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IELTS Practice Tests > Plus 2 | |
Longman
Authors: Morgan Terry, Judith Wilson
207 pages.
£12.50
IBSN 0-582-84645-5
Since English for Everybody will soon be offering its own IELTS practice tests here on the website, we decided to look at what was already in the bookshops. Fortunately for those students who are planning to take the exam, there are some good textbooks on offer. We recommend the practice tests offered by Cambridge University Press, but in our opinion there is also a better choice - the Longman IELTS Practice tests, which we review here.
The book has six complete tests, which take up about 140 pages of the book, as well as the CDs (three of them) used for the listening tests. The tests are in the same format as those which you can expect to see in the actual exam. The book even has the times that you would be required to complete the tests in if you were actually doing the exam. Before this, there is a seven page introduction which includes the nine bands which are used to grade the results, with a description of what you have to do to get into each band. There are also additional reading and writing modules for general training candidates. The CDs are designed for class rather than self study (if you took the silences out, you might save one CD altogether!). They have clear instructions, and expect you to understand a variety of accents, as does the exam itself.
Toward the end there is a vocabulary section - a series of gap filling exercises crammed into a small space. You might think of this as useful extra material, or as a way of filling the pages before the answer key, but it does teach a lot of vocabulary that might come in handy once you are inside the exam room. Illustrations in the book are black and white drawings, and are usually part of the exam. What helps this book to stand out from the competition are little blue 'tip strips' in the margin which tell you the best way to answer the question, or errors which you should avoid. The writing section is covered by showing example essays with their marks, and an explanation of why each essay received that mark.
Who is this book for? If you need to do the IELTS and are studying alone, this book is ideal. It makes sure that when you come to the exam there will be no surprises. You will know what to do and how long you have to do it in. Because of the answer index, this version of the book is less good for classrooms, but as is usual with EFL books these days, there is also a version with no answer key available.
Verdict: Teaches you to pass the IELTS
Assessment 9/10