IELTS - An Introduction

Well, to begin with, let us first have a clearer picture of what IELTS is really all about?

IELTS tests are held in over 500 centres with tests up to four times a month. IELTS respects international diversity and is fair to anyone who sits the test, regardless of nationality

You can choose from two types of IELTS test: Academic or General Training, depending on whether you want to study, work or migrate. Both modules are made up of four parts – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. IELTS results are graded on the unique IELTS 9-band scale.

To help you prepare, IELTS provides samples and practice tests. The test covers the full range of ability from non-user to expert user. You are not limited in how many times you can sit the test.

You can trust the quality and security of IELTS because it is managed by three reputable, international organisations: British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL).

IELTS tests all four language skills – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The Speaking test is a face-to-face interview with a certified Examiner. It is interactive and as close to a real-life situation as a test can get.

Research shows that IELTS motivates test-takers to develop real and well-rounded English rather than learning by rote. This means your understanding of English is improved and valid for real life in an English-speaking country.

IELTS is owned by three reputable, international organisations. It has the highest quality control and security procedures. More than 6000 organisations, including many government departments and universities, rely on IELTS. The IELTS scoring system is recognised globally, giving you a truly international result.

IELTS is available in two test formats:
Academic or General Training. All candidates take the same Listening and Speaking modules but different Reading and Writing modules.

Listening, Reading and Writing must be completed in one day. Depending on your test centre, the Speaking test may be offered on the same day or up to a week before or after the other parts. See below for a diagram of the test format.

Academic – Institutions of Higher and Further Education
The Academic format is for those who want to study or train in an English-speaking university or Institutions of Higher and Further Education. Admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses is based on the results of the Academic test.

General Training – for school, work or migration
The General Training format focuses on basic survival skills in broad social and workplace contexts. It is for those who are going to English-speaking countries to do secondary education, work experience or training programs. People migrating to Australia, Canada and New Zealand must sit the General Training test.

Check with your organisation
You must check with your institution or organisation which test format it requires. You may also find this information on the IELTS Global Recognition System.

The IELTS nine (9) band score system grades scores consistently. It is secure, benchmarked and understood worldwide. Test materials are designed carefully so that every version of the test is of a comparable level of difficulty.

IELTS Examiners are fully qualified and follow the IELTS standardised testing around the world. IELTS has a quality-controlled system of recruitment, training, benchmarking, certification and monitoring. IELTS markers are regularly monitored and tested every two years to retain their certification.

Our test centres are managed by the British Council, IDP:IELTS Australia or by independent organisations that meet strict standards of quality, security and customer service.

The free IELTS Test Report Form Verification Service enables universities and employers to authenticate test report forms and safeguards against fraudulent report forms.

If you have a disability or condition which might require special arrangements, you should discuss it with your test centre as soon as possible. Each case is considered individually and you will need a medical certificate. Test centres need three months to put arrangements into place.

Special arrangements include the following:
1. Enlarged print and Brailled test papers, an amanuensis to write answers, a Braille word-processor – for those with visual difficulties.

2. Special amplification equipment, lip-reading version of the Listening module – for those with hearing difficulties.

3. Extra time for the Reading and Writing modules, use of a word processor – for those with learning difficulties (eg dyslexia).

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Welcome to IELTS Test Preparation

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IELTS Essay: Topic: Computers instead of teachers - 8 Bands

As computers are being used more and more in education, there will be soon no role for teachers in the classroom.

There is no doubt that education and the learning process has changed since the introduction of computers: The search for information has become easier and amusing, and connectivity has expedited the data availability. Though expert systems have made computers more intelligent, they have not yet become a substitute of the human interaction in the learning process. In my opinion; what can be expected, is a change of the teacher's role but not their disappearance from the classroom.

Nobody can argue that the acquisition of knowledge is more fun and easier with computers. The mere activity of touching and exploring this device constitutes an enjoyable task for a kid. This, accompanied with the relaxing attitude and software interactivity, usually conduce to a better grasping of new knowledge. At a higher educational level; the availability of digital books, simulator and other academic materials, provide the student with an ever accessible source of information, that otherwise would not be at hand.

But, besides the increasing complexity and behavior of intelligent software, which is usually embedded in the academic digital material, the need of human interaction in the learning process will always be present, at least in the foreseeable future. There is the necessity for a human being to be able to determine what the specific needs of each individual are. The expertise of a teacher in how to explain and adapt complex concepts to different individuals can hardly be mimicked by a computer, no matter how sophisticated its software is.

As computers are becoming a common tool for teaching, teachers should be more aware of their role as guides in the acquisition of knowledge rather than transmitters of facts. They have to be open minded to the changes that are taking places, keep updated and serve as a problem solvers in the learning process, thus allowing students to discover the fact for themselves.

