My answer to this question is ” it is both”.If so how?
gap fill or sentence completion requires:
Identifying, Analysing skills, Grammar and vocabulary skills and Semantic skills.
Match the heading needs:
Identifying the correct words or vocabulary and analysing.No grammar skills required (normally).However, finding the match from the first sentence or last sentence is not a proper methodology.
TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN:
This view point type of questions need “verbal reasoning” in other words, testees need to have logic to judge the answer. This part has requires more logic than vocabulary or grammar skills.
Multiple choice questions or ABCD pattern
Candidates must have a strong reasoning here to find the correct answer because most answers will be matching out of the given options.So comparison skills are mandatory in order to achieve all the answers as correct. If your style is inductive then you may get out of 6 or 7 out of 10 questions.But if you use deductive style, it will be 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10.
Ielts reading,writing and speaking parts need REASONING or constructive logic. for example, In writing part 2, candidates are always being asked for REASONS which you will normally see just below your ess@y topic. If you do not have valid or strong reasons, you may loose 1.5 band.So just focusing on vocabulary or grammar in order to get 7 or higher is not enough.Even if you have advanced grammar and controlled vocabulary range,you will not score more than 7 band.This is because of IELTS writing assessment criteria.Each candidate must read the ielts criteria (refer —> http://www.ielts.org/PDF/UOBDs_WritingT2.pdf).Candidates can not achieve high band just by vocabulary or grammar skills as writing task criteria are valued equally.
For example:
task response 9
coherency and cohesions 9
vocabulary 9
grammar and punctuations 9
These will be divided by 4 to get an arithmetic mean so 36/4 =9
If you can work out these criteria, even if you score 9 each in grammar and vocabulary,it is unlikely to get a score more than 7 band.
For example:
task response of a candidate 6 out of 9
coherence and cohesions 6 out of 9
vocabulary = 8 out of 9
grammar 8 out of 9
total is 6+6+8+8=26/4 =6.5 or a maximum of 7band ( if they are lucky)
Some candidates believe they are good at cohesions but in reality their usage of cohesions are inappropriate and it seems they can impress examiners just using cohesions without having any accuracy.Coherence or organisation is also a weak point of many students.So it makes their ess@y very difficult to follow as a result unity of a paragraph and “loose paragraphs” ( refer or search these further).A well supported ess@y can score higher than a pedantic or ostentatiously written ess@y because the task given there is mainly to argue,therefore,students need to prove their ideas or points.
The same skills are required in speaking apart from Pronunciation.1
Many students practice IELTS without these above skills and they are unaware of these competencies.So they practice their own and get the same score.
Here is the difference those students can make! I tutor IELTS (all sub-tests both general or academic) in a different style ( almost guaranteed).90% students increased 1.5 band score in 3 weeks as a result.My tutoring style is “known to unknown” or in other words, I do not just look at the answers and say “this is wrong or right”.Instead of doing those “ineffective methods”,I lead any student into the answer and give more explanations or a possible personification.
For example: I have $55 ( if this statement is true)
the Question is —> I have $56 ( true/false/not given)
My approach here is ;the second statement is not true because 55 is not 56. but it doesn’t contradict each other as well so it is not FALSE. However many students asked me why it is not a FALSE. Reason behind this is,the first statement never says I have just or only $55.If I said only or just or similar,in that case it is FALSE.Therefore, this question’s answer is NOT GIVEN as we can not judge it. If you have any further questions either attend my class or email me.
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