Do you know why so many people take IELTS and don’t get the score they need? Two main reasons:
Reason #1: They are taking the test before they are truly ready.
Reason #2 They don’t seek feedback and therefore don’t know how to improve.
Take my student Dilyara for example. She had to take IELTS for her university application as she intended to further her education.
Dilyara’s situation was anything but simple – she moved to Australia with her husband and a 15-month-old baby and didn’t have any extended family to help out. Those of you with young children know how much time they need, and how little of it is left for study or work, not to mention how tired and sleep-deprived you are most of the time.
But even with these obstacles Dilyara has been able to achieve Band 7.5 in her first attempt. She got scores of 7.5+ in almost all the skills except for one – more on that later!
Do you know why? Dilyara didn’t rush to take the test. She took the necessary time to prepare and worked in a structured way. She used preparation materials that are similar to the real test, she practiced every question type you can get in IELTS and she got her ears accustomed to a variety of accents you may hear in the IELTS listening tests. She also had her speaking assessed and learnt what score she could get in the real test, why, and what she needs to do to increase it.
Regular writing correction and feedback helped Dilyara learn what to work on in her essays – vocabulary and grammar, in her case. One thing she regrets is not practicing for writing task 1 enough. Dilyara concentrated on writing task 2 and neglected task 1, which lowered her total writing score in the real test.
When Dilyara took the test, there were no surprises for her. She got:
Listening 8.0, Reading 7.5, Writing 6.5, Speaking 7.5 – Overall Band 7.5
With her permission, I will share the email she sent me about her wonderful success. In her email Dilyara explains how she prepared for the test, showing the simple yet effective methods she used:
“Hello Simone,
Thank you and IELTS-blog for the help you provided during my IELTS preparation!
I decided to take this test so as to understand my level of English before applying for my second higher education. My overall score was 7.5. I wanted to share how I prepared for the test:
Listening
My band was 8. I purchased 3 books from the High Scorer’s Choice series by S. Braverman and R. Nicholson (Sets 4-6). I found the listening recordings very helpful as they had different accents and I felt they were challenging enough to get me prepared for the actual test.
Reading
My band was 7.5. Again, practice test books gave me an excellent preparation for the actual test. The tests were both interesting to read and quite difficult so as I could better understand how to get a score over 7.
Speaking
My band was 7.5. I believe that this section was one of the most challenging for me as I had no clue how to understand where I was in terms of my speaking abilities. I found IELTS-blog Speaking assessment method very helpful and convenient in my circumstances. Specifically, you can choose whatever test you want to do and record yourself at the convenient time. That was crucial to me as I have 15 months old baby so I was not available for any live speaking assessment.
Writing
I scored 6.5. I also used the writing correction service from IELTS-blog. I purchased three bundles and used all of them for writing task 2 and none for writing task 1. I believe that was my mistake as I didn’t understand my writing skills for writing task 1. For the future I will definitely have my writing task 1 marked too once I am ready for university application. My field of study requires minimum of 7 in this skill.
Obstacles
I faced a shortage of time for studying as I have 15 months old baby, who requires all my time. We have recently moved to Australia and I have no relatives to help out. I believe planning and tasks prioritisation helped a lot. For example, listening and reading I would do when he was asleep. However speaking would do while we were out for a walk, I would talk aloud to my baby. Finally, writing I would do while I am on the bus or waiting for a bus at a bus stop whilst baby is watching around and happy in the pram.
Thank you Simone and IELTS-Blog!
Kind regards,
Dilyara ”
Congratulations on your success, Dilyara!
