Exam Materials
 IELTS Advantage: Writing Skills Writing is undeniably challenging and an area in which many students struggle to achieve a good exam score. Given that the IELTS Academic exam has two quite different writing tasks, practice is essential. Knowing and understanding what is needed to achieve a good mark is really useful, and in this book the authors, both IELTS writing examiners, clearly guide the reader through the different sections, practising key skills and building a range of expressions.
One great feature of the book is the “Try It First” sections. People using the book are encouraged to write an essay before studying the unit, in order to gauge how much they already know and what they need to work on. This should be effective in motivating them, and shows them the worth of the book by giving them the knowledge to fill the gaps identified. The book could be used as a self-study book or as a class course book.
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 Testbuilder for TOEFL iBT Exams are challenging to prepare students for, and as there are not an unlimited number of practice tests out there this book is a useful addition to a TEFL resource library. I was excited by the idea of reviewing this new “testbuilder” with its promised “tests which teach” and was keen to see whether it lived up to its claim.
The book offers two full length practice exams along with an answer key. Unlike a traditional answer key, it explains the reasoning behind the correct answers, as well as detailing the type of question each one is: vocabulary, gist, fact, inference, and so on. For the reading and listening parts of the test this information about why an answer is correct is just what a student needs!
After doing this so well, the book then falls down. For the speaking and writing test components, although sample responses are offered, there is no indication as to whether these are good or appropriate responses, what kind of mark they’d have achieved in the exam, what could have been improved, or any guidance for the student as to what a good response would be like. I was disappointed by this.
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 Ready for IELTS Ready for IELTS is another title for preparing students for the Academic IELTS exam. IELTS (in case you didn’t know) is usually a prerequisite for university entrance in the UK and other English-speaking countries, and is also used on CVs and visa applications. IELTS course books have come and gone, and most teaching institutions have shelves stacked with them. Why buy another? After all, the last time the exam had any major revision was in 2000 (although there have been a few minor changes to some of the rules since then). Well, giving the matter some serious thought during a recent ‘section 4’ listening activity, I have come up with the following possible reasons:
- Previous books have shortcomings that the new ones address
- The new ones are more up-to-date in terms of media, subject matter and the methodology they draw on
- Older books have been exhausted; long-term students have been through them all and teachers are sick of them
- The ‘newness’ itself
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 Language Testing Matters Language Testing Matters is another book in Cambridge’s Language Testing series and is a collection of twenty edited papers presented at the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) Conference held in Cambridge in April 2008. Like others in the series it is very simple and academic in appearance but its size makes it easy to use and place with your other reference books. As I had reviewed other books in this series I knew what to expect when I opened it. Not surprisingly, as with other volumes it is well set out and very easy to navigate. The Contents page lists all papers by title and author, making it easy to find what you are looking for. The Contents page is followed by a detailed Introduction. If you have time I recommend reading through the Introduction, as it summarizes what you will find in the book and will save a lot of time as you will know what each paper is about and can just skip to the papers you are interested in reading. The book itself is then
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The IELTS exam has been growing in popularity and is now a commonly used marker of a students’ level of English, especially for universities and employers. As a brief background for those not familiar with this exam, there are two different IELTS exams that you can do- Academic and General. Assessment is based on a scale from one (low) to nine (high) and as a rough guide universities generally require a score of 6.5 or above on the Academic exam from non-native speakers, while lower scores on the General exam are sometimes okay for less academic studies
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The Testbuilder series from Macmillan comprises collections of practice tests for various English exams -FCE, CAE, IELTS and the like. What makes them different from the official exam books is that they include additional materials- the ‘testbuilding’ aspect- which focus on exam skills and analyse the various part of the test in detail. They are intended to be, as the covers announce, ‘tests that teach’.
