The International English Language Testing System commonly known as the IELTS examination is one of the widely accepted language proficiency examinations across the world. Accepted in countries such as USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and in other European nations, for both academic as well as immigration purposes, it assesses a candidate’s proficiency in all the aspects of English language namely – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.
Let’s try to understand more:
- IELTS is a globally recognized English language proficiency examination conducted by the British Council, UK and IDP Australia.
- The examination conducted is popularly for two major purposes – University admissions via Academic IELTS and Immigration purposes via General IELTS.
- The IELTS examination assesses students in 04 different skill which are Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.
- An individual is awarded what is termed as a BAND SCALE in each section of the examination and also an overall BAND SCALE, which is a sum, aggregate of all the four sections mentioned above.
- The maximum marks that a candidate can achieve within the IELTS examination is a perfect score of Band 9.0 [both individually in each section as well as in the overall band-score]. However, for admissions across the world, universities generally start accepting candidate applications with an overall band score of 6.5 with no individual band scale less than a 6.0 pointer.
- IELTS exam is conducted via two different ways: 1. Pen and paper based (traditional way) 2. Computer delivered.
- The scores thus obtained are valid for a duration of 02 years.
- You have to attempt each individual section one by one in a pre-defined format as per the conducting body guidelines, on the day of the examination.
- The total time duration for the IELTS examination is 03 hours, which can again be divided in to 02 distinct categories
- 02 hours & 45 minutes = Listening, Reading & Writing section
- 15 minutes [approx] = Speaking section.
- It is mandatory within the IELTS examination to attempt every section. The time allotted for the candidates to perform each section is as follows
- Listening = 40 minutes
- Reading = 60 minutes
- Writing = 60 minutes
- Speaking = 15 minutes [approximately]