IELTS preparation tips from winners

Today we are delighted to share IELTS advice received from two previous months’ competition winners, Vivien-Lisa and Rahul. The interesting fact about it is, they both agree that taking no shortcuts in their IELTS preparation is one of the main reasons why they got the high band scores.

Vivien-Lisa Bermel comes from Germany, she has been speaking German from birth. Lisa received Band 8 in Academic IELTS (with a straight 9 for Listening) and in her winner’s interview mentioned the following points:

“1. Improving your English is a continuous process that takes some time, so be patient.

2. Even though it is hard to find some time next to other daily duties to study the language, there is always an option to practice a little bit every day. I am, for example, reading the news on my phone in English and I started to watch movies and my series in English as well. If the context is to hard to understand, then I just turn the subtitles on.

3. Finally, it is important to speak. I met a lot of people who tried to avoid talking in English as they did not feel comfortable, but if you do not try you cannot improve.”

Rahul Bhavan is a native Malayalam speaker from India, he got Band 7.5 in Academic IELTS. Rahul said:

“There is no secret behind success and one advice from me to all others is – don’t take shortcuts.

For Listening and Reading – practice is the mantra.

For Writing – keep updated with all current and general affairs and train yourself to write both tasks within that one hour time frame. For that practicing is the only way, and check for your mistakes and practice not to repeat the mistakes.

For speaking – watch a lot of English movies and documentaries and try to analyse the pronunciation and usage of the language.”

Congratulations Vivien-Lisa and Rahul on your wonderful IELTS results and a big thank-you for sharing your experience with everyone!

When we asked Oladeji Bamisile, a young man from Nigeria, how he managed to achieve Band 8 in his Academic IELTS exam, the answer was quite simple – lots of practice, early arrival, some warm up before Speaking and a prayer!

We felt his perspective was important to share with you, because quite a few of our students said they feel that Band 8 is nearly impossible to get. Oladeji’s experience proves the opposite – that with the right preparation and dedicated work, it is possible, doable, achievable and manageable!

Here is what he said about preparing for IELTS:

“Firstly, I practiced and read thoroughly the road to IELTS application materials, I took several tests there.

Secondly, I also practiced the test on the IELTS CD given alongside the material I received from the test centre, it was helpful.

Thirdly, I bought some materials online. These materials accounted to about 70% of my success, it included reading materials and also lots of tests and answers, listening, reading, writing and speaking.

Fourthly, I arrived at the exam venue hours earlier, so as to be in a calm mood and serene state of mind, free from pressure. On the day of my speaking test I made sure I raised a topic for discussion among the students sitting the test, and it was a good confidence booster, as it put me in the mood to talk. When I now got to the examiner I was calm and relaxed.

Lastly, I prayed to God to help me pass with excellence and he did!

The fact remains when practicing, time yourself and follow the timing keenly, I used 1 hour timing in Reading / Writing and it helped me finish most of my questions before the time was up.

Thanks so much, I hope my technique will work for someone else”.