Sunday, November 15, 2020
Task 23 How I prepared for my IELTS and my recommendations for IELTS candidates
In your writing make sure you answer the following questions:
1. How long and how have you prepared for your IELTS exams?
2. What helped you to prepare effectively?
3. What helped you to recieve your desired IELTS score?
4. What would you recommend to better learning and teaching IELTS courses?
5. What would your recommend for the IELTS candidates?
5. Give some practical advice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have been preparing hard for IELTS since summer using Internet resources. In my opinion, working on the sample answers of writing and speaking tasks was the most effective because by doing this I have learned a vast number of new words, phrases and grammar structures and most importantly, the structure of answers. I would advise to work more on mistakes as it helps to understand where you need to focus. Moreover, doing MOCK tests without working on mistakes will not assist you that much in getting high scores, so this is a crucial part. Also find a way of preparation which fits you since you should enjoy the whole process. For example, if you do not like reading information on websites then watch videos on YouTube or find interactive games. There are a lot of free resources, so please use it properly. I think that motivation was the main reason why I got my desired IELTS band score because I needed to remember why I was doing this. Remember to not overwork yourself. You can achieve your goal by doing small steps day by day.
ReplyDeleteI started preparing for IELTS quite late. I mean our school lessons are aimed to prepare students for the exam but my own kind of active preparation began approximately a week before the actual test. This year everything was shifted because of the global pandemic, so we waited a lot for the date of our IELTS to be announced and when it finally did we found out that we are going to pass the exam in computer-delivered format (CD). Therefore it basically meant that we had to get used to the unexpected format within a month. Hopefully, every Friday we had to finish one of the IELTS mock tests and we were able to practice our speaking with our teachers (this was actually the biggest part of my preparation).
ReplyDeleteThe most effective way for me to prepare happened to be books with sample topics and videos with actual IELTS speaking tests. Luckily, I bumped up to the book called “IELTS speaking topics 2020” and some of the questions from the book were on my speaking exam.
I guess practice was the key to reach my goal score. As they all say: “Practice makes perfect”. However, I did not write IELTS mock tests every day or take any preparation courses. I kinda just went with the flow, you know, practicing naturally no more than like 10-15 minutes a day. Sometimes I would just switch my thoughts on English for fun.
For better learning and teaching I can suggest focusing on different types of questions that can arise. During my listening exam there was a map and I have lost many points on that just because I did not put attention for the variety of questions in an exam, especially rare ones like those maps, diagrams and etc.
My biggest advice for candidates would be: prepare yourself naturally (especially if you are not having your exam very soon). Simply immerse yourself into the language environment. Watch English youtube channels (Cut; BuzzFeed; The Try Guys) to get used to English speech. Open karaoke versions of your favorite songs, watch cartoons and anime on English. Play video games on English servers to overcome the fear of language barrier.
And for those who are having IELTS soon: try IELTS speaking books with sample questions and topics; during speaking try to speak fast and avoid long pauses (because examiners won’t wait, they keep going); practice speaking at home (randomly choose a topic and just collect your thoughts, generate ideas so you will not have to do this during the exam); for listening pay attention to format when you filling gaps in table (for example if in the table the format is written like 9.15pm, you should write your answer exactly like that). For writing create a sort of grammar checklist In your head and create sentences according to that list (for example keep in mind that you have to write sentences with inversion; condition; collocations), think of ideas for different most common topics, read some good sample essays.
I started preparation for IELTS in September, although in 11 grade we have had lessons about this test and when we had some mock test. But during these lessons I did not pay attention as much as I did in the beginning of this academic year. I think, the fact that we did mock test every Friday was effective as it was under exam conditions and the most crucial thing is that our writing part was checked and we got feedback which included our mistakes and recommendations how to fix them. For speaking I did practice daily with a girl from parallel class and with my siblings because they were also going to have this exam in November. In order to improve my vocabulary I wrote some idioms and words from advanced vocabulary in a piece of paper with big letters and pasted to the wall. And during my speech I learned to use them correctly and learned by hard. Other things that I did in a daily basis are that I did listening and reading tests using website “ieltsonlinetests”. That website shows mistakes and explains why it is not a correct answer. I recommend for students who are going to pass IELTS in the future to practice taking into account their time because in the real exam there would not be extra time. Also in order to reduce stress in speaking i just imagined that I am doing practice with my sister instead of my examiner. And in remaining two sections it is vital to have focus on the test as it is straightforward to miss the answer and because of it loose time.
ReplyDeleteIELTS is language test. Therefore, it is crucial to have a high English level. In order to improve your English, you have to be surrounded by it: watch videos, films, TV shows in English, read books in English, start thinking and talking with yourself in English. I think this is the easiest and most interesting and essential part of preparation. First week will be the hardest, but then you will increase your level dramatically. This is long term preparation. While watching films or reading, write down all unknown words and grammatical structures and try to understand them in context.
ReplyDeleteThe next step in your preparation is doing practices. First of all, learn how the test structured and discover types of tasks. This knowledge about the test is very helpful. After this, start doing practices. You definitely will make many mistakes in first practices, so it is important to revise your every mistake and work on it. This is very important to learn from your mistakes. Never do only practices without learning from your mistakes, this is perhaps the most common mistake among students who is going to pass IELTS. Furthermore, do only real practices from official websites and books.
Absence of teachers is also crucial. I prepared with Nagima Kenzhebekovna, following her instructions. She helped me a lot during my preparation and supported me. Moreover, I watched IELTALIZ in YouTUbe and used to took information from her website. Furthemore, Chris Pill from Ielts Advantage also helped me in preparation. He has a great website with a tons of resources.
This is my main preparation process and wish you good luck in your future IELTS exam. Hard work and patience only will help you in preparation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I prepared for the IELTS at the same time as everyone. We have been preparing for exam starting from grade 11 or 10, but I have always considered that I got high score in it due to strong foundation. Indeed, doing practice tests and learning english strategies is paramount, however, I think students should move towards being accustomed to english.
ReplyDeleteIt means that they should be natural in english and use it as flexibly as you can. It is kinda like an instinct, when you get a hunch that you should write like this or say it like this to sound more confident.
In order to increase your familiarity with english, I strongly recommend using english more often. I advise to read fiction books, watch serials and speak more often. It may sound like a common thing, yet they are the best way to grow natural with english.
When you read books, you enlarge your vocabulary, intuitively learn writing strategies and understand more from the context. Personally, I read fiction books in english from the beginning of 8th grade. Therefore, I had quite a big passive vocabulary, knew how to write complex uncommon words and read faster. Reading may greatly boost your reading, listening and writing skills.
