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IELTS preparation tips from winners

IELTS high achievers share their secrets

IELTS Preparation tips from Band 8.5 achievers

Today I have some tips for you, coming from the IELTS results competition winners. Here is what Deeksha and Rishi, who achieved Band 8.5 in Academic IELTS test, wanted to share:

“The best advice for students preparing for IELTS, especially for the speaking section, would be to be yourself and keep it simple. If you try to learn your answers beforehand, you will lose marks as the examiners pick that up immediately. Speaking in short simple sentences does the trick. Speak slowly so that you are well understood. This is very important as we may have very different accents. Practice speaking with friends to get the natural flow.

Reading, Writing and Listening skills can be practiced with the help of IELTS materials available online. There are a lot of websites providing free samples which are worth going through.

Last but not the least, believe in yourself and have a good rest before the exam. It will be hard to concentrate especially on the listening part if your mind is not fresh.

Good Luck everyone!”

And here is what Aqrar Khan, Band 8.5 in General Training module, said when I asked him how he got this beautiful score:

“It was a result of thorough understanding of the format of the test, practice and advice and sharing of “lessons learnt” through IELTS-blog.

I would recommend that all the potential IELTS test takers get the speaking tests samples analyzed by your experts.

I would advise all potential IELTS test takers not to to take the test “lightly” and invest some time in preparation through self-study books, IELTS-blog, etc.”

IELTS Preparation tips from Anuja (Band 8 in Academic Module)

This post proves once again that we can rely on kindness of strangers 🙂 One of our winners from yesterday, Anuja, shared her tips for achieving a high score in IELTS.

“My advice to other IELTS candidates will be to time them while they practice as time is of utmost importance while taking the test. When I was preparing for IELTS, I prepared from the past papers book provided by the British Council. The Road to IELTS is also very helpful as it is an interactive guide to studying for the test and also works on your vocabulary.

I used to solve the papers and check the answers and mark myself. Every time I did it, I wanted to beat my past score and do better. Start preparing at least 15 days prior to the test and if you don’t have time to solve the entire paper, solve at least one section of the sample papers everyday.

The Listening and Reading tests are very scoring and easy. All you have to do is listen carefully and go on marking answers at the same time. While attempting the reading test read the questions carefully and read the passages and underline anything you think is important, it will help you spot answers faster.

The Writing and the Speaking tests are not as easy as the Listening and Reading ones so read about different topics and read the newspaper regularly to be prepared. For the Speaking test, even if you don’t know much about the subject speak confidently and be careful about your grammar. If you know you have made a mistake, correct yourself.

Hope this helps. All the best and do well :)”

– Anuja Gangan
www.thehappiewanderer.blogspot.com

On behalf of all the readers of IELTS-Blog I’d like to thank Anuja and wish her all the best with her life after IELTS.