All About IELTS

Welcome to IELTS Success Formula Challenge Day 1. If you’ve just joined IELTS-Blog today, read about the Challenge here.

Today we’re going to solve the problems that trouble Suwandi J. from Indonesia. Here are the issues he is worried about:

“IELTS preparation has been a challenge for me before taking the IELTS test.

Firstly, I have limited IELTS books for practice. It’s been hard to find original books with complete practice tests.

Secondly, I don’t have a qualified tutor who can guide me through IELTS practice. I need a guideline how to exercise well to prepare for the IELTS test.

I need to get Band 7.0 in my IELTS (L,S,W,R) but I am very anxious because it looks unlikely if I haven’t got enough practice time with the right resources. I have taken my first IELTS and scored Band 5.0, it was a couple of years ago. And it’s not enough to be accepted in the university where I want to study.”

How IELTS Success Formula can solve Suwandi’s problem

Limited materials for practice? We’ve got you covered:

We know that practice is very important in IELTS preparation, and that is why we included 3 opportunities to exercise:

1. For every IELTS skill – Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking – there is a dedicated section in the book, and in every section there are fitness activities (that’s what we call practice exercises in our book because they train your brain and keep it fit and ready for the real test).

Want to have a look? Download a few pages as examples of Listening activities here, Reading activities here, Writing Task 1 here, Writing Task 2 here, and Speaking activities here.

2. In addition to the fitness activities there is a full IELTS-like test included in the book, with audio files for the Listening and Speaking sub-tests. We even underlined the sentences in the Listening transcript where the correct answers are – click here to see.

3. And on top of that, we give you 5 (five!) full IELTS practice tests with answers as a free bonus with the book. This means that you can test yourself to find what your weaker skills are, find the common mistakes that you make, work with tips from the book and fitness activities to improve, and then test yourself again to see the progress you’re making.

No tutor? No problem!

We designed the fitness activities mentioned above to replace a real tutor. Why? Because many test takers live in remote areas and have no access to live IELTS classes. Others live in big cities but are too busy earning a living or taking care of their family to do a class during the day. So, our fitness activities literally tell you what to do, just like a real IELTS tutor would! And, of course, the correct answers are provided, but instead of simply listing them, we also include an explanation where required – click here to see an example.

If you plan to take the IELTS test in 2014 and you need a particularly good score because anything lower isn’t acceptable – then you’ll want to participate in the IELTS Success Formula Challenge.

What is the IELTS Success Formula Challenge?

It’s something that has never been done before.

We challenge all our readers to throw their absolute worst problems in IELTS preparation at us. If you are preparing for IELTS and you have the most pressing and urgent problem with any IELTS skill, a problem that makes you miserable, that you are desperate to solve but don’t know how to do it, join the IELTS Success Formula Challenge.

Have you heard about IELTS Success Formula Academic, a new book that Stephen Slater and I (Simone Braverman) wrote together? As the title implies, this isn’t just an ordinary IELTS book. Yes, it’s a bold claim, but we are positive this book has The Formula for Success in IELTS. In fact, we stand behind this claim 100%.

So this Challenge is for you to give us your worst problems with IELTS preparation, and for us to show exactly how our new book solves them.

But that’s not all – there are prizes to win! Five participants will win a complete digital IELTS preparation package, consisting of IELTS Success Formula Academic and five full practice tests with answers.

UPDATE – THE CHALLENGE IS NOW CLOSED

Problems solved:

Day 1 – click here

Day 2 – click here

Day 3 – click here

Day 4 – click here

Day 5 – click here

Day 6 – click here

Day 7 – click here

Winners’ names are available here

How to enter the Challenge

Really simple – by telling us what your biggest problem with IELTS preparation is. Send us an email to info@ielts-blog.com, and include

1. A detailed description of your problem in at least 50 words (not just “I have a problem with listening/reading/writing/speaking” because that’s not enough).
2. For what purpose you are taking the IELTS test.
3. Your photo and the country you’re from.

What will happen next?

During the 2 weeks of Challenge we will be posting readers’ problems and solutions on IELTS-Blog.com so everyone can study them and use in their own preparation.

Every reader who enters the IELTS Success Formula Challenge will go in the draw to win a complete digital IELTS preparation package.

The Challenge will run for 2 weeks, from 2 June to 16 June (closing at midnight AEST), and the 5 winners will be announced on 18 June.

Fine print

– By participating in the Challenge you allow us to post your problem and photo on the blog.
– If you purchase a digital copy of IELTS Success Formula Academic during the Challenge (to avoid delaying your exam preparation) and subsequently win, your payment will be refunded, as you will be entitled to a free copy.
– Every person who sent a problem will go in the draw to win a free copy of IELTS Success Formula Academic, regardless of whether or not their problem was posted on the blog. Even if, due to limited time, we haven’t posted every single problem we received, everyone has a chance to win.

Good luck, and we are looking forward to receiving your emails!