IELTS Energy 1457: What is the Difference Between General and Academic IELTS?
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1457. What is the difference between general and academic IELTS? ♪

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

Today, you'll learn the differences in the IELTS exam that students take as compared to those who are looking to immigrate and work. You may be surprised to learn that they're not as different as people think. Listen today to learn why.

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Hello, Aubrey. How's it going today? I am great. How are you? Wonderful. I'm excited that we got this question from a near native speaker from South Africa. So his first language is Afrikaans and his second language is English. And I have been to

to South Africa like twice and so I recognize the situation yeah I can imagine I when I was in Barcelona when I was 18 all of the friends I met were from South Africa I love South African accent and their English was perfect or nearly perfect so yeah it's interesting a good question today yeah

Yeah, totally. So without further ado, we're talking about general versus academic IELTS today. And Aubrey, can you read Willem's question, please? Yes, I said, I did not start with IELTS prepping yet. I came across your IELTS podcast on Spotify. I'm currently busy with a job interview in Australia. I'm from South Africa, and you need an IELTS test to go to Australia.

So my native language is Afrikaans, but business is in English. So my English is good, but the spelling part is not so good. My question is, is the test the same for students and people that go over for work? So really his question is, what's the difference between general and academic IELTS, right? Exactly. Exactly. So yes, Willem, there is a difference between

students that are going to study for in university that are taking IELTS for academic purposes will take the academic exam. But those such as yourself, Willem, who are going to immigrate, get a job, looking for permanent residency, then you are required to take the general exam. So how

How are they different, Aubrey? Yeah, we're going to dive into this for each section of the exam, listening, reading, speaking, and writing. We're going to share exactly how they are different and where they're the same because some sections are totally the same.

Exactly, exactly. So let's get into it. Let's talk about listening first. Okay, guys, are you ready? The biggest difference between listening on academic and general is nothing. There is no difference. Listening is exactly the same. You sit in the same room. There's no like marks on your test, like this is academic, this is general. No, it is the exact same

test for listening, no matter which IELTS exam you signed up for. Yeah, so the audio is the same difficulty level. There's nothing they're trying to make trickier. The questions aren't more difficult. So that's one good thing to know. Listening will be no different. Exactly. But reading. Now, reading

a little bit different, right? A little bit different. And we'll give you a tip for how to prepare for this difference in just a moment, but let's talk about how they are different first. How is the general reading exam, Aubrey, different than academic? Yeah, it's going to have one to two more passages on the general test.

Academic is often harder academic texts. They might be longer. Whereas on the general reading test, you may have like a pamphlet, a brochure, something that has less text.

Exactly, exactly. So the text types, as we say, those are different, right? So academic is like a magazine article, a journal article, a news article, something that is a longer passage. You will always have three passages on the academic reading exam, as Aubrey said. General, it varies. You could have three, you could have five, but the thing is the text types themselves are easier. The content is easier.

So that's where the differences end, though. Aubrey, how are they actually the same? Now you have the exact same amount of time for the test, and there are the same amount of questions. So when it comes for planning how long to spend on each question, it will be the same, whether you're preparing for general or academic.

Yeah, exactly. Same question types as well. So really, guys, here's our big tip today for reading. Even if you're doing the general training exam, we do recommend you prepare with academic practice tests because the question types are the same, the strategies are the same, the timing is the same. So if you practice with that harder exam, the academic exam, it will make the general test seem super easy.

Yes, it will feel really easy when you have these shorter, simpler texts to find questions, you know, answers in rather than all of those long passages. I love that you're setting yourself up for success on test day, setting yourself up for it to feel pretty easy.

On this podcast, we are all about your IELTS score. What the examiner is looking for in speaking and writing. What tricks to watch out for in listening and reading. And what strategies you need for all four sections. We want you to get the score you need on IELTS and be done with this exam.

Before you pay all that money to take the exam, you have to be sure that you'll get the score you need. Find out now with our free IELTS band score quiz at allearsenglish.com slash myscore. It only takes five minutes and we'll give you extra free study materials for your exact score. Check it out now. All Ears.

all ears, english.com/myscore. All right now writing. This is really where the biggest difference is, is in writing. Um, I would say like if you're a general training student,

then really writing is the only thing you have to prepare differently for, to be honest, right? So what is the difference here between academic and general writing? Yeah, for task one, the general essay will be a letter. You'll be given three bullet points that you have to cover each one in your letter. So we recommend a separate paragraph to discuss each of these bullet points.

