IELTS Exam Preparation Course

IELTS Exam Preparation Courses

• Level B1 (Intermediate)+
• Course Duration 4+ weeks
• Start Dates Every Monday in the UK and set dates in Vancouver
• Lessons per week 20 or 28 (or 30 in Vancouver)
• Lesson length 50 minutes
• Maximum in class 12
• Available at Brighton, Eastbourne, London Central, London Highgate, Cambridge, Vancouver

St Giles International provides preparation courses for the internationally recognised IELTS (International English Language Testing Service) exam. This exam is an entry requirement for universities (undergraduate or postgraduate courses) and further education in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is also recognised by many governments and international employers.

This programme focuses on expanding the students’ ability to both understand and use complex academic language incorporating General English to improve grammar, vocabulary and communicative skills. Read our pre-course guidance document here for advice and information about taking the IELTS preparation course.

Our IELTS Course Timeline

We offer the following preparation courses:

• 4 weeks + courses starting every Monday at Brighton, Eastbourne, London Central and London Highgate
• 4 week courses with set start dates at Vancouver

The course offers 20 lessons per week in the mornings of IELTS preparation with the option to add 8 afternoon General English lessons per week.

• Available as a module of one of our long-term ISC programmes 
• Exams held regularly - normally every 4 weeks (2 in London)

IELTS Exams

Regular IELTS exams are scheduled throughout the year. Contact St Giles for further information

The IELTS academic reading exam

The IELTS academic reading exam consists of a 1-hour test in 3 separate sections with 40 questions based on 1 reading text (between 2000 and 2750 words) per section. During the course of the test students will be given a question sheet (this may be written on during the test but must not be removed from the examination room after the test), and an answer sheet (all answers must be written on the answer sheet before the end of the 1-hour test).

The IELTS academic writing exam

The IELTS academic writing exam consists of 2 tasks that are to be completed during the 1-hour test.

• Task 1 – Students will be required to describe factual information on displayed/provided media such as line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, a table or a picture describing a process. Students sitting this exam will be required to provide a minimum of 150 words for this task.
• Task 2 – Students will be asked to write an essay on a general academic topic. Students sitting this exam will be required to provide a minimum of 250 words for this task.

The IELTS academic oral exam

The IELTS academic oral exam consists of 3 sections on a one-to-one basis between the student and examiner:

• Section 1 – The student will be asked to provide verbal answers to general introductory questions, personal information questions and finally a series of questions on 2 topics of general interest.
• Section 2 – During this section the examiner will provide the student with a card containing a subject and a few guiding questions on said subject. The student will have an optional 1 minute to prepare with paper and pencil before talking for between 1 and 2 minutes on the subject provided. Following this, the examiner will ask 1 or 2 questions during 3 or 4 minutes to finish off this section.
• Section 3 – During this section the examiner will ask more questions based on the subject provided in section 2. These questions will be more demanding and will require more thought on the part of the student.

The IELTS academic listening exam

During the IELTS academic listening exam students will be asked to listen to a recording and answer a series of questions with 4 separate test sections; this will last approximately 30 minutes. After this the student will be given an extra 10 minutes to properly complete the answer sheet.

IELTS Practice

In this section we have provided some useful IELTS practice tips which may help you to better prepare for the exam.

• Carefully study the exam format to ensure that you are fully aware of what will be required on the day. Focus your efforts on listening to, writing, speaking and reading the English language.
• Study the types of questions that will be asked and practise all of the required answer formats, written and spoken.
• Ask a friend, family member or, even better, a fellow student to take the place of the examiner to conduct a mock test under the above mentioned, required examination conditions.