How to Prepare for the Academic IELTS Exam
How to Prepare for the Academic IELTS Exam
It is important to remember that there are two types of IELTS: Academic and General. For international Registered Nurses immigrating to the USA, you must take the Academic IELTS as the General IELTS is not accepted. Remember: OET is also not accepted to meet CGFNS and US Immigration requirements for International Registered Nurses immigrating to the USA, however, the TOEFL is another English Assessment that is accepted if you choose not to take the Academic IELTS.
How is the Academic IELTS Scored?
The Academic IELTS exam is scored on a Band Score conversion for each of its four sections, out of a total of 9-bands for each section. For CGFNS and US Immigration requirements you will need a band score of 6.5 overall and 7 in speaking. The entire IELTS exam is approximately three hours in length.
The Four Sections of the Academic IELTS
Listening (30 minutes):
Description: For the listening component you will listen to four different recordings of people speaking in English and then you will answer a series of questions related to those four recordings.
Questions: You will have to answer 40 questions in total (10 questions for each of the four recordings). The questions will be in various formats that include multiple choice, matching, diagram labelling, sentence completion, and table/chart/note/form/summary completion
Hints:
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper as the recording is taking place. You will be given 10 minutes to transfer the answers to the actual answer sheet once the recording is completed.
You will be penalized for poor spelling and grammar.
Reading (60 minutes):
Description: For the reading component you will simply be tested on your reading skills, which will include reading for main ideas, details, gists, skimming, understanding arguments, recognizing opinions, attitudes, and purposes of the passages you are given. The test taker will be given three passages that could be taken from books, journals, magazines, or newspapers to use for this part of the exam.
Questions: You will have to answer 40 questions in total from the three passages. Questions can be in the form of multiple choice, identifying the author’s views or claims, matching information/headings/features/sentence endings, sentence/summary/note/table/flow-chart/diagram completion, and short-answer questions.
Hints:
You are not given extra time to transfer your answers to the test sheet, thus you should be mindful of the 60-minute time limit.
You will be penalized for poor spelling and grammar.
Academic Writing (60 minutes):
Description: You will have to complete two written tasks (both need to be completed).
Questions: Task one requires you to describe visual information in the form of a graph/table/chart/diagram into 150 words within 20 minutes. Task two requires you to respond to a point of view or an argument or problem by writing 250 words within 40 minutes.
Hints:
No notes or bullet points will be accepted as answers, and answers must be written on the answer sheet itself.
Be mindful of the time you take to complete task one. If you take 30 minutes for task one, you will only have 30 minutes for task two. You should plan to complete task one in 20 minutes and task two in 40 minutes as task two requires almost double the word count.
You will be penalized if your written answers are not relevant or if they are off topic or plagiarized.
For task one and two you are assessed on: task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy.
Speaking (11-14 minutes):
Description: You will be recorded and assessed on your use of spoken English.
Questions: You will be required to respond to three parts
Part One (introduction and interview): You will be asked questions about yourself and have four to five minutes to respond
Part Two (long turn): You will be given a card with a topic that you will be asked one or two questions about
Part Three (discussion): You will be asked questions related to the topic in part two as an opportunity to discuss ideas and issues in more detail. This part will last between four and five minutes
Hints:
In part one you may be asked about your home, family, work, education, or interests.
In part two you are expected to speak in length without being given further prompts from the examiner.
In part three you will be tested on your ability to express and justify your opinions and to discuss issues related to the topic from part two.
Appropriate language and organization of ideas and thoughts in a coherent manner is important.
Proper pronunciation is important to achieve a high band score.
How Can You Prepare for the Academic IELTS?
1. Sample Test Questions from IELTS.org (Click Here)
2. Practice every day English by reading articles, having conversations in English, writing, etc.
3. Watch IELTS Free live Webinars (Click Here)
4. Take a Kaplan IELTS Online Preparation Course for $65 USD (Click Here)
5. Review the Cambridge English IELTS Do’s and Do Not’s (Click Here)
Source: IELTS ielts.org Accessed April 2021
Ready to apply? If you are ready to begin your application to become a US Registered Nurse with Medliant International Healthcare Staffing please reach out to us on our Medliant Website, Facebook (Medliant International Healthcare Staffing), or Instagram (@medliant).
You can also email your resume to nursebrennan@medliant.com to start your application. Let Medliant help you begin making your American Dream come true today!
