Hoang and Seema, the winners of our IELTS results competition in June and July, wrote and shared their tips for success.

Hoang said:

“In order to get a good result, just practice, practice and practice. Read a lot. In fact, read everything (in English), that is within your reach: newspapers, novels or even leaflets given to you on the streets.

Watch English-speaking programmes whenever you can to improve your Listening skill. Don’t be nervous and you will achieve the best result.”

Seema said:

“I realized that to succeed in IELTS exam or rather any exam there are two requirements, and they are:

1. Sound knowledge of the subject.
2. Sufficient practice.

I owe my English knowledge to strong foundation in school! But yes, the exam was easy for me as I practiced according to the exam pattern for 2 weeks.

For this purpose books and study material by British Council was of immense help and so were vast materials available at various sites, including IELTS-BLOG. My score would have been definitely better if I had practiced more.

My suggestions to score high is practice the IELTS related materials again and again, preferably for a month or two, if English basics are clear.

Do not panic. Stay cool.

Follow the guidelines given especially for the writing module. Writing part is the most difficult one for me, but if approached systematically it becomes easy.

I had done speaking practice for just 2 days, but will advise to do more and practice in front of a mirror or a friend.”

Thank you, Hoang and Seema!

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Melvyn said:

“My main advice is to be confident during the reading test. I realised that I answer more questions correctly when I’m confident. This is because the answers are very similar and if you are doubtful, you tend to keep making changes and mess it all up.

For the listening, I practised by listening to English songs on my mp3 daily and trying to understand every single word until I can sing the whole song. It really helped in my listening test as I was able to put together words and also repeat the words/sentences in my head after they were played.”

Ahmed said:

“Practice allot. Read articles and books, and when you don’t know the meaning of a word use English-English dictionary. Listen to different sources of English audio – TV, radio, or the Internet. When you listen to songs, radio news, etc, try to repeat what they say and imitate their accent. Read the questions in the listening part, so that you prepare your mind to collect the answer once you hear it. And above all relax, and try to enjoy the exam.”

Sumit said:

“I must say you have a wonderful web site for IELTS.

I did not prepare much for IELTS, but took a few practice tests a few weeks apart and monitored how I was progressing. I listened to a few good speaking test recordings and read essays that had low and high scores, which helped me figure out the difference. Spelling is important. I should acknowledge my English teachers at school who were very particular about spelling and I inherited those qualities.

Be alert, learn from your mistakes and have fun.”

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“First and foremost, I would like to say that it is an easy exam, if you keep it easy and simple. You don’t have to study much, as this exam is all about how fluent you are and how well you understand English.

For the listening part I used to listen to podcasts from the British Council Learn English websites. There are hundreds of podcasts there. I used to listen daily to 10 – 15 podcasts. It is easy to download them to your iPod or mp3 player, or to just listen on a PC or a laptop. Also CNN and BBC have some useful podcasts and you can listen to them as well. I saw a lot of English movies, too.

For the speaking part as I was in the UK for about 6 months before my exam, I used to speak daily with my family. Also I used to speak on usual topics like my favorite program, my favorite movie, a book, any hobby, any work I like to do, any holidays I spent, these usual topics I used to speak on daily for about 15 to 20 minutes.

For writing, which I considered the most difficult, I used different websites and practiced in writing task 1 to see how many words can I write in 20 minutes, trying to make it 150 or 200, not too lengthy or too short.

For writing task 2 because we don’t know what topic will be given, I used to read different articles on topics such as MEDIA, COMMUNICATION, TELEVISION, FILMS, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CHILDREN AND FAMILY. It’s good to get a whole list of topics that appeared in previous exams and read articles or essays on those topics, and then it is easy to write 250 words – because you will have enough knowledge by then.

For reading again I used the British Council Learn English reading modules step by step guide, and also practiced Cambridge IELTS 1 to 6 series books. I read newspapers and Readers Digest whenever I had time.

I did all this in 15 days only and I have passed with Band 8

And last but not the least – IELTS-BLOG.com website really helped me throughout that period.

ALL THE BEST TO EVERYONE!”

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“The writing section again was one of the “practicing, practicing, practicing” sections. Firstly, it is very important to be familiar with the layout of a letter and an essay. This might bring you some important extra points in case your rhetoric skills are not the best (like mine).

Secondly, you have to practice the timing. This was the hardest part to me. Sixty minutes can be very few to brainstorm, draw a mind map and write two documents by hand. I haven’t been writing by hand for ages, so I first had to get used to write clear and fast again. Write using variety of structures – some short sentences, some more complex ones, varying vocabulary and tenses. Generally, you have to work in a very concentrated way without a lot of hesitation, and don’t forget to check your spelling and grammar at the end. Every slip of the pen is a lost point.

