READING TIPS

Read Academic Texts

Read in your free time!IELTS texts are “general academic texts”. This means they are taken from sources such as textbooks and specialist magazines and journals. If you are not familiar with reading these kinds of texts in English it is essential that you start reading them in your free time so that you are used to the types of language and structure used when you meet them in the exam. Three typical sources for IELTS texts are (in order of difficulty – easiest first) the National Geographic, the New Science fiction book and the Economic   book. You can get these magazines in most newspaper.

Focus

Focus on the text first, the questions second! A good understanding of the text helps you answer the questions more efficiently and effectively and you need to practice.

Categorise

IELTS exam writers select a range of specific types of texts. Learning to recognise the type of text you are reading can help you predict its structure and therefore understand it more quickly. There are four types of IELTS texts a) analytic texts, which discuss the reasons why something happened or make recommendations or explain a concept b) descriptive texts, which describe a situation, explain how something is done or categorise something c) discursive texts, in which different opinions are expressed about an issue and d) narrative texts, which explain a chronological sequence of events.

Skim

Develop your ability to skim. Skimming is reading quickly by skipping over unimportant words like prepositions and ignoring difficult words that you don’t need to understand. Do this to get a general idea about a text or a paragraph or to intensively search for the answer to a question.

Scan

Learn to scan. Scanning is what you do when you look for a price in an advertising text or a name in a telephone book. When you scan you do not actually need to read the text but move your eyes quickly over it. You can scan from left to right or right to left, from top to bottom or bottom to top. Do this to find the location of answers in the texts looking out for easy to spot words like numbers, dates and words beginning with capital letters such as place names.

Structure

Learn to recognise paragraph structure. This often involves spotting the relationship between the main ideas and supporting ideas in a paragraph. Paragraphs are most frequently descending, i.e. they begin with the main idea somewhere near the start and develop from there, although some, frequently the first and last paragraphs of a text, are ascending – the main idea is located towards the end. This can be particularly helpful when matching headings to paragraphs.

Overview

Get an overview of a text before dealing with the questions. Do this by reading the title and subtitle as well as focusing on the beginnings and ends (but not JUST the first and last sentences) of paragraphs. This helps you process the information in a text (and thereby answer the questions) more quickly.

Parallel Phrases

Learn to spot parallel phrases. These are different ways of expressing the same thing, such as, “I like to ski” and “skiing is enjoyable”. Many questions, e.g. YES NO NOT GIVEN questions and gap fills, test your ability to match up a similar phrase in the task with its equivalent in the text.

Don't Panic

Don’t panic when you encounter an unknown or difficult word. IELTS texts are packed with highly specialised vocabulary. Skip over difficult words which are not essential for your understanding of the text. For words you do need to understand, practise trying to guess their meaning using the overall context of the text and sentence as well as the form of the word – e.g. is it a noun or verb.

Manage Your Time

Time manage in the exam. Most IELTS candidates run out of time in the third reading section. Each text should take you roughly 20 minutes (the examiners will tell you after 20 minutes have passed). Never spend too long on a single question – guess the answer or leave it to return to later. Also if you feel you are running out of time, tackle questions like gap-fills before doing “easy to guess” tasks like YES NO NOT GIVEN questions. Don’t forget you also have to have all your answers on your mark sheet by the end of the test. A good tip is to write them on the mark sheet in pencil as you go, correcting where necessary at the end.

practice practice and practice.........

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STORY OF RUMPELSTILTSKIN

            Rumpelstiltskin

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."

     The king said to the miller, "That is an art which pleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test."

     And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, "Now set to work, and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die."

     Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller's daughter, and for the life of her could not tell what to do, she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.

     But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, "Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying so?"

     "Alas," answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it."

     "What will you give me," said the manikin, "if I do it for you?"

     "My necklace," said the girl.

     The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.

 2  

     By daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and the little man appeared, and said, "What will you give me if I spin that straw into gold for you?"

     "The ring on my finger," answered the girl.

     The little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.

     The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not gold enough, and he had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said, "You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife."

     Even if she be a miller's daughter, thought he, I could not find a richer wife in the whole world.

     When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?"

