The ILETS exam by Ahmed Elsheikh

My ILETS experience

In the name of Allah
My IELTES experience
Thanks to ALLAH I got a band score of 8/9 in IELTS ( reading 9/9 ,listening 8/9 ,writing 7/9 ,speaking 7.5/9 )

First of All : I WANT TO STRESS ON A FACT :that I am here explaning to you HOW TO PASS THE EXAM only & NOT how to get to the level of english that will lead you to pass the exam, this can be only done through an english teacher .In other words , I mean that if ur real level in english in life is 7 i will explain to u how to get a 7.5 in the exam & not a 6 (which u will defentiley get if u dont prepare well for the exam )

A simple fact : THIS IS AN EXAM so it needs preparation...even if u r a native speaker !!! for example we are native arabic speakers & if we go now into an arabic exam we may get very bad results because we didnt study !!! simple fact but a lot of people forget about it ( I personally have a friend who is very fluent in English and got 9 in speaking (imagine how fluent he is ) but he got 6.5 in listening only because he didnt give time to prepare he just went into the exam depending on his fluency !! )

Again I want to make clear : I think my english level is pretty good so i didnt need to do anything to increase my level in english itself so I only gave time for preparing for the exam itself so i will speak here only about exam preparatin which is something that u need to do only after making sure ur english level is pretty good & will enable u to pass the exam:

BUT HOW CAN YOU BE SURE ?
There are many ways :
1-through the british council itself : they make exams for those people who want to take the preparatory course for the ielts & if ur english is not sufficient they will not allow u to take the course & will only allow u to enroll in general english classes.( I guess it costs 70 LE )
2- You can ask any of the english teachers who give ielts courses they will be able to tell if ur english is good to get the required score or not .
3- compare urself to any of ur friends who passed the exam.
4-You can make a reallife exam for urself as follow : listening & reading : asnwer any Cambridge ESOL exam (i will explain what is that latter ) & regarding speaking & writing you can reserve a practice exam in the British council itself that will be marked by real examiners only for 100 LE but they will give u a report on ur performance NOT marks . ( I did that last option & in my very first exam I got 6 in listening & 7.5 in reading & I wrote the writing but I didn’t get it marked nor the speaking ) (so don’t panic if u got around 6 I guess this means u will be great with training but I guess if u got below 5 or 6 you will need english course first )


So now with the preparation :

Time required : one week full time or one month part time would be more than enough.

Exam Fees: 950 LE ( you can reserve & pay online at the british council website or u can pay in person in the british council in Cairo ) ( Places are limited u have to reseve I guess a month in advance of the date u want to have the exam in )

Exam type :ACADEMIC ( Academic is the only accepted for us as medicals …the general english is only for nonprofessionals who want to immigrate not for us )

Study material :
There are 3 main sources that I depended upon in my stduy :

1-Videos on Internet : which I consider to be EXTREMELY IMPORTANAT
A-Most imp videos to watch:
There was a video seriuos composed of about 13 video made by the british council with the british council logo down in the video that explain how is the exam made & how is it marked also in the listening videos they get examples of real candidates during their exams & the comments of the examiner & his marks.
Those videos should be the first thing on ur study menu because they are the most reliable way for u to understand how is the exam made & how is it marked with extremely valuable piences of advice from examiners themselves ( unfortunately after i watched this cahnnel online on youtube i couldny find it again so u have to find it urself ..sorry !! )

This is a link for one of them :


YOU CAN NOT GO WITHOUT WATCHING THEM REALLY !!!

B-A website called : www.ESL4free.com
Its videos are really valuable i watched all of them.

C-a youtube channel of a saudi guy who took the ielts & explains to many other Saudi students how to pass ..it is long ,a little bit boring but he really says extremely imp info as he went to that exam about 5 times so he has a great experience !!
This is one of the videos :


D- randomly i searched for IELTs on youtube & i watched random videos while I am on the PC checking faecbook or doing my regular stupid internet time wasting most of the videos were really nice & helped me a lot !!


2-ESOL Cambridge examinations : (THE MOST IMPORTANT ***** )
Simple fact : your Exam CAN NOT BE OUT OF THE QUESTIONS IN THOSE BOOKS !!!
Really !!!
MY WRITING EXAM AS WELL AS MY LISTENING EXAM WAS A COPY & PASTE FROM THESE BOOKS.
WHY ? BECAUSE THESE BOOKS ARE WRITTEN BY ESOL CAMBRIDGE & THE EXAM IS MADE BY ESOL CAMBRIDGE SO SIMPLY THOSE BOOKS ARE “KOTOB EL WEZARA “ YA3NY “DALEL TAKWEM EL TELMEZ “
Another Fact :the marks u get in the last exam u solve in the books will be exactly ur marks on the exam.
Also the more u answer exams the more ur marks will go up .
There are 9 books uptill now ( the 9th is the most recent ) Each books contain 4 exams with model answers . You will find them all on the internet .
Do a serach like this (Cambridge IELTS 8 - Book + Audio)
Here is a link for books from 1 to 7 :
arabhardware.net/forum/showthread.php?t=214463

