IELTS preparation tips from winners

Eileen is a charming young lady from the Philippines (a native Tagalog speaker). About 10 weeks ago she decided to go after a very ambitious goal – she wanted Band 8 in IELTS, and spared no effort to get there. Fast forward to March, and Eileen is a proud owner of an Overall Band 8 with an amazing Band 9 in Listening!

And here is how she did it, in her own words:

“About two months before my actual IELTS exam I placed myself in the “aim for IELTS Band 8” mindset to motivate me. I wanted a high score. I needed a high score. I took advantage of the available resources online such as videos and blogs that provided helpful tips on how to achieve the highest band score possible. My favourite were blogs (mainly www.IELTS-blog.com) that described real life experiences of ordinary individuals who reached their target scores. I got obsessed with searching online as many tips and techniques as possible.

And then about a month before my actual exam, I decided to enrol myself in an IELTS review class near my office to help me assess myself in a more realistic setting. I wanted to experience the whole IELTS exam feel as close to the actual IELTS exam scenario as possible. And most importantly, I wanted to have an honest assessment of how I would possibly fare in the actual examination, to know my strengths and weaknesses and to pinpoint what I most needed to improve on. That whole review month helped me brush up on my English skills and provided me with techniques to improve my speed in approaching each type of test.

During the review mock exams, I noticed that I regularly attain a much lower score in the listening test compared to all the other areas. It frustrated me because based on the many blogs and tips I had previously read, the listening test is supposed to be the easiest. I then realized that what kept me from achieving a high score was that during the actual test, I allow myself to get distracted by unnecessary thoughts and nervousness inside my head. That’s why on my actual exam, I focused only on my pen and paper, looked down the whole time and never allowed my mind to wander. I wrote everything I believed I heard on the questionnaire with an aim to do a speed edit afterwards which thankfully I was able to do. I got band 9 in listening which was surprisingly my highest score among the four areas.

Writing was probably the second item that I was most worried about. Normally when I write, I tend to overthink and would focus more on the technicalities and what I thought was the best answer for the examiners instead of focusing on the writing style and the tone best to use in the given situation. I was able to improve on this by reading sample IELTS writing questions and sample letter and essay answers online and in this blog for many hours daily. This helped me get rid of my bad writing habits and boosted my confidence in writing. Through this, I was able to use my time wisely.

As for the speaking exam, I prepared for task 1 in my head beforehand as this section was the most predictable part of the speaking exam. I had ready answers for the most common questions about myself, my job, my hometown and my hobbies and interests. Same as what I did in all the other tests, I never allowed my mind to wander. I focused on the questions, listened intently and gave answers that were mostly based on my personal experiences as this helped me speak more fluently and more naturally. “

Phu Dat Le is a Vietnamese test taker who got surprised by his IELTS score quite a bit. He expected Band 7 or 7.5 but achieved Band 8.0 overall, and consequently won in our IELTS results competition.

Here is what Phu told us about his exam preparation:

“To be honest, I don’t have many tips for achieving your desired IELTS band score. Actually, I did not expect an 8.0, just around 7.0 – 7.5 instead. Regarding Listening and Reading test, I believe that there is an abundance of tips our there already. However, it is important that you pick the right ones that suit you best, for example: the priority of the tasks, skimming and scanning, whether to read the entire passage, etc. Everyone has their own method for these skills. And keep practicing your own way.

As for Writing, I did not achieve really high score. My writing skill was not very good, to be honest. Before my official test, I had 4-5 months of tutoring by a senior student who had extraordinarily passed the IELTS test before. I got to learn how to write in a more logical way and how to express the ideas coherently. Again, pick the best advice from others and make it your own. One more thing, practice writing on an actual answer sheet, so that you can estimate how long you should write into the sheet to reach the word limit in the given time.

Last but not least, for Speaking test, you can prepare some answers for Task 1, which focus on general information about yourself. For Task 2 and Task 3, prepare some contents for specific topics such as Travelling, Celebrities, Animals… This is also what I learned from my above mentioned senior student. Another advice from my friend is that you should regard the Speaking test as a job interview. Be honest, be true to yourself, do not try to learn the ideas from others which are more likely to make you feel unnatural and uncomfortable. The examiners will appreciate that. By the end of the test, you might ask for their feedback for your English speaking skill improvement.”