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IELTS Preparation tips

Simple, actionable, effective steps to Band 7 (or higher!)

If you have been planning to dedicate this weekend to nothing but IELTS preparation, it’s time for some inspiration to get you through it! Today’s post is going to equip you with IELTS tips from 3 high scorers who won in our IELTS results competition. Here is what they think you should do, to get a higher score in IELTS:

Abhimanyu (IELTS Band 8)

“All the advice I can give, is solve as many practice papers as you can before the test day! The mistake I made with my speaking test, was that I memorised answers (even though I know I’m not supposed to) and I spoke too quickly. Make sure you are calm and collected before the test and don’t make the same mistakes I did 🙂 I also referred to YouTube for guides on answering the test and it helped me a lot. Also download the IELTS app on your phone which gives question papers and solutions as well.”

Shivani (IELTS Band 7.5)

“All those who are preparing for IELTS exam best of luck, guys! I would say just be determined and work hard to achieve a marvelous band score. Speaking comes by speaking. So converse as much as you can with your friends, relatives and near and dear ones in the English language. Read as much as possible and pick up ideas from anything you come across. Practice makes perfect. So give your best shot, and again all the very best.”

Manpreet (IELTS Band 7.5)

“In order to do the Reading up to the mark one needs to be able to skim the whole passage in just 2-3 minutes. Skimming is often confused with looking over the whole passage logically, but that’s incorrect – skimming actually means just underlining the keywords like important dates, time, names, etc.

True/False/Not Given questions must be solved by breaking them up into parts and looking for the keywords that were observed in the given statements and then looking up for words/phrases with the same meaning in the passage, instead of those exact words as they are.

For matching headings to paragraphs the same technique is used and one should be able to analyse the statement and then correlate the main idea of a paragraph with the statement.

Furthermore, for listening in multiple choice questions the connectors like ‘but’, ‘however’, etc must be listened for carefully and the speakers’ intonation must be carefully observed.

For labelling the map in Listening you must be able to analyse the directions then instead of writing the option as it is the location’s name must be written in shorthand, to be quick.

In order to solve filling in the blanks, synonyms and keywords used in the blanks are the most important thing.

For Speaking a good hold of synonyms cam be very beneficial for gaining a good band score, and a correct response to the follow up questions is also required. Our way of doing the speaking exam also matters a lot – so be confident.

Please don’t be afraid of writing due to several myths – it can be the best and the highest scoring part.”

Featured Success Story: Rehan Got IELTS Band 8 After 5 Weeks of Preparation

IELTS Band 8 is a score many test takers dream about and work very hard for. This remarkable result that Rehan achieved in short 5 weeks of preparation was the reason for his email to us, which made our entire team very happy:

Band 8 in IELTS“I sat for IELTS Academic in October in Sri Lanka, and was able to achieve an overall band 8 score (Listening-9, Reading-8.5, Speaking-7, Writing-7).

IELTS-Blog.com and ‘Target Band 7’ book were great assets to help achieve my target in the first attempt. Furthermore, feedback provided for self-recorded speaking test by IELTS-Blog.com teachers has enabled me to improve my weakest component, which was speaking.

Thank you very much IELTS-blog.com team.”

We were far too curious to leave it at that. Experience shows that advice from people like Rehan can make a huge difference to other test takers, and he kindly agreed to a short interview. Here is what we learned – and remember, reading Rehan’s advice is just the first step, but implementing what you learned is the more important step, and the one that will give you great results.

IELTS-Blog.com: How did you hear about our website and the book ‘Target Band 7’?

Rehan: I encountered your book while I was searching for a Band 7 book at a library (British Council Library). Then the book directed me to your website.

IELTS-Blog.com: Did you try other websites or books before IELTS-Blog.com and ‘Target Band 7’? What websites/books?

Rehan: IDP IELTS essentials YouTube channel, IELTS-Liz YouTube channel and a book ‘Improve your skills-Writing for IELTS with answer key’ by Stephanie Dimond.

IELTS-Blog.com: Was this your first IELTS test?

Rehan: Yes.

IELTS-Blog.com: How long did you prepare for IELTS?

Rehan: 5 weeks.

IELTS-Blog.com: How did you organise your exam preparation, did you have a study plan?

Rehan: Yes, the plan suggested at the end of ‘Target Band 7’ book.

IELTS-Blog.com: What features/parts/topics of ielts-blog.com did you find helpful? How did you use them?

Rehan: Speaking and writing tests samples were the ones I used mostly. Furthermore, after finishing listening activities I listened to those audios again and again.

IELTS-Blog.com: How did you use the book ‘Target Band 7’ in your preparation?

Rehan: The book is exceptional. Even though it’s a relatively small book, all the key points are summarized nicely. I went through most of it within couple of days. More specifically, speaking test sample questions and writing tests helped me a lot.

IELTS-Blog.com: Your Listening score is the perfect 9. How did you achieve that?

Rehan: Always focus on spelling to prevent losing marks unnecessarily.
– Get familiarized with audios by listening to them even after finishing the test.
– Listen to good English (BBC podcast) daily.
– Be aware of traps in the listening tests such as answer is not the first sentence, but the second, especially when they are talking about prices.
– Practice to forget about the things you missed in a one section and divert the attention to next one quickly.
– Practice, practice and practice.

IELTS-Blog.com: Speaking was your weakness. How did you overcome that and achieve Band 7?

Rehan: I practiced answering sample speaking test questions in the book, recorded myself and listened.
– Got my speaking recording assessed by the IELTS-Blog.com teachers who revealed few important errors which I’ve being making (self correction and long pauses).
– Listening test audios were saved in my tab and I listened to them repeatedly while traveling.
– English was used to communicate with others as much as possible.
– I purposefully listened & watched only the English media.