IELTS Full Course at One Place (100% Free)

Introduction

IELTS Conqueror’s Full Course is absolutely free and you will learn all sections, i.e Listening, Reading, Writing & Speaking, with this course. So, buckle up your seat belts and get ready to witness the amazing experience that will definitely upgrade your English level and will help you score better bands in IELTS examination.

IELTS or the International English Language Testing System is a standard exam that evaluates the English communication skills of aspirants who are looking to immigrate to Native English speaking countries like UK, Australia, Canada, USA etc.

What does it mean ?

The English speaking countries have a defined protocol where they assess the skills of non native speakers.

How does this help ?

This helps the organisations or the institutions in selecting appropriate candidates from the world. If they want to hire anyone or want to enroll a student for further education in their institution, IELTS help them filter out the incapable candidates. There is no point of getting those people in English speaking countries who are ineffective communicators and cannot participate in the country’s growth and development.

Exam Pattern

IELTS exam is of two types :

• Academic – Mainly for students.
• General Training – Mainly for PR application.

Both the exam types have following sections :

• Listening
• Reading
• Writing
• Speaking

Learning the sections step by step

IELTS Listening 

Introduction

IELTS listening is the first exam that will come in the sequence. Whether you appear for online exam or paper based, listening module will be first one followed by Reading and Writing. This information is crucial and you should be prepared to listen the audio in the beginning of your exam.

Listening pattern / Structure

• Listening is the First exam of the sequence .
• You will get breaks in between the individual modules of listening.
• Paper based students get 10 minutes after completion of all section to fill the answers from rough paper whereas no such time is permitted to students appearing for computer based exam.
• Listening module consists of 40 Questions and 4 sections,
• Section 1 is comparatively easier followed by section 2,3 and then 4.
• You have to Answer while listening to the Audio.
• Every section Audio will play and student is supposed to answer the 10 related questions. After completion of one section, the second section will start.
• Headphones will be provided.
• You will get a break to read questions of every section and then the audio will begin. It is also possible that you will get one audio for 5 questions or sometimes 1 audio together for 10 questions.

Important Points

• Check your headphones are working & adjust volume levels.
• Use your breaks effectively to read the next questions.
• Audio will be played only once.
• Be smart with distractions :
• Audio might say one content and you might think that answer is right. But be cautious in listening to full sentence. For example,
  • Question says – Tentative date of arrival.
  • Audio says – 21 february and then later on it says I was wrong, it is 22 February. This kind of audio is called distraction and you have to be alert while filling the data.

Sample

Audio –

https://ieltsconqueror.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/5.1-1.mp3

Questions 1-5

Complete the information below. Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Apartment for rent
Street	Bridge street
Street №	(1)
Included utilities	Gas, heat, water, (2)  , phone
Not included utilities	(3)
Public transport	Underground, (4)
Tenant’s name	John (5)

Choose THREE letters, A–F.

Which THREE things should the caller bring to the meeting?

1.  Driving license
2.  Passport
3.  Tax bill
4.  Employment contract
5.  Reference from a friend or colleague
6.  Reference from an employer

Choose the correct letters, A, B, or C.

9. What time do the caller and apartment manager decide to meet?

1.  5:30 PM
2.  6:00 PM
3.  6:30 PM

10. Where do they decide to meet?

1.  Near the manager’s apartment
2.  At the caller’s future apartment
3.  At the office

Answers

Check your Responses

1. 32
2. electricity
3. Internet
4. bus
5. Hooper
6. B
7. D
8. E
9. C
10. B

---

Accents that will be used in the IELTS Listening Audio

Your audio can have any of the following accents :

• UK / British
• Canadian
• American
• Australian

90% of the time it is British. To practise and enhance your listening skills, you should watch English movies.

Troubles in Listening : Identifying the root causse

We are non native speakers and hence not habitual to hear the conversations. If you communicate in English only at certain situation, then you are not developing your English communications skills.

Solution

Make English your part of life. Start listening to English songs with Lyrics.