     "I have nothing left that I could give," answered the girl.

     "Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child."

     Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller's daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold.

     And when the king came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller's daughter became a queen.

 3  

     A year after, she brought a beautiful child into the world, and she never gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, "Now give me what you promised."

     The queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, "No, something alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world."

     Then the queen began to lament and cry, so that the manikin pitied her.

     "I will give you three days, time," said he, "if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child."

     So the queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another, but to every one the little man said, "That is not my name."

     On the second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious. Perhaps your name is Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg, but he always answered, "That is not my name."

     On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, "I have not been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted -

     'To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,

 4  

     the next I'll have the young queen's child.

     Ha, glad am I that no one knew

     that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'"

     You may imagine how glad the queen was when she heard the name. And when soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, "Now, mistress queen, what is my name?"

     At first she said, "Is your name Conrad?"

     "No."

     "Is your name Harry?"

     "No."

     "Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?"

     "The devil has told you that! The devil has told you that," cried the little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.

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LISTENING TIPS

Instructions to candidates:
In the actual test you will be given the following instructions:

• 1.Do not open this question paper until you are told to do so
•                           2.Write your name and candidate number in the spaces at the top of this page
•   3.Listen to the instructions for each part of the paper carefully
•   answer all the questions
•          4.While you are listening, write your answers on the question paper
•                            5.You will have 10 minutes at the end of the test to copy your answers onto the separate answer sheet; use a pencil.

                   IELTS listening tips:

1. Read before you listen – predict the answer

2. Read as you listen – focus on the whole question

3. Look at 2 questions at once

4. Don’t leave the writing to the end

5. Practice your shorthand

6. Numbers and names – check your spelling

7. Don’t write the answer too quickly

8. Don’t leave any blank answers

9. Listen for repeated information

YOU CAN TRY TO HELP FROM YOUTUBE..
PRACTICE MORE AND MORE

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Some tips about Tense

TENSE

Sample text.....

Tenses play a crucial role in the English language. It denotes the time an action takes place, whether some time in the past, in the present or will take some time in the future.

This module is designed for helping the MBA aspirants grasp this crucial topic, to enable them to speak and write English correctly. From a general view of tenses, this module will go on to discuss each tense in detail with examples. The table below gives a glimpse of the way tenses are used using the verb 'play'.

PAST TENSE

i. Simple Past Tense-indicates an action took place before the present moment and that has no real connection with the present time.
For example, "He danced in the function." (The action took place in the past, is finished and is completely unrelated to the present)
                         "He flew to London yesterday."
Note
a.the verb 'flew' is an irregular verb which does not take 'ed' in the past tense like regular verbs.
b. the form of Simple Past Tense is - verb + ed

ii. Past Perfect Tense- indicates an action in the past that had been completed before another time or event in the past.
For example, "He had exercised before it started to rain."
                         "He had slept before I came back from the market."

Note
a. the form of Past Perfect Tense is- had + verb (past participle form or the 3rd form of the verb)

iii.Past Continuous Tense-indicates an action going on at some time in the past or an action in the past that is longer in duration than another action in the past.
For example, "It was getting darker."
                        "The light went out while they were reading."
Note
a. the form of Past Continuous Tense is- was/were + verb + ing.
iv. Past Perfect Continuous Tense-indicates an action in the past that took place before another time or event in the past and continued during the second event/time point in the past.
For example, "At that time, he had been writing a novel for two months."
                         "He had been exercising when I called."
Note
a. the form of Past Perfect Continuous Tense is- had + been + verb + ing.

PRESENT TENSE

i. Simple Present Tense- indicates an action that is generally true or habitual. That is, it took place in the past , continue to take place in the present, and will take place in the future. This tense is used to denote
-a habitual action- for instance, "He walk to school."
-general truths- for instance, "The sun rises in the east", "Honesty is the best policy."
-a future event that is part of a fixed timetable- for instance, "The match starts at 9 o' clock."
Note
a. the form of Simple Present Tense is- verb (infinitive without 'to' and agreeable with the subject)
ii. Present Perfect Tense-indicates an action that has been completed sometime before the present moment, with a result that affects the present situation.
For example, "He has finished the work."
                         "He has slept."
Note
a. the form of Present Perfect Tense is- has/have + verb (past participle form or 3rd form of the verb)

iii. Present Continuous Tense-indicates an action that is taking place at the moment of speaking.
For example, "She is walking."
"I am studying."
Note
a. the form of Present Continuous Tense is- is/am/are + verb + ing

iv. Present Perfect Continuous Tense-indicates an action that started in the past and is continuing at the present time.
For example, "He has been sleeping for an hour."
Note
a. the form of Present Perfect Continuous Tense is- has/have + been + verb + ing.

