How to start your IELTS preparation [for beginners] - YouTube

hi there it's asiya if you need to take an  ielts exam but you don't know much about it yet  

then this video is for you i'm gonna tell you how  to prepare for this exam quickly what resources  

to use how to book your exam and answer other  questions you might have ready? let's get started!  

let's talk about the two types of the ielts  exam ielts academic and general training  

if you are going to study abroad you need to  take ielts academic if you are going to join  

your family in an english-speaking country  you need to take ielts general training  

if you want to work abroad you need to check  what type of exam is required but basically 80%  

of all people take ielts academic it's much more  common but if you can select and both types are  

accepted take ielts general training it's a little  bit easier you might have heard about ielts ukvi  

that is not a separate type of the exam it's the  same ielts academic and ielts general training but  

it's taken in a room with video recording that's  because britain wants to be sure that the correct  

candidate takes the test and in the past there  were some incidents of cheating with other  

english language exams so ielts uk  visas and immigration is video recorded  

that's the only difference otherwise it will  be the same ielts academic or general training  

it's a little bit more expensive though and when  you're booking your exam it will be written if  

it's your ukvi or not so make sure you choose  the correct format ielts costs between 220  

and 250 us dollars so it's definitely worth  preparing for the exam and i would say that  

you should start your preparation first assess  how much time you need and then book your exam  

and actually if you plan to take your exam in  winter you can book it one or two weeks in advance  

but at the end of spring and in summer the demand  for ielts goes through the roof and sometimes  

there is nothing available for weeks and months i  had students who had to travel to another city or  

even another country to take their ielts so make  sure that you book your exam early during this hot  

period okay how to book your ielts exam you go to  ielts.org select book a test select your country  

and if you're lucky your city and you will see  all the tests that are available all the test  

centers sometimes there is only one company  sometimes there are several basically there  

are two companies which administer the ielts  exams british cancer and idp but test centers  

in your country may have another name it really  doesn't matter because all tests are the same  

they're written by cambridge english  all examiners take the same training  

so there is no test that is easier or test that is  more difficult the only difference is if you take  

a computer-based or a paper-based test  if you see a computer icon it means that  

a computer-based ielts is available at this test  center most ielts exams are still taken on paper  

but more and more centers are rolling out the  computer-based version i've taken both i prefer  

to take it on a computer because i think it's easy  to select answers in ielts listening and reading  

i like that you're guaranteed to have earphones  for your listening section in a paper-based exam  

you may have loudspeakers but i think the deal  breaker is how quickly you type do you prefer  

to type two essays or are you slow typers and then  you have to write them the speaking exam is always  

the same it's a face-to-face interview i have a  detailed video with all the differences between  

a paper-based and a computer-based versions it  will help you decide which one is right for you  

that's the video will be linked in the  description let's talk about the test format  

ielts consists of four sections and i'm gonna tell  you about the differences between aya's academic  

and general training then when you be looking for  information for your preparation you can easily  

decide if this piece of information is for you or  not okay ielts listening it's the same for both  

academic and general training students it  lasts for 30 minutes and you need to answer  

40 questions the next section is ielts  reading again 40 questions but 60 minutes  

and here academic students get three longer  texts which are more scientific and general  

training students get five short texts which are  less scientific and i would say they're a little  

bit easier that's why in general training you need  to answer more questions correctly to achieve the  

same score in ielts reading as academic students  next is ielts writing and here you're given 2  

tasks and 60 minutes task 1 is different for  academic and general training students academic  

students need to write a report describing  a chart a table a graph a map or a diagram  

general training students need to write a letter  task 2 is very much the same for both types of the  

exam so these three sections are taken together  either on paper or on a computer and ielts  

speaking is separate you may actually need to  travel to the test center on a different day for  

your speaking exam and it's always a face-to-face  interview with an examiner that lasts between 11  

and 14 minutes it's the same for both types  of the exam how to prepare for the ielts exam  

