A One-Stop Guide on IELTS Syllabus for 2024!

The IELTS syllabus is not strictly defined by a set list of topics, as The International English Language Testing System aims to assess a candidate's ability to use English in real-life situations. However, there are specific common themes and types of tasks that appear in each section. Moreover, knowing the syllabus is crucial for aspirants to score well and for the committee members to judge the ability of the candidate to study or work in an English-speaking nation. Thus, students must be aware of the course outline to score well. However, there are no minimum passing criteria. To secure admission to your dream university, you must score atleast an 8 band to be an expert user. To ease the process of success, you can take IELTS training from certified trainers. 

Section-wise IELTS Syllabus

The IELTS exam syllabus for the Speaking and Listening sections are the same; the IELTS exam syllabus for the Reading and Writing sections are different for the IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training formats of the exam. So, let's explore the course for each of the sections separately in detail:

1. Listening Section

The listening section of the IELTS exam is further divided into 4 tasks. In this, the first and second ones are built upon some social needs, and the third and fourth are based on educational situations. These conversations can be both dialogues and monologues. However, one point to consider is that each of these conversations will be heard only once. After that, you have to answer the questions: Multiple-choice, short-answers, sentence completion, diagram labelling, note completion and more. 

Topics Covered in the Examination

Each task of the listening section has a different theme, which is:

Section 1 & 2: About Daily Social Situations

• 1^st Recording: Conversation between 2 persons about an everyday situation.
• 2^nd Recording: A monologue set in a social context for daily life situations. 

Section 3 & 4: About Education & Training Situations

• 3^rd Recording: It will be a conversation between 4 persons set up in an educational context. 
• 4^th Recording: A monologue about an academic or educational situation. 

Skills Required to Ace the IELTS Listening Section

• Following aConversation
• Understand Conversation
• Retain Information
• Draw Conclusions

2. Speaking Section

The speaking section of the IELTS is like a structured interview that focuses on the candidate's general speaking skills. This is to judge their required English language proficiency to survive in the country and converse with the natives there. This section is classified into three tasks: Personal Interview, Speech, and Discussion.

Topics Covered in the Examination

Task 1: Introduction & Interview

This task is 4-5 minutes long, where you will be asked some ordinary questions about yourself and your background, such as hobbies, family, interests, education, and more. 

Task 2: Individual Long Turn

This task is 2-3 minutes long, and the examiner will provide you with a flashcard with a topic. Then, you will be given a minute or two to prepare for the theme and speak on it for about 2 minutes. After your speech, the examiner might ask you some questions on the basis of your understanding of the topic.

Task 3: A Discussion

This is 5-6 minutes long, where abstract discussions and deeper questions would take place on the topic provided in the previous task. 

Skills Required to Ace the IELTS Speaking Section

• Fluency & Coherence
• Apt Vocabulary
• Grammatical Skills
• Pronunciation

3. Writing Section

Unlike the listening and speaking sections, the writing section of the IELTS has a different curriculum for both types of IELTS exams. Here is the IELTS course syllabus for each of the types:

A. IELTS Academic

For the writing section of IELTS Academic, there are 2 tasks. However, there is no definite IELTS syllabus for this, and the topics are from general interests for study abroad aspirants only. 

• Task 1: You will be given a graph, table, diagram or chart and asked to describe, explain or summarize it in your own words. 

• Task 2: You will be asked to write an essay in response to a specific perspective, issue or argument. This argument is needed to be supported by the relevant evidence. 

B. IELTS General Training

The writing section of General Training has a different IELTS syllabus. It also has 2 tasks based on general interest. Besides this, aspirants can practice this through the magazine and editorials. 

• Task 1: Candidates will be asked to write a letter on a situation presented to request or inform as per the situation. This letter can be formal or semi-formal as per the requirement. 

• Task 2: Aspirants will be asked to draft an essay in response to a perspective or argument. This essay should be more personal than the academic one.

Skills Required to Ace the IELTS Writing Section

• Interpretation Data 
• Summarizing Information
• Formulating Perspectives
• Analysing Problems
• Balancing Points of Views

4. Reading Section

Similar to the writing section, the reading section also have a different IELTS course syllabus for both the versions. Although, both the types contains three long texts each but their context differs as per the purpose of the versions of IELTS.

• IELTS Academic: Three long paragraphs, which could be factual, descriptive, or analytical, will be given to aspirants. The source of these will be academic books, journals, research work and more. 

• IELTS General Training:Three long paragraphs will be given to aspirants which could be factual, descriptive or analytical. The source of these will be from companies' guidelines, brochures or advertisements and more. 

Skills Required to Ace the IELTS Reading Section

• Skimming the Gist
• Understanding Organisation 
• Scanning the Content
• Guessing Unknown Words

Preparation Tips

A candidate needs to prepare well for IELTS, as scoring higher will open the doors of their dream university. Thus, to get an 8+ band score, here are the tips listed by the study abroad consultants who are experts in the field. 

Effective Strategies for IELTS Writing Section

• Use the logical connection to attract the reader's attention. 
• Use a wide range of vocabulary, but ensure to correct spellings. 
• Skilfully arrange paragraphs to make them appealing.
• Develop an effective argument and support it with evidence. 
• Present main ideas in list format or highlight them.
• Answer each parts of the questions separately and in the right

Effective Strategies for IELTS Reading Section

• Examine the test to get along with the gist of it. 
• Scan the text to look for specific information. 
• Look for the details carefully: capital, bold, and underlined texts. 
• Do not use your understanding of the topic; instead, go with the dataavailable. 
• You read the questions first before you read the content. 

Effective Strategies for IELTS Listening Section

• Familiarise yourself with the various accents.
• Think in English; otherwise, it can change the meaning. 
• Listen in the first time and revise in the second. 
• Read the questions first and then listen to know where to focus. 
• Do not try to understand every word; rather, know the gist of it. 

Effective Strategies for IELTS Speaking Section

• Speak fluently and don't stress your accent.
• Use simple vocabulary that you can pronounce correctly.
• Do not repeat words or thoughts.
• Listen carefully to what is asked by the interviewer.
• Do not give one-line answers and try to extend them.
• Note down the key pointers so as not to skip them. 

Conclusion

The candidates can know from this information that there is no specific IELTS syllabus since it's not a subject. However, passing this exam is really important for them. So, they can get help from Gradding.com and the study abroad consultants will get their queries resolved in no time. They will also make sure to take up classes, provide study materials and train the applicant so that they are all set for the exam.