Skip to content

Recent IELTS exams

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

IELTS exam in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – March 2009 (General Training)

The information below came from a kind person who took IELTS is Saudi Arabia and wishes to remain anonymous – never mind, thanks anyway!

Listening test

The topics I remember were about hiking on holidays. The majority of questions were indirect, meaning you need to paraphrase the answer and there were lots of multiple choice questions (very hard). The speed of speaking is a little bit faster than in Cambridge IELTS 5.

Reading test

The passages I remember were about IWEB and a student at on-the-job training agency. Then there was a piece about sample student profile (A to F) of 6 students, the questions were multiple choice. Then there was a passage about ants in Australia (more on indirect questions meaning, the passage needs to be understood to find the answer).

Writing test

Writing task 1 (letter)
Write a letter to your bank manager stating that you cannot attend the appointment you set due to personal reason:
a. state the reason of appointment
b. state the details of appointment
c. state why you couldn’t make it
d. state when you wanted to resume the appointment

Writing task 2 (essay)
Advertisements of toys and fast food nowadays are usually aiming at children. Some say that this has a negative effect on children as well as their family. Do you agree or disagree?

Speaking test

Interview
– Tell me something about yourself
– Tell me about your house/apartment
– Do you like traveling?
– Where do you want to travel?
– Can you tell me about a particular place where you like traveling to?
– What other places do you want to see?
– Can you tell me what mediums of advertisements there are in your country?

Cue card
What advertisement made you want it and made you buy it?
– where did you see the advertisement?
– what happened after you bought the advertised product.

Discussion
– Do you think advertisement should be aiming at children?
– Do you think advertisements should be regulated?

IELTS exam in Malaysia – March 2009 (Academic Module)

A caring student from Malaysia is telling us about her Academic IELTS exam:

Reading test

Surprisingly, the first two paragraphs were tougher than the third. One of them was about the planet Venus, and the questions were “fill in the blanks”.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (report)
We had a 4 – line graph on vehicle production by 4 US manufacturers over 5 years

Writing task 2 (essay)
Do you think the number of sporting facilities should be increased for the benefit of the public, discuss, what is your opinion?

Speaking

Interview
– Describe the house that you live in now (so I described the house, giving details on how many bedrooms, restroom, kitchen, and living area)
– Which room is your favorite?
– Do you like shopping?

– When was the last lime you went shopping? With whom?
– When do you normally I go shopping?
– Have you ever dislike shopping?
– Do you love writing?
– How did you learn writing when you were a child?
– How do we go about teaching the children how to write? .
– Do you prefer conventional writing using a pen or digital using a computer? ( of course I chose computer, it’s easier and very practical.)

Cue Card
Describe your favorite speaker, you should say:
– Who it was
– Where did you meet him,
– What was the topic of his speech

At the beginning I managed to say who he is and what was the topic was. But then, after 1 minute or so, I started to lose focus. When the examiner gave me the time-up sign, only then I concluded my statement. Bottom line, I messed up in part 2.

Discussion
– What makes a good speaker?
– Do visual aids help in a presentation?
– Do school children need to be motivated by speakers, what kind of speakers?
– Were there any speakers that came to your school?