To summarize, in my personal view, teachers play and will play an important role in the classroom, especially at the primary level. No matter how complex computers become, there will be no replacement for the human interaction, but in the way haw thisinteraction takes place.

An IELTS 8 Bands Letter

You successfully passed a job interview. You are expected to start on November 15, but you will not be available on that date.
Task: Write a letter to your new boss, explaining your situation, expressing your concern and suggesting solution.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Aadil Mukhtar and I have recently passed a job interview for the Software Engineer position at the Software Infrastructure group. I was expected to start on November 15, as agreed, and am writing because unfortunately I will not be able to present myself on that date.

During the interview I estimated fifteen days as the amount of time needed for me to finish my activities at my current job and start at your company, but due to fact that I got sick for the last whole week and was not able to work, I could not finish my tasks and will need another week to do so. If necessary, I can give you a copy of a letter from my doctor informing that I had to stay at home and under medical care during that week.

I really apologize for the inconvenience and expect it not to affect our relationship. Should I present any other form of proof or talk to someone else at the company, please let me know.

Faithfully yours,
Aadil

CAUTION: PUBLIC NOTICE from IELTSIDPIndia:Planet EDU

This notice is issued in the interest of all candidates who are preparing to take the IELTS test.

It has come to our notice that some unscrupulous person/s are offering false and fabricated IELTS question and answer papers for sale. We also understand that huge amounts of money is being charged claiming to get the candidates the required IELTS band without a passport.

Anyone who is approached with such offers should immediately report it to the local police and ethicsofficer@ieltsidpindia.com in complete confidence.

Tel: 0124 4684800

Signed CEO
Planet EDU
Date: 02/07/09

Source: http://www.ieltsidpindia.com/

So, dear friends, be cautious in deciding what you decide!!!

IELTS - FREE online classes - Target Band 8 Score

IELTS, the International English Language Testing System, is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who need to study or work where English is used as the language of communication. It covers the four language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking.
IELTS has two modules: General Training and Academic. The General Training module is usually taken by people who want to emigrate, and the Academic module is taken by people who want to study abroad. It is essential that you check with the receiving country or institution to find out which module you need to take. It is your responsibility to choose the right module.

PURPOSE OF IELTS
If you're planning to go abroad, to undertake further study, to undertake non-academic training or work experience, to emigrate or if you simply want to test your real English ability, then IELTS, the test of real English communicative ability, will ensure that you have the right level of English for your needs.
(SOURCE: British Council Website)
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Peter Drucker lives on...

By T T Ram Mohan - Economic Times
Peter Drucker, the acclaimed management thinker, was widely remembered on his centennial last month. Harvard Business Review ran a feature titled, What would Peter do? The reference was to the present economic crisis in which managers and businesses have come under a cloud.

Well, first Drucker would have rubbished any characterisation of him as a ‘guru’, he famously said that newspapers used the word only because the word ‘charlatan’ was too big to fit the headline. Drucker did write some books of the ‘how to’ variety. But he was not the sort to prescribe ‘six easy steps to brand-building’ or ‘eight rules for go-getting CEOs’.

Drucker was a business philosopher who sought to establish broad principles for successfully managing businesses over the long run. His focus would have been on what managers might do to prevent situations that give business a bad name. One of the articles in HBR mentions some of the things he would have done in today’s situation.

He would have exhorted top managers to work together to rein in excesses in executive pay. He would have reminded businesses that in order to retain the loyalty of knowledge workers, businesses must create a larger purpose that such workers could relate to. He would have re-emphasised the need for businesses to work closely with civil society and non-profit organisations.

Some of Drucker’s ideas have been so widely embraced that they have become commonplace. The purpose of a company is to create a customer. Every company must define clearly the nature of its business. Discarding the old is as important as focusing on the new. Knowledge-based organisations need fewer levels than the traditional industrial firm. Managers routinely practise these tenets without even knowing where they came from.

Is there anything in Drucker’s work that remains relevant and is not fully reflected in managerial practice? I combed through Drucker’s writings and found at least three areas where his ideas could make a difference: the role of a CEO; the functioning of corporate boards; and the larger responsibilities of management.

Most people think the CEO is one man’s job. No doubt, many CEOs find it convenient to have it that way, the imperial CEO lording it over all he or she surveys. Yet, as Drucker correctly points out (and this was in 1955!), the CEO’s job involves three distinctive functions: planning for the future, responding to every day problems, being the organisation’s face to the outside world.

