IELTS: Academic Made Easy+2CD

By Abdelhamid ZOUBIR

IELTS Academic Made Easy combines a critical review of this testing system's marking rubrics and time constraints with an assortment of practical listening, speaking and writing tasks. It also provides detailed references to listening and reading past-test papers published by Cambridge University Press.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Obeikan
• Release date: Jul 5, 2025
• ISBN: 9786030112258

Book preview

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وأفضل الصلاة وأتم التسليم على سيدنا محمد

وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Brief

Part One Preliminary Notes & Guided Practice

SECTION I How does IELTS compare with TOEFL?

How does IELTS score candidates?

Listening, Reading & Writing: Formats & Specifications, Answer sheets and how to use them

How to evaluate your listening & reading performances

C - Writing Band Descriptors (Public version)

Section II Listening

Components 1 & 2: What to give heed to?

Components 3 & 4: How to take advantage of the predominance of education-related topics.

Section III Reading

Preliminary steps

Going beyond skimming and scanning techniques

Section IV Writing

Overview:

How to present your paper:

The language of graphs & linking words:

How to describe lines on a graph:

Highlighting a line going up:

Highlighting an unchanging line:

Highlighting a line reaching highest or lowest point:

How to describe a bar or column graph:

How to describe a flowchart:

Consider this map:

How to describe architectural plans & buildings:

How to describe a pie chart:

How to prepare for Task 2 Topics

How to prepare writing Task 2

How to write ‘Discussion’ essays

How to write ‘Argument’ essays

SECTION VI Speaking

Part 1: Fillers, linking words, collocations and idiomatic expressions:

Accompanying Suggestion

Part Two Self-Study Resources

Section I Self-study scheme of work

Section II Useful books, Websites & Youtube Video Addresses

Books: commented choice

Academic Option Websites:

Suggested Youtube videos:

Section III Recurrent IELTS Words

Crosswords & Word Search Puzzles

Section IV 120 Useful Idiomatic Expressions for Writing Task 2

Match Idiomatic Expression with Definition

Match Idiomatic Expression with Definition

Answer key

Section VUseful Affixes

Examples & Exercises

Answer Key

Tables 1a & 2a

Section VI 23 Categories of Recurrent Task 2 Writing Topics:

1 to 5 Example(s) for Each

Acknowledgments

I express my gratitude to:

Dr. Abdurraheem Kinsara, Dean at the Engineering College at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, for his attention and encouragement.

Tarek Zoubir, e-Learning Content Provider at the Centre for Learning & Teaching Enhancement at the University of Middlesex in London, for formatting and editing the graphic and textual components of the first task of the Writing module, and for helping me to catalogue a concordance list of the IELTS words that recur in the Reading module.

Richard Tucker for backing-up the initial audio recordings, and Imen and Tarek Zoubir for lending their voice to the 5 listening, speaking and writing exercises.

Michael O’Doherty, English Language Instructor at the English Language Institute at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, for editing the speaking typescript I prepared for the trial interviews that he conducted with my students between June and August 2011.

Abdassalam Al-Drouby and Robert Baron, IELTS examiners, for their precious contribution to the speaking sessions that I organised and filmed at King Saud University in Riyadh in April 2009, and May-June 2010.

Brief

The Preparatory Year Programme at King Saud University in Riyadh and the English Language Institute at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah offer the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to Saudi staff and students applying for government scholarships and admission to graduate and postgraduate schools in several Anglophone universities.

Many colleges and universities, professional organisations and accrediting bodies recognise IELTS in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The website http://www.ieltsusa.org/recognition.html mentions 2,500 institutions accrediting IELTS in the USA. Other Google searches about IELTS in the UK, Canada and Australia display as considerable numbers of educational and professional institutions accepting IELTS. Middlesex, Reading and Exeter universities and the Hampstead School of Art, to name only these, show that IELTS has become a standard prerequisite for overseas students seeking entry to universities and other educational establishments in the UK. As for their counterparts in Canada and Australia, one can cite Calgary and Lethbridge universities for the former, and the Carrick Institute of Education and the Shafston Training One Pty Ltd. for the latter.

