IELTS preparation tips from winners

Some people get their target score in IELTS in the very first attempt. Dr. Afroza Shameen is not one of them. You may remember her name from our monthly results competition, that she won in July. Dr. Afroza didn’t have a lucky break, she didn’t get her Band 8 by accident – she worked hard on it. But during her preparation and several IELTS attempts she learned many important lessons, that she is willing to share with everyone – hoping that it will help you, too.

Dr. Afroza and I met through email when she wrote to me after her 3rd IELTS attempt, and she struggled to get Band 7 back then.

But listen to what she has to say now:

“Wow, Simone, I’m really excited to share my experience with you and other IELTS candidates. First I would like to thank you for choosing me as one of IELTS winners.

My target was band 7 in each section but, oh my God, I achieved 8. It’s true that I took IELTS a few times and couldn’t get the desired score. Started to blame my luck – but the real problem was in my study pattern. Getting a good score in IELTS is not a matter of luck. One has to practice and there is no alternative to practice. Ultimately I’ve reached my goal after that realization.

I recommend all series of Cambridge books 1-8, I found tips in Target Band 7 book helpful, and an invaluable information from the website www.ielts-blog.com.

Listening

1. Students should have a good idea about the questions’ pattern and their problem. In 4 sections of listening there are same types of questions. For listening practice Cambridge books are enough. I practiced those until I got 40 out of 40, and I made sure I understood the answers.

I had a spelling problem (especially in the listening section), sometimes I found that task type confusing. So I practiced a few spelling questions, and I noticed that the spelling questions pattern is quite similar – there is either a name of month, a day of week, academic subject, or parts of human bodies. I practiced in spelling the listening answers from IELTS books. It may sound strange, but really helped me. For better listening score you just need practice and deep concentration.

2. Listening to BBC news, podcasts, watching English movies also helped me to achieve my goal. Every day I listened to 3 podcast from BBC and British council learn English website which has also helped me to learn new vocabulary.

Reading

1. In my first few attempts I got Band 6 to 6.5 in reading and was bitterly disappointed. I started to look for my weak points. I could understand the whole passage but when I went through the questions it usually took too much time to find the answer.

My reading speed was poor and I started to enhance it. My technique was to read 3 reading tests, meaning 9 passages, thoroughly without looking at their questions; I underlined the new words and learned the meaning continuously for 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks I noticed that I could finish a passage with proper understanding within 5 minutes. By practicing my technique I scored 8.5! It’s true that for answering a question you don’t need to read the full passage, but you need to find the right answer within limited time and for that one must know how to read quickly.

2. I found good tips on reading in the book Target Band 7.”

We will continue and post the rest of Dr. Afroza’s tips tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Gian is an IELTS test taker from Italy, who prepared for the exam on his own, and got an amazing result – Band 8. Since he used www.IELTS-Blog.com extensively in his exam preparation, Gian felt like sharing his best tips and strategies with the other readers of our website.

Gian says:

“I’ve been working and partially living in a mostly English speaking environment for some years, but all oral and written communication is quite ‘relaxed’ in the workplace. So what I had to do before the IELTS wasn’t to learn English, but to ‘polish’ my English. I also had to pay attention to the differences between formal and informal English, both oral and written. Also, I’m not used any more to handwriting, so I had both to enhance my awful handwriting and to refresh some spelling.

My studying method was the following:

I studied for four weeks. I did eight practice tests in total, taken from two different books, strictly respecting the time limits imposed by the ‘real’ IETLS.

Listening: I never used earplugs, I rather used a couple of ordinary speakers kept at low volume, placed on the other side of the room. I also watched some movies in English and I listened quite a lot to BBC online radio. They have several national and local stations so you can familiarize with many different accents if you wish.

Reading: nothing special to say.

Writing: Apart from the eight practice tests from the books, I extensively used the IELTS Blog (thank you guys!). I wrote one essay every two days on average. After finishing an essay I used to count the words and to check a good online dictionary for all words and expressions I wasn’t sure about. I transcribed all of them on a notebook with synonyms, and I took some minutes before going to bed for re-reading the new words.

In order to see if my essays were OK, I assessed each one of them according to the following parameters:
a. Response to task,
b. Coherence/cohesion,
c. Vocabulary/syntax,
d. Grammar (once again: many thanks to IELTS Blog).

For the Speaking part, I read sample questions and I did some sort of ‘monologues’, trying not to be too informal.

Here are my tips:

– When you prepare for IELTS, your main objective is not ‘learning English’ but ‘learning how to pass the IELTS test’. So I suggest you to get as informed as possible on the structure of the test and on how your test will be assessed. A number of IELTS practice books are available, plus all the info you’ll find on IELTS Blog. However, while practising you will realize if you need to refresh some grammar: in that case do it, otherwise do not.

– The IELTS test makes it quite impossible to cheat: the score you get reflects the level of your English. So do not try to impress the examiners at any cost, use only words and expressions you exactly know how to use. Improve your vocabulary and syntax during the preparation, do not improvise during the test.

– In the Reading part, what I did was to underline keywords and key-concepts and to circle names and dates while reading. I think it works.

– Familiarize yourself with the Answer sheet (for the Listening and Reading sections) and with the Writing sheet (for the Writing section). Most books offer a sample Answer sheet: make some photocopies and use them while practising.

The Writing sheet is an A4 ruled sheet of paper, with lines of more or less 1 cm. You have to use a pencil to fill the Answer sheet, while you can use a pencil or a pen for the Writing, as you prefer. Correcting fluid is not allowed. An extra sheet of paper will be given to you, but you’ll not have the time to write a rough copy. For Task 2, what I did was to draft some bullet points with keywords and key-concepts on the extra paper, and then I wrote my essay directly on the Writing sheet.

– You are likely to be somewhat nervous during the test, making mistakes you wouldn’t make normally. Anyway, the idea is to stay concentrated but not stressed. Personally, I knew I would be tense during the test, so I got used to assess my own practice tests very strictly, in a way that I could be quite certain to do good enough on the day of the test, even though my performance was a bit lower than at home.

– During your preparation, take some days of break from time to time. That helps you not to get stressed and gives your brain the time to store information.

– During the Speaking part you have a lot of freedom. Try to steer the conversation towards topics you are familiar with, of course without going off topic. If the examiner asks you something you are not confident about or if you feel you haven’t the right vocabulary, feel free to say “I’m not an expert” or “I’m not able to go into technicalities” as a preamble. After all, it is your English to be assessed, not your general knowledge. Also, I think the examiner will not be very happy if your language is too informal, so try to avoid expressions like “you know…”, “kinda like”, “see what I mean”, and make it sure that you use syntax properly.

Good luck everybody and congratulations to IELTS-Blog!

Gian M.”