IELTS Test Results competition

Urvashi, a young woman from India who speaks Kashmiri as a first language, has had remarkable success with IELTS – her Overall Band score was 8.5 (with a straight 9 in Listening). We first heard of her achievement when she enrolled in our monthly IELTS results competition, and when she became one of the winners, a proper interview was in order!

If you, like Urvashi, aren’t planning to attend IELTS preparation classes, here are some tips from her that might be useful to you:

“My tips for IELTS aspirants would be:

1. For Listening: Learn to adapt your ears and brain to hearing and understanding different accents. You can achieve this by doing practice tests at home, watching movies, documentaries, interviews from numerous English speaking nations, so as to learn the subtle nuances of each dialect that you hear. During the test, do not divert your attention from the audio even for a nano second, and also coordinate your listening with your answer writing.

2. For Reading: Learn to “scan through” the passages of text, rather than waste time on reading each word. Look for synonymous words/phrases in the passages, while searching for answers. ‘True/False/Not Given’ questions can be especially tricky, so keep an open and objective viewpoint.

3. For Writing: Concentrate on collocations, grammar, spelling, and even the proper usage of commas, semi-colons etc. Practise, as much and as often as possible.

4. For Speaking: People often confuse fluency with fast speech. Adhering to this myth can land you in hot water, especially because speed in speaking is almost always accompanied by incoherence. Pay attention to this, as you need to be not only audible, but also understandable to your interviewer.

The goal is to be adept in a language and the only way to go is by using it as often and as much as possible, in writing, speech etc.

Do not stress yourself. Relax and manage your time well.

I’m delighted and grateful to your website, considering that I attended ZERO classes/preparation sessions for my IELTS, and your website was the only platform which proved to be extraordinarily useful to me in my study for the same.”

This post is dedicated to success of two IELTS test takers, Heta and Natasha, who achieved a remarkable Band 8.5 in IELTS and became winners in our monthly results competition. But, it’s not only their success we’re talking about here – this can be YOUR chance to get a great score in IELTS, if you take in the following advice they are kindly sharing today.

Introducing Heta – a 33 year old lady from India, a native Gujarati speaker. Heta’s IELTS score is Band 8.5 with two perfect 9’s for Listening and Reading. She said:

“Below are the tips and techniques that helped me get a good score. Before I start, I would say ‘practice, practice, practice’, that’s the key thing.

1. Reading – practicing a lot doing sample tests online and in books helped a lot, especially the different question types.

2. Listening – practicing a lot of sample online tests helped me a lot in listening, too. They also helped me in getting used to different accents (British, Australian, American). Time is important here so stay focused.

3. Writing – practicing again helps here too but I also would constantly read articles online to improve my vocabulary.

4. Speaking – practicing with a friend helped me a lot here.”

And now over to Natasha, a lovely 21 year old lady from India, a proud owner of Band 8.5 Overall with a 9 in Listening. Natasha recommends the following:

“Speaking

In some cases, this will be your first test. You have about 10 minutes to secure the optimum marks, so make the most of it. It’s not necessary that you answer exactly what’s asked, rather, elaborate with further details once you’ve gotten the main point across. Ensure that you listen to / read the questions asked CAREFULLY and answer exactly as required. Most of us tend to get our feathers ruffled and go on a verbal tangent!

Listening

This is the easiest part of the test, but it can be tricky, too. Read the questions before the audio is played, to ensure that you’ve understood what’s being asked, and then listen carefully to the recording, to ensure you don’t miss a thing, because it’s only played ONCE.

Reading

It’s often helpful to inculcate the habit of reading, in order to develop your vocabulary and speed reading skills, both of which are essential in order to comprehend the lengthy passages and answer the given questions, within the stipulated time. Hint: most answers are synonymous to the questions asked.

Writing

Avoid paraphrasing the question and selective sentences multiple times. It simply doesn’t work here. Rather, take a few minutes to create a mind-map of your thought process and proceed from there.

The most important aspect of the last three tests, is time management. The British Council provides candidates with some material with which to test oneself in terms of both, the test format, and the time within which each component is to be completed.

As nervous as I was to take up the examination, I’m overjoyed to have succeeded in my endeavour and hope that these tips will help more people accomplish the same. Good luck!”