Being an Indian and a non-native-English-language speaker, you will need to prove your English language competency when applying to study at a foreign university. And most of the universities abroad will measure your English language skills based on your IELTS or TOEFL test scores.
If not all, a few universities abroad will ask you to take their own version of the English language test in the event that you haven’t already taken the IELTS or TOEFL. But any English language test you take as a prerequisite for admission into a University is bound to test your grammar and diction.
I’m not saying you need to be a maestro in English (absolutely not!) for applying at universities abroad, but it helps if you could at least learn the basics well, possibly a little more than that. The reason being, with your good English skills, you can bag a good IELTS/ TOEFL score or a prestigious scholarship for your higher studies. Moreover, you can write an effective essay, without depending on anyone. And of course, good English skills will help you speak confidently during a visa interview at an embassy.
To help you improve and evaluate your own English language skills, we’ve created an application that lets you take mock English tests. Here is how to take our IELTS mock test –please follow the steps outlined in this article.
Check our Free IELTS Practice Test materials to refine your skills for the IELTS test that you are planning to take this year.
More about the test!
The Free IELTS Practice Test on our site comprises both Reading and Listening modules. The reading module comprises 3 passages with 40 questions and the listening module comprises 4 sections with 40 questions– all in accordance with the standard IELTS format proposed by British Council.
The test has been designed by us to help you time yourself when taking the test to improve on your speed and concentration. Give yourself no more than 10–15 minutes to finish the exam.
Summary
English is the lingua franca, which helps you communicate with people from all walks of life (not just essentially to top IELTS or any other similar exams). Most people of the young age group prefer to sharpen their taste buds for English through watching sitcoms, for example, Big Bang Theory, Sherlock, House of Cards, Breaking Bad, the Simpsons, Suits and a lot more.
Even though we feel we know everything about this language, we sometimes fail to understand the very basics. Well, it is quite obvious to get confused because rules in English have always been dynamic–having borrowed words and phrases from so many other languages–a very classic example would be the usage of word ‘they’ which according to Merriam-Webster is a plural construction, but sometime back the American Copy Editors Society declared that ‘they’ should be considered singular because that’s how it has been used for several hundred years (What!!).
Rules are numerous and overflowing– for example, the usage of ‘ise and ize’ endings in UK or US English words; ‘program’ or ‘programme’; should it be ‘aging’ or ageing’, should it be block or bloc, etc. We can talk about all this later!
Don’t shy away if you feel you need to learn more of English language basics. Prominent figures like Jane Austen, Earnest Hemingway and George Washington too struggled with English spelling bees, for whatever reason it may be. They owe a big time to their editors though.
That’s all for now, we wish you good luck with your overall English language test preparation!
You can access our Free IELTS sample test NOW! Speak to us if you have any questions and we’ll guide you through.
Note: Hotcourses India is part of IDP Connect, which is an IELTS partner.