IELTS Test Results competition

Today I am happy to share with you a few tips received from Vinay Kumar, an IT professional from Bangalore, India. He recently took the Academic version of IELTS, scored band 8.5 and thinks that’s a pretty pathetic result 🙂 – imagine that!

I am sure many of you would absolutely love to get that ‘pathetic’ score, and so here is how you can: for starters, you could avoid the same pitfalls Vinay tells you about.

Here are the seven IELTS mistakes Vinay wishes he didn’t make:

1. He used just one book (provided by the IDP) and one set of practice tests to prepare – instead of getting at least one more book and another source of practice materials.

2. He didn’t check the venue before the exam, and as a result ended up parking a kilometer from the place. That’s quite a bit of walking before the exam!

3. He was late for the test – no need to tell you how stressful that can be.

4. He didn’t actively practice for speaking, only read the transcripts. Instead he could have asked a friend to play the examiner to get some speaking practice.

5. He spoke too fast – which is why, he suspects, the score for that section went down from Band 9 to Band 8.

6. His writing wasn’t as neat and tidy as he’d like due to many re-written sentences.

7. He finished writing ahead of time – instead he should have managed his time better to write a more complete essay.

However, there are also a few things Vinay thinks he did right 🙂 You can read more about his IELTS exam and things he did right here.

A winner of IELTS results competition, Roopa Siju Haridas from India who got Band 8 in the test, shared the following tips:

“My advice to other IELTS candidates is this – please stop the practice of learning by heart ready-made essays for the writing section. I update my IELTS result every two years and I have seen many candidates who come with prepared notes. They try to learn by heart the essays in their notes.This is of no use as the topics differ in each exam.They are just wasting their precious time.

Check out the time available for each section and learn to manage your time accordingly before you attend the test, as time management is a vital part of writing the IELTS exam.

While doing the listening and reading section, your gaze should fall only on the paper in front of you. If you try to see what others are doing, you will lose track of the text or the recording and will not be able to find the following answers.

In the writing section check the main topic – write the introductory paragraph, the first sentence of the remaining paragraphs should contain one main point and the remaining sentences should elaborate on that point. Write the last paragraph with your conclusion on the topic.

There are no shortcuts to mastering a language. It comes to you naturally if you read books regularly.

All the best to the future IELTS candidates!”