FUTURE TENSE
i. Simple Future Tense-indicates an action that will take place after the present time and that has no real connection with the present time.
For example, "She will visit her ailing grandmother soon."
                        "He will walk home."
Note
a. the form of Simple Future Tense is- will/shall + verb

ii. Future Perfect Tense-indicates an action in the future that will have been completed before another time or event in the future.
For example, "By the time we arrive, he will have studied."

Note
a. the form of Future Perfect Tense is- will/shall have + verb(past participle form or 3rd form of the verb).

iii. Future Continuous Tense-indicates an action in the future that is longer in duration than another action in the future.
For example, "He will be walking when it starts to rain."
Note
a. the form of Future Continuous Tense is-will/shall be + verb + ing

iv. Future Perfect Continuous Tense-indicates an action in the future that will have been continuing until another time or event in the future.
For example, "He will have been exercising an hour at 2:00."
Note
a. the form of Future Perfect Continuous Tense is- will/shall have been + verb + ing.

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ABOUT IELTS

                                              IELTS

International English Language Testing System

Modules

There are two modules of the IELTS:

• Academic Module
• General Training Module

The IELTS test has four parts

• Listening: 30 minutes (plus 10 minutes' transfer time)
• Reading: 60 minutes
• Writing: 60 minutes
• Speaking: 11–14 minutes

The test total time is: 2 hours and 44 minutes                                                                                

Listening  

Section 1 has a conversation between two speakers.

Section 2 has one person speaking.
Section 3 is a conversation between two main speakers.
Section 4 has one person speaking about an academic subject.
 

Reading

The Reading paper has three sections and texts totaling 2,150-2,750 words.
Question types: short-answer questions, multiple choice,identifying information and writer’s views,using summary taken words and  text and matching information/headings/features in the sentence ending.


Texts in IELTS Academic
Reading texts which come from books, journals, magazines, newspapers and online resources written for non-specialist audiences.

Texts in IELTS General Training
Section 1 contains two or three short texts or several shorter texts, which deal with everyday topicsSection 2 contains two texts, which deal with work.Section 3 contains one long text about a topic of general interest.

Writing

IELTS Academic
Task 1: test takers describe a graph, table, chart or diagram in their own words.Task 2: test takers discuss a point of view, argument or problem. Depending on the task, test takers may be required to present a solution to a problem, present and justify an opinion, compare and contrast evidence, opinions and implications, and evaluate and challenge ideas, evidence or an argument and so on.

IELTS General Training

Task 1: test takers write a letter in response to a given everyday situation. For example, writing to an accommodation officer about problems,writing to a new employer about problems value of time,writing to a local newspaper about a plan to develop a local airport.
Task 2: test takers write an essay about a topic of general interests. For example, whether smoking should be banned in public places, whether children’s leisure activities should be educational, how environmental problems can be solved and so on.

Speaking

The speaking test is a face-to-face interview between the test taker and an examiner.

The speaking test contains three sections.
Section 1: introduction and interview (4–5 minutes). Test takers may be asked about their home, family, work, studies, hobbies, interests, reasons for taking IELTS exam as well as other general topics such as clothing, free time, computers and the internet.

Section 2: long turn (3–4 minutes).Test takers have one minute to prepare to talk about this topic. The task card states the points that should be included in the talk and one aspect of the topic which must be explained during the talk. Test takers are then expected to talk about the topic for 2 minutes, after which the examiner may ask one or two questions.

Section 3: discussions (4–5 minutes). The third section involves a discussion between the examiner and the test taker, generally on questions relating or may not the theme which they have already spoken about in Section 2.

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