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IELTS Academic vs IELTS General

Best 10 IELTS preparation online free & paid websites

1. British Council

• Personally, I did not have enough information about the experience of taking the exam. And the corresponding section on the site- "Tips from IELTS test takers"- didn't have enough information.
• Secondly, the format of free practice tests is not convenient: you have to download sheets with tasks for each aspect, as well as files with auditions.

Conclusion

2. Cambridge English

Advantages

•  The website provides official information about the format and requirements of the exam.
• There are samples of real tests.
• Directly from the site, you can register for the exam in any country in the world.
• There are additional paid services with which you can prepare for the exam (books, simulators and online lessons).

Disadvantages

• With this site alone, it is impossible to prepare for various aspects of the test. For this, you will have to purchase paid Cambridge products.

• Since this is only a section of one large Cambridge English site, there is not much information about the exam here, as on specialized resources about IELTS.

• The information is presented in sections, but, in my opinion, in the "Preparation" section there are too many materials that could be structured in a more convenient format.

• User-friendly interface, nice website design.
• A large number of useful and most importantly official information from the co-founder of the test.
• On the main page of the site, there is a convenient calendar with all the basic arrangements for the preparation for IELTS.
• IDP organizes a large number of free activities to prepare for the test, in which you can participate both offline and online.

Minuses

• The site does not have access to sample papers.
• In general, the materials for the development of skills for the test are practically not represented on the site.
• There is a section "Printed materials" in which you can buy their materials to prepare for the exam. Also listed is a list of other books and resources for training, but without references to sources for purchase.
• There are no articles on the site describing the real experience of those who passed the exam.

Conclusion

Pros of resource

• There is a lot of interesting and inspiring information about the test in general: there is a video "Why choose IELTS", as well as 3 sections of Australia, Canada, and the UK, which tell you how to test one of these countries with the help of the test.

• All information is official, as the founders of the resource are the owners of the rights and trademark IELTS.

Cons of resource

• Since this is the official website for IELTS, its creators do not aim to prepare for the exam, but rather simply to inform about the exam.

• Therefore, here you will not find any useful advice on passing the test, no success story from the students, no examination of the examiner's work.

Conclusion

Advantages

• Information and volume of practical materials for training, which corresponds to the real tasks of the test.

• There are examples of students' answers.

• There are even grammatical tests on the site that will allow anyone wishing to improve the grammar for IELTS.

Cons of resource

• Obsolete design and uncomfortable interface of the site, it is simply uncomfortable to study. This is not surprising, because the site is maintained since 2006 and, the design has remained unchanged since then.

• On the site, there is no information about the founders of the project, and in the Contact-us section, it is proposed to fill out a form of communication.

Conclusion

Advantages

• All the advantages inherent in the resources above are inherent in this resource. It is informative and relevant.

• The authors maintain a blog in which you can learn tips from the examiners.

• It would be useful if the creators of the resource added an analysis of the real work of students in terms of speaking and writing.

• The authors began to blog with really interesting articles, but there are not many of them yet.

• A large number of informative articles, which Chris himself writes, from parsing the writing to practical advice on the part of listening.

• Here you can find many articles related to the practical experience of those who passed the exam, which in itself is very valuable for all those who wish to take the test.

• The quality of the material. The content presented on the site pleases with its diversity and quality. But the format of the filing leaves much to be desired.
• Many videos are recorded directly to the phone without a tripod, which, in our opinion, is unacceptable for a resource with an attendance of 465,000 people a month.

• The site has many paid services and there is a clear division into paid and free content. If you use only free materials, you are unlikely to prepare for all parts of the exam. If you want to take the VIP course, it will cost you around $ 500.

• The course to which the site is devoted, in itself is not bad. We used it ourselves during the preparation for the test.

• We recommend reading the blog - here you can find many interesting articles with practical tips.

• This is not a full-fledged site dedicated to preparing for the exam, but a visiting card for the course on IELTS preparation from the British Council. Therefore, there are not so many free materials to prepare for the test.
• The second drawback comes from the first, from the point of view of the availability of free useful materials; this site loses noticeably against the background of many other sites in preparation for the test. Although in general, the authors did not set such a goal.

• A variety of content on all aspects of the exam, which is presented in different formats - video, text, error analysis and examples of real work of students.

• There are a lot of practically applicable tips and recommendations, without knowing it, it is impossible to pass IELTS on a high score.

• In addition, Liz constantly updates the articles, and if the requirements of the exam change, she always indicates this in her past publications.

• In addition to preparing valuable free content, of course, Liz also provides paid services: she has an essay audit service.

• But, unfortunately, recently, this service has become inaccessible. Apparently, Liz alone cannot cope with the burden of wanting to give her essay for verification.

Download all Cambridge books 1-13

• A large number of high quality, and most importantly, useful video lessons from experts in the IELTS.

• Submission of the material: the video is not boring at all!

• The variety of topics covered in the video tutorials.

• Word lists: I recommend paying attention to them.

• The format of the resource. Rather, it is not a minus, but a feature: almost all lessons are built in video format, which is not always convenient for the perception of information.

• Do not get carried away watching only one video on engvid - this is unlikely to greatly bring you closer to the ideal band. You need to practice as much as possible, but, unfortunately, just in this, this resource is not your assistant.

Read also: 10 most useful materials for IELTS preparation