Types of Questions

Telephone Conversation

• Difficulty Level – Easy
• Section asked in – Generally Section 1 of listening module

In this type of listening section, you will hear two people talking on phone and you will be filling out the details in the form. For example, Person A calling Person B for a hotel reservation. They will be exchanging key information related to the booking and the questions in the exams will be based on those details.

Monologue

• Difficulty Level – Tougher than Telephone conversation
• Section asked in – Generally Section 2 of listening module

Instead of two people interacting, one person will be speaking on a topic.

Conversation between 2 or 3 People with multiple options to select

• Difficulty Level – Toughest
• Section asked in – Generally Section 3 of listening module

This involves multiple people talking about one topic. The problem with this type is that generally the answer options are bigger than the questions. So, you waste time reading the answers and miss out the spoken content.

Map Labelling

• Difficulty Level – If you miss something than this is the toughest. Else easy.
• Section asked in – Generally Section 3 or 4 of listening module

You will be listening to instructions talking about a map and you have to mark the places as described in the conversation.

Flow Chart

• Difficulty Level – Medium.
• Section asked in – Generally Section 3 or 4 of listening module

It could be monologue or conversation involving multiple people, but the questions will be one after other like you will a flow chart.

Matching

• Difficulty Level – Medium but Tricky
• Section asked in – Generally Section 3 or 4 of listening module

You will have one question than you will have multiple options given. Based on the audio, you have pick the best suitable option. There could be a possibility that you will be asked to select two options.

Must Read topics for IELTS Listening :

1. Top 5 Proven Tips for IELTS Computer based listening.

IELTS Reading

Introduction

IELTS reading is the second test of your exam. It becomes tough because after one hour of listening, you might be a bit exhausted.

Reading Pattern / Structure

1. The structure will be different for GT and Academic
   • GT – 5 passages
   • Academic – 3 Passages
2. Passages might be more in GT, but are generally smaller as compared to Academic.
3. You get 60 minutes to solve the questions.

Important Points

1. Answer should be grammatically correct.
2. You should write within word limit. For example, if question says write no more than two words then you should ensure you do not write more than the specified limit.
3. Write Correct spelling.
4. 40 Questions will be there in 60 minutes. If you are on paper based pattern, you will be required to transfer answers from rough sheet to Answer sheet.
5. Always read the questions before you read paragraphs. This will help you identify what you have to find. You can unsderstand this with an example. Consider that you have a ticket which mentions your seat number. What will you do, will you go inside bus and look every seat and then read the alloted seat number or will you first look into your seat number and then go and find that seat. Whichever is convenient for you, you can proceed accordingly.

Types of Questions

Matching Headings

You will be getting a content with multiple paragraphs. Now every paragraph will talk about a specific content and you have to identify the title for that. You will have multiple options and you have to select the best suitable title based on the content.

Example

Answer

Paragraph A – II

TRUE / FALSE / NOT Given

Trust me, this is the toughest part of Reading. You won’t even realise this until you get a surprise in the examination. The biggest confusion would be with statements where you can predict the meaning and it looks obvious and you select TRUE but if the content is not specifcially mentioned in the passage, it has to be marked as NOT Given.

Sample Question

Summary Completion

You have to select the summary of the content or the section of the article. For example, consideer the following pasage :

Answers

Multiple Choice Questions

Answer

C

IELTS Writing

IELTS writing Structure

• Writing is the last exam section that is requested after Listening and Reading.
• As it is the last section. If you are exhausted, you might be unable to respond. 
• Most difficult part out of all. 80% of the exam takers struggle with this section.
• Consists of two tasks
  • Academic
    • Task 1 – Report (Graphic)
    • Task 2 – Essay
  • General Training
    • Task 1 – Letter
    • Task 2 – Essay (Same as of academic)
• Time allotted – 1 Hr
  • Task 1 – 20 minutes
  • Task 2 – 40 minutes
• You are free to distribute the time between task 1 and task 2 as per your convenience.
• Minimum word requirement
  • Task 1 – At least 150 words
  • Task 2 – at least 250 words.
• Scoring pattern :
  • Task 1 – 40%
  • Task 2 – 60%

Important Tips

• Do not waste your time in writing only one task. Both have dedicated weightage and hence spend time appropriately on both the tasks.
• You cannot go off topic. For example topic asks your daily routine and you start writing about your gym time and gym schedule. This will impact your score negatively.
• Do not write memorized response.

