All right, let's dive deeper into what the IELTS is about.
As we mentioned before, there are two types of IELTS exam.
We have the academic and the general.
But these two types can be taken in two different ways.
We have the CDT or computer-delivered test,
and we have the PBT, the paper-based test.
Usually people say that the computer-delivered
is much more convenient.
As number one, you get results given to you faster.
And number two, most of the people already know how to use computers
and it's very easy for them to take.
On the other hand, the paper-based test
sometimes can be problematic, especially in the writing section.
If your handwriting is not legible,
then you might lose some marks because of it.
Great, now let's look at the computer-delivered exam.
This is how the computer-delivered exam looks like.
On the top part of the screen, you will find a timer.
This represents the amount of time you have left
for completing this section.
This timer changes color
depending on how much time you have left,
and it turns red when you have little to no time.
In the middle part of the screen,
you will find information pertaining the particular section.
If you have the reading,
you are going to have the text on the screen in the middle.
If you're going on the listening,
you will have the different questions and the possible answers.
At the bottom part of the screen, you will have different numbers.
These numbers represent the different questions that you're answering.
You can skip through and move through
all the questions clicking on these. Awesome!
Now that we've looked at the computer-delivered exam,
we can move on and look at the paper-based test.
The day of the exam, you will receive two different documents.
The first document on your left is the booklet
which contains all the information needed to answer the exam.
The document on your right is the answer sheet.
This is the most important document
as you need to transfer your answers
from the booklet to the answer sheet for them to count.
No answer that's not in the answer sheet
will count towards your score.
Make sure that you take time
transferring the answers from the booklet to the answer sheet.
For this, the exam gives you some extra minutes.
So don't worry, you will have the time
to accurately transfer those answers there.
Alright, let's look into the structure of the IELTS exam
a little bit deeper.
First, let's talk about the listening part.
In the listening, you will have four sections
or four different recordings that you will have to listen to.
You will only be able to listen to these recordings once.
So that's why it's important that you listen and pay attention
and answer at the same time.
In total, these four sections take 30 minutes to complete
and you have to answer 40 questions in total.
That means 10 questions per recording.
These questions are divided into six question types.
I'm going to be helping you
learning how to answer each question type,
so this doesn't seem like a lot or that is impossible.
Now, the second one is the reading section.
The reading section takes 60 minutes to complete.
It is divided into three different passages.
Each passage has between 13 to 14 questions
for a total of 40 questions.
These have 11 different question types.
I know it sounds like a lot, but again,
I'm going to help you learn how to tackle or face
each individual question so that it's easy to answer.
The third section is the writing.
You will have one hour to complete the two writing tasks.
Each writing task asks you to write a number of words.
For the first writing task,
you will have to write 150 words at least.
And for the second writing task, you will have to write 250 words.
Normally, the examiners ask you to take only 20 minutes
for the first task.
And the rest, the 40 minutes, the rest of the 40 minutes
to answer the second task.
This is because the first task
contributes 33% towards your general score
and the second task contributes 66%.
So, the second task is much more important.
For the final section of the exam, we have the speaking.
In the speaking, you will have an interview with an examiner.
This interview takes about 12 to 14 minutes.
In this interview,
the interviewer will give you three tasks to complete,
and he will evaluate your performance
with four different criteria.
These four criteria, we will talk about them more
in detail when we reach the speaking section in this course.
Let's talk about some websites that could be helpful for you.
The first website I want to tell you about
is IELTS.org.
This website
gives you more additional resources to practice for your exam,
as well as more information about the exam itself.
The second website is idp.com/global.
This website is very cool,
as it gives you information about the centers around your area,
and it tells you whether they have
the paper-based exam or the computer-delivered test.
You can use this website to register very easily.
The third website I want to tell you about
is the britishcouncil.org/exam.
Here you will find more materials if you want to practice,
and some information about the exam as well.
Now, I would like you to tell me
which version of the exam you're taking.
Are you taking the paper-based exam,
or are you taking the computer-delivered test, and why?
Tell me in the comments section,
as I'm looking forward to looking at your answers.
See you in the next class!