IELTS preparation tips from winners

Nisha M is one of the October winners of our IELTS results competition. She says IELTS-Blog.com was the only website she used to prepare for the test, and she made it big time! Here’s what she wrote to us:

“I just wanted to thank you for creating a wonderful blog, which was my sole source of study prior to the exam. I must say that I really wouldn’t have been able to do it without this site and all the people who contributed to it. I sat the academic module of IELTS. This is the score:

Listening 8.5, Reading 8.5, Writing 7.5, Speaking 8.5

Thanks again. I’ll never forget it.”

We’re very happy for Nisha, and here are her suggestions for everyone who wants to achieve similar results:

1. CONFIDENCE – There’s no doubt that IELTS is a difficult exam, but it is not impossible! Keep that in mind, and boldly venture forth to getting the grades you want!

2. PREPARATION – I’m honestly not advertising for the site, but I am extremely grateful to all of those who have contributed to the blog, as it was my sole source of study material prior to the exam.

This is what I did:

– Read through all the tips given on the site (and I mean ALL of them!). There’s something to gain from every candidate’s experience.
– Aim higher than your required band – that way, you can expect to achieve the band needed at least.
– Study, study, study! – It doesn’t matter if you’re a native speaker of the language, but like every exam, the IELTS need preparation (and really intense preparation!) And how better to prepare than by utilizing all the resources around you?

Listening – It’s very important to concentrate during this part, because losing focus for even one second can potentially cause you to to miss what is being looked for.

Reading – Newspapers (especially broadsheets), online scientific articles, novels and pretty much anything you can get a hold of – will improve your reading speed and your vocabulary (make sure you keep a dictionary at hand). Your rate of reading is ESSENTIAL for doing well in this part of the exam. You must be able to skim through masses of information and pick out out what is required. In the exam, turn to the questions first, then to the article.

Writing – Start with the long task first, then do the short task. Time management is very important. I followed some advice about how it should be set out in four paragraphs:
1) Brief introduction stating what you believe and at least two reasons supporting your opinion.
2 and 3) Describe the reasons you gave, with examples from your own life.
4) Conclude the essay.

Some additional points:

The essay is formal. Refrain from using “I,” “my,” “you” etc.
Avoid all contractions – “It’s,” “don’t,” “can’t” etc.
Plan the essay out before writing anything down.

I cannot emphasize enough time management. I dedicated far too much time to task 2, and ended up writing around 30 words for task 1. As a result, I ended up virtually slipping entire band grades for the writing part of the exam, but I noticed that the lion’s share of marks were allocated for task 2.

Speaking – Calm your nerves before going into the exam. Remember that the examiner is there to help you, not to condemn you. So, relax.

Stick to whatever it is that the examiner is asking you and if you realize that you’ve made a grammatical error, quickly correct it.
Avoid saying “yeah,” “nah” etc.
Answer with affirmative/ negative plus a brief elaboration, but don’t reiterate the examiner’s words.
For example:
Examiner: Do you like dancing? Is it a good form of exercise?
1) You: Yes, I do. I believe that it’s a wonderful way to keep fit.
OR
2) You: I’m not particularly keen on it. In my opinion, there are far better ways for one to be in good shape.

For those of you who dread the two-minute monologue, hello and welcome! My topic was on a famous person from my country. Unfortunately, I totally blanked out for those two minutes. I said one sentence and THAT’S IT. But the rest of the exam went well, so it appears to me that that part doesn’t carry many marks (?) Please try your best regardless of this.

3. SLEEP WELL THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM 🙂

Good luck to all of you! Do well!”

Ratnesh is a young man from India whose success in IELTS made him a winner in our results competition. His IELTS score in the first exam was considerably lower, in particular in the Writing and Speaking sections. Here’s what he wrote to us after receiving his second IELTS score:

“Today I received my IELTS score for 2nd attempt on Oct 12 in Bangalore, India – Listening 8.5, Reading 7.5, Writing 8, Speaking 7.

Firstly, I would like to send a load of thanks to www.IELTS-Blog.com for helping me in preparation. My first score was L/R/W/S – 9/7/7/6.5. After realising that my writing was not that good, I started reading ACE the IELTS book. The book is excellent with lot of tips. This helped to achieve a score of 8 in Writing. I closely read all phrases and examples used in book and wrote them in the exam too. I took assistance of your Writing checking services also and it helped to improve my writing a lot. All suggestions mentioned in the reply were great. In addition, I learned lot vocabulary from sample letters and essays which I extensively used in exam. Your material gave me power to increase my writing score to Band 8. You are great indeed. For listening and reading, practice material on the website is too good. Speaking tips helped me a lot to prepare for exam.