Here is a link fo the 8th book :
www.4shared.com/rar/9TXjExwU/Cambridge_IELTS_8_-_Book__Audi.html
I myself did books 3 ,4,5,6,8
I advice you to do as much as possible .
I assure you that the exam will NEVER BE OUT OF IT including the speaking & the writing (lel shabab 2ly bey7eb yenashen we ye7faz el mawade3 ma3 2n dah `3alat keber 3ala fekra )
IMP ADVICE : DO THE EXAM TIMES AS IF U R IN REAL EXAM THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO PREPARE URSELF AS THE PROB IN THE EXAM WILL BE MAINLY A TIME PROBLEM !!!


3- www.ielts-simon.com/
THIS WEBSITE IS LIKE USMLE WORLD WEBSITE FOR USMLE !! & the good news is that its for FREE .
This is a must do website ....It is made by one of the examiners (an expert ) !!
He collected all previous exam material & put it on the website together with the best answers ... he also made sections for the most common mistakes made by students ..
The website contain all the writing question essays that were in previous exams with their model answers (and the exam is always repeated so one of those will appear on ur exam for sure )
The beauty of this website is that it is both interactive as well as that it is continuously updated so if any new essays or questions appear on the exam they will de added on the website !!
I know some people who only studed the material on this website & they passed !! nice ,ist it ?

IMP Tips about the exam itself :
1) Reading :
Well considering i got 9 out of 9 in the reading so i consider myself an expert so just follow me
ADVICE :IN THE EXAM DO NOT READ THE PASSAGES !!!
YES, this may be strange to u but i repeat dont even think about that you will never be able to answer all the questions if u read the passages ....
So what to do ?
1- read the title
2- read & study the Questions
3- Go back to search for answers for the Questions in the passage
( NB it would be easy because the questions are most of the time arranged in the same order as their answers are arranged in the paragraphs )
ADVICE : when solving cambridge ESOL exam books do the reading TIMED & stress urself ..I mean each passage should get 20 minutes in the exam BUT u while studing u should do it in 15 minutes only !!!

2) Listening :
It is not difficult at all , they speak in very easy language , & they are not fast at all .
It is easy to get marks if u know how to do !
You have to read the questions first so you only hear the answers & concentrate on them.
TAKE CARE YOU MAY LOOSE MANY MARKS : A big problem in Listening is that it is marked by the computer that is :
***If you write a single spelling mistake (for example write infrmation or informations instead of information )the computer will simply NOT recegnize the answer & u will get a ZERO !!
**When the exam question say do not write more than 2 words in the answer (if you write “ a big mistake “ the computer will recognize 3 words which are “A “ –“big “ –“mistake “ so you will get a ZERO mark so you should have written only “a mistake or big mistake “
GOOD NEWS : The answers are spoken in the same order as the Questions & that makes it really easy because you dont need to search the Questions u just solve them in order of what u hear .

3) Writing:

The writing is composed of two sections:
The First part is mostly a graph & asks you to write an academic report on it .
Well it is academic & there is a specific way how it is written ( i knew it from videos on the youtube )
First of all the introduction should contain all the info presented in the graph .
IF u copy the head of the Question you will loose a lot of marks
If you write less than 150 words you loose many marks !!
If you repeat words in your essay you will loose marks for example ( if u use the verd decrese in one sentence you have to use anothe like :lessen or reduce in the other sentences & dont repeat decrease )
There are big marks on using linking words like :on the other hand , however , on the contrast , etc So PLEASE USE THEM !!
You have to use descriptive words for trends like : dramatic increase , steep rise , sharp decrease , ….etc.
The Videos on the website that i told u about contain all the types of this section with model answers so read them all.
The second part is always an essay which is always an easy topic : IELTS simon website contain ALL the essay topics with their model answers the exam will be mostly one of them ...also it exaplains many mistakes that many students do & tell you why most students loose marks !
I would like assure you that your ielts writing exam as will as the speaking will NEVER be out of the Topics written in the Cambridge ESOL examination books that i told u about together with the ielts simon website . ( they also write model essays by experts which u can memorize some parts from to increase your writing abilities BUT never memorize them as a whole ! )
In this part if u write less than 250 words you loose marks ....its ok to write more but u may also loose marks if you make mistakes in those extra lines !

There are a lot of marks on assorting ur essay into paragraphs so dont loose those marks !!
Each paragraph should only contain ONE idea in the first sentece & the next 3 to 5 senteces explain this idea & give eaxmples to prove it .
You should ideally write opening paragpagh , 3main body paragraphs & one closing one .


