IELTS or International English Language Testing System is an exam for all those students who wish to study in English speaking countries. This exam is conducted to test the ability of the student from a non native English speaking country to communicate in English.

This exam tests the knowledge of the student in all four fields of the language that is listening, reading, writing and speaking and these four fields constitute of four sections of the exam as well. The scores obtained in IELTS are used by over 6000 institutes for giving admission or employment to the people from non English speaking countries. More than 100 countries conduct this exam every year. The official website of IELTS is www.ielts.org.

You can register for the exam before the test date. You must submit your application form in the test centre of your choice with all other important documents. You will be intimated by the test centre about the date and the time of the exam.

IELTS Exam Sections:

The IELTS exam has been divided into four sections namely Speaking section, Writing section, Listening section and Reading section. It is very important that a student prepares for all the four sections equally well. The Speaking section is for 10 to 15 minutes and the examinee in assessed throughout the performance by the examiner as the examiner has direct interaction with the examinee.

The next section is the Writing section and in this section you are required to finish two tasks in one hour. The Listening section is for 30 minutes and it consists of four sections. The last section that is the Reading section and it is assigned 60 minutes and has three sections.

IELTS Exam Preparation:

It is very important that you prepare well for the exam and score high in it. For getting a good score it is important to get hold of good preparation materials. There are a number of ways in which you can prepare for the exam. A student can buy books available in the market. These books might be accompanied with CDs containing practice and sample tests.

Some good books for IELTS preparation are Cambridge IELTS 6 Audio CDs: Examination papers from University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Ielts Practice Tests) by Cambridge ESOL (Audio CD – Jun 18, 2007) – Audio book. Cambridge IELTS 6 Self-study Pack: Examination papers from University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Ielts Practice Tests) by Cambridge ESOL (Paperback – Jul 30, 2007) – Student Edition.

A student can also join a course for the preparation of the exam. There are many institutes which run courses for IELTS. You can also join an online course for IELTS preparation. There are a number of websites which offer such courses for the students and www.examenglish.com is one such website.

Some websites also run free online courses for IELTS. You can join either of the two on the basis of your preparation needs. It is important that a student studies hard and prepares well for IELTS in order to get admission in the college of his choice.