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Recent IELTS exams

Real students tell about their recent IELTS exams: IELTS questions, topics, tasks, answers.

IELTS exam in Saudi Arabia – April 2009 (Academic Module)

According to our friend X who took IELTS in Saudi Arabia their exam was identical to the one in Ireland, except for the questions in Speaking. Apparently X was asked a lot of questions in the interview, which he didn’t expect. Here is what he says:

“I was asked a lot of questions in the 1st part (maybe 4 groups of questions on different topics). I was shocked because I didn’t expect that to happen.”

Speaking test

Interview

The first group of questions was about sports.
– What sports did you play when you were a child?
– What sport do you want to learn?
– Do you think sports facilities are good enough ?

Then there was a group of questions about my studies.
– What was your major at university?
– Why did you chose it?

Then we talked about travel
– Do you like to travel
– When and where did you travel recently

Cue card
Talk about about traffic jam, you should say:
– When and where does traffic jam occur?
– What do you do while you are waiting?
– Explain what problems happen because of the delay?

Discussion
All the questions were related to traffic jam and transportation.

IELTS exam in Australia – April 2009 (General Training)

Thanks to E, IELTS candidate from Australia, we know this much about the topics and the questions:

Listening test

Section 1: Complete forms & M.C. about cleaning services and areas to clean.
Section 2: A professor was talking about the school assignment’s structure and the due day.
Section 3: Something about a special center of some sort.
Section 4: About the waste of water and how to reuse water, the questions were gap-fills.

Reading test

Passage 1: There were 5 walking tours in the pictures and we had to match what activities are included
and what views can be seen during the tour to the pictures.

Passage 2: A text about people that have driving licenses in their own countries, whether they need to take a driving test test during their stay in Britain.

Passage 3: Passage about the facilities offered at school, how to enroll and the procedures.

Passage 4: Passage about the progressing of costumes in the ancient Egypt and 4 other
different periods, and about the development of cotton and linen.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (letter)

A woman left some important item on a plane, write about:
– what was her destination,
– what kind of item she lost,
– why it is important.

Writing task 2 (essay)
Some countries’ schools open at before or after the normal class sessions when parents are working. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages.

Speaking test

Interview
– Do you study or work?
– What do you study?
– Do you think it is better to study with a group of students or individually?
– Do you like to travel?
– When and where did you travel last time?
– Why did you like the place?

Cue card
Describe the music that you learned in your childhood and remember until now.
– What music was that?
– Why it left such an impression on you?

Discussion
– Do you think people of different age will like different music in your country?
– What are the different music kinds and what are the age of these people?
– Do you think music has a good effect on children, why?
– Why people like music?
– Can music have a bad effect on people?

By the way, today one of my colleagues was asked to describe a cultural costume of a special event in his country, which was a bit hard.