Sample Answer Sheet

If you have never ever given IELTS exam, you can look into this sample sheet.

Note – You can get the latest sheet reference from official IELTS IDP / British council website : https://ielts.idp.com/

Criteria / Rules for Scoring

Task Achievement / Task Response

You should ensure you address all aspects / points asked in the question. If question asks 2 points and you write perfect English but only talk about one point, you will losse marks for your task response.

Lexical Resources

This criteria is same for speaking as well. If you practice in either of the section, you will be able to use it in both. Layman meaning of Lexical resource is Vocabulary. But this is not just limited to good synonyms.

Concept of CEFR

English words are classified into different levels based on their advancement. These are called CEFERs. Some words may be A1, some might be A2. Similarly it will be B1,B2 and so on. You have to choose majority of the qualitative words for better lexical resources.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

You should ensure the correct usage of grammar and should showcase wide range of your knowledge.

Click here to Jump to Grammar Section.

Coherence & Cohesion

This is very important. Your sentences should be connected and should create a logical flow. It should not just focus on content, rather it should focus on well organised structure. To achieve coherence and cohesion, please read these articles. They are very important.

1. IELTS Writing Task 2 Essay Structure that will help you score high in Coherence and Cohesion
2. How to generate ideas for IELTS Writing Task 2 (Essay Writing Task)

Types of Questions

You will have only three types of questions :

1. Letter (Only in General Training IELTS)
2. Report Writing (Only in Academic IELTS Writing)
3. Essay (Common in both GT and Academic)

Letter Writing

Letters can be formal / informal. It could be to your friend or to any official representative. Here is a best solution for this problem. I always tell my students that plan your actions to be the best. This approach which I am going to tell you now will drastically improve your letter writing skills.

Whatever the topic is going to be, you have to start with the structure.

IELTS writing Letter Structure

To understand the structure, you should familiriaze yourself to the questions. Every IELTS question generally asks for sub queries. Meaning, you will not get a simple statement asking you to write a letter to your friend, rather you will get a question with sub queries. Here is an example,

Write a letter to the course director at the cookery school. In your letter,

• describe what you enjoyed about the course
• say how much cooking you’ve done since the course
• suggest another cookery course you’d like the school to offer

Now whatever letter you are requested to write, you have to follow the below format.

• Paragraph 1 – Intro Paragraph
• Paragraph 2 – To cover Question number 1 of your exam
• Paragraph 3 – Cover Second question
• Paragraph 4 – Cover Third question and conclude.

Essay Writing

This topic carries more weightage. If you can stick to our strategy, you will definitely improve your score.

IELTS Essay Writing Structure

Just like the letter approach, here also we have to adhere to a definite writing structure. This will be devided into :

1) Introduction Paragraph

• Sentence 1 – General Statement.
• Sentence 2 – Paraphrase of the Question.
• Sentence 3 – Thesis.

2) Body Paragraph 1

• Sentence 1 – Heading Sentence of paragraph
• Sentence 2 – Use Connector + Idea 1
• Sentence 3 – Explanation of Idea with example
• Sentence 4 – Connector + Idea  2
• Sentence 5 – Explanation of Idea with Example
• Sentence 6 – Closing

3) Body Paragraph 2

• Sentence 1 – Use Connector + Idea 1
• Sentence 2 – Explanation of Idea 1 with example
• Sentence 3 – Connector + Idea  2
• Sentence 4 – Explanation of Idea with Example
• Sentence 5 – Closing

4) Conclusion Paragraph

• Sentence 1 – Paraphrase Thesis statement (As in Introduction)
• Sentence 2 – Summarize Key point + Your opinion
• Sentence 3 – Final Thought

The complete tutorial for Essay writing is available on our blog (Click here to Read)

IELTS Report Writing

In this type of question, you will be shown a pictorial information which could include graphs, pie chart, table or any diagram.

