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Action Plan for IELTS (Academic module) | |
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Authors: Vanessa Jakeman, Clare McDowell
£12.00
ISBN-13: 9780521615334
Have you got an IELTS exam coming up, and you have an uneasy feeling that you are not sufficiently prepared? Obviously a large enough numberof students find themselves in this situation for Cambridge to publish a book for those in need of some last-minute study. This book has the advantage of being prepared by the same people who prepare the exam ('Cambridge books for Cambridge exams' as the book says). Therefore the tips and advice you will find inside have a degree of authority that other books might not have.
We chose to review the edition with an audio CD tucked into the inside cover, which contains 53 minutes of listening, with the transcripts at the back of the book, along with the answer key. (Teachers note that these are self-study books, so not suitable for classes which lack the self-discipline not to turn to the back and find the right answers.) The book has 123 pages, though the exercises stop at p.108, with indexes taking up the rest. The material is laid out as is the actual exam, with Listening, Reading and Writing in that order, with Practice tests after that. Each section comes with an 'action plan' of bullet points describing how to deal with each aspect of the paper. (For example 'underline the key points in each listening question so that you know what to listen for'.) The purple-and-white colour scheme might irritate some, but if you are desperate for the information within, the colour scheme will not matter. Pictures are essential to the various exercises in the text and are not there for decoration.
Who is this book for? Anyone who wants either a good overview of what to expect in the IELTS exam, or anyone who is desperate to revise with just a few weeks to go. Teachers will also find the tips and approaches to different parts of each paper very valuable to pass on to students, even if they do not use the book as a class book. And this is the final point to note - this book is for people who want to pass the IELTS, not for people who want to learn English.
Verdict: Teaches how to pass, not English skills.
Assessment 6/10