Writing
As you may know by now, the Task 2 Essay for both the IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training Writing tests will ask you to write a typical four to five–paragraph essay. The essay types fall into either argument, discussion, multi-question, opinion, or problem–solution. If you don’t know what these essay types are, you should spend some time learning about them. As the basis for these essays, you will probably have to give your opinion, think of a solution, or explore discussion points. Considering that then, IELTS has to provide topics that all test-takers will be able to write about.
Just imagine, could you write an opinion essay about the benefits of cardiac surgery? How about a discussion essay on the powerful leaderships of Canadian Prime Ministers’? Or can you write about problems in banking systems? All of these topics would be very difficult for 99% of people taking the IELTS. With the above in mind, IELTS has developed test topics that 99.9% of test-takers CAN write about. For example, discussing the benefits of healthy food might be a topic. Everyone knows something about food that is good or bad for us. Another topic could be arguing about the benefits of public transport. Almost everyone has some ideas about travel by buses, cars, and trains. You might also see a multi-part question about protecting important historic buildings in a country. The vast majority of people can think about famous old buildings that need to be protected, right? As you can see, these topics are something most people have ideas about. In short, if it is a common idea, it could be on the test.
As for Task 1 in the Writing test, there is nothing much to say. Task 1 in the IELTS Academic Writing test will always be a summary of a particular statistic and simply require you to exhibit reporting skills. Task 1 in the IELTS General Training Writing test will be similar to the essay. However, instead of giving your opinion, you will have to direct a letter to a particular individual and offer solutions to a stated problem/ situation.
Speaking
As with the essay questions, IELTS will only choose topics for the speaking interview that most people are able to talk about. As you can see in the public test guides, Part 1 of the interview is questions about you. These will be “everyday English” questions that discuss your life. For example, you might be asked about school, about your family, clothing, snacks, or exercise. If you check out most test guides and examples, you will notice this. Part 1 topics are easy to talk about and connect with your personal experiences and opinions on general things.
Part 2 and Part 3 of the Speaking test are more like essay questions. The topics for this are less about your life and more about good topics for discussion. Thus, you might see some ideas that people commonly discuss. For example, you might be asked to talk about the best way to learn a new language, the advantages of walking, compared to driving. Or you might end up comparing learning online to learning face-to-face.
Reading & Listening
While you prepare for IELTS, you’ll come across a lot of sample topics on the reading and listening tests. You might notice that the topics on the reading and listening tests seem different from the Writing and Speaking tests. So how are they different?
The main difference is that the Reading and Listening tests use topics that are new or unusual for test-takers. Oppositely, as we mentioned above, the Writing and Speaking tests use topics most people know something about.
Why are the Listening and Reading tests about uncommon topics then? The simple reason is this. These tests want to grade your skills, not your knowledge. The aim is to test your ability to read and listen to new topics, then use your English language skills to understand them. For example, both of these tests challenge you to get the main ideas, get detailed information, and identify the author’s point of view. For the essay and the Speaking tests, be prepared to give your opinions, ideas, and examples.