Preparing for the Test: Tips

Preparing for the Test: Tips

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Because the GRE is a timed test, there are a few key things that you should remember to help maximize your score.

On the computer-adaptive test, your score is based on the number of questions you get right, the difficulty of the questions you get right, and the NUMBER of questions you answer. This means that you always want to make sure that you answer every question on every section. The test is meant to be tough, and so it is assumed that most people will not have as much time as they hope on each question. As a rule, get into the habit of keeping track of time, and in the last minute, if you have more than a few questions left, you'll want to guess to make sure that you answer all of the questions.

Test Tip

In the last minute of each section, if you have more than a few questions remaining, hurry and guess so that you answer every question.

The computer-adaptive test uses the first third or so of each section to make coarse adjustments to your score, and your performance on the latter two-thirds of each section is used to finely adjust your score. Therefore it's to your advantage to make sure that you spend a little bit more time on the first third of each section. For example, the first question in each section is always worth 70 or 80 points, and the last question is worth no more than 10, so you'll want to make sure that you get the first questions right because those questions affect your score the most.

Test Tip

Spend a bit more time on the first third or so of each section because those questions carry the most weight in determining your overall score.

Most importantly, don't panic. The test is supposed to be hard, so keep that in mind. Always keep track of the time that you have left, and be sure be conscious of how much time you spend on each question -- Never spend more than 2 minutes on a question.

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IELTS is simple!

More you concentrate more simple and easy it is. IELTS is not tough as i thought before my exams it was a preparation of 15 days all cool and relaxed way.

I just learned few things

READING:First have a look on all questions and then read paragraph simultaneously mark the lines which you found is related to question.Makes easy and saves time.And i scored 7.5

LISTENING:Try out 20-30 tapes concentrate if u miss any where you will automatically loose rest of conversation thinking about what you left.When they give time to read tick the main in question and as conversation starts it is easy to point out.In this way i secured 9.00

WRITING:Short one is clear consider each and every point and mention in a related fashion to make understand quickly so that if a person reads he can draw same picture as it is.Long essay it depends on your sentence formation and remember no spelling mistakes you will surely loose points and dont try to be too complex.If you get an essay where you have two opposite ideas like DEATH PENALTY SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED OR NOT then if you have points for both then mention both the side of the topic but conclusion should be what exactly you think about it.
Well i dont think i am too perfect in this may be thats why i secured 7.00

SPEAKING:It is really cool part of exam.You get more scared for this where you need not to because the interviewer makes you relaxed and then start.You need not give any logical answer, be yourself say your feelings and dont use too many quotes.
Question will be like your personal profile,your ambition, place you like most, your childhood,person you like most and why,etc.
And i secured 8.00

I hope this will help you formost thing dont get scared be cool then ball is in your court you will not miss even single point.All the best for all you who is about to take IELTS

How to defeat the time constraints in IELTS test!

In the IELTS test, time is your enemy. Candidates who have taken the test and did not perform as well as they had hoped often complain that they were unable to give all the answers in the Listening Test because the tape was too fast, and that they ran out of time in the Reading Test.

To begin with, do not worry if you do not finish the tests. Remember, the test is designed to measure candidates over a range of scores from 0 to 9 (0 indicates the test was not attempted). Candidates whose English is near perfect can expect to score 9, but even native English-speaking people would be unlikely to complete every Listening Test answer perfectly or finish the Reading Test a long time before the examination ends. Remember, the test is meant to be challenging.

The IELTS test measures many aspects of your English ability including the speed at which you listen, read, write, speak, and think in English. Your personal speed is not something which changes a great deal from day to day, but does change considerably over a longer period of time, as a direct result of practice in working with the English language.

Your personal speed and ability in the 5 areas previously mentioned is pretty well fixed at any given time. The official IELTS Band Scores you receive are extremely accurate, since each test is trialled extensively to achieve standardised results for candidates at all English levels. Nonetheless, there are certainly many things you can do, before and on the day of the test, to help maximise the use of your time and give yourself the best chance of success.

Consider the following situation: although a racing car cannot go faster than its maximum speed, the race can still be won, and its maximum speed maintained for longer, if an expert driver is at the wheel. An expert racing car driver will:

• ... spend a great deal of time practising at the wheel before race day
• ... visit the track so that he or she knows where to go and what to expect
• ... get enough sleep before the day of the big race
• ... eat a good breakfast on race day morning;
• ... check his or her watch constantly to monitor the car's progress
• ... keep moving along the track and not get stuck on a bad corner
• ... breathe long and deeply to relax and keep the oxygen going to the brain
• ... drink water (but not too much!) when the car is at the pit-stop.

The Listening, Reading, and Writing Tests are given in that order, and are usually held on a single morning. The combined length of those three tests is 2 hours and 30 minutes. (The Speaking Test is conducted at an appointed time in the afternoon.) Only one short break is given between the Reading and Writing Tests, so you need to be at your best for a long period of time, which is why you must sleep and eat well before the test. The hints and guidelines in this book should help you achieve your "maximum speed". The more effort you put in, the faster your personal speed will be on the day. (See also IELTS Test - Basic Hints 1 and 2.)