The speaking section had been the trickiest part for me since I don’t have any native speakers to practice with. I worked through my training CDs and searched the internet for some example videos of other test-takers being interviewed. That way I knew how this section was structured and how/what I was supposed to answer.

Prepare some vocabulary or word-chains for the most common topics like hobbies, family, hometown, famous persons, events and so on but don’t try to memorize complete answers. The examiners are trained to notice this. Having some word-chains in mind makes you flexible in your answers since the question for one topic tend to vary. Practice your answers and speak them out loud and clearly. Don’t feel ashamed, this is the only way to practice it if you’re alone.

The day before the test I completely concentrated on the Recent IELTS exams section here in IELTS-Blog.com . I created some mind maps for the writing tasks and answered the speaking questions the other test takers remembered. Generally, this page is great to prepare for the test.

Get yourself some training material and work through it. Don’t ignore the parts that hurt. Practice them over and over again until you feel confident. Stick to the many tips posted on here and you’ll get the score you need.”

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“I really did not expect to be among the winners of the competition and actually participated ‘just for fun’. I’m pretty excited, thank you! Of course I’d be happy to give some advice to the other blog-readers.

In order to be well prepared for my IELTS test I started practicing well ahead of the actual test-date – five weeks to be precise. I imposed myself the obligation of learning at least 30-60 minutes a day and although this was not always easy it was one of the key-factors to success.

Internet forums and user ratings in online reviews helped me to determine which books had been useful to other learners before. I bought a bunch of five and worked through them one after the other and recognized that especially my scores in reading and listening improved day after day. While I could hardly understand anything at the beginning of my training I got much better by and by and finally scored 8 points in the listening section and even 9 in reading.

You simply have to get used to it by practicing it over and over again. Get yourself some good training-material to find out what to expect in these sections. It made me feel very comfortable to know the question-types and to know how to approach the reading-section. The training-material taught me how to skim and scan information in a text in order to quickly find the passage you need.

Tune in to English radio-broadcasts (via web), listen to English news on TV or concentrate on understanding song-texts to improve your listening skills and vocabulary. Read English online-newspapers or books to cope with the reading-section. I myself read the Australian Google News on a daily basis. It does not take more than 15 minutes but you get to know a lot of new vocabulary, you improve your reading skills and along the way you stay up to date .”

Stay tuned, more tips are coming tomorrow!

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“My experience of IELTS preparation is not standard because I had only a week before exam for that.

I decided to use this restricted time frame for making myself familiar with the format of Reading and Listening parts. For that purpose I used IELTS past papers published by Cambridge University Press. I worked through all the available past papers, analysed my mistakes and thought about ways to avoid them in actual examination conditions.

As for Speaking and Writing parts, unfortunately I didn’t have any opportunities for practicing these skills with experienced IELTS tutors so I relied only on the techniques acquired when studying English at school and at the university.

My main piece of advice for candidates with limited time for preparation would be therefore to concentrate on the parts of the exam that they feel can be significantly improved in the short term.

Good luck to all the candidates! Best wishes to you and your extremely useful web-site!”

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“The best advice for students preparing for IELTS, especially for the speaking section, would be to be yourself and keep it simple. If you try to learn your answers beforehand, you will lose marks as the examiners pick that up immediately. Speaking in short simple sentences does the trick. Speak slowly so that you are well understood. This is very important as we may have very different accents. Practice speaking with friends to get the natural flow.

Reading, Writing and Listening skills can be practiced with the help of IELTS materials available online. There are a lot of websites providing free samples which are worth going through.

Last but not the least, believe in yourself and have a good rest before the exam. It will be hard to concentrate especially on the listening part if your mind is not fresh.

Good Luck everyone!”

And here is what Aqrar Khan, Band 8.5 in General Training module, said when I asked him how he got this beautiful score:

“It was a result of thorough understanding of the format of the test, practice and advice and sharing of “lessons learnt” through IELTS-blog.

I would recommend that all the potential IELTS test takers get the speaking tests samples analyzed by your experts.

I would advise all potential IELTS test takers not to to take the test “lightly” and invest some time in preparation through self-study books, IELTS-blog, etc.”

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“My advice to other IELTS candidates will be to time them while they practice as time is of utmost importance while taking the test. When I was preparing for IELTS, I prepared from the past papers book provided by the British Council. The Road to IELTS is also very helpful as it is an interactive guide to studying for the test and also works on your vocabulary.

I used to solve the papers and check the answers and mark myself. Every time I did it, I wanted to beat my past score and do better. Start preparing at least 15 days prior to the test and if you don’t have time to solve the entire paper, solve at least one section of the sample papers everyday.

The Listening and Reading tests are very scoring and easy. All you have to do is listen carefully and go on marking answers at the same time. While attempting the reading test read the questions carefully and read the passages and underline anything you think is important, it will help you spot answers faster.

