Recent IELTS exams

A new friend, Dr. S, sent this report from the UK, where she took an Academic IELTS exam recently.

Listening test

Section 1 was about a person gathering information from catering services, asking about various packages, discounts, accommodation services, food menu, ordering flowers and placing name cards.
Section 2 was about Child Health Assessment Survey, where there was a discussion of food intake and food allergies plus physical activities.
Section 3 was about two students preparing for a project, plus a guy describing how he got interested in wildlife and its protection.

Reading test

Passage 1 was named “Time seekers” and was about various types of devices used to tell the time, like sundial, shadow clock, candle lamp, etc. The questions were True/False/Not Given, plus a question on matching, something like “Which among the devices is used as today’s modern clock”. There were diagrams showing the structure of candle lamp containing a reservoir of oil, holding in centre a small wick and held in place by two verticals rods and all of those diagrams were very similar.

Passage 2 was on tidal power, its presence in Britain and other countries, its importance, its benefits; it seemed as though there was lot to study, but very little time to answer.

Passage 3 was on DNA technology, the NASA probe, how messages were conducted, how it failed, about the scientists and their fame. Honestly, I had lots of practice but still I was short of time, maybe my brain was exhausted and out of fuel.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (report)
There was a bar chart showing four sports of England, amount of players in every sport in a period between 1985 to 2005. It indicated that rugby is the least popular sport, with only 50,000 players as compared to the number of basketball players (which exceeded 200,000 since two decades time) plus badminton players’ number declined sharply by 2005, while tennis remained steady in an up and down trend, dipping down by 10,000 players in 1995 and rising back to 200,000 players as in 1985 status till 2005.

Writing task 2 (essay)
Some people believe that cultural traditions are destroyed due to money-making attractions from tourists, but some believes that it is good to save them. Discuss both views and your opinion.

Speaking test

Interview
– What is your name?
– What can I call you?
– Tell me about yourself.
– Where do you live?
– What your house looks like?
– What is the view from your window like?
– Which food do you like?
– Are you interested in going to a museum?

Cue card
Tell me something about the person you like spending time with the most, you should say
– How do you know this person?
– How much time do you spend together?
– What do you normally talk about?

The rest was about the advantages and disadvantages of working in a group

Thank you Dr. S and good luck with your result!