IELTS preparation tips from winners

Today we would like you to meet Amandeep and Sarthak, the two winners of our IELTS results competition. Amandeep got Band 7.5 in IELTS (a great score!) and Sarthak did the impossible – he scored a perfect 9!

In their winners’ interviews they shared some really useful tips, so have a quick read through and remember to apply this to your own practice sessions.

Amandeep said,

“I feel so honored to become a winner in your competition. I would love to share some words with the readers on how to ace the IELTS test.

First of all, I would like to thank IELTS-Blog.com, the website I continually followed and practiced on. Moreover, I have learned one thing while practicing, that it is worthless to surf various other websites online as they do not have authentic information and sometimes they mislead the learners. Most of those websites do nothing but confuse the learners. So try to practice hard on your own and keep a track of your improvements as I have done. Readers can also use the books published by IELTS-Blog for more guidance.

Hope my few words would help the learners to score better and ace their test.”

Note: while preparing this blog post, we couldn’t help but notice that 3 out of 4 Sarthak’s recommendations are the same as Simone Braverman’s advice in her books ‘Ace the IELTS‘ and ‘Target Band 7‘. Well, that’s one more reason for you to follow these tips with confidence 🙂

Sarthak said,

“For Listening, I would advise and encourage students to scribble down information they perceive as important on their question paper as they listen, even if they’re looking for specific answers. Sometimes the answers are in the details we accidentally may have missed.

For the Reading section, I’d advise to not skim through a passage with the intent to come back to it later looking to find specific answers, but to rather comprehensively read through a passage the first time itself with undivided attention. This makes it easier to come back to it and scan through looking for answers in the right spot.

For writing and speaking, I went through sample answers and responses for many prompts across practice tests to understand what’s expected.

Lastly, I can’t stress this enough, understand why your answers were incorrect and make sure to really learn to not repeat the same mistake again. Identifying and dissecting weaknesses is the best way to get better.”

It makes all the sense in the world to learn from other test takers’ experiences, so why don’t more people do it? Today we are going to change that!

Everyone, meet Rohit and Lucrezia. Lucrezia got Band 7.5 in IELTS and Rohit – Band 8.5, and they were very kind to tell us about their exam preparation and share some helpful advice.

Lucrezia said,

“To the other candidates I would recommend practicing a lot using the online resources that IELTS offers and textbooks. I asked my sister, who is also learning English, to help me with the speaking and writing parts. She would ask me sample questions and read my essays. I recommend studying with other people who have the same purpose as yours.”

Rohit said,

“What I believe is that every candidate at the given time has a potential maximum band score depending upon his grasp on English language. But, no candidate will score that band on their own. One needs professional advice, coaching and hard work of at least 3-4 weeks to get that score.

To elaborate further, a candidate with maximum potential of Band 8 will never score 8 without proper guidance and will end up somewhere between 6-7. In simple words, this is the bare minimum one needs, just in order to achieve what one is already capable of.

Increasing the maximum potential band is a long journey and process of at least a year or two. It will involve reading all kind of books, watching news, documentaries and movies. It may sound strange but about 20 years ago, when I was really keen on improving my English, I used to watch English movies with English subtitles and that certainly helped me a lot.

During my prep I focused on my weaknesses, which were using too many hand gestures, too many ideas and excessive use of “you know”. I recorded videos of my mock tests and worked on these issues. On the Speaking test day, I was very relaxed and had a free-flowing conversation. You don’t need to lie or use imaginary events or experiences. I believe everyone’s real life is interesting enough to have a conversation, which is basically what Speaking test is all about.”