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IELTS Test Results competition

IELTS Results competition winners in February 2011

I am delighted to give you the good news – in February we had not one, or two, but … nine winners to congratulate on achieving the best IELTS results. Without any further introduction I give you the people with the highest scores in February:

Academic Module – 1st place

  • Elizabeth Zorrilla from Mexico, Band 8.0

Academic Module – 2nd place

  • Shekhar Singhal from India, Band 7.5

Academic Module – 3rd place

  • Mictin Ponmala from India, Band 7

General Training Module – 1st place

  • Ruby Rahel from India, Band 8.5
  • Fabio Aragao Da Silva from Brazil, Band 8.5

General Training Module – 2nd place

  • Momal Qamar from Pakistan, Band 8

General Training Module – 3rd place

  • Imran Merchant from Pakistan, Band 7.5
  • Vanessa Loh from Indonesia, Band 7.5
  • Shahzad Yousuf from Pakistan, Band 7.5

On behalf of the whole IELTS-Blog team I would like to congratulate our winners. You all have done amazingly well, and your example is an inspiration for many other test-takers out there, working their way through IELTS materials right now.

According to our tradition, the winners’ special certificates are being sent to their emails, and their names are joining the IELTS-Blog hall of fame.

And now is the time to ask the BIG QUESTION: how did they do it? This is a question that I hope to get the answer to from our winners. All I know at this stage that most of them were using the resources from www.IELTS-Blog.com, some signed up for our free IELTS course, and that Imran Merchant used my book “Ace the IELTS” in his preparation.

Dear winners, please share the methods of preparation that enabled you to achieve these remarkable scores. Email me to simone[at]IELTS-Blog.com today, and we will pass your advice on to everyone tomorrow!

A student goes from Band 6.5 to band 9 in 3 months

Today I have quite a story for you. A test taker, let’s call him Hardip, sent me an email and explained how he was able to improve his Speaking score from Band 6 to Band 9 in 3 months. To those of you new to IELTS preparation I should say that this doesn’t happen often, a jump of almost 3 bands is a very significant one. And here is Hardip’s analysis of his performance:

“I appeared in IELTS in October 2010 and got 6.5 in the speaking module. After 3 months I got Band 9 in the speaking module. So what did I do wrong the first time?

Here are the few mistakes I made:

1. I realized the mistake #1 after my first exam – I was speaking too fast for the examiner to follow. The reason is (this was revealed to me by one of the IELTS examiners I went to for feedback) – Indians try to speak too fast and Asians try to speak in the present tense. I am an Indian and was trying to speak too fast.

Tip: Speak slowly and clearly. Pause after sentences, not in between the sentences (IELTS examiners call it ‘chunks’). Don’t repeat your words or a sentence you already said.

2. During my first speaking test, in the cue card section, I did not use the 1 minute time effectively. I started speaking only after 20 seconds.

Tip: Use the 1 minute in full. Keep writing things to say until the examiner asks you to start.

3. During the first exam I was using technical terms like DSLR (instead of camera) PS2 (instead of PlayStation game console) and so on.

Tip: Keep conversation free of technical words. Use words from
every day English as the examiner may not be familiar with some terms.