IELTS General Here In Panama

Last month I told you about the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages. The whole world recognizes it and that you can take official exams that correspond to the framework, so you know exactly what your English level is… Great for employment and immigration purposes.

IELTS Exams

There are two IELTS exams: IELTS General and IELTS Academic. The General is used for immigration. The USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa accept IELTS for immigration purposes. And IELTS is accepted by universities worldwide—not just those in English-speaking universities. A lot of foreign universities teach in English. I know of somebody who’s studying at a Chinese university, but he studies in English. German universities teach engineering in English, for example. And Scandinavian universities, which are about $8,800 a year, also teach in English. In fact, Scandinavian universities offer a USA-type degree for less than half the USA price (USA university fees are around $20,000 a year).

IELTS General In Panama

The test is divided up into listening, reading, writing, and speaking, and it takes just under three hours. In Panama it costs $230. The exams are usually held monthly.

IELTS General Speaking

Check out the speaking part here on my YouTube channel. It takes between 10 to 15 minutes and is usually with a British examiner. In part one he asks some simple questions to help you relax and for him to see if you can have a more informal conversation. Topics may be your job, where you study, where you like to go on holiday, your family… In part two you are given a card that has a specific topic. You have to speak on that topic for two minutes and you have one minute to prepare what you’re going to say. Then in part three, the examiner askes you some questions regarding the topic in part two. These questions will require a more formal answer (not like part one). There is a specific way to answer these questions and simply knowing English is often not enough. They want you to structure your answers in a specific way.

IELTS General Writing

There are two writing activities. You should spend about 20 minutes on the first and 40 on the second as you have one hour in total. In IELTS General, the first activity is a letter and second is a discourse. And I cannot stress enough—you need to follow a specific structure. My mother, a nice British lady who turned 70 this year and has spent all her life working in a office, would have a tough time passing the IELTS writing test. Why? Of course, her English is impeccable, but she doesn’t know the structure they are looking for. This is why doing an IELTS preparation course is imperative. To pass this exam you need more than just English. You need IELTS exam technique.

IELTS General Reading And Listening

The listening takes just over 30 minutes. You can only hear the recoding once. Correct spelling is necessary, but USA spelling as well as non-USA spelling are accepted (not many but some words are spelled differently in the UDS. For example, the USA spells color and every other English-speaking country spells it colour).

In the general, reading takes one hour and there are three sections. Again, there is a special exam technique that you need to know if you want to complete the reading in the time given. And you’ll be surprised… it involves less reading than you may realize.

IELTS Levels

Lastly, IELTS is a multilevel test. This means that if you don’t get many questions correct, your level will be CEFR A1. On the contrary, you’ll be CEFR C1.

Here are the CEFR levels that I mentioned last month…

The CEFR has three bands—A (basic), B (intermediate), and C (proficient). Each band is divided into two:

A1 = lower basic (hopefully you won’t be at this level!)
A2 = upper basic (hopefully not this level either!)
B1 = lower intermediate (IELTS score 4)
B2 = upper intermediate (IELTS score 6)
C1 = lower proficient (IELTS score 8)
C2 = proficient (IELTS score 9)

Next month I’m going to let you know about other exams, including IELTS Academic. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel and if you want to do the IELTS exam here in Panama, please, I cannot stress enough how important it is to do a preparation course so you can learn the exam technique.

Go here to ask for more info.