Skip to content

Recent IELTS exams

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

IELTS exam in India – March 2009 (General Training)

A friend from India is reporting about his General Training IELTS exam:

Writing test

Writing Task 1 (letter)
You are renting an apartment and the neighbors are disturbing you. Write a letter to your landlord explaining what the problem is, what did you do to solve the problem and what action you want the owner to take.

Writing Task 2 (essay)
It’s important for the government to spend more money on promotion of people’s health rather than medical treatment.
Do you agree or disagree? Please give your opinion.

Speaking test

Interview
– Tell me something about your workplace.
– Tell me about the city you live in and whether you like / dislike it, why.
– What do you think about bicycles, are they popular in your country, if so why? What are the advantages of a bicycle?

Cue Card
Describe a recent sports event that you participated in or watched in the audience. Describe the event, where it took place, what happened and what was so special that made you remember it.

Discussion
– Do you think sports is a popular industry/plays a major role in the social life of a country?
– Should schools encourage students to play more sports?
– How can sports create a competitive atmosphere?
– Are there any specific advantages to sports that have fewer individuals (like tennis) compared to larger teams like football? If not, why not?
– Discuss competition in a class room in general: what are all the typical factors that contribute to competitive atmosphere? Is it good or bad? How do they compare?

IELTS exam in Vietnam – March 2009 (General Training)

A.T from Vietnam is reporting about his General IELTS exam:

Listening test

Section1: A conversation about booking tickets at a theater. We had to fill date, time, type of credit card, number of card (too long: over ten digits), name, address and other information to make a booking.

Section 2: A talk about school with gaps-filling.

Section 3: A conversation about people finding jobs, young people, women who stopped working to bring children up. Who do companies avoid recruiting? Who companies are afraid of hiring because of employment retrenching?

Section 4: A talk about company doing survey before launching a new product. There were 6 multiple choice questions and 4 gaps-filling questions.

Reading test

Section1: Questions about accommodation rent advertisements and library information about books, book lending, operating times.

Section 2: Questions about some kinds of school in England such as: dependent school, local school, etc.

Section 3: A passage about farming origination of human. Half of questions were matching information. The rest were True/False/Not Given.

Writing test

Writing Task 1 (letter)
Write a letter to a company about one-month temporary jobs. Letter should include skills and experience of the candidate, which department the candidate would like to work at, what can be learned from this job.

Writing Task 2 (essay)
Young people spent so much time for watching television. Why do you think this is? What can be done to encourage young people have more active lifestyles?

Speaking test

Interview
The examiner asked me about my work, why did I like my job; join a party, what kind of people (young or old) go to a party.

Cue card
Talk about a cook you know. Where did he/she learn to cook? Explain why you think he/she is a good cook.

Discussion
The examiner asked about family party, whether I think that people will be less cooking at home in the future, whether schools are responsible for nutrition problems of their pupils.