1. Communication (Reading)  Reading quickly is very important.  In IELTS you are not reading for pleasure, you are reading for a purpose which is, answering the questions. So reading quickly is essential without the need to get the meaning of every word  IELTS reading section contains 2750 words, it is given only 1 hour.  Therefore, there are 2 procedures must be applied to achieve the required reading speed, they are:  Skimming: Reading the text quickly to get the general idea of what it is about, without the need to understand every word.  Scanning: After reading the questions we scan –reading quickly but less than skimming- the text to find the answers (specific information).

2. Communication (Reading) 2  The questions in IELTS are paraphrased, meaning that they say the same thing in different words.  Questions are always in the order in which the answers occur in the reading passage. This will help you to see if an answer is NOT GIVEN.  An answer must be based on what is in the text, not on one’s own knowledge or what is likely to be true.  Underline the line in the passage that contains the right answer.  Do not leave a question not answered. You might get it right.

3. Communication (Speaking)  It is preferable to answer with full utterances not just a single word. Ex:  (Speaking about your family)  My family consist of 5 people. √ 5 X  There are 5 of us in our family. √  I come from a large/small family. √ large / small X  I find it easy/difficult to remember the words. Remember words X

4. Communication (Grammar)  The writing section in IELTS is an academic one.  Academic writing is a formal and impersonal writing.  The Passive voice is often used in the academic writing to give it the sense of formality and impersonality.  The passive voice is used when the subject is unknown or not important.  Grammatical Rule:  The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.  Verb to be + past participle of the main verb. Ex:  Ahmad broke the window.  The window is broken.

5. Communication (Listening)  Make sure to read the task carefully to get a general idea of what kind of information is required.  Reading through the question before you listen is always a good idea. It helps you guess what sort of information is missing.  Make sure you don’t write more words than you are told.  Part 1 in the listening section tests your understanding of specific information such as (dates, places, phone numbers, a price, person, company, etc.). Also, spelling.  If it is a name of a person, company, etc., it will be spelt for you.  When a letter is repeated we say “double” {ee = double E}

6. Communication Listening (2)  In phone numbers we can pronounce 0 as “oh”.  Years between 2000 and 2010 we say, for example, ‘two thousand and one’.  When a number is repeated we say 44 “double 4”.  Writing a date could be like any of these “ 13 th June, June 13 th, 13 June, June 13”.  These symbols (€, £ and $) could be used to tell the currency.  You can write an abbreviation of a measurement (e.g. 25m )