Customer Reviews

Kaplan IELTS 2009-2010 Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I used this book for studying for the general module IELTS test. I did not use any other book/material, other than this. Book comes with the CD for 'Listening' test. 1 to 2 weeks of study was sufficient for me to get the score of Band - 7 and which got converted to 12 points. I got the score as : Listening - 6.5(2 points), Reading - 6.5(4 points), Writing - 6(2 points) and Speaking - 8(4 points) which comes to 12 points. Actually, I needed only 10 ponits from IELTS.

I studied only General modules from this book but it has Academic modules as well which has higher difficulty level.

Over all, I would highly recommend this book since it has enough practice tests, audio CD for listening tests and reasonable price.

Wish you all the best.

There is so much introduction on what is Speaking, Listening, Writing and Reading which you will find online for no cost. I wish it had more practise tests and examples. There are some errors I found in Answers.
Update! - Overall the practise tests were useful. I got Band 8 in first attempt. I did go throught other materials too.

Too much introduction page. I was reading until page 41 and they still try to explain and give you the information about the test. They should give you tips or tactics on how to do the test or more audio for the listening module. Barron's IELTS is way better than this one.

English has always been my second language back home. But taking a language exam such as the IELTS exam requires more than the sheered knowledge that I have at the back of my head. So to have a self-review and prepare myself, I have bought 4 IELTS reviewers. In addition to a Kaplan book, I have Target Band 7, Ielts Action Plan by Cambridge, and Ielts 7 by Cambridge for the Academics Module. This gives me the position to benchmark this product with other reviewers.

This book "Kaplan Ielts", will give you a description of what the IELTS test is all about, and its different test types. It also has two (2) sets of Listening,Reading,Writing and Speaking questionnaires with answers that can help you learn the feeling of what the real test will be.

The drawback for this book however, is that it only has a few vital information which can impede us from getting a good, rather an excellent band score for the exam. When you browse through the book, it simple tells you the different test types that one may encounter. It does not give us tips on how to ace each type of test. It just shows us a description of what a certain question is. For instance, it shows us a "diagram with a cycle", and explains to us what a diagram is. That's it! It does not provide enough tips to help us get through the certain test types, nor do they provide answers for the examples of the test types given.

With other books, they will give us different kinds of strategies on how one SHOULD approach the test. They will also give you tips on how you can score better no matter which test type you will receive. Even though English is my second language, with the techniques given from other books, it has greatly boosted my confidence for the upcoming exam

In addition as to why you should think twice before getting this book, is that almost all information found on this reviewer are in others too. However, the MORE vital information from other books ARE NOT found here. As with other negative reviews, Kaplan wasted TONS of pages on images and sample test types without given answers.

Finally, I understand that typographical errors cannot be prevented, however, while taking the practice tests found inside the book, I have found 3 errors. One may think that you can easily go by with 3 errors without a problem. But what if the errors you find may add more confusion to your learning? This happens to be my case.

So overall, if your aim is to get a band score of only 6, considering the price, this book may be good enough for you. However, if you want to excel on the IELTS exam, especially for those who are trying to enter a good college/university or land a job that requires a profession, I highly suggest you use other books. A wise friend once told me " Taking an exam twice is not fun! "

I did well on the test, but not thanks to this book. The book should have more sample questions and should not waste paper on half-page clip-art images. Also, I found several obvious errors in sample tests. Kaplan should either hire serious specialists to write a book on IELTS or stick to what they do well (I think their books on GMAT and TOEFL are great).

We (me and my husband) studied for three days and got 7 and 8 band respectively...
easy to read and follow

The book is an excellent guide for everyone who wants to prepare for IELTS entrance tests for immigration purposes.

I've used this book with IELTS preparation students and it has the advantage of being very up to date. I did a practice reading test with it and found (I think) at least one mistake. In the first reading test, in the Academic Reading Passage 2, answer 5 is said to be 'False'. But the explanation says, 'They are not mentioned as differing'. Surely if something is not mentioned the correct answer would be 'Not Given'. Such things matter when students anxiously await their practice test score.

I was surprised that there are 45 questions in the reading test. Wouldn't it be better to have exactly 40, as in the IELTS test itself.

Overall, this is a useful book, with clear, attractive presentation and plenty of content for practice in all four skills.

Excellent book for people who doesnt know where to start from for IELTS examination. Its so clear and basic language lets us understand the needs of IELTS exam. Although KAPLAN is experienced in TOEFL its nice to see KAPLAN and its team produce a nice book like this. Thank you.

Gelnn CAVULDAR

This book has necessary exercises for the exam. I took the General test and scored Band 7.