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The Spotlight on FCE Exam Booster is designed as a supplement to the Student’s Book by the same name, and is really good. Like the Student’s Book, it is well set out- but I actually found it much easier to navigate. It is jam-packed with useful
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I will admit that before opening this text I had to look up what FCE actually was. FCE stands for the Cambridge ESOL First Certificate in English, which made me apprehensive about opening the textbook as there are so many test preparation books on the market that I was prepared to ‘yawn’. I was pleasantly surprised. It is very colorful and extremely easy to follow and full of
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Full title: IELTS Foundation Study Skills: A self-study course for General Training Modules
Authors: Amanda French, Rachael Roberts, Joanne Gakonga, Andrew Preshous
Publisher: Macmillan
Components: Textbook and Audio CD
Summary: A basic self-study text for IELTS learners at around the IELTS 4.5-5 bands, including all four skills and aimed at General Training Exam
Review
When I received this text and saw the word ‘foundation’ I was reminded of the conundrum facing many teachers in the UK and probably all around the world too: A prospective student comes into the teachers’ office and says something like ‘me… (points at own chest)…IELTS’. Now, as the teacher you have to fill in the blanks. Is this student doing a Tarzan impersonation or does he/she want to take the IELTS exam but can barely string a sentence together? (Answer: It is most often the latter.) After trying to dissuade them as best you can, you will probably end up agreeing to a general English language course with a bit of IELTS exam training thrown in. If there are enough of these students you have what some teachers lovingly refer to as a ‘baby-ielts class’
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Full title: Common mistakes at IELTS Advanced…and how to avoid them
Author: Julie Moore
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Review by: Saul Pope
Summary: An important component of any advanced IELTS course
Review
IELTS can be a notoriously tricky course to teach, especially for the more inexperienced teacher. You’re almost guaranteed to have a mixed ability group, students may want to take the exam at different times to one another, and some will simply not be capable of reaching the lofty targets their future place of learning has set them in the time you have. On top of this, it can sometimes be difficult to know what to concentrate upon as spiky profiles are often the order of the day, and, unless you’re an IELTS examiner, it can be tricky to know where students tend to go wrong in these exams. Common mistakes at IELTS Advanced cannot solve all of these problems, but it is very useful in
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Components reviewed: Student’s Book, Exam Maximiser with answers and audio CD, Audio CD, iTestsAuthors: Nick Kenny, Jacky Newbrook, Richard Acklam and Elaine Boyd
Publisher: Pearson Longman
Summary: Many new elements make this pack attractive for both teachers and learners. Do not miss the computer- and web-based practice.
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This is a good time to be reviewing FCE books as the First Certificate in English exam has had a number of changes, such as cutting down on the length of the test. In summarizing those changes, I would say that the test did not change
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Authors: Vanessa Jakeman and Claire McDowell
Components reviewed: Student’s Book with answers and Audio CD
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Summary: A no-nonsense, supportive and well-designed approach to the IELTS exam
Review: We’ve all been there. The Director of Studies waltzes into the staff room and tells you that you’ve got a new IELTS group. It’s in-company, the students have very specific needs but they need to take the exam next month, so you’ll be studying intensively with them. Oh, and you start tomorrow morning
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Publisher: Obunsha
Components: Nintendo DS software
Reviewedby: Kelly Quinn
Summary: The Nintendo DS game system provides a unique platform to review and study skills and strategies tested by the TOEIC test.
Review:
The Nintendo DS is a game platform introduced in 2004. Since then it has proved wildly successful, selling more than 25 million units in the United States alone and over 80 million worldwide. While the target of most gaming platforms is teenage boys and young men, the DS appeals to such non-traditional players as women, the middle aged and even the elderly. One of the factors driving the popularity in these new markets is the availability of software that appeals to them. The DS offers cooking software with recipes, sudoku, crossword puzzles and a number of
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Authors: Louis Harrison, Caroline Cushen, Susan Hutchinson
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Summary: As one full unit is available for free, wouldn’t it be worth trying it with your students?
IELTS and other high-stakes exams such as BULATS or TOEFL place a strong importance on tasks that usually need to emphasize the practice of certain skills rather than new learning. That is to say that when teachers teach their lessons for these tests
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