Student success: Christoph and Joyce share tips for Band 7.5 plus
Christoph and Joyce are two of our students from Germany and Malaysia, who prepared for IELTS using Target Band 7 book. When their IELTS results came in, both were thrilled to discover they received Bands 8 and 7.5, even though their preparation was quite short. With such scores no wonder they both won in our monthly IELTS results competition. Here are their comments and tips they wanted to share with the readers of IELTS-Blog.com:
Joyce wrote:
“Dear Simone, there is no end to how much I can thank you! I am an eighteen year old student going overseas to study and have just received my results for my IELTS exam and I was astounded by my score. I had only two weeks to prepare for the test but was very busy. I found out about your book and studied it solely, and now I have a band score of 7.5 under my belt! The most shocking news was that I scored 9 in my listening and 7.5 for reading. I really can’t thank you enough and would like to share this news with you.
And as the saying goes, practice makes perfect it is important to practice for the IELTS. With some practice and the help of the book ‘Target Band 7’ a good score is bound to come your way. Never give up regardless how many times you fail to get it and persevere.”
Christoph said:
“In addition to using ‘Target Band 7‘, which helped me a lot, I would definitely concentrate on my weak areas. As you know, I scored two times band 9 (listening and reading) but “only” received band 6.5 for my listening part. Although I’m not dependent on getting a 7.0 in every single band, this annoys me a little bit. I know that some universities require a 7.0 in every band so everyone who wants to apply there should keep that in mind.
Another tip I can give is to use the official online tests one gets access to after paying the registration fee for the test. They are really perfect to get a realistic view of your abilities. I’d recommend to do the first one after being comfortable with the test structure and the second one two weeks before the exam. It helped me to realize my abilities and to monitor whether my results were improving or not. Of course other tests offer that possibility too, but I had the impression they were harder. In fact, the exam was easier than every preparation test – except for the speaking part.
In conclusion, one should take care of their personal weaknesses. And at least one time the writing and speaking part of a test should be marked by a professional teacher. It is nearly impossible to mark these parts completely on your own.”
Congratulations once again to Christoph and Joyce, and thank you for your advice!
