IELTS tips for Band 8 from a competition winner

Achieving a great result in IELTS is very important to all readers and subscribers of IELTS-Blog.com, which is why you will probably find this post interesting. Nima, who recently got Band 8 in IELTS, is talking about the methods that helped him face the exam being well-prepared:

“I would like to share some quick notes regarding the IELTS exam so that the contestants achieve the best result:

First of all, I defiantly recommend the book provided by your website “Ace the IELTS“. My main reason is that this book provides the most vital and right to the point information one needs in order to take the exam. In my opinion reading this book is mandatory for people who are sitting the exam for the first time and is also very beneficial for others.

Speaking

Frankly, in my opinion this skill cannot be very improved within a short period of time. If you have listened to many English /American conversations such as movies or T.V series, you have already picked up a good accent. On the other hand I suggest speaking to other friends in English and trying not to cheat! Being in an English speaking environment is the ideal opportunity.

Listening

Practice makes perfect, and regarding this specific subject , try to get your hands on as many sample exams as you can, after taking 5 or 6 exams you’ll get the hang of it and figure out how the exam is going to be taken, so you will never be caught off-guard. I took all the tests provided by the Cambridge IELTS test samples and while taking the actual exam, nothing was new to my ears.

Reading

Again , you can gain the know-how of this subject by reading the “Ace the IELTS” digital book, it has explained everything so anything I say won’t compete with that, and then practice with the sample test I mentioned earlier.

Writing

This part was the bottleneck of my project. Frankly, I am not a big fan of reading books and novels and the only writing I have ever done is in the office which was mostly work related material. Try to get to know the common subjects that you will face in the exam and be creative, and don’t forget the rules of writing , if you go by the book you’ll be safe , and by now you know which book I’m talking about.

One last thing I want to say is that my speaking test experience in Iran was a little bit awkward. I have worked in international companies for more than 6 years and have talked to many different people with different accents, from Japanese to Chinese, Canadian, American, Australian and of course British. However, at the time of my interview the examiner talking to me had the weirdest accent which confused me very much, and his act was also quite weird. I have to say that this experience was the same for other students who took the exam with me; I did get an eight for my speaking exam, but I was expecting much more, so I guess what I’m trying to say is , aside all other things , be prepared for some unexpected stuff.