IELTS preparation tips from winners

Today’s post is dedicated to the smashing success of Chetan, a young man from India, who got a high score in IELTS while working full time – 6 or sometimes 7 days a week! This didn’t stop Chetan from getting Band 8 in IELTS, with a perfect 9 in Reading.

Being a very kind and caring person, Chetan quickly responded when we asked him to share his method of preparation, and sent us a number of tips that you, too, can implement to follow his footsteps to a high score.

Chetan said:

“I took IELTS on 30th of September and got an Overall Band Score of 8.

It wasn’t easy for me to get this band as I am working on a very demanding project at work. I used to work 6 days or sometimes 7 days a week for minimum 10 hours, everyday.

Initially I was very stressed about the approaching date of my exam and the least preparation I had done. But I made a decision to handle this issue systematically.

I started devoting time to my study, one hour per day, just 30 days before my exam. I made a timetable and a list of areas to focus on, and divided my time into sections. I also made a timetable for practice tests. Now the only thing I had to do is stick to the timelines.

I used to study during my commuting to and from office, so that I could save time and take my practice tests as per the schedule.

Few of my learning techniques I would like to share with all:

Listening
I listened to the radio everyday, it is convenient because now it’s available in an App. This helped me a great deal to improve my focus while listening. I used to miss information at the beginning but gradually I could catch up and improved. My advice is, choose your own medium of interest. But this exercise is definitely a confidence booster.

Reading
My problem with reading was time management. I used to get Band score of 6.5, while I needed a 7. So I started solving Academic reading tests. I managed to score Band 7 but within the time frame. Because of this, time management in the actual exam became easier for me. I finished the Reading section in 45 min and scored Band 9!

While I feel I was lucky to get the right mix of question types, I evaluated my mistakes during the practice tests and analysed to see if there is any pattern in the failures. This is the most important thing, because you know your own way of thinking better than anyone else. So self evaluation is what I would suggest one should do, to have your own strategies.

Writing
The only issue with writing is you have to have an outside evaluation. This is the most important thing, to get your writing checked by someone. Beside this I read lots of model essays. Get a good book – I got a book from my friend that had around 113 model essays. It helped me a lot.

Speaking
I followed IELTS-Blog.com tests which are shared almost everyday. Used those questions and prepared myself. Also I did some simulation on a website and recorded my session.

These are some of the study methods I had during my preparation which I thought would be helpful to share, because thanks to those who did share their experiences on this blog helped me a great deal in boosting my confidence.

I wish everyone the best of luck.”

This post is dedicated to the success of Surendran, our IELTS results competition winner who scored Band 8. Surendran lives in India, he took the General Training IELTS test after preparing on his own. His Overall Band Score was 8.0 with the highest individual scores being Band 8.5 in Listening and Band 9 in Reading!

Here are some tips he shared that can help you do better in the exam:

“Listening:
Only practice helps here, take a lot of listening tests with clock timer set up. Mark the words that are important and when audio plays note down the answers directly.

Reading:
Read the questions carefully and highlight words that are important, then read quickly through the paragraph. With practice you can skim and quickly complete paragraphs. Take close to 20 tests. I used IELTS Cambridge books 8,9,10 and 11 and they really helped me.

Writing:
I read through internet topics on a lot of questions that were asked in the last year. Got questions from IELTS-Blog.com daily emails, and IELTS Books. It would be good if you had a tutor to correct your work, which I didn’t have – so could only manage to get 7 in Writing.

Speaking:
Use timer and practice speaking aloud in your room, for the cue card task 3-minute timers are useful. For the first minute note down points to talk about, and after that timer beeps start talking answering all question until the 2nd (2-minute) timer.

This helped me mentally prepare to extend my ability to speak at length, as I wasn’t able to go over 1.5 minutes initially. A lot of topics are available on IELTS-blog.com, the last 6 months should give a good idea on how the test questions will come up.”