There are some exams you take that don’t need any hard preparation, but there are some others that will need. Sometimes, knowledge alone works fine, but in many other cases, there is a lot more to know about how the exam works to be successful.
If you are in search of quality IELTS courses, you must look out for some characteristics before making a decision as there are a lot of such courses that give false promises.
The Exam
The International English Language Testing System is an exam conducted every year for testing people’s ability in understanding the English language. Well, people here refer to the people who wish to study or go abroad for professional registration in places/countries where English is the medium of instruction. The exam tests your receptive and productive skills in the language.
IELTS comes in 2 formats, namely Academic & General with both the versions having four sections, Speaking & Writing which makes the productive skills part & Listening & Reading which makes the receptive part. The exam is available in 48 days a year, which makes it 4 days a month.
So, what to expect from the courses?
To start with, a good course should cover everything in the syllabus and also give an insight into the kind of questions to be expected in the exam. To know more, we should first know about the exam pattern. The course should cover in detail every section of the exam and give enough training to tackle the questions easily. By the end of the course, you should become more familiar with the sections available in the exam and be equipped, well enough to apply to universities in the English-speaking countries.
The Sections
- Listening (40 questions in 30 minutes)
The listening part has 4 sections in the ascending order of difficulty. This part is to test your ability in communication in day-to-day life in various situations, real-life situations like talking to people, discussion among students, talking on the phone, etc.
At the end of the session, you will be given 10 minutes to transfer the answers from the question booklet to an answer sheet which will be provided to you.
- Speaking (interview for 15 minutes)
In this section, you have to show your strength in talking to a person. This will be a discussion with the examiner where he will ask you to introduce yourself and more questions to check how well you can speak to a person in English. Your speech will be recorded.
The speaking session also has 3 sections. The first will be the introduction followed by a short question & answer session. Part 2 will be an individual speaking test where you will be given a topic by the examiner and you will have to talk for about 2 minutes. You will be given one minute to prepare for the same. Part 3 is a discussion session where the examiner will ask you 5-6 questions based on the topic given to you in part 2.
- Reading (3 sections- 40 questions in 60 minutes)
Reading is different for General and Academic part. Like any other reading tests, this is also similar with comprehensions and questions following the same. This part will test your ability in understanding the passages that you might come across daily, it could be newspaper articles, readings in a manual, etc.
For the General part, you have 3 sections with one or two passages based on which you need to answer the 40 questions that follow. It will be in the increasing order of difficulty with the first section being the easiest.
For Academic part, you will be having one long passage each section with 40 questions in total.
Here, you should write answers straight in the answer sheet as you won’t be given extra time at the end of the session to transfer the answers.
- Writing (2 pieces of writing in 60 minutes)
The writing part is to test your ability in communication in the form of writing in both formal and informal ways.
In General test, you will have a letter (formal or informal) in task 1 and an essay in task2.
In Academic test, you will have to summarize a text in task 1 and an essay in task 2. The summary in task 1 will be based on the image. The image could be a chart, graphs or diagrams.
In both tests, you will be given 20 minutes for task 1 and 40 minutes for task 2. Your task1 writing should be at least 150 words and your task 2 writing at least 250 words.
Candidates will be awarded points in every session. You can earn a maximum of 9 points every session. The final score is again normalized to 9 points.
All IELTS private tuition classes will tell you about the stuff mentioned above, the paper pattern and everything. So, what else are you supposed to get from them?
Let us go, through some factors that you should check out in any tuition center.
Faculty
The one who is teaching you should know about the exam well enough to make you fit for it. So, the faculties should be someone with a good amount of experience and good command of the English language. Faculties should be specialized in any of the four sessions of the exam. The main focus should be given on the speaking session because that is the part where the students or anyone attending the interview might get stressed out (because it is a face-to-face one). It will be good for the classes to provide a separate trained faculty for the speaking session.
Timings
Now, people from every background prepare for IELTS. The people attending the coaching could be college students as well as professionals who wish to go abroad to the English-speaking nations. So, the timings should be flexible that they can attend the classes without any difficulty. It could be in the early mornings or late evenings.
Batch Strength
The batch strength should not be very high. The lesser number of students in a batch will ensure that everyone will be given proper attention by the faculty.
Availability of the Faculty
The faculties should be available at any time, so that the students can ask doubts anytime if they have any. This is must because it will be good for the students to get their doubts cleared as soon as they have one. It would be good if the students can approach the faculties, even after the duration of the course. The student- teacher interaction is very important.
Study Material
Now, this is the most important part. You should be provided with ample materials to prepare and sample papers to save whenever you are free. Online mock, tests also will be of help. Some good online mock tests will surely make a difference. The quality of the study materials provided differentiates a better IELTS tuition from a good one.
Past results
Well, this is not something important compared to other factors. But, if needed you can check on the past results of the Centre. This will give you an idea about how many students come out successfully from the center every year.
Your Progress
Well, you should see from the mock tests conducted and by the daily practices, if there is any progress you. For example, if you have scored 6 points in the first test, there should be a regular improvement in the upcoming tests.
For a regular test practice and preparation, you can make a time slot for you, but if you think that it is not enough, you can consider the IELTS tuition centers as they will help you to keep you on right track. You can get many benefits by enrolling in a tuition center. One of the main benefits is that it gives you more practice.Practice is necessary to get the best results. A teacher works hard to get the best out of the students and you can also do the same (get the best out of you) by considering IELTS private tuition here to get the motivation you need to learn the language.
So, now you know what to expect from an IELTS coaching center am it online or offline. Just browse for the best ones and check out the mentioned factors. Check out the quality of the faculties and the timings and if everything turns out feasible, you can join the course. All the best with your exams.
Author BIO: Puran Kaushal, a professional marketer, blogger, freelancer, but a true content creator. . Having proven track record of Guest Posting, SEO and Writing can stretch into a wide variety of skill sets.
