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IELTS Preparation tips

How to prepare for IELTS

Isn’t it nice to learn from the mistakes of someone else :)? Well, another mistake I made in my preparation for IELTS was concentrating on just one sub-test out of four. I started to study for Writing and neglected all the other parts – Listening, Reading and Speaking.

There are reasons why a person would do what I did. Usually, people like doing things they are good at and avoid doing things they are not so good at. I was good at writing, so it was very natural for me to write essays and letters and set aside all the other difficult and “scary” subjects. Or the opposite might happen – people assume they are good in Writing and concentrate on something else that needs improvement.

There are many reasons not to do what I did. Firstly, in many cases you are required to get a nice band score in every sub-test, or at least in two sub-tests. That means you can not be satisfied with a good average, because you need a Band Score 7 in two sub-tests no matter what.

Secondly, when you hope for a good average while concentrating on one or two sub-tests, your chances don’t look good. All the sub-tests in IELTS have the same weight, so if you score 8 in Reading, 4 in Listening, 8 in Writing and 4 in Speaking, the average score will be 6 (simple math). If you think about it, it is quite difficult to score 8 in Reading or Writing, no matter how hard you try. That’s why studying a little bit harder for all four sub-tests makes much more sense and eventually pays off.

Finally, some real advice – divide your time into four equal (or almost equal) parts and practice in IELTS Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking without making exceptions.

You can mix 2 subjects in one day, for example, practice in Reading for one hour and then in Writing for one hour. This way of studying helped me and my friends – I hope it will help you, too.

Making technology work for you

When you have to study for the IELTS Reading, Writing or Listening tests, you don’t really need anyone to help you, but what about the Speaking test? Do you just speak to the mirror?

My idea was to use an MP3 player that can record voice. I bought one especially for that purpose, to record myself speak. It helped me to recognize and admit all of my problems: the bad pronunciation, the long pauses between words, and the super-long and confusing sentences. What you do is just speak on some topic, record yourself, listen and analyze it later. It is really necessary to recognize all of those weaknesses in advance, so you can work and improve them. Make a list of things that need improvement and look at it every time before you start speaking.

Speaking to a live partner is better, of course, but if you’re on your own – an MP3 player a great solution. Another advantage here is that you can use it for listening exercises – fill it with audio books in English or IELTS Listening tests you download from the Internet and take it with you wherever you go. This way you won’t waste any time – driving, eating lunch or walking your dog can be done while listening to English on your MP3 player.

Another idea is to prepare for the IELTS Speaking test using Skype – a very popular software that lets you talk to anyone who also has Skype. All you need to do is to install it on your and your friend’s computer, plug in a set of headphones and a microphone and call your friend using Skype. Y0u can actually make international call, talk as much as you want, the voice quality is great and it costs nothing!