IELTS preparation tips from winners

Everyone, meet Oluwaseun – a young man from Nigeria who won in our IELTS results competition. He took IELTS 3 times and increased his writing score from Band 6 to 7.5. We asked Oluwaseun to share his best preparation tips – and he kindly replied.

“IELTS is a test, not a death sentence”, says Oluwaseun, and goes on to explain how his positive mindset and determination resulted in a substantial increase to his score.

“It’s my third IELTS. In the first attempt, I didn’t do well in Writing. I had just Band 6.0. So I had to retake it.

However, I had 7.5 and 7.0 in Writing in the second and third attempts respectively. The second was General, while the third was Academic.

I specially owe my success story in the last two attempts to the Writing Correction Service, which I stumbled upon while searching online for help. I followed as many of the instructions in the guide as I could. I subscribed to the Writing Correction Service and kept practicing on sample answer sheets, doing Writing Tasks 1 and 2. I’d turn them over to the team and get feedback from them. At times, my results were amazing, other times I got disappointed whenever the results came out otherwise. But I kept practicing more in such cases, and submitted my best response the next time.

I subscribed to IELTS-Blog on YouTube and four others for virtual learning, especially on Writing Task 1. This was very helpful.

My advice

• Get your materials from a reputable blog or team like IELTS-Blog.com.
• Practice hard, don’t be discouraged when your result turns out bad, but do more practice instead!
• Know your weaknesses and adopt strategies for improving in those areas.

Stay hopeful!”

Today’s post is about Olga and her success in IELTS, but it’s also about you – because Olga is sharing her exam tips for you to apply them!

Olga is a lovely young woman from Russia who speaks Russian as her first language, and English as her second. We met when Olga enrolled in our writing correction service as part of her IELTS preparation. Olga got Band 8 in IELTS, with a straight 9 in Listening. She took part in our IELTS results competition last month and won the first place under General Training category. In her winner’s interview Olga shared some very useful advice – and encouragement – that will help you increase your own score in the test:

“From my perspective, the best advice is to give examiners EXACTLY what they want to see. Creativity is a rewarding thing, but isn’t meant for the IELTS test 🙂 It took me about a year to reprogram my brain and acquire and implement a new vision for the test based solely on the band descriptors.

Overall, IELTS should become a part of your everyday life while you are preparing for it.

Reading

Practice, practice, practice. At least 20 minutes a day.

Listening

Practice, practice, practice. I had BBC 6-minute English for breakfast every day and then took an IELTS listening test 4-5 times a week. If I was too tired to sit a test I watched BBC news or a movie in English. Don’t practice listening in the headphones, do your best to imitate a test atmosphere with the worst scenario when the sound is hardly heard.

Speaking

I know that talking to yourself is a bit weird but it helps to pass the test 🙂 Discuss everything that you see with yourself, it’s always pleasant to talk to a good person! 😉 And do not give short answers, your opinion is important – express it!

Writing

Yes, it can be a disaster. Check the band descriptors for your desired score and act accordingly. Enrich your vocabulary with the topic-related units, practice the grammar structures which are required for the score you need, and put aside creativity. Remember, examiners are not searching for extraordinary ideas, they look for a writing task which is performed according to the scheme.

Never give up! It may sound like a common thing, but do not let laziness, confusion or apathy stop you. Instead give yourself a break after a failure, stand up again and do it!!! Like the Terminator, you know! Twice, three times, four times – as many times as needed. You can do it!”

Thank you so much Olga for sharing your tips, and we wish you all the very best!