Over 1.4 million candidates take this test each year. 6,000 institutions in over 135 countries recognise it (http://www.ielts.org/default.aspx). Between 2004 and 2008, a still numerically unrepresented but large percentage of the 42,000 Saudi government scholarship students needed it to enrol in UK, US, Canadian and Australian universities. As for 2009 and 2010, this number rose to 52,000 students; and as large a proportion of male and female applicants is estimated to have used it then for a similar purpose (http://www.ehow.com/list_6775312_saudi-government-scholarships.html).

The present workbook is part of this educational provision and the direct outcome of a seven-week, 56-hour intensive scheme of work I designed and ran successfully several times in Riyadh and Jeddah between 2007 and 2011. It involves the IELTS Academic version only; not the General Training version, as this second version tests writing and reading skills that are meant for immigration and job-related prospects.

IELTS Academic Made Easy combines a critical review of this testing system’s marking rubrics and time constraints with an assortment of practical listening, speaking and writing tasks and references to listening and reading past-test papers published by Cambridge University Press.

Exercises in Part One encourage candidates to find synonyms and antonyms, or equivalent and opposite expressions for the words and phrases provided in model sentences that are part of each tested skill. Candidates are then asked to recompose or rewrite these sentences in their own way. Part One engages candidates in the following activities:

Cloze procedures that involve discovering equivalent words and expressions without choosing these from a limited set of boxed words and expressions

Freely swapping aroar affirmative for negative forms and vice versa

Taking up the template suggested by the example and using it appropriately in one or two sentences

Exercises in Part Two partake of the same principle. They are also guided with 1 or 2 examples. Standard answer keys are however naturally offered this time because exercises involve:

Cloze procedures requiring students to choose the appropriate word or expression from a box where only one possible answer is mixed with inappropriate words or distracters

Matching a word with a definition

Solving crossword and word search puzzles

IELTS Academic Made Easy provides 2 audio compact disks that contain an original variety of recordings that facilitate frequently encountered IELTS listening and speaking topics. Their content is typewritten in Part One, Sections II & VI, marked by this sign: and organised as follows:

Listening:

Exercise 1: Questions about Numbers

Begins CD1, Track 02

Exercise 2: 22 Words and Phrases Related to Education

Begins CD1, Track 04

Speaking

Exercise 3: Fillers, Linking Words, Collocations and Idiomatic Expressions

Begins CD1, Track 27 & ends CD2 track 50

Exercise 4: Parts 2 & 3 Recurrent Topics & Model Answers

Begins CD2, Track 51

Speaking & Writing

Exercise 5: Idiomatic Expressions

Begins CD2, Track 52

References to online audio-video resources complement this effort in combination with other notes in Part Two, Section II for candidates to feel the freshness of an immediate learning experience.

IELTS Academic Made Easy is a practical tool for candidates to deal successfully with the difficulties of this testing system’s sequential assessment of the listening, reading, writing and speaking skills, either when working with their teachers, their peers or on their own.

Jeddah 2011

Part One

Preliminary Notes & Guided Practice

SECTION I

How does IELTS compare with TOEFL?

Here is how this question is answered by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), a now-widely accepted international language learning standard:

Adapted from The British Study Centres, School of English website:

http://www.british-study.com/adults/english-language-courses/exam-preparation/

How does IELTS score candidates?

IELTS comprises 4 modules: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Each is assessed on a band scale from 1 to 9. The 4 separate scores are added and averaged into an overall band score.

Band score 9

Conveys information appropriately, accurately and fluently with complete arerstanding of the language

Band score 8

Handles well complex and detailed argumentation, but makes sporadic factual mistakes, especially when exposed to unfamiliar situations

Band score 7

Handles complex language well and arerstands detailed reasoning, but misinterprets situations and makes frequent factual mistakes

Band score 6

Effective command of the language in common situations, but misarerstands situations and makes various mistakes

Band score 5

Manages well basic communication in most situations but makes significant mistakes

Band score 4

Has frequent problems arerstanding and conveying information clearly, especially in unfamiliar situations involving