Ielts faq ielts general informaton

Are capital letters important? No. Capital letters are not important. They won’t affect your score.

Should I use pen or pencil? For your listening and reading test, you MUST use a pencil, so don’t forget to take an eraser with you. However, for your writing you can use either pen or pencil.

In multiple choice questions, can I write words or do the answers need to be letters? It is very important that if the instructions ask you to choose a letter, then your answer must be a letter not words. Read the instructions very carefully so you don’t lose points.

What accents will there be in the listening test? IELTS is an international English language test so you might hear a variety of different accents in the recording. You should practice listening to different accents before your test.

Is spelling important? Yes, it is. If the answer is spelled incorrectly, it will be marked wrong.

How can I improve my listening? You can improve by doing IELTS listening practice exercises. Plus, you can develop by listening to a range of accents and topics.

How can I improve section 4 of the listening test?

Section 4 is a lecture so that means it will be structured. The information will follow a normal pattern which you must try to follow. The speaker will move from point to point. Check your questions to see if they are a new point or example etc. see the order of the information in the questions.

• 
  Some key words will be repeated but that doesn’t mean other key words will be. You must learn to identify which are useful key words and which are not. Any word that can’t be paraphrased will be used to help you find your place in the talk. So, academic words, names, dates etc. are all useful and can help you.
  
• 
  Listen for signposts. These are words which indicate when the speaker is repeating information, when the speaker is moving on to another point in the talk or just giving examples and details. Signposts are similar to linking devices ‘another point to consider is…’ or ‘if we look at the aspect of…’. Pay attention to these key words.
  
•