IELTS preparation tips from winners

It is a pleasure to introduce Amanda from Malaysia, one of IELTS results competition winners and a proud owner of IELTS Band 8. Today Amanda is sharing her IELTS preparation tips because there is a very good chance that what worked for her, will work for you.

In her winner’s interview Amanda said,

“It feels amazing to have won the competition. And of course I’d love to share my preparation tips.

When I first registered for IELTS, I had no idea on how this exam would be as it was my first time taking it. I also had a very limited preparation period. While it is important to have a good command of English, it is more important to familiarise yourself with the exam format and points breakdown.

For the Reading and Listening components, I had to work on my short attention span issue. I lengthened my attention span by reading articles daily, slowly increasing the number of paragraphs. When I was happy with my focusing capability, I downloaded some IELTS preparation apps that can be found on the App Store and practiced Listening and Reading mock tests.

As for Speaking, I only did as much as speaking to my reflection to help build confidence and fluency. I also got help on YouTube to watch speaking tests being carried out with remarks by the examiner at the end of the video.

As for Writing, I didn’t do so well in this component but I read a lot of example essays to prepare myself for what to expect and how to structure my essays.

And that’s how I prepared for the IELTS examination.”

Amanda Tan from Malaysia, IELTS Band 8

Achieving Band 8 in IELTS is anything but easy, and even confident English users consider Band 8 a great score. Anyone who got Band 6 in their first IELTS attempt would think of Band 8 as a very ambitious goal. Well, that didn’t scare Shokhrukh! He started at Band 6 and gradually improved until he scored Band 8 in his fifth test.

To give you a little bit of background, Shokhrukh lives in Uzbekistan, he is a native Uzbek speaker who took the Academic IELTS test and got an Overall Band Score of 8. His Listening score was 9, and Reading 8.5. Shokhrukh enrolled in our monthly IELTS results competition and (not surprisingly!) won. We never miss a chance to interview our high achievers, so here is some advice from Shokhrukh that can help you improve your English and raise your IELTS score:

“First of all, I would like to thank you for arranging such an opportunity for learners all over the world to get together on one platform and share their experience.

My first and foremost advice is to improve the general English before commencing the long journey of IELTS.

I have seen many students stressing out as they are stuck in a particular band score without further improvement. However, they fail to see the truth and instead keep doing tons of practice tests. I personally increased my score from 6.0 in my very first attempt to 8.0 in my fifth try. What helped me here was not doing listening and reading tests everyday, but focusing on my general English.

At first, one needs to feel that his/her grammar and vocabulary are good enough to comprehend the daily topics. I used to name items every time I was in a new environment and it somehow urged me to start the habit of thinking in English. Listening to podcasts and reading novels are also critical to improve the general level, as grammar and vocabulary are more effectively learned from context than textbooks. It is important though to choose the material that suits your current level, otherwise you could be discouraged from learning by some rather tough materials.

Once you feel you don’t have many problems with grammar and vocabulary, you can start learning tips and techniques for IELTS. From my experience, it won’t take long for a person with good general English skills to master the techniques of IELTS.”

We would like to congratulate Shokhrukh on his wonderful achievement and wish him lots of success in everything he does!