It is impossible, Drucker asserts, for any individual to successfully handle more than any two of these three functions. Hxence, the CEO’s role cannot be discharged by one person, it can be done only by a team. And the team should comprise at least three members. How many businesses can claim to do this?


Drucker is emphatic as to the need for effective boards. “It is an organ of review, of appraisal, of appeal”. The last function, appeal, that Drucker mentions is striking if only because it is defunct today. Drucker says of this particular function of the board, “Somebody has to discharge the final judicial function in respect to organisation problems, has to be the ‘Supreme Court’”. We all know the drab reality that obtains today. Most boards do not even want to take cognisance of appeals from managers, that would be ‘interfering in operational matters’.

Drucker argues that it is in the interest of the top management team to attract outstanding individuals to the board and to make the board effective. An effective board is crucial to the success of top management. Yet, most CEOs tend to regard boards as decorative as best and a nuisance at worst.

Lastly, the responsibilities of management. One is self-evident and has been placed on the altar, making profits. Drucker is not dismissive of profits. Indeed, he sees it as the first responsibility of business. But, management has other responsibilities towards the enterprise as well: making sure of tomorrow’s management; not claiming special allegiance from its employees over and above the contractual obligations; allowing the freest mobility from the bottom to the top; developing a capital expenditure policy that counteracts the business cycle.

Beyond these, management has a larger responsibility towards society. This is not what passes these days for ‘corporate social responsibility’. It is much loftier than that. Drucker inverts the free market slogan, “What is good for the enterprise is good for the country”. He contends that management must strive to make whatever is good for the country become good for the enterprise. Business must make this rule “the lodestar of its conduct”.

There is so much wisdom in Drucker’s writings. Yet, it is possible to go through an MBA programme without even heard of Drucker. It is possible to be a professor in a business school without having read Drucker. That is, perhaps, why so many managers are like the blind men in the parable who feel out an elephant’s parts without knowing the elephant.

Online CAT may use open source code post glitch

BANGALORE: The leading IIMs, still smarting under the recent fiasco over the online CAT debut, are creating their own firewall against similar disasters in future. After an elaborate post-mortem of the recent disaster, many IIM officials are exploring the idea of using free and open source software (Foss), rather than going in for proprietary software, to prevent online common admission test disasters in future. 

“Online exams can be easily conducted using Foss as it can not only reduce costs by over 50%, but it is also safe against virus and malware attacks,” said one of the IIM officials. Infact, US-based Prometric — which bagged the high-profile $40-million contract to organise the online CAT using proprietary software like Microsoft Windows, along with NIIT — has pinned the main reason for this year’s disaster on the virus attacks.

Despite installing several security measures, they were unable to circumvent the virus attacks, which impacted over 20,000 candidates. Unlike the open source software, proprietary software is not for free and has to be bought.

Experts like T Vignesh Prabhu, a hacker at ‘deeprootlinux’, which is dedicated to developing and supporting Foss, said virus attacks form the major concern of IIMs. “The only solution is to discard the virus-prone operating system you have been using and install Foss, such as GNU (a free software) and Linux-based operating systems,” he said.

Foss software, which grants users the right to study, change, and improve its design through its source code, is the most preferred option. He said, there is enough statistics to prove that GNU/Linux-based operating systems are less prone to virus attacks. The only other way is to keep fighting the viruses by installing the latest updates of various anti-virus softwares.“And, you have to keep your fingers crossed hoping that developers of anti-virus companies are just as fast as the virus-writers,” he added.

Officials at Prometric, which had used proprietary software this time, said many centres were affected by mainly two viruses — Conflicker and W32.NIMDA. IIM officials said this happened despite the fire-walls systems installed. They said the CAT computers were sourced and leased from local colleges in the cities where the examinations were held. They said most of the CAT computers got infected through the servers and other computers in various colleges through the local area network (which is a computer network covering a small physical area like a group of buildings). Also, the existing data on some of the 17,000-20,000 CAT work stations has not been deleted.

IIM officials said many of these 17,000-20,000 computers were prone to virus attacks as they may not have used the genuine proprietary software.

“I doubt whether Prometric really checked this. Many colleges may have used pirated software,” said one of the IIM officials. The Foss model is already working successfully in states like Kerala, where the state government’s IT@School provides IT-enabled education to 1.6 million students a year in the state using Foss. “We will use Foss to handle over four lakh admission application forms in a period of 10-15 days for two lakh 11th standard seats in government and government-aided institutions,” said IT@ School executive director K Anvar Sadath. He said the CAT exam can be run successfully on Foss without any virus threats.

SOURCE: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/internet/Post-online-CAT-disaster-IIMs-plan-to-switch-to-Foss-/articleshow/5338309.cms (ECONOMIC TIMES)