Following is an article about the IELTS exam written by James in 2006. If you're looking for someone to teach you the IELTS exam privately, please visit the pages of Felix or Katrina.

IELTS is the exam that many international students need to do to get into university. IELTS is also the exam for many people wishing to obtain permanent residency in Australia.

James has been teaching IELTS preparation tips for over 4 years and has a lot of knowledge on the subject. Here's some information about the exam.

The IELTS exam consists of 4 parts:

Listening
Reading
Writing
Speaking

The Academic exam contains harder Reading and Writing sections. The Listening and Speaking exams are the same for both General and Academic students and so are much harder for General students.

There are at least 7 new exams worldwide every year and they change regularly, so there's no point in finding out what other IELTS examinees have done as, by the time you do, you will have already moved on to the next exam. In 2006, for example, some speaking exams have included questions on food, flowers, and furniture. Maybe they'll look at various subjects starting with 'f'!

The IELTS Listening Exam
The hardest part of the exam for many non-native speakers is the listening exam. To become proficient in the listening exam you have to listen! So that means listening to people speak English, listening to talkback radio, listening to the TV, listening to movies etc. There's not much a tutor can do with you to improve your listening skills besides correct your pronunciation or give dictation.

The IELTS Reading Exam
Reading skills can be improved simply by doing a lot of reading and grammar exercises. There are some IELTS tips you can learn to slightly improve your reading score but, really, once again, there's not much a tutor can help you with besides improving your English. So a general English tutor can help you with reading. You don't really need a specific IELTS tutor to improve your reading skills.

The IELTS Writing Exam
Writing! If you're having trouble with writing then James can help you. James can show you how to improve your writing skills as well as ways to produce an essay written for the IELTS exam. James can also help you improve your letter writing skills (necessary for General IELTS Writing) as well as improve your interpretation of graphs and charts (necessary for the academic exam) Of course, James will tailor your lessons to suit what you need. Contact James here.

The IELTS Speaking Exam
This is James' speciality. James can help you improve your IELTS score in the speaking exam through doing many speaking practice tests with him. He has lots of speaking tests on file that he can do with you and can assist you in improving your response times in the exam. When you need to practice your English with a native speaker, James can help. Contact James here.

The whole IELTS exam
If you would like to do a practice IELTS exam with James, he can set things up for you and conduct the lessons as though they were the real IELTS exam. You can get a feel for the IELTS Listening, Reading and Speaking exams with James. The writing exam will be given to you at the end of the lesson for you to take home and do yourself. James can also give you a rough guide as to what your IELTS score may be, based on the currently understood (but confidential) IELTS examiner testing guide.

The fees for an IELTS lesson are the same as for a general English lesson.

If you would like to start your IELTS preparation course, please contact James today. If you have intermediate English you may only need a few lessons to improve your IELTS score. If you are still a beginner, you may need a lot more lessons before you're ready for the IELTS exam. James can advise you during your lesson of what you need to do in your own time to improve your score.

This is an article about the IELTS exam written by James in 2006. If you're looking for someone to teach you the IELTS exam privately in 2008 or 2009, please visit the pages of Felix or Katrina.