And you really have to think about tone. Depending on who you're writing that letter to, your tone might be very informal to a friend, for example, semi-formal if it's to like a neighbor that you know but not really well, or it might need to be very formal if it's to like the owner of a company or maybe it's a complaint letter. So that's vital that your vocabulary is going to change depending on who you're writing to. Totally, exactly. And on academic terms,

There's no choice in tone, right? It is only academic tone for task one and task two. What does task one look like on the academic exam? Yeah, so it's going to be a chart or a graph or maybe a process diagram. And the charts will be different. There might be pie charts, bar charts.

So you will need to expose yourself to some of these, right? Like get familiar with those types of charts so that you can quickly look at yours on test day and figure out what information is being shown because you're going to need to report the most important numbers or the most important information.

Totally, totally. I think that general training task one is easier. You're writing a letter. However, do not assume guys that it is easy. You still have to know what the examiner is looking for. So Aubrey mentioned something that is really important to remember. You have to give a lot of details about each bullet point in the question.

So separate those bullet points into different paragraphs so that way you're sure to provide at least two details for each of the bullet points. So no matter which test you're taking, you have to know what the examiner is looking for to score you highly.

Yes. And then for academic IELTS, you need to determine if charts are static, meaning like a snapshot one point in time or change over time where it's showing how information changed over a period of time. And you also need to practice reporting what you see overall. You're required to share an overall trend. That takes some practice, too.

Exactly, exactly. Okay, so what about task two for general and academic? Are those questions different? Yeah, the questions are a little more difficult. General, it might be an easier issue, like a less complicated issue.

And the tests, I mean, the essays are the same, right? Opinion essays, argument essays, problem solution. So the different types of essays you write are the same, but the questions might look a little different. Let's share a couple examples, Jessica. Yeah, awesome. All right.

So an example of a general training task two question might be, some students travel abroad for one year before starting university. What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing this?

You're talking about a gap year. Every IELTS student has practiced this topic. I'm sure it's very common. Sometimes it comes up in speaking part three. So you can see it's a little bit easier to talk about that topic. It is more accessible, right? You're going to have more ideas and more vocabulary for that topic. You're talking about traveling versus studying. Easy peasy. But

An academic essay question usually will not be that easy. Sometimes you might get lucky, right? But usually the academic task two question is more difficult. What's an example of an academic one, Aubrey? Yeah, here's an example. Some people think that space exploration is a waste of money and the funds should be relocated to other more needed areas.

To what extent do you agree? So you can see that this is more complicated. It's possibly something you haven't thought about yet. And not only do you have to talk about whether or not space exploration is a waste of money, you have to also cover this other issue of like, should funds be allocated elsewhere? If so, to what? There's a lot more to this question.

Yeah, a lot. It's way more complicated. So the biggest thing to keep in mind though, guys, for general training and academic writing is that

The examiner uses just one rubric, right? We have one grading chart, okay, that covers both academic and general. So essentially the examiner's looking for the same things, linking words, vocabulary, organization. It's just the only difference is how you accomplish that in writing task one is different, right? Because they're totally different questions. But for writing task two, it's

It's the same. You're writing a four paragraph essay, right? The examiner is looking for exactly the same things. Exactly right. And if you guys are looking for an online course or some kind of course to prepare for IELTS, be sure to look into this. Make sure that the course goes into the details between each. Whatever your site, you need to have like a specific module for either general task one or academic task one because they are very different.

So definitely in 3 Keys IELTS, you'll find that. Sign up at allearsenglish.com/keys. But this will be vital for any training course to really make sure that you understand what the differences are and prepare you to write those essays. Exactly. Exactly. So writing is the biggest thing that you're going to prepare for as far as how they are different. And that brings us to the final part of the IELTS exam, speaking, which is exactly the same.

No differences between academic and general. Exactly, right? It's the same students going to the same place for the speaking exam. So that's one good thing that regardless, you're going to prepare the same for these IELTS speaking answers. Exactly, exactly. All right, guys. So no matter which test you're preparing for, like Aubrey said, our course covers it all. So go to allearsenglish.com slash K-E-Y-S and check it out now.

Yes. Awesome. Excited for you guys to check that out. And I'll see you next time, Jessica. All right. Awesome. Bye, Aubrey. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash my score.

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