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How Tony overcame all challenges and got Band 7 in IELTS

How Tony overcame all challenges and got Band 7 in IELTS

Tony’s first language is Spanish, and he lives in Venezuela. When Tony started his IELTS preparation, things looked tough because he only had 9 weeks until the exam, he learned English 15 years ago and hasn’t ever been to any English-speaking country. However all these obstacles didn’t stop him from getting Band 7 in the exam! As one of our students and a winner of IELTS results competition, here is what Tony shared about his exam preparation:

Band 7 in IELTS“My real challenge was preparation time, I had barely two to three months to prepare for the test with not much free time available due to my busy life. So I needed a reference material because it was my first IELTS attempt and I needed a score of 6 in all components of the test for immigration purposes, so I decided to get IELTS Success Formula, it was a wise decision, I got an overall band score of 7.

My advice is to practice every day to improve your listening and reading skills, but the first and most important step is to familiarize yourself with all the type of questions of the test, IELTS is not actually very difficult, but it is a demanding, very technical and tricky test.

For Listening, I trained my ears listening to BBC podcasts first thing in the morning almost every day for about 2 months, and practiced with many IELTS Practice Tests.

For Reading, timing is important, there isn’t enough time to think carefully about each answer, so I had to read a lot and practice a lot under real test conditions, I found a lot of helpful exercises in IELTS Success Formula.

For Writing, again, time is your worst enemy, my advice is to read a lot of essays, and then begin practicing writing under real test conditions, www.IELTS-Blog.com is a great source of information and I found a lot of examples to practice for the Writing part of the test.

For Speaking, I did not have the opportunity to practice for this part of the test, and I got a 7 in Speaking which is amazing, considering the fact that I learned English 15 years ago, and I have never been in any English-speaking country, but, again, my advice is to check IELTS-Blog.com and IELTS Success Formula, they both have a lot of useful advice and exercises for this part of the test.

On the test day try to be calm and make eye contact with the examiner, speak with confidence, and consider the speaking test as a friendly conversation.”

IELTS test in Australia – February 2016 (Academic Module)

An IELTS test taker from Australia (thanks, T!) remembered the following writing and speaking questions:

Writing testIELTS test in Australia

Writing task 1 (a report)

We were given a line graph showing the number of people using a fixed line telephone, mobile phone and Internet in China between 1994 and 2005. We had to summarise the information.

Writing task 2 (an essay)

In many countries prison is the most common solution to crime problems. However, some people believe that better education will be a more effective solution. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give your opinion.

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name?
– Can I see your ID?
– Where are you from?
– Do you work or study?
– Tell me about your hometown.
– Is it a big city or a small town?
– Would you like to live in the countryside?
– Do you like swimming?
– Do you prefer to swim in the pool or the ocean?
– How important is it to learn swimming in your country?

Cue Card

Describe a long car journey that you remember well. Please say

– When was it?
– Where did you go?
– Who did you go there with?

Discussion

– Why do you still remember that trip?
– How did you feel after finishing it?
– What do you think about the car industry now?
– What do you think about new technology development in the car industry?
– Are there environmental issues related to car industry in the world?
– How can these issues be resolved?