Candidates taking the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Exam are encouraged to pay careful attention to the instructions at all stages of the exam and, to the greatest extent possible, 'follow orders.' In its exam, IELTS emphasizes 'answering questions as asked.' In essence, all four tasks of the IELTS Exam are made up of nothing but questions. Even the two parts of the Writing Task are, in essence, long answers to questions.

Accordingly, IELTS sees the extent to which a candidate answers questions in the precise way they are asked as an indicator of, among other things, basic comprehension of written English. Answers given in the wrong style of format, or addressing elements within the question that are not central to its thrust, are taken to indicate a fundamental lack of understanding of the question on the part of the candidate.

The classic case is with short-answer questions. If IELTS does not give instructions to the contrary, each gap containing an answer should be completed with one, two, or three words – but no more. Even a 'correct' answer that goes over that word limit is deemed incorrect. Sometimes, however, a particular group of short-answer questions will appear with the instruction 'Answer with a word or short phrase.' In that case, the three-word limit is suspended (although the candidate, not having been told what 'short' means, would be wise to adhere to the three-word limit, or in any case not go beyond four).

The one time candidates would be well advised not to follow IELTS' instructions is on the Listening Task. Before each of the four sections of the task, candidates are given time to look at the pertinent questions. Then, during each of the listening exercises, there are breaks at which the voice of the announcer on the tape encourages test-takers to 'take [a specified amount of time, e.g., 30 seconds, one minute] to look over your answers.' The advice is: Don’t.

First, there is nothing to check the answers against. The tape, or any portion of it, is never replayed. Second, there is a ten-minute period after the tape has finished that is specially allocated for the checking of answers as they are transferred from the question book to the answer sheet. That is more than enough time to determine the most likely correct answer any question left unanswered.

Last, and most important, using the time 'to check answers' for – instead – reading the next set or sets of questions is a far better use of the time. The key to anticipating the right answer – and, as importantly, to prevent getting lost while the tape is playing – is to have the clearest idea possible what questions are coming up. Any time spent reading the questions before the answers are spoken by readers on the tape is time well spent. It will make you better prepared to hear the answers when they are spoken and to write them down in exactly the way the IELTS question wants them.

Hugh Nelson is an e-learning specialist who has worked in the education industry for more than 10 years. He currently lives in Hong Kong and is a director of UniRoute, a company that runs educational websites helping students prepare and successfully apply for post-graduate studies abroad.

IELTS
Study Abroad
Tourism Management

Source: www.articledashboard.com