken an English exam before, not knowing what to expect can add extra stress to the situation. 

Because of this, there are loads of questions our students may ask us about the exams. Knowing the answers to these common queries will go a long way towards making them feel more prepared.

So here are a few of the most frequently asked questions about the IELTS exam, and how you can answer them.

Is IELTS difficult?

IELTS is just like any other exam. If you find it difficult or not depends on how well prepared you are. In the case of IELTS, this means knowing the format of the exam and understanding the skills needed to answer the questions appropriately.

The biggest hurdle for the IELTS exam which many students underestimate is the pressure. If you’re not hyper-focussed on the exam, you can easily run out of time. 

What’s the most difficult part of the IELTS test?

That totally depends on you! Some learners are better at reading than speaking, for example. And you might be better prepared for one part but not another.

How long do I need to study for the test?

There is no set time for exam preparation. The IELTS is an assessment of your English ability so you cannot study specifically for the exam, besides making yourself familiar with the format and learning exam techniques. You should be focusing on improving your English level in general.

What if I don’t know anything about the topic?

You may find that the topics of the reading or listening exam are not something you are particularly familiar with. This is how it is supposed to be. 

The topics chosen are often quite alternative or obscure (sheep farming in the UK in the 19th century, for example) because they don’t want candidates to have previous knowledge on the topic because this might give them an advantage. 

For the reading and listening, all the information that you need will be given to you.

What if I don’t know what to say or write?

Many students worry about not knowing what to say in the writing and speaking exam. Because we are used to taking exams based on content, it can be difficult to get your head around this. 

This exam is testing your language ability and not your general knowledge. If you can’t think of anything to answer a question, say anything – as long as you say something, in order to showcase your linguistic abilities.

Should I prepare for the IELTS Speaking Exam?

Definitely not. It’s quite easy to predict the type of questions they will ask you in Part 1 but this does not mean that you should prepare answers. Learning answers will make you sound unnatural and tense in the speaking exam, because you will be more focused on remembering your answer than actually answering the question. 

While it’s definitely a good idea to practise answering questions (especially the ones you can predict in Part 1), you should do this with a friend and the questions should change each time you practice. You never know exactly what the examiner is going to ask you so you need to practise answering off the top of your head.

What is the IELTS passing score?

There is no pass mark for the IELTS exam.

Each part of the exam is graded on a 9-band scale and you are given an overall band score (also on a 9-band scale). Because the exam tests your English level your band score will illustrate your level of English. However, if you are doing the exam to be admitted to a school or university, the institution may have a specific score that you need to achieve.

And in a nutshell, that’s the IELTS exam.

If you are ever required to teach an IELTS preparation course, think of it as a golden opportunity to expand your skillset – and an opportunity to earn more money!

Hundreds of thousands of people take the IELTS exams every year, so IELTS preparation courses are very popular. If you’re experienced in teaching an IELTS class, you can be sure that you will have students hounding you for lessons every season of the year. 

 English exams are big business at the moment, since they are used by universities for admissions, employers looking at employee linguistic competence, and immigration agencies for visa purposes. 

Teaching IELTS lessons  opens you up to the possibility of teaching any of the exam classes – and it’ll look great on your CV!

For more tips, tricks, and help with the IELTS exam be sure to check out the official IELTS website, as well as the British Council Take IELTS website. 

And you can watch our webinar on the IELTS exam below.