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IELTS Test Results competition

IELTS Results competition winners in May 2013

In May we had as many as 15 winners in our monthly IELTS results competition. These hard-working people managed to get some seriously good scores – have a look:

Academic Module – 1st placeBand 8 in IELTS

  • Jestin George John from India, Overall Band 8.5 (with Band 9 in Listening and Reading)
  • Aung Zin Phyo Thein from Myanmar, Overall Band 8.5 (with Band 9 in Reading)

Academic Module – 2nd place

  • Victory Okata from Nigeria, Overall Band 8
  • Shoira Yakubova from Uzbekistan, Overall Band 8
  • Nandini Gupta Dasgupta from India, Overall Band 8
  • Sabiha Amin from Pakistan, Overall Band 8
  • Junjie Zhou from China, Overall Band 8
  • Saleh Alyafei from Qatar, Overall Band 8
  • Vineeth Kumar Cherakkara from India, Overall Band 8

Academic Module – 3rd place

  • Arpita Patel from India, Overall Band 7.5
  • Babar Khan from Pakistan, Overall Band 7.5

General Training Module – 1st place

  • Ajay Arora from India, Overall Band 8
  • Devanshi Shah from India, Overall Band 8
  • Daniel Enslin Swart from South Africa, Overall Band 8

General Training Module – 2nd place

  • Anna Hermane from Latvia, Overall Band 7

On behalf of the whole team at IELTS-Blog.com I would like to congratulate this truly international group of high achievers. Such scores are something to celebrate! To mark this special occasion we are sending your certificates of achievement to your emails, and your IELTS results will be displayed in the IELTS-Blog hall of fame.

As always, we would love to learn what helped these lovely people in their exam preparation. Some of them, I know, are our students – Junjie Zhou prepared by “Target Band 7”, and Daniel Swart and Anna Hermane used “Ace the IELTS” book. As for the others… we hope to find out soon!

Dear winners – for the sake of every test taker out there, please share your stories. Tell us how you prepared and studied, and what helped you achieve success in IELTS. Anything you can share will be posted on IELTS-Blog without delay, so everyone can learn from you and get a better score in their own exam this month.

P.S. IELTS results competition runs every month, and everyone is welcome to participate. Learn how to enroll here.

What helped Felix and Sandra achieve success in IELTS

The 1st place winners of our IELTS Results competition, Felix and Sandra, who scored band 8.5 and 8 in the IELTS exam asked to share their tips for success with everyone. Enjoy!

Felix said:

Band 8 in IELTS“I guess it helped that I had some colleagues in the language school I used to work in help me before I took the test. I will say that there’s no shortcut to achieving a good band score in IELTS. It takes hard work and perseverance. Kind of ‘old school’ – but that’s that. Grab reputable Cambridge materials and STUDY!

I spent 2-3 hours a day for a month preparing for the test (except Saturdays and sometimes Sundays when my Aussie friends would pull me out for a few beers!) The IELTS exam requires strategy and a good tutor can help you through your preparation stage. Most important: relax! Being nervous has never helped anyone in anything and that’s what I tell all my students.”

Sandra said:

“Well, first off I’ve been studying English for a while now and what helped me most was reading I guess.

I read a lot of English novels, and when I see a word I don’t understand I stop and check in a dictionary and then check its usage in the book. I also try to put these new words into my everyday speech so I won’t forget them, slowly building up my vocabulary. I also read a lot of grammar books written for younger kids, there’s one in particular that really helped me , ‘Brighter Grammar’.

I also watch American movies, it might be hard to follow at first for a new English speaker but after a few months or weeks depending on the person, it usually gets easier. Also if someone is Indian for instance, and there are Indian movies with subtitles in English, that would also help.

Speak, speak, speak. If you don’t practice a language you’ll lose it. Try as much as possible to speak English for at least 2 hours a day if you can’t speak it all day.

I guess that’s it. Nothing truer than the saying “Practice makes perfect” when it comes to learning the English language.”