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IELTS preparation tips from winners

IELTS high achievers share their secrets

6 test takers reveal how they got IELTS scores ranging from 7.5 to 8.5

Success and generosity go hand in hand, and the winners of our IELTS results competition have proved it yet again! Within less than 24 hours they contributed these powerful tips that you can use to start increasing your score right away. Here is what they said:

Karen from Singapore, Band 8.5Band 8.5 in IELTS

“Regarding tips and strategies, I’d say go through the IELTS Success Formula book. Flag out pages that are useful and go through them again the night before. Work on your weaknesses (for me it was reading and writing), so I did a lot of practice tests. Remember the writing style and format for letter writing and essay, and try to use some words and phrases which demonstrate a higher level of English ability to get a better score.”

Behtash from Iran, IELTS Band 8

“To be brief, I would advise everyone to improve their language proficiency enough before they start preparing for IELTS. Also, the materials found in IELTS-blog.com, especially the sample questions and answers, are extremely beneficial. Additionally, to really increase the Speaking Module score, one needs to have a minimum of 2 hours a day speaking practice on daily routine topics during the 6 months leading to the test.”

Esther from India, IELTS Band 8

“I’m glad to hear that I have won the competition, thank you. My advice to those taking the IELTS is to practice each and every module. The more practice tests we do at home, the easier it becomes when we take the test.”

Jasur from Uzbekistan, Band 8

“My best advice would be for listening (as I got 9 in the Listening section) to listen to more British songs by Ed Sheeran and James Arthur. What is more, TED radio podcasts are very useful too. For my speaking, I was just speaking out loud to myself and recording that to the voice recorder. Later I was listening to my speaking and spotting my mistakes.”

Benjemen from India, Band 7.5

“For the third time, I took my IELTS General Training exam last week and I successfully secured 7.5 in Writing. I have been attempting to score at least 7 in Writing which will significantly boost my score for Canadian immigration.

I would like to thank you for assessing and evaluating my essay through the writing correction service. Your correction services has enabled me to identify my weaknesses and work on them.”

Prince from India, Band 7.5

“It feels really good to be the winner. I am really grateful for the people behind this. The study material, as well as the tips and suggestions that were given was very much useful to me to get this score. Practice makes things perfect and IELTS-blog.com is one such aid to excel at this exam.”

With little time to prepare, working 10 hours a day, Mohammad got Band 8 in IELTS

For those of you who recently joined IELTS-Blog.com, let us introduce Mohammad – a young man from India whose first language is Hindi. Mohammad won in July round of our IELTS results competition, scoring an overall Band 8 in General Training IELTS with a straight 9 in Listening!

He wrote to us and said,

“I finally got my Band 8 score with hardly getting enough time to prepare, working 10 hours a day.

Listening Band 9
Reading Band 8.5
Writing Band 7
Speaking Band 7.5”

Band 8.5 in IELTS

Scoring Band 8 in IELTS is a remarkable achievement for anyone, let alone a full-time worker with very little time left for IELTS preparation, so we just had to ask Mohammad how he did so well in the test. And his advice was,


“Practice, practice and practice.

Reading
Read more articles, blogs and newspapers. Practice in speed reading.

Writing
Write answers covering all points mentioned in the question paper. Build a versatile vocabulary which can be used in both writing and speaking exam.

Speaking
Speaking regularly helps a lot and improves your band score. My girlfriend is a native speaker and it really helped me.

Listening
Perfect 9 takes talent. Jokes apart, I listen to BBC radio and TED talk podcasts regularly.”

Thank you so much Mohammad, and congratulations on your IELTS victory!

IELTS results competition runs every month, and everyone is welcome to participate. Learn how to enroll here.