While writing your response, make sure you :

1. Summarize key features
2. Compare and Contrast Data
3. Describe Stages or Processes.

IELTS Report Writing Structure

1. Introduction:
   • Paraphrase the question
   • Overview: Summarize the main features or trends of the visual in 1-2 sentences.
2. Body Paragraph 1:
   • Organize information logically: Group related data together.
   • Use Main Topic sentences
   • Provide specific details of data from visuals
3. Body Paragraph 2 (Optional. Mainly used while comparison / time based data / Info that cannot be clubbed together)
   • Organize information logically: Group related data together.
   • Use Second Main Topic sentences
   • Provide specific details of data from visuals
4. Conclusion:
   • Summarize key findings with paraphrasing

IELTS Speaking

Introduction

IELTS speaking is generally scheduled on a day different than your Listening / Reading or Writing exam. It could be earlier or later or even on the same day. But key point is that this will be a separate exam. I personally feel speaking and listening are the toughest as there is only one chance to prepare your response. If you miss, you do not even get time to think.

You must also be thinking what is the best time for giving IELTS exam. Our informative article will guide you decide wisely. Read it.

Pattern / Structure

• IELTS speaking is devided into 3 different parts :
  • Part 1 – Introductory questions.
    • This will be all about you.
    • To get the conversation going examiner will ask questions about your likes dislikes, your hobbies etc.
    • It is important to note that do not give one word anwers. Purpose of these question is to begin the conversation and keep it going.
  • Part 2 – Card Task
    • This could include any topic, Example
      • How famous is your hometown.
      • Describe your latest holiday experience.
      • How is your education related to your job role.
  • Part 3 – Follow up Questions
    • Once you are done with the topic, examiner will continue to ask follow up questions based on your response of Part 2.
    • Again the purpose of this section is to get the conversation going .
    • Also, it is designed in a way that any user with well prepared answers has to respond based on real time scenario.

Criteria / Rules for Scoring

Coherence & Fluency

It is very important that during your speaking evaluation, you should be fluent with your speach.

Lexical Resources

This includes the following items.

1. Vocabulary (Qaulity)
2. Synonyms
3. Appropriate usage.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

You need to use Grammar appropriately to score good marks. But if you want to score high, you need to consider the following points :

1. Usage of tenses and Passive Voice
   • This is interesting to know that if you keep on stretching your response with a monotonous structure, you are not going to score high. You might be using correct Tense but you have to showcase your wide knowledge of English. Using Passive voice is a key. Practice speaking sentences in your day to day life so that you present to be a natural speaker while
2. Usage of various types of sentence structure
   • This includes using simple sentences, complex sentences, compound sentences etc for communicating. This will definitely give you the best score.
3. General Grammar Usage
   • You should be familiar to the modal verbs, nouns, pronouns etc so that you tend to speak like a native speaker. Let me give you a very layman example :
     • He wakes up. He takes bath. He goes to School – POOR sentence
     • He takes bath every morning before going to school – Good Sentence.
4. Pronunciation
   • For speaking any word, it is important to know its correct pronunciation. Though this factor is not a major one if you are able to convey the meaning. But if you are drastrically deviating, you will lose marks for this.

Important tips for Speaking

1. Never ever give one word answers. The exam is to showcase your English not to be technically correct.
2. Do not worry even if you are giving fake response. For example the question is to talk about your recent theatre experience. Probably you might have not been to theatre ever in life. But you can still frame up the response with an imagination.

Other Tutorials for IELTS Speaking :

1. How does usage of Slangs affect your IELTS score