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Academic Writing Skills In all academic situations where writing in English is required, students must be able to present their ideas in a clear. well-organized manner. The Writing section measures your ability to write English in an academic setting. Often, students need to write a paper or an essay response about what they are learning in their classes. This requires combining information they have heard in class lectures with what they have read in textbooks or other materials. This type of writing is referred to as integrated writing. In this type of writing, students must: Take notes on what they hear and read, and use them to organize information before writing Summarize, paraphrase, and cite information from the source material accurately Write about the ways the information they heard relates to the information they read For example, in an academic course, a student might be asked to compare and contrast the points of view expressed by the professor in class with those expresse...

Academic Speaking Skills Students should be able to speak English successfully in and outside the classroom. The Speaking section measures your ability to speak effectively in academic settings. In classrooms, students must: Respond to questions Participate in academic discussions with other students Synthesize and summarize what they have read in their textbooks and heard in class Express their views on topics under discussion Outside of the classroom, students must: Participate in casual conversations Express their opinions Communicate with people in such places as the bookstore, the library and the housing office The Speaking section is approximately 20 minutes long and includes six tasks. The first two tasks are  independent speaking tasks  on topics familiar to you. They ask you to draw upon your own ideas, opinions, and experiences when responding. However, you can respond with any idea, opinion, or experience relevant to completing the task. The remaining four tasks are...

Academic Listening Skills The Listening section measures your ability to understand spoken English. In academic settings, students must be able to listen to lectures and conversations. Academic listening is typically done for one of the three following purposes: Listening for basic comprehension Comprehend the main idea, major points, and important details related to the main idea (Comprehension of all details is not necessary.) Listening for pragmatic understanding Recognize a speaker's attitude and degree of certainty Recognize the function or purpose of a speaker's statement Connecting and synthesizing information Recognize the organization of information presented Understand the relationships between ideas presented (for example, compare/contrast, cause/effect, or steps in a process) Make inferences and draw conclusion based on what is implied in the material Make connections among pieces of information in a conversation or lecture Recognize topic changes (for example, digr...

Academic Reading Skills The Reading section measures your ability to understand university-level academic texts and passages. In many academic settings around the world, students are expected to read and understand information from textbooks and other academic materials written in English. The following are three purposes for academic reading: Reading to find information Effectively scanning text for key facts and important information Increasing reading fluency and rate Basic comprehension Understanding the general topic or main idea, major points, important fact and details, vocabulary in context, and pronoun references Making inferences about what is implied in a passage Reading to learn Recognizing the organization and purpose of a passage Understanding relationships between ideas Organizing information into a category chart or a summary in order to recall major points and important details Inferring how ideas throughout the passage content Reading Passages The passages cover a var...