4) Speaking:

GOOD NEWS : THERE ARE NO MARKS ON THE ACCENT !!!
they said that they test ur english not ur accent because natives themselves have many different accents (british , american , australina ,newzeland ,canadian etc )
-So they test only YOUR FLUENCY , ACCURACY OF PRONOUNCING THE WORDS and ur ability to make the best use of the language .
-If you don’t understand a word in the Question ask about its meaning you will NOT loose marks for that as they are now only testing ur speaking not listening .
-Also if u don’t understand a question ask for a rephrase for it in a more simple language ..its ok !
-PLEASE BE CONFIDENT during the exam !!
-The examiners may be british or Egyptian … I had my exam with a british examiner & she was so nice …some of my friends told me that british examiners are better & give better marks ,but I cant tell I think they should be the same !!

How to prepare :
-Get all speaking Questions from Cambridge Esol tests & sit with a friend of yours ( who is excellent in english ) or an english teacher & practice all these questions.
- there are many topics & u will be required to speak 2 mins non stop about them so u have to get prepared and arrange what u want to say !

IMP notes :
-DO NOT repeat words (if u say one time :for example ,the next say :for instance ) repeating words tells them that u dont know many words in english & will dramatically reduce ur marks .
-DO NOT hesitate & stop speaking : even if the examiner ask a question u dont know the answer BUY TIME to think by saying for example ( ohhh i have never thought about that before / ohhhh thats a hard thing to say .... no one knows how this definetly works but ...etc )
In my exam there was a question that i got mind block in & didnt have any clue to the answer whn i was in the exam so i managed as follow ( Q: Do u think some people do charity work for evil reasons ?! i got mind block so i managed to answer in a way that show them ia m good in english but not good in that questions REMEMBER they test ur english not ur information !! so i said ohh i think this is difficult to happen ! i dont believe someone can do charity for evil reasons ...oh but u know maybe ..me myself did that !! when i was young i used to skip studing & tell my mom i will go do charity work !) the examiner started laughing a lot ..yes i dindt answer the question but i got marks because i showed her that i am good at english ) the second question was based on that same question & she said do u think this is still happning now in ur community ? so i answered of course not because mothers are getting more clever nowadays ..so she laughed so much ?
so ADVICE : IF U GET ANY MIND BLOCK IN ANY QUESTIONS JUST SAY ANYTHING OR LAUGH OR SAY U DONT KNOW THE ANSWER BUT IN A WAY THAT SHOW UR ENGLISH ABILITIES BECAUSE IT IS SIMPLY AN EXAM OF ENGLISH not of information or public speaking !
-NEVER GIVE A SHORT ANSWER : this will give u the worst score ever .if she asks about anything for example : what subject did u like the most in college ? NEVER answer “surgery “ u will not get any marks u have to speak about surgery & say why did u like it … 3 to 5 sentences should be spoken ..
-Using complex words that are not common in easy english will increase ur marks !BUT dont use them in a wrong way if u dont fully understand them as this will decrease your marks not increase them.
-Finally there is an Egyptian guy who speaks about common mistakes that Egyptians do in speakng english i find them really common so please listen to him :





Some adminstative hints :
-You can reserve for the Exam & pay on the internet through the website of the british council or you can do that in the british council itself in cairo in person.
-There are many test places about 3 in Cairo (so there is an exam per week in Cairo )
-There are test places all over Egypt in which exam is held only once per month (Portsaid ,Tanta ,Alexandria , Assuit or another city in upper Egypt I don’t remmber )
-Places in each exam are always limited & to get a place in the city u want & on the time u desire you have to reserve & pay a month in advance.
-The test results will appear 13 days after the exam day : if u fill a sms request form on the exam day they will send the result to u by sms as soon as they appear on the 13th day of the exam (for free)
-You can aslo fill a courier paper on the exam day & they will send u the certificate home (for free ) or u can ask to go take it urself from the council in Cairo.
-You can only one certificate in hand BUT you can ask (within one month of the exam for FREE ) up to 5 copies to be sent to institutions inside Egypt or outside ( but if abroad u will have to pay for the courier service )
-after one month u can still ask a delivery of a certificate to any association but u will have to pay 100 Le.
-During the exam if u didn’t show the ID that u used to sign up for the exam YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED IN & u will loose ur money . Don’t forget to get a passport size photo with u to the exam .
-I myself asked for a copy to be sent to the college dean & I asked the secretaroy of our college dean to put this certificate in my file ( which I can take any paper from if I need )..so I had another copy in my college for free just in case .
- get some sweets with you to the exam to eat to increase ur sugar level ..u can also bring water or coca.
-Be on time …late people will not be allowed in !!
-you can repeat the exam if ur scores don’t match what u need any time even the very first test appointment after the one u had ! but if there are available places ….

Finally, I hope you benefit from my experience & get the scores u need isA 

Ahmed Elsheikh