The Writing and the Speaking tests are not as easy as the Listening and Reading ones so read about different topics and read the newspaper regularly to be prepared. For the Speaking test, even if you don’t know much about the subject speak confidently and be careful about your grammar. If you know you have made a mistake, correct yourself.

Hope this helps. All the best and do well ”

- Anuja Gangan
www.thehappiewanderer.blogspot.com

On behalf of all the readers of IELTS-Blog I’d like to thank Anuja and wish her all the best with her life after IELTS.

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“When I was required to take the IELTS test as a requirement in my immigrant visa application, I was hesitant and at the same time worried. I only had more than a month to prepare for it because of time constraint (I needed to submit all the documents in the Canadian embassy until 2nd week of December). So I had no choice but to take it the soonest possible time and review by myself since I can’t afford to go to review centres in Manila because of my work load.

In September of last year, I started surfing the net with the hope of looking for materials I can use for the review. It was during my search when I came across your site, ielts-blog.com and it’s from this site that I started practicing all the four sections of the IELTS test, in addition to the some other materials online I gathered for my practice exams at home.

So I started, reviewing the areas which I thought were my weaknesses – the Listening and Reading tests. I also believe that it is in these areas where objective scores are achieved as opposed to the Writing and Speaking tests where there can be a slight subjectivity in the manner the examiner will determine the test taker’s score.

I got hold of a notebook, which I can use to record my developments as my review went by, starting day 1 of my study up to the last day (3 days before October 24-the exam date).

Every day from day 1 of my review, I visited BBC.com, listened and read its news to make me aware of what was happening around the world. This was also with the expectation that the examiner in the speaker test might ask me questions relevant to the current events.

During my review, I made sure that I had a stop watch with me to monitor the amount of time I had to spend on my Readings. I practiced using Academic Reading materials, though I was required to take the General IELTS. I believed that trying on harder reading passages will make it a lot easier for you to accomplish General reading test.

During the reading, I practiced skimming and scanning the passages while answering the given questions. What is important in reading is all required questions should be answered and this can be accomplished without reading the entire passage word for word. The technique here is to look at the questions first then scan the text material for answers.

Remember that the exam has a time constraint so we need to have at least few minutes time remaining to get back to the answers and review them.

I found out that I had difficulty in determining whether an idea is GIVEN, NOT GIVEN, TRUE or FALSE, and this had been making my score in Reading lower. So I focused on this weakness. What others have been telling in ielts-blog are true…that if the idea is not directly stated in the text, then it is NOT GIVEN, if the idea is directly stated in the text, then it is GIVEN; if the idea conforms to the idea of the author then the idea is TRUE, FALSE otherwise.

With regards to the Listening test, I practiced the exam materials from the ielts-blog and some materials I downloaded from the net. Again everything is recorded from my first Listening test up to the last to keep track of my performance. I also listened consistently at least every morning before starting my work to bbc.com news to practice my ear with British accent since all listening materials I listened to were of British accent speaking people.

During the Listening practice, I’ve learned that I should focus on how many words are required for giving the correct answers; lesser or more words than the expected answer is a penalty, so every exam taker should be careful with that.

It is also very important not to lose your focus during the listening part of the exam. Every word you listen to is important…losing track of even a single word might change your interpretation of the discussion in the tape, so be very sure to keep your focus by looking at the exam paper than looking elsewhere.

Every single day as I progress in my review, I did not forget to pray…to pray for the divine Almighty for guidance, for I believe that success comes from Him.”.

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“Hi Simone,

Thank you for the opportunity to give some suggestion to future IELTS aspirants. I would be interested to say a few things on how to get a better score for the speaking test. I got band 9 in Speaking. I agree that living in an English-speaking country is useful, but it is definitely not THE deciding factor for higher band scores.

It would be a great idea to improve speaking by attentively listening to how native speakers articulate different sounds, and string those sounds into perfect-sounding words. Stress on syllables within words and intonation in sentences being language-specific characteristics, it is vital that one understands how these function for the English language.

Secondly, television channels (national channels, wherever possible) are best in terms of feeding us with appropriate and acceptable English, smart vocabulary, phrasal verbs of everyday use and ‘not-too-indecent’ slang. These channels cover plenty of personal interviews, counseling sessions, discussions on topics of interest or abstract ideas or on issues of national/international importance which are typically not very different from what we get for IELTS speaking test, both in terms of question-patterns and subject-matter.

It might be of interest to you to reflect upon what involves in delivering a response in a natural way, just as you would have answered in your mother-tongue, with ease and least digression from the topic. The key is consistency in our efforts, repeating utterances that sound intelligent and sounds that we love to produce flawlessly.

One last word – be confident, we hardly ever see interviewees on the tely nervous or losing their calm! So, go for it, good luck!

Paramita Goswami
New Zealand”

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