How to Score High in IELTS for Your Immigration Plans in 2020

IELTS, which is known in full as the International English Language Testing System, is an English language exam required to be sat by international candidates, who intend to study or work in an English-speaking country. The major countries that request IELTS for university admissions include Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

IELTS primarily measures your ability to communicate in the four (4) fundamental English language skills, which are listening, reading, speaking as well as writing. It’s owned and conducted as a group comprising British Council, IDP Education Australia, & Cambridge English Language Assessment.

In this post, we will be showing you how to score high in IELTS for your immigration plans in 2020.

What Are IELTS Categories?

We have two (2) categories available under this exam. These are the explained as follows:

1. IELTS General Training — this is for those individuals that want to immigrate to Canada, the United Kingdom as well as Australia.
2. IELTS Academic: this IELTS category is for those that intend applying for higher education/professional registration.

Tips to Prepare for Different Sections in IELTS

On the exam day, you will be required to complete the Reading, Listening, and Writing sections without taking any breaks between them. As for the Speaking section, you are free to complete it up to a week before the other tests or after them.

Outlined below are some tips to score high in each IELTS category to boost your immigration plans in 2020:

Listening

This section will last 30 minutes, and you are required to listen to four (4) recordings, after which you will supply answers to a set of questions.

You can practise reading comprehension beforehand. Also, carefully read questions before you start listening. In the exam, you will find spoken clues in words & phrases, which will guide you in answering the questions.

Reading

The Reading category will last 60 minutes (1 hour) and is comprised of forty (40) questions, which are given to test a variety of reading skills, including reading for gist, reading for main ideas, skimming, understanding logical argument & identifying writer’s opinions, attitudes as well as purpose.

The only tip that can help you ace this section is to practise. By engaging in skillful reading, you will be able to master use of critical words, ideas & general context.

Writing

The time duration of the writing category is also 60 minutes (1 hour), and you’ll be given two (2) topics of general interest. These include the following:

Task 1: You’ll be presented with a situation and instructed to write a letter seeking information, or explaining that situation.

Task 2: Here, you’ll be required to compose an essay in response to a point of view, a problem, or an argument.

To perform very well in this category, try to express you point as clearly as possible and avoid copying words or phrases, which won’t be included in the final word count. Also, consider using descriptive words to make your essay have a more personalized touch.

Speaking

This section will last 11–14 minutes. In the speaking category, your use of spoken English will be tested.

To ace it, practise speaking English as much as you can and listen to the way you talk. Because no right or wrong answer is in the speaking category, you have to take your time and express yourself as clearly as possible.

Minimum IELTS Requirement for Canada PR Visa

Wrapping up, let’s take a look at the Express Entry program, which is a point-based system for managing the profiles of skilled immigrants, who have applied for Canada PR Visa under the four (4) economic immigration programs of the country. 

The programs are Federal Skilled Worker Program (FWSP), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) as well as Canadian Experience Program (CEP). For you to be part of the express pool, you must qualify under any one of these Canada’s immigration programs.

Further, you must have scored minimum Canadian Language Benchmark (also called CLB) level 7 or IELTS score 6 per band to qualify and apply for Canada PR Visa via FSWP. This table will throw more light on translating your IELTS score to CLB Levels:

You get awarded points via CRS once you can create an express profile. Also, 170 points is the maximum language proficiency CRS points awarded to you when applying with your partner or spouse. It is a maximum of 160 points when applying without a partner or a spouse.