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IELTS preparation tips from winners

IELTS high achievers share their secrets

Lalit shares preparation tips for Band 7.5

I am delighted to share with you the tips we received from Lalit, one of our IELTS results competition winners in July 2011.

Lalit says:

“Hi Simone and friends,

It’s a great pleasure to have been selected as a winner of the competition of IELTS scores.

Your blog is doing a great job in helping all those who are preparing for the terrifying (many times) IELTS. I wrote it twice – the first time was two years back. Now I took it again, since the validity of my previous result expired. Got 6.5 in speaking this time, but increased to 7.0 by remarking, the overall score was 7.5: Listening 7.5, Reading 7.5, Writing 7.5, Speaking 7.0 after remarking.

My experience:

– There are no shortcuts except a bit of luck, which is not in our hands anyway.

Treat it like a game – you know how much you normally get in the Listening and Reading, so try to score 0.5 Band higher than your target. If your target is 7.0, you should get 7.5 when you prepare at home.

– I don’t believe in a large number of attempts. You should rather spend that money on good coaching. If you are a first timer or your English is below average, allow for 3 months of preparation. I have many friends taking the test 5 times and still getting a 5.5, which shows that lack of preparation can not be compensated for by multiple attempts.

– Think that you will take it only ONCE, and won’t have any more attempts. I said to myself that I will shave my head if I get less than 7.0! Between you and me, I didn’t, despite my 6.5 in speaking 🙂 But the point is such promise will make you study with vigor.

– I found “Ace the IELTS” a very good and simple book to follow.

– For writing and speaking you need an expert’s advice who can tell your range of score by a sample writing or speaking. Work based on his/her suggestions. In my experience no self help works for Writing and Speaking. Don’t attempt an exam unless you obtain a mark from your coach in speaking and writing, that is consistent with your target score.

– Don’t take anything lightly: I thought I could do well easily in speaking, but I could not.

– To be good at writing you need to master in every aspect of it: spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, even word count.

Practice tests should be done under time limits, preferably daily. You should work on your faults, and learn where you usually make mistakes. You can find out how much you will get in a real exam, if you do practice tests properly, including speaking – record a sample, and show it to an expert.

– Don’t practice the same tests again and again, because that way you really don’t challenge yourself. Collect and do more tests.

– Find and practice your problematic question types – do one type of questions for half a day or a day, to master the areas where you are weak.

– Finally – there is no point in thinking, thinking and thinking, JUST DO IT, and enjoy.”

How Thanh and Vivek got Band 8 in IELTS

Today I would like to share a couple of emails with you. As you know we always ask the high achievers how they got their results. Here are two answers of Band 8 scorers, who wanted to contribute to other test takers’ success: meet Thanh Tan from Vietnam, and Vivek Kalepu from India, both Academic candidates and our monthly competition winners (scored 8.0 in the IELTS test).

Vivek thinks focus is the key:

“Thank you for choosing me as one of the winners. One of the most essential things required to get a good score is focus. With lots of practice, one would get to know the right approach towards each module.

For example, in Listening a person might say something positive with a hint of sarcasm and in instances like that, one has to observe the tone. Academic Reading should be practiced a lot, it is the only way to get a good score. When you’ve done 5 or 6 exercises in reading, it becomes easy. Keep pushing yourself to get the maximum band. Though I felt I could’ve done listening and speaking better, I’m quite satisfied with my score. When you aim high, you obviously succeed, provided you put in effort in your preparation.”

And Thanh Tam attributes part of his success to the book ‘Target Band 7’:

“I followed a lot of advice from this book, which results in my band 8 score! You may feel how grateful I am to this original book!

It is my delight to share my personal experiences about the book ‘Target band 7’. To me, the idea to develop this book was so brilliant, and the effort to write it up was laudable. Undoubtedly, I am one of innumerable IELTS takers who find themselves helped up by this incredible piece of work.

The book can be described by three S’s: straightforward, short, and serviceable. First, unlike other “tip books” which are often scary and mysterious, it is crystal clear about what the IELTS exam needs from you and what you are supposed to do in order to give quick but correct answers. Reading the book was already a source of joy as I was savoring page by page because I was becoming aware about how to deploy my English effectively during the test.

Second, the book is distilled in a very limited number of pages, facilitating a good memorisation and digestion of the content. As a busy clinician, I honestly appreciate this feature, as a tip a really a tip when you remember it. A book overloaded with tips risks to ruin your test due to the fact that those tips fill up your poor memory, leading to confusion and embarrassment.”