FAQs

Study Abroad Exams FAQs

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IELTS

IELTS is an internationally accepted English language proficiency test taken by students and work force.

IELTS stand for “International English Language Testing System”

It is recognized by various immigration authorities, governments of various countries, universities and institutes as an eligibility criterion to check proficiency in English language.

IELTS is jointly owned by British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge Assessment English who with a team of international writers prepare material.

The four language skills tested are: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

IELTS is taken by students, who wish to study abroad, people who want to migrate to an English speaking country or as a professional recognition requirement for some organizations and accrediting bodies.

The IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training exam are the two versions of IELTS exam.

The Academic exam is taken by students who wish to apply to an institution for higher education.

The test is not recommended for candidates below the age of 16, however, if they wish to appear for the test they may.

Candidates who wish to apply for permanent residency or a work permit to an English speaking country appear for the IELTS General Training exam.

The test result is valid for a period of two years.

An aspirant can retake the test multiple times until he/she doesn’t get their target scores.

There are no passing marks to qualify the IELTS exam. The candidate should aim to achieve their targeted results.

A candidate can apply for a re-evaluation at their test centre not later than six weeks of the test date.

The Reading and Listening answers are written in pencil only however, the candidate can choose to write with a pen or pencil.

A valid passport is required to fill the IELTS exam.

The test duration is two hours and forty-five minutes. The Listening (30 minutes), Reading (60 minutes) and Writing (60 minutes) test are conducted on the same day however, the Speaking interview (11-14 minutes) may or may not take place on the same day.

The candidate can visit the IDP official website for registering for the IELTS exam.

The registration fee for the IELTS exam varies from country to country. The cost of the IELTS Academic and General Training exam in India for dates from 31st March, 2020 is INR 13,250.

A candidate should bring his valid passport used to fill the online application form. Also, one can bring stationery that includes pencils, pens, eraser and a sharpener. No form of electric device will be allowed inside the examination hall.

A candidate can request for a re-evaluation within six weeks of his test date. This process is chargeable and results may take 2-21 days after the request.

Listening

The Listening test lasts for approximately 40 minutes.

There are four sections in the listening test.

The candidate gets an extra 10 minutes to transfer answers. The audio lasts for approximately 30 minutes and another 10 minutes are allotted for transferring answers.

Yes, the answers appear in the same order as the audio proceeds.

No, the candidate cannot listen to the audio a second time.

The candidate is not penalized for an incorrect answer. It is advised to guess the correct answer and not leave any blanks.

A candidate can lose a point for incorrect spellings; thus writing correct spellings very important.

A candidate may hear British, American or Australian accent.

The instruction simply means that the answer may contain a combination of two words/one word and one number/two words and a number but never more than two words and a number.

The candidate is expected to provide an article while completing a sentence to grammatically correct it.

The IELTS accepts all time and date pattern i.e. 7AM, 7:00 AM, 7am, 7th February, 7 February respectively.

A candidate can chose to either answer in running letters or only capitals. However, while answering in running letters, it is recommended to give the first letter of a proper noun in capitals.

Yes, all candidates who take the listening test at the same time appear for the same listening test.

There is no difference in the listening test for Academic or General Training candidates. The test follows the same format and similar question types.

Yes, the candidate is marked incorrect for providing a plural form of an answer where a singular form occurs in the audio.

Reading

The Reading module lasts for 60 minutes.

There are 40 questions in total and it is mandatory to attempt them all.

There are three reading passages in the Reading module.

Yes, it is recommended to attempt all questions to achieve a band 9 however, there is a penalty for every wrong answer.

The candidate can scribble on the question booklet to make notes, underline keywords and mark text for reference as it’s only the answer booklet that is marked.

There is no extra time allotted in the Reading module to transfer answers. It is advised to practice writing your answers on the answer sheet after attempting each passage.

The questions do not appear in the same order as the text. This pattern may be followed for a few questions but not throughout the test.

Yes, the candidate is penalized for incorrect spellings.

Yes, a candidate can attempt the reading passages in any order.

It is advised to first be thorough with the test format and indulge in active reading to ace the reading module. Burning the midnight oil is the key to success; there are no shortcuts that can lead to good results.

The three reading passages in the General Training exam are of different genres. The first passage is based on factual information in everyday life. The second passage is based on work issues and the third passage is a long text extracted from some newspaper, magazine on a general topic.

During the Academic exam, the same test is distributed to all candidates appearing for it. Similarly, the same reading module is distributed to all candidates appearing simultaneously for the General Training exam.

Yes, a candidate may use abbreviations like T, F, NG, Y, N for True, False, Not Given, Yes, No. However, it is advised to use full forms to avoid any errors.

Before taking the IELTS exam, a candidate is expected to build active vocabulary by referring to Topic Specific Vocabulary and read extensively to learn new words and their usage.

Writing

The writing test lasts for 60 minutes.

There are two tasks in the writing module.

Coherence, cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy are primarily the skills under the radar while accessing the writing test.

The word limit for task 1 and 2 is at least 150 and 250 words respectively.

The task 1 differs for the academic and general training test. Task 1 for Academic students is a summary writing for pictorial representation however, it is letter writing for General Training candidates.

Yes, incorrect spellings are penalized while writing answers.

It is advised that students spend at least five minutes to form the structure of their answers and dot down their ideas.

Yes, the candidate can chose to answer any task. It is not mandatory to attempt them in the order they appear.

It is recommended to adhere to the time limits allotted to each task. This corresponds to the weightage of band score of each task.

Yes, it is recommended to answer all points in the question prompt. This will help a candidate structure his/her writing.

Punctuation is one of the parameters on which a writing task is accessed. It is very quintessential to use correct punctuation.

A candidate should only give his opinion where the instructions say so. It is hence very important to read and understand the requirement of the task very carefully.

Paraphrasing the question and adding a thesis statement will result in an effective introduction.

The question booklet is not marked by the examiner, thus the candidate can make notes on the question paper for reference.

The candidate can anytime request for an extra writing sheet during the test.

Speaking

The interview lasts for 11-14 minutes.

The Speaking module is a face to face interview with an examiner. .

There are three parts in the Speaking module, namely, introductory section, Cue card and Follow-up questions part.

The candidate can prepare by first reading sample answers and then practicing with a buddy.

The candidate is only required to bring his/her valid passport on the test day.

A candidate’s opinion is not subject to scrutiny during the test.

The questions do not appear in the same order as the text. This pattern may be followed for a few questions but not throughout the test.

Fluency, Lexical resources, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, Pronunciation are the four parameters on which the speaking test is evaluated.

It is advised to self-correct oneself till the time it doesn’t affect the fluency of the candidate.

A candidate answers approximately 12 questions in part 1 based on three different topics. The second part is a cue card and in the third part, a candidate answers 5-6 questions with elaborate answers.

No, a candidate cannot request an examiner to change his/her Cue card topic.

It is not mandatory to answer all question prompts, although the questions help a candidate structure his speech.

A candidate is expected to speak at length with fluency and it is advised to quote relevant examples in part 3 of the speaking module.

The examiner does not evaluate the candidate on the notes written by him/her for reference.

There is no need to panic if the examiner cuts the candidate short during any part of the speaking test. He does this on the pretext that the candidate has already answered his question or under a time constraint.

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