Thanks a lot IELTS-blog to help me in achieving my dream score. You are doing great work.”

Thanks, Ratnesh – this is music to our ears. But we know people come here to get practical exam tips for themselves, and not just read about success others achieved. Which is why the very next thing we have for YOU is Ratnesh’s tips on exam preparation – have a read, perhaps change a thing or two in your own prep sessions and get the same great results as Ratnesh did:

Listening – I was quite comfortable with the listening section. Downloaded sample tests from IELTS-blog and Cambridge website. Listening tests need lot of concentration as few answers are not words spoken in the recording. I am a big fan of Hollywood movies and TV series and watch them on daily basis. This helped me a lot in understanding different accents and English in which characters are talking. I learned lots of different sentence structures as well. The most important thing I experienced in listening was that, if you lose concentration even for 2 seconds, you can lose 1 question. To overcome this, I never looked UP in a real exam. I was always staring at the question paper and concentrating on the recording. In my first IELTS attempt I scored 9 and in the second 8.5. To all IELTS aspirants, the Listening section is the easiest and you have a chance to score 40/40 if you practice a lot.

Reading – Reading again is easy and you can score 7 easily. IELTS designs Reading section such that, you can finish 2-3 subsections within minutes and other ones need effort. My approach was to scan the whole question paper and finish up easy parts. I always had difficulty with “TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN” and to be honest it did not go well in both attempts. Last section of reading is very tricky. In exam, you will think that you have found the answer in paragraphs but its not true.The text in both the paragraphs and choices given are tricky. Read all the options thoroughly. Remember, the most obvious answer is not always right. Take your time and then decide. In addition, underline important notes in reading sections like dates, years, names, designations etc. This will help you in searching for the answer efficiently.

NOTE – You have to transfer answers to the answer sheet in both Listening and Reading Section. Write your answers against the correct questions. If you have kept a question for last minutes and you wrote one single answer against the wrong question, all consequent answers will become wrong. Keep 1 minute to cross-check answers in question papers and the answer sheet. Also, for the Reading section, keep an eye on the clock.

Writing – People feel this section is the toughest one because its subjective. Also, you cannot cross-check your performance with anyone else. You have to solely depend on the results. Writing also takes practice and do no think whatever you write is perfect. Believe me, its not 🙂

Firstly, for letter, memorise useful phrases for each type of letter. I read all the sample letters on IELTS Blog and made a list of phrases which can be used in any particular type of letter. Also, I read ACE the IELTS which had all minute details to be used while writing a IELTS letter. It helped me a lot to write a nice letter.

For essays, you have to do lot of work. First of all, check your grammar. It is one of major contributors to a Band score. Expand your vocabulary and knowledge of sentence structure and use them while writing an essay. Do not use a word twice in an essay, instead use its synonyms. This will create variations in your essay. Get ideas for general topics. You can get ideas by simply reading English newspapers.

For writing the world limit is very important. Keep your letter and essay’s word count above the word limit + 15 to 30 words. Write clearly in the exam. It is better to write in pencil. Also, keep 5 minutes for proofreading because in the exam environment we can easily miss articles like a, an and the.

I scored 6.5 in my first attempt in writing. Before my second attempt I read all tips and suggestions on IELTS blog. Also I purchased IELTS writing correction service which precisely evaluated my essay and pointed out corrections.This really helped me a lot and I scored Band 8 in a second attempt.

Speaking – Speaking is again on the tough side of IELTS. A good score can only be achieved with practice. IELTS examiners can ask you questions from any field and you should be ready to answer that. The first tip is to be calm and confident in the Speaking test. Examiners are very friendly and they interact with you quite well. In the first section of speaking, questions are general and you should be able to answer them. The key is to listen to questions and answer precisely. You should not answer in one word like ‘yes’, ‘no’, etc. Elaborate your answer a bit to 4-5 lines. In a cue card, try as much as you can to collect ideas. You have one minutes to make your notes. Use it wisely, do not waste it by reading questions again and again. For the last section, you have to speak for around 40 seconds to each question. This can be achieved by noting down your time with stop watch when you are practicing. You can make mistakes in IELTS or can make up things to say in an exam but do not take long pauses. This will affect your score. Also, while answering keep eye contact with examiner. Speak clearly and at such volume that you can be easily heard.