IELTS is the most acceptable form of testing the proficiency of English language for students seeking admission in the overseas universities. It’s applicable for those interested in joining graduation courses. This test is important because it reflects the skills of candidates in the English language who wish to stay in foreign countries for a considerable period. If they aren’t good enough in English, it will become a tough task for them to survive in a foreign country. The IELTS passing score for USA is 6.5 to 7.
The IELTS Exam syllabus has the following sections:
Academic – Writing
The Academic writing section part has two different tasks. The questions asked in this section are of general nature of a basic level that any school student could answer.
Task One
Applicants get a graph, chart, table, and diagram and questions are based on these. They have to explain and interpret the data by using a flowchart.
Task Two
Applicants need to write an essay on a topic giving their views, argument and reasons. Ideally, the tone of answers should be formal and academic with suitable examples.
IELTS Exam syllabus 2023 – Speaking
There are three parts in this test, with a provision of recording for the evaluation purpose. This is an online test where the examiner evaluates candidate’s skills in spoken English. The test is of maximum 15 minutes duration.
Part One
Questions for this test are related to candidate’s family, educational background, hobbies, work experience, and personality. The duration of this test is four to five minutes.
Part Two
For this test, applicants receive a printed card containing a topic and they have to speak about it. They get one minute for rehearsing and another two minutes for speaking.
Part Three
This part is the extension of part 2, where examiner asks few more questions related to the Part two topic. Candidates need to discuss abstract ideas and issues. The test takes four to five minutes to complete.
There are those who may be interested in the GMAT exam. To help them, let’s discuss some key aspects of the GMAT pattern. The exam takes place in almost every major country in the world. The GMAT pattern includes four sections:
Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
Integrated Reasoning (IR)
Quantitative Reasoning (QR)
Verbal Reasoning (VR)
Let’s discuss each of these sections in GMAT format:
GMAT Pattern for Analytical Writing Assessment
The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) section of the GMAT tests your ability to analyze an argument and express your views and ideas. To do well in this test, you should critically analyze the Reasoning behind the argument.
Duration: 30 minutes
Pattern: Analyzing arguments on a given topic & and an Issue
Score: The GMAT AWA percentile score is the percentage of candidates among whom you gave the best performance. For instance, if you scored an AWA of 4.5, your performance was better than 43% of candidates. The GMAT percentile score isn’t same every year, and it depends on the number of candidates.
GMAT Integrated Reasoning Pattern & Score
The Integrated Reasoning section evaluates your ability to collect information in various formats from different sources—skills necessary to succeed in our technologically advanced, data-driven world.
Duration: 30 minutes
Pattern: 12 questions of the following types: Reasoning from multiple sources, Interpretation of graphics, Two-part analysis, and Table Analysis.
Score: Usually, a score of 6 or above is considered good. If you score a 6, you’ll be in the 64th percentile; therefore, you’re ahead of about two-thirds of the candidates. A 7 would place you in the top 20% of candidates, and a perfect 8 would put you in the top 10%.