IELTS Preparation tips

Today I would like to share with you the tips we’ve received from the trainer of two students who scored Band 7.5 and won in the Best IELTS results competition last month. Rohit Arora and Navjot Kaur were trained in Kapri Institute of English Speaking in Amritsar, India. Their teacher wrote and shared some tips that help their students achieve better IELTS scores:

Listening

1. Keep the volume of your headphones a bit loud, so that no noise, distractions or any sort of disturbance nearby could affect your concentration during the test.

2. Note down all the answers on your question papers while the recording is playing, don’t worry about the handwriting, just be quick, because once the test is over, you will be given 10 minutes transfer time in order to copy the answers to your answer sheet.

Reading

1. Do not leave any answer blank because there is no negative marking in the IELTS exam. So, answer all the questions, the answers you guess have a chance of being correct.

2. Before looking for the answers in a passage, underline all the important names, years and dates. Most of the nouns are helpful at the time of looking for the answers, because most of the answers consist of them or are located near them.

Writing (Task 2)

1. Write at least 4 paragraphs. Always leave one blank line after every paragraph and every paragraph must be started from the beginning of the line (there is no need to start a new paragraph from the middle of the line).

2. Try to write 8 – 10 points on the topic on a piece of paper while planning your essay, it will make your work easier. Use only the points which you can easily explain or support with examples. Do not try to just think of points without writing them down, as while writing the essay you may get distracted and forget those points.

3. Try to write at least 250 words and not exceed 285 words, as excess words could be grammatically wrong or incorrectly spelled.

4. Do not repeat any point, write about different points and if possible, try to give supporting examples as well.

5. Do not use any phrase or idiom if you are not sure about the meaning, or if you are not sure about the exact usage.

Speaking

1. Greet the examiner while or after entering the examination room to demonstrate good manners and show respect.

2. Maintain eye contact with the examiner.

3. Be confident (do not feel shy or embarrassed).

4. While attempting the Cue-Card, answer all the questions.

5. Do not repeat any sentence or point twice.

It’s Saturday, so I’ll keep today’s post short, to let you get back to the fun things you have planned for today as soon as possible.

When we asked Batool (our student from Pakistan, who got Band 8 in IELTS) how she prepared for the exam, she said

“I did not use any specific method to study, but I practiced hard and I guess the saying is right, it is the key to success.

I did all the exercises from the Cambridge Series, as well as used Target Band 7, and it proved to be of great help, especially in writing and speaking.

Writing seemed the toughest to me, so I used to practice in it daily, but before writing I used to search different samples to get an idea of a proper writing style.

As for speaking, practice as much as you can with friend or family member. The tests posted by different people on this site are extremely helpful because they do get repeated.

I hope everyone gets the required score like I did.

Best of Luck.”

Have a good weekend, everyone!