Prepare for the IELTS exam

Quatorial^™

Academic Experience

Key points

Students train to gain experience and acquire the skills necessary to achieve their desired score in the IELTS exam- teachers push students to achieve to the maximum of their potential, and set milestones and goals for each student, with constant evaluation. This sets the pace for each learner to surpass their academic expectations and achieve more than they thought possible.

Students sit rehearsal tests under exam conditions. These are repeated as required to build confidence and familiarity with the exam.

Small class sizes also allow for a large amount of individual coaching, which provides students with the security of the knowledge that they are as prepared as possible for their exam, and with confidence and familiarity in the exam format.

All students who successfully complete this course are eligible for a Course Certificate. Completion consists of submitting the final course assignment.

Homework tasks are set daily to allow learners to reflect on and consolidate what they have learned in the day, as well as prepare for the next day.

Objectives of the study

Objective of the stay

To make the student familiar with the exam and to give the student the confidence and skills required to achieve a score of 9.0 in the test.

The Quatorial Programme - for IELTS exam preparation

The tutor coaches the learner in the content of the exam and guides them with strategies for understanding and navigating the test questions. Assignments are set for homework and during lesson time there is repeated work on essay writing, vocabulary, comprehension and speaking practice.

20 hours of tuition per week, taught in small groups of no more than 4.

Minimum course duration: 4 weeks.

Content
Module 1 - Note Taking Skills

– Practice in taking notes and using notes to summarise listenings

Module 2 - Skimming and scanning skills

– Search for a main topic, topic sentences, supporting details and concluding thoughts
– Scanning for pertinent data such as names, dates, numbers etc

Module 3 - Summarising and paraphrasing

– Students write 3 or 4 sentence summaries of a short passage
– Students must paraphrase a set of sentences in their own words
– Students practise identifying information and data from charts and graphs

Module 4 - Mind mapping

– The use of the mind map to plan a piece of writing
– Use of mind maps to plan the introduction to an essay
– Developing the body of the essay
– Understanding the importance of the controlling idea

Module 5 - Polishing skills for the writing task and the speaking tasks

– Essay writing skills - checklist
– Speaking test - final practice

Expectations

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, the student is expected to be able to:

– Take notes on a piece of listening
– Summarise and paraphrase an unfamiliar passage of text
– Plan, structure and write an essay of 500 words
– Report verbally and in writing the data/ information shown in diagrams and graphs
– Speak in an interview situation

Accommodation

Half-board homestay

Staying in a homestay gives participants the chance to be fully immersed into the local culture of the destination, whilst also being able to practise the language in a relaxed and natural setting. Many homestays have been welcoming our students into their homes for many years, offering their hospitality and expanding our students cultural horizons. Homestay arrivals are on the Sunday before the course begins, and departures are on the Saturday after the course ends.

Excluding accommodation

Should students wish not to stay in homestays and find alternative accommodation, the school is happy to offer recommendations on request.

Location

The experience of living in Cambridge

Cambridge is home not only to one of the world’s great universities, its iconic buildings and colleges peppering the old town, but also to the dynamic high-tech hub sometimes known as ‘Silicon Fen’ (Microsoft Research, Amazon, Apple, ARM, CSR, Autonomy and several thousand more), and the largest biomedical campus in Europe.

The result is a rich mix of students and professionals, and an ambience of tradition, scholarship and innovation. The town is host to a myriad of cafes, restaurants and pubs (including The Eagle, in the front room of which Crick and Watson demonstrated the first model of the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953), and to innumerable buildings of great historical and architectural significance, such as King’s College Chapel, the Wren Library, the Mathematical Bridge and Trinity Great Court.

Compact, green and beautiful, the city is dominated by the historic university buildings and bound by the lovely River Cam. It offers a unique ambiance, where the charm of tradition blends with the conveniences of modern urban life. Cambridge is a prime location for committed English language study.

Useful information