IELTS Preparation tips

Hazell Gayatin (one of our ‘Best IELTS Score’ competition winners in March 2012) is originally from the Philippines, and speaks Tagalog. It was her first IELTS exam, and here is how she prepared and won this battle, in her own words:

“For Listening I did a lot of practice tests I found online; all that I could grab from the free sites. I did all of the practice tests when I was very relaxed and in a quiet and comfortable place.

I also listened to (FM) radio where most of the DJs are British. Most of the time I used to guess what was said if I didn’t get it the first time, and then I made up sentences to use new words on the subject being discussed in a sentence.

I also watched a lot of foreign movies including those that have characters who speak in British and other European accents such as ‘Pirates of the Carribean’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘Bridget Jones Diary’, etc. Those movies made me familiar with words otherwise difficult for me to catch upon hearing in a whim.

Reading was the component where I had too much confidence in myself to hit Band 8. I am a “Reader”. I read books in English since I was 5 years old. My first book was the Holy Bible my grandfather gave me. Since then I read novels, magazines, newspapers, anything I can lay my eyes on, even store and traffic signs. So imagine my disappointment when I received a 7 score for Reading (sob).

Well, I hope you, future test takers, consider this: it’s not enough to rely on reading for pleasure. You have to read and learn. Comprehension, grammar, vocabulary; all these should be taken into consideration especially for a test like IELTS. As for me, I skipped some of practice tests for Reading I saved for this particular IELTS exam. As I’ve said, I was very confident I will score high. Higher than 7, that is. Now I can’t help but regret passing on those practice tests.

Some questions I encountered in Reading contained trick words, words that will confuse a test taker. I advise to always watch out for synonyms and paraphrases as they can be allies or enemies, depending upon how you utilize them. However, it has to be to your advantage, right? One has to understand that words grow into sentences, sentences eventually morphs into paragraphs and become a story. Nonetheless, the story, every bits and parts of it, has to be studied and understood. DO PRACTICE TESTS!

Writing is the hardest component for me. Why? Because I need time to write a very good piece. IELTS gave me only 60 minutes! Well, there are always ways and means to a good ending. I found the following tips very useful:
1. Spend 2 minutes brainstorming for ideas,
2. Outline, outline, outline, and
3. Practice writing by hand and count your average number of words per line to know exactly how many lines you need to construct during the test.
In IELTS you get deductions for writing pieces with less than 150 words in Task 1 and less than 250 in Task 2.

Write from the heart. There’s nothing more interesting than to tell something you have experienced rather than make up something that didn’t happen. I was lucky I get to write about my hobby in the Task 2 of the Writing test. The question posed gave me the opportunity to discuss something I love doing – Fishing!

Not every day is a holiday, but you can always find something to celebrate. My point is, whatever the topic asked to be discussed, you can always try to point it to the direction you want it to go. If it’s not your experience then maybe it is a story of a family or relative, a friend, a colleague, someone you’ve been with at the airport, or from a book you’ve read.

The Speaking test was a breeze. But I realized after the test that I became too excited and nervous at the same time, my mouth could barely keep up with my mind! I was doing a 120 in a 80 kph road! My advise would be to work on your speed (pace of words and punctuations), volume, clarity. Practice to modulate your voice.

I always practiced speaking after I did the listening and reading practice tests. I read aloud. I read the texts over and over. I recorded my voice and listened for some inconsistencies in my pronunciation and diction. It is also very helpful if you can have a buddy whom you can converse regularly in English with.

I hope I can encourage would-be IELTS test takers to do a lot of practice tests.

This may not sound very professional, but sometimes I receive an email from a student, and I feel like giving him or her a hug.

This is exactly how I felt when I received Shyam’s email with all the experience, tips and techniques that helped him achieve Band 8.5 in IELTS – after just a week of preparation. To give you some background, Shyam is a 30 year-old Indian IELTS candidate whose first language is Hindi. Shyam and I first ‘met’ when he purchased my book ‘Ace the IELTS’, 9 days before his exam, and from the emails we exchanged it became clear straight away how committed he is to his goals. And later on I had another opportunity to be amazed by how caring he is – when he sent these tips for everyone to enjoy:

“The first thing would be to get familiar with the structure of the test – the 4 sections, time for each section, number and type of questions in each section, the strategy/technique for each section, sample test questions, etc. The best place to find all of this information is the IELTS.org web site and the IELTS blog. Remember the Reading and Writing sections are different for Academic and General, so make sure you review/buy the right material.

The next thing is to understand your strengths and weakness in relation to each section. This is important to judge exactly how much preparation time you should devote to each section. I started out my preparations with just over a week to go for my exam and as I’m working, I had to be spot on with my time management. Ensure that you do not neglect your strengths completely and allocate sufficient time to strengthen those skills while focusing on your weaker areas.

I’d suggest doing as many practice tests as possible – start with doing tests section-wise and then go on do all 3 sections (Listening, Reading and Writing) in one go. Make sure you do every test within the allocated time for each section. While doing practice tests, I’d highly recommend taking a print out of both the question and answer sheet so you get a feel of the actual test. You can find the answer sheets for all 3 sections on the IELTS website. Also, use a pencil as you would in the actual test.

While preparing, I’d advise starting with the section you are most unfamiliar with/least confident about. After a few practice tests, you should be able to develop your own strategy for each section. Fine-tune it as you go along.

Listening

The important thing here is to listen consistently carefully – this might sound obvious but if you stop listening once you have found the answer to a question, the tape may go on to change the answer later! Do as many practice tests as possible to get used to the different accents you will hear. Read instructions for each question set carefully! Use the time before the start of each monologue/dialogue to familarise yourself with the associated questions. Write the answers in short hand in the question booklet while you are listening and review the following questions (just after) so you are on the look out for their answers. Keep in step with the tape all the time – it is okay if you couldn’t answer a question but if you spend time reflecting back you risk failing to hear the remaining answers.

Reading

Again, read instructions for each question set carefully! While some people like to read the questions in advance, I found that skimming thru the passage first gives me a context for the questions. This then helps me to go back to the passage and find the exact answer faster. I don’t think there is one right/wrong answer here and each person needs to work out what works for him/her. While answering, aim to use words directly from the passage or the closest match whilst maintaining the form/style of the sample answer. The important thing here is not to get stuck on a question – unlike the listening section, you can always mark out a question and come back to it later if you have time at the end.

Writing

Familarise yourself with the structure of the 2 sections here. I’d suggest reading through band 8 sample essays/letters/reports to give you a feel of what is expected at that band. Be mindful of the credits (grammar, lexical resource, cohesion) & the penalties (underlength, memorised, off-topic, illegible) while answering both sections. If you are using the IELTS answer sheet for your practice tests, you can get a feel of how many lines will roughly ensure you exceed the minimum word length without having to resort to counting during the actual test! While writing the essay, I recommend having 4 to 5 paragraphs (topic introduction, popular view/other view, your views, conclusion) Be as creative as possible – use only words that fit the purpose and those that you are confident of usage (spelling/tense/etc).

Speaking

Use the first section (personal) to speak as much as possible – try and offer some additional information where suitable. The first impression on the examiner is important. Remember this is the only section where you know the answers in advance! Be confident, polite and pleasant while answering. Conclude all your sentences, do not leave them hanging. For the topic section make sure you speak for more than a minute – you may get penalised otherwise. Be as natural as possible. The best way to prepare for this section to converse with your friends/colleagues on a variety of random topics and to start thinking in English (if you don’t already).

Hope you all find this useful. Wishing you luck for your exams! Remember if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail 🙂 “