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Recent IELTS exams

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

IELTS recent Speaking topics and questions

This is a collection of the Speaking topics from February, that were sent to me by a couple of caring students. You can find more recent Speaking topics and questions here.

Speaking test 1

Interview
Do you study or work? (I said I recently graduated)
What did you study?
Do you like that subject?
Why do you like it?
Why did you choose this particular subject?

Cue card
I had to talk about some interesting news I read in a newspaper
– when did this happen?
– what was the news about?
– why was it interesting?

Discussion
We talked about the marketing of the newspapers in my country:
– How do they market themselves in order to increase sales?
– What marketing practices do they use?
– Do I think that some newspapers put a spin on the real story to increase sales?

Then we talked about TV programs in comparison to radio programs, what are the differences
– In terms of news, do they talk about the same news?
And finally he asked me “in the future, do you think people will read news on internet?” and ” what is the advantage and the disadvantage of using the internet”.

Speaking test 2

Interview
– Where do you live
– Describe your city and your immediate area
– What are your leisure time activities

Cue Card
Describe any law which you like,
– explain what law that is,
– how you will follow it,
– what you like the most about it

Discussion
What international law should be applied all over the world?
Are policemen popular in your country?
Who are more popular, the layers or the police?

IELTS exam in Jakarta, Indonesia – February 2009 (Academic Module)

Our friend M from Jakarta, Indonesia reports the topics and the questions from his IELTS exam:

Listening test

I think the listening section was a harder than I thought it would be, and even though I tried hard enough to focus during the recordings, I missed some details.

Section 1 was about a man registering at a camp ground, pretty easy. All we had to do was just write down his surname, address and phone number.
Section 2 was about the details of the camping ground, we were told to name few spots that were explained by the camp manager.
Section 3 was a lecture about coal mining history in Canada, they spoke with an American accent. I was a little bit distracted because the information was not directly answered the questions, so we had to figure it out quickly.

Reading test

I was more confident about this section.
Passage 1 was about the agricultural culture of a tribe in Zambia.
Passage 2 was about the history of photography. I felt this was the toughest one, because the answers were rather similar to one another.
Passage 3 was discussing the researches on conformity.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (report)
We were given three pie charts showing the destination of three Latin American exports in 2004.

Writing task 2 (essay)
We were asked to explain our opinion on environmental problems, whether we support the idea of individual proactive actions in solving environmental problems, or oppose to it because it is too big to be solved by individuals.

Speaking test

I was very nervous in this part, because I haven’t practiced much. I can explain my answers without much hesitating, but I wasn’t sure about my grammar.

Interview
I was questioned about my job, my responsibilities, and how I connect with people at work.

Cue card
Describe some changes in your life, you should say:
– what are those changes
– why do want to do those things,
– why do you need a change in your life

Discussion
The discussion on the topic chosen earlier. He asked whether it was hard to change things in our life, why some people reluctant to changing anything in their lives, and whether we need external influence in changing ourselves.