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Simone Braverman

Simone Braverman is the founder of IELTS-Blog.com and the author of several renowned IELTS preparation books, including Ace the IELTS, Target Band 7, the High Scorer's Choice practice test series, and IELTS Success Formula. Since 2005, Simone has been committed to making IELTS preparation accessible and effective through her books and online resources. Her work has helped 100,000's of students worldwide achieve their target scores and live their dream lives. When Simone isn't working on her next IELTS book, video lesson, or coaching, she enjoys playing the guitar or rollerblading.

IELTS exam in Turkey – April 2009 (Academic Module)

Our friend M from Turkey reports about his Academic IELTS exam, here is what he remembers:

Writing test

Writing Task 1 (report)
There was a chart describing reasons for not going to work in three periods. The reasons were illness, stress, unexpected events, family responsibilities.

Writing Task 2 (essay)
Children are experiencing social, educational and commercial pressure. What are the causes to this pressure? What measures can we take to reduce this pressure?

Speaking test

Interview
– What’s your job?
– Is your job easy or not? Why?
– Do you think there will be any changes in regards to your job in the future?
– When did you go on holidays last time? Where?
– What would you like to do during the holidays?
– What do you not like doing in that time?

Cue Card
Describe a good cook that you know, you should say
– who this cook is
– which meal made by this cook you prefer
– how she/he learned cooking

Discussion
The examiner was asking me some complex questions related to cook, future eating habits and so on.

IELTS exam in Eritrea, East Africa – April 2009 (Academic Module)

This update came from Africa about a recent IELTS exam. This is what Y remembers about the test in general and about the topics and the questions in particular:

“It was my first time taking the exam and personally, I dont believe it is a valid exam to assess your command of English. To me TOEFL seems more valid.

Listening test

Section 1: a professor providing information about a university, location, financial aid, etc.
Section 2: a women lost her property in the train, etc.
Section 3: fishing in the State of Alaska.
Section 4: how plants move from place to place.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (report)
We had charts about absenteeism from work, a case study done in Europe for three years.

Writing task 2 (essay)
The essay was about economical and social pressure on children.

Speaking test

– Do you drive a car?
– Do you like to party?
– How do you arrange a party?
– Do you travel a lot?

Here I must say that I was amazed by these questions and how irrelevant they are to my country. Parties and driving a car are rare in my country because of the poverty and other issues. Few people drive a car, especially students, may be less than 1% of us drive. The same applies to parties, for cultural and economy reasons we dont have many parties.”