September 2011

Yesterday we posted about Kingsley’s success in raising his IELTS score, and the first part of his advice to other test takers (read it here). Below you will find the rest of his tips.

Reading tips

The reading section is one of the frustrating areas as time is usually the problem. My score was Band 5.5, then Band 6.5 and then finally Band 7.

You do not have to read the passage to understand its content entirely, but you have to know what you are looking for. I discovered that questions that required filling in the gaps are usually located in one paragraph and they usually follow a chronological order thus saving me a lot of time.

To save time, if you see any of these questions in the reading section, try as fast as you can to locate the right paragraph and to complete these questions first as its answers can be copied from the text in to the spaces. This will save you much time to crack your brain solving the true, false and not given questions. These questions take much time to understand the context of the paragraphs. Please remember to read the instructions and not to fill more or less than the required number of words.

Do not panic as it will make you read but understand. Also, the passages and the answers usually try to test your ability in words that are synonyms.Try as much as possible to enrich your vocabulary by listening to English news and reading newspapers like “The Economist”. Furthermore, if you don’t know a word, read the whole sentence and hopefully you can guess its meaning.

Always aim at getting the highest score. Many students will say “I need just a 5.5 for my university” and so they will not have that enthusiasm to prepare hard, only to discover that they are spending their money and not achieving their objectives. Time waits for no man, and opportunities may come just once.

Writing tips

I had Band 6, then Band 6.5 and then Band 7

The Target Band 7 book is recommended to all test takers. It has all the tricks and advice. Paragraphing, and the use of connective words is very important. Make short simple sentence – not long and complex statements as they are boring to read. Repetitions will drag you down (for example the use of ‘and’ too many times to link sentences).

Look at other essay samples that scored band 8 or 9 and try to study them, but please do not copy them, as you will definitely go off topic while reproducing them. Look for someone to read your essays. Thinking that you are doing your best when you really get no progress is just like driving an old car that drinks much petrol but does not move. This was my major problem.

Speaking tips

I had 7.5, then 8 and then 7.

To me the speaking was the section I loved the most. I know many people will think otherwise. My advice is to let the examiner see that you are putting your best effort in speaking as they know its not your first language.

Do not be terrified or anxious as they are trained to be very friendly. The cue card questions that take 2 minutes of speaking are very important. To avoid running out of words, always plan by answering the following questions:

where did this happen
who was involved
how did it happen
when did it happen
what happened

When you plan in this way, you will be able to talk for a longer period rather than getting stuck after 30 seconds of speaking.

Good luck, dear friends.

Kingsley.

If you are having doubts about whether or not your target IELTS score is achievable, I have a success story to share. This story is about Kingsley, who wanted to become a nurse in the UK.

Kingsley had a problem – he couldn’t get the four 7s in all IELTS sections. This meant he couldn’t become a registered nurse in the UK. But the desire to practice his profession was just too strong for him to give up. Since he was already getting the recent exam questions and tips from IELTS-Blog.com, he decided to use one of our recommended books in his exam preparation.

Next thing you know – we get this email from him:

“Hi Simone,
I want to share my results with other members of the IELTS-blog team. My special gratitude to you for your marvelous book ‘TARGET BAND 7’, including the set of advice and internet links that you have been posting. Your book can be described as the number one solution for IELTS problems.

I finally got the score I needed in my nursing registration with the NMC in the UK of 7,7,7,7 after two attempts. However, I would like to share my advice with other test takers, just like they have been sharing with me and hopefully their dreams will come true. Thanks for you support.”

Who would say no to such request? Of course I said “YES, thank you very much Kingsley, please send your tips and I will pass them on to everyone.” And Kingsley made time in his busy working schedule to prepare a summary of tips to help other test takers improve. It took him several days, simply because there was more writing to do than he had free time between shifts.

So here are Kingsley’s tips for a successful exam preparation:

I will begin by saying to all test takers that determination and hard work are the key to success in this exam. It is an easy exam if you prepare and follow the instructions as outlined in the Target Band 7 book. I took 3 weeks to prepare and at least 2hours of study every day and wasn’t playing on facebook as it destroys your concentration.

Listening tips

The listening to me was always one of the back breaking sections since I always panic, lose concentration and tend to lose the sequence while listening to the recording. After I read the Target band 7 book, I got some advice on how to do it right. This greatly relieved my stress .In addition to this, the trick I realised in the listening was that you have to know what you are about to hear (very important). To do this practise at least 10 new exercises while following the instructions from the book, then you will see how it becomes easier.

Furthermore, I decided to read the questions ahead before the tape reaches that point, especially when the reader says “You have 3 minutes or half a minute to check your answers”. At this time, I concentrated on reading and underlining the keywords as fast I can in the next set of questions, to have an idea on what is to come in the subsequent paragraph. While doing this my brain already knew what is coming and was prepared to listen only to that, avoiding the distractions from car movements or industrial engines or telephone ringing tones .

The common error of many is that they become confused especially in the last section as they can not cope with the fast reading, understanding the questions and writing at the same time. So the quicker you read the question before the speaker comes to it, the better. When the recording tells you to read questions X to Y, you are reading them for the second time.

Lastly, be very careful when you transfer your answers to the answer sheet, as many have written the answer of, for example, question one in the space for question 3 due to anxiety and frustration, when they think they have lost sequence. When you miss a question, forget about it and keep on going or else you will lose many as the next passages are fast and more complex.

Your dreams will come true and your life will change with just an extra push. There is no magic in the exam but practice, practice, practice – not one exercise over and over, but different exercises. Get as many exercises from the above book and other Cambridge IELTS books on-line or from libraries as you can.

To be continued – Part 2 of Kingsley’s Success Story and tips will be published tomorrow.

Update: read Part 2 here.