there is nothing like taking a free practice test  to get a taste of what the ielts exam is about and  

i think you should really use official practice  tests in your preparation because those are  

written by the same people who create exam papers  so they are the same the same level of difficulty  

the same types of tasks the same wording other  practice tests are not like that and several  

official tests are available for free you can buy  more if you need i'm gonna show you all of them  

in ielts listening and reading once you take a  practice test you count how many questions you  

answer correctly and you know what your score is  then you can learn about different strategies you  

can learn how to approach each type of task  you can practice and your score will improve  

and actually because people know what this  coin is listening and reading is they often  

dedicate a lot of effort to these two  sections but it may be a huge mistake  

that's because statistically people get the lowest  score in ielts writing and the second lowest in  

ielts speaking partly that's because these two  sections require you to actively produce english  

while in listening and reading you only need to  understand but also that's because ielts examiners  

use a set of specific criteria to assess your  answers in writing and speaking and if you don't  

know what those are and you don't know how to meet  them you're not gonna get a very good score even  

if your english skills are actually quite good so  you should really prepare for these two sections  

i've prepared for you a free ielts study plan  it will give you five steps for your preparation  

links to all the free practice tests links to  other resources and it will help you get started  

please download it the link will be in the video  description box below now let me show you a couple  

of books for your preparation that's the book  number one ielts academic practice tests you can  

get the same book but general training practice  tests this one is number 14 the latest is number  

15 and number 16 will be released in summer 2021  at the end of the book you get a sample answers  

with a band score that will help you understand  what level you need to achieve in your writing  

for a certain score so that's really good  and this one is the official guide to ielts  

it's really thick because it includes  tips exercises and practice tests  

i quite like the book particularly if you  have a bit more time for your preparation  

and you can work on your english skills as well as  your ielts skills but i feel that the book doesn't  

explain in depth how to improve your score in  ielts writing but other than that it's quite good  

and have a separate video with a full review of  those books other books apps for your preparation  

you can watch it now let's talk about when  you should start your preparation and how long  

it's gonna take and the third thing i wanna  say is start preparing as early as possible  

if you know you need to take this exam start  preparing now basically with ielts it's pretty  

difficult to assess what score you're  gonna get before you start doing anything  

i know people who freak out before their exam  and then achieve an incredibly high score and i  

know people who feel confident about their english  and then fail their exam by quite a large margin  

so you need to give yourself time to prepare and  pass the exam for many people it's possible to  

pass the exam quickly and then it's great because  the certificate is valid for two years and you can  

use it later but if not you still have time to  change the result let's talk about ielts scores  

your ielts result will depend on your english  skills of course but it can still vary depending  

on how well you are prepared for your ielts  exam and the goal of your ielts preparation  

is to achieve the best score you can  achieve at your current level of english  

so i call these ielts skills essential ielts  preparation should take you just a couple of weeks  

that's where you learn about different  strategies different tasks you practice  

and then if you feel ready you can go and take  your test you can follow five steps in the ielts  

study plan and it will give you everything for  this essential preparation but then if you feel  

that ielts writing and speaking are difficult for  you then you may need more advanced preparation  

you need to learn about each criterion that ielts  examiners use you need to learn structures for  

your answers you need to learn how to produce  different types of answers so that will take  

a little bit longer again depending on how much  time you have i would say from one to three months  

and that's where you can use my ielts courses  they will teach you everything you need to know  

about ielts writing and speaking in as little time  as possible i will link them in the description  

so by the end of this preparation you  should really go and take your exam  

and if you don't achieve the score you desire then  the reason is your english skills and you should  

take an intensive english course and you know  if you really dedicate your time to improving  

your english you can achieve amazing results in  6 months and if you start your preparation early  

you will have these 6 months to improve if  you need but hopefully you will pass your exam  

much more quickly i think that's everything  you need to know to get started with your ielts  

preparation please download this study plan  and see you in the next video good luck bye