INCREASE YOUR SENTENCE READING SPEED
The faster and more accurately you read, the more questions you will be able to answer. In all the tests, the instructions, the example, and the questions themselves need to be read quickly, and must be well understood in order for you to have more time to find the answers. It pays to increase your overall reading speed. (See also Reading Hint 41.)

To increase your reading speed, you must learn to read in groups of words that form logical units of thought within sentences. Look at the following sentence:

Britain has been a popular choice for thousands of international students over many years

Notice how you can think of the sentence as being made up of 3 main parts:

1. Britain has been a popular choice (What and where?)

2. ... for thousands of international students (Who for?)

3. ... over many years. (When?)

Note also, that in this case (and many others) all the phrases answer wh/how questions. It may be helpful at first to think of wh/how questions when trying to read in phrases.

If you read each word in a sentence one at a time, you will read very slowly and most likely misunderstand the meaning of much of what you read. So read your sentences in phrases by considering all the words of a phrase as a single unit.

Notice how much quicker it is to read the sentence, and how the meaning of what you say is more clear. Practise reading in phrases everyday. Look ahead on the page as you read, and always aim to find logical places in the sentences where phrases begin and end. Note also that there is often more than one solution as to where the logical breaks between phrases occur within sentences.

Read faster by reading words in groups that form logical units of thought

DEVELOP A MEMORY FOR ENGLISH
In the Reading Test, it pays to remember as much as you can of what you have just read, but at least the words can be read again. However, in the Listening Test you cannot go back, and the tape is only played once. If the answer comes before the keyword/phrase, your memory of what you have just heard is even more important. Nevertheless, the answer usually follows the keywords/phrases that you hear, and is close in time to the main keyword/phrase you are listening for.

To improve your "English memory", try the following exercise. Using the pause button on the tape recorder, repeat the sentences spoken in the passages on the audio cassette tape that comes with this book, gradually increasing the length of what you repeat. Do not worry about repeating the exact words. Simply aim to remember more of what you have heard.

Note: originally posted at http://www.rxpgonline.com/postt36548.html

IELTS Reading: Speed Reading is the Key

Speed Reading is the Key

Try some books available on speed reading.In the reading section you dont find condensed passages but rather those passages which have lot of non key words like articles (a,an,the),conunctions,prepositions,you hav to skim all those.

Also before you start reading any passage go through the questions and first lines of all passages.You will get an idea of what you have to look in the passage and what the passage is about.

Try to grasp the main idea of passage and each paragraph and the supporting explanations or idea. Just think when you want to convey some idea with some supporting explanations how you organise your passage.Either you give your main idea first and give sufficient explanations and examples in subsequent paragraphs or you arrive or deduce your main idea in the last and concluding sentence of the passage by starting with an assumption and giving arguments for and against assumption in subsequent paragraphs of passage.You can try books on paragraph writing.It will also help you in the writing section.

IELTS: Facts Not Many People Know

There are many aspects in IELTS that people find surprising, usually when it hits them hard. It is quite a paradox – the information is right there, available to everyone, yet people are still in the dark. Allow me to draw your attention to several facts you don’t want to be surprised about.

Usually extensive answer is considered a very good one, but not in IELTS. When instructions say “give one answer” or “answer in 3 words”, it means “give us two answers or 4 words and we’ll fail you”. The reason for this limit is quite simple and obvious – there is not enough room for more than 3 words on Answer Sheet. By the way, articles “a” and “the” count as one word, while common assumption is that they don’t.

People tend to forget that they are graded by Answer Sheet and not by what they wrote in IELTS booklet. Any correct answer not copied to Answer Sheet will result in exactly 0 points. There is an option of submitting appeal and requesting to read your answers from the booklet, but it takes time and costs money.

Not many people think about what they are going to write with, pen or pencil. Yet there are rules: the Listening and Reading answers are to be written in pencil and Writing - in pen. This is another example of how small details can be very significant in IELTS.

Writing and Speaking are graded differently from Listening and Reading. There is no half band grade, which means it is impossible to get 6.5 in either Writing or Speaking. The reason is the way examiners are currently trained, but hopefully it will change in the future (according to official IELTS site maybe even in 2007).

In Reading and Listening tests the spelling is important, meaning one can loose points for misspelled words. The best way to overcome the spelling problem is to copy words. In case of Reading, copying words from text is a very easy and natural thing to do. In Listening test, as simple as it may sound, it is best to write what you hear and not to rephrase. It is acceptable to skip words – after all there is 3 words limit, as long as the important words are not substituted by their synonyms.

And at last some good news: starting from May 2006 candidates don’t need to wait 90 days to retake the test. The 90-day waiting period has been canceled to the joy of those who have no time to waste.

Note: Simone Braverman is the author of "ACE The IELTS" e-Book. She once had to take the IELTS test to open a door to a dream. Her curiosity pushed her quite a bit further into extensive research on differnt aspects of IELTS test. More information at www.IELTS-blog.com.