Being increasingly busy, many of us look back and miss the time when we went to school and didn’t have anything else to worry about. What can be better than an opportunity to fully concentrate on one’s studies? It seems a lot easier compared to juggling work and family responsibilities, while trying to prepare for a very important exam.
However, these difficulties don’t stop determined people from getting great scores in IELTS – and Urvi Manohar is a perfect example of that, and an inspiration to us all. Urvi is 28 years old, she lives in India and her mother tongue is Marathi. We met Urvi through our monthly IELTS results competition, when she became one of the winners, scoring 7.5 Overall in General Training IELTS.
Here are some useful activities Urvi recommends that you incorporate in your own IELTS prep routine, to achieve better results:
“To start with, I am a married working professional and it is no easy task to manage studies in addition to the regular work and household responsibilities. However, strong determination to work hard is the key to success. I came across IELTS-Blog.com and found it really good for preparation and therefore I subscribed to it. I bought the book “Ace the IELTS” and also opted for Writing correction service. I studied for about 5-6 weeks.
Speaking – I went through the previously asked Speaking questions and collected ideas. I practiced using a timer and recorded myself. This is how I got to know my mistakes and corrected them. The best possible idea would be to start speaking in English with family and friends in day to day life. This improves fluency and you can learn to speak without hesitation. During the exam I wore a smile on my face and also made hand gestures which helped me to be confident and relaxed.
Writing – I would have around 2.5-3 hours of time to travel to and from work everyday and I utilized it to read several sample essays and letters online. I practiced writing using a timer. In an essay or a letter, for each simple word, I would think about its synonym which would be more complex and replaced the simpler word with the more complex one. I kept a dictionary handy which helped me improve my vocabulary. Also, Writing correction service provided by IELTS-Blog.com was the best as I got to know my weaknesses and hence got a chance to convert them into my strengths.
Reading – One way to improve reading skills is to read newspapers or novels. I used the strategy of skimming and scanning. With this, I was able to finish reading section in 35 minutes in the actual test and used the remaining time to check my answers. Remember, re-checking of your answers is very important as there are chances that you make mistakes the first time you answer a question.
Listening – This section requires a lot of concentration as you need to listen carefully and note down the answers as you hear the recording and it is really quick. I believe, apart from watching English movies without subtitles, practice is the best way to score well in this section. I practiced a lot of sample questions.
Finally, I would like to wish all the best to the test takers. Be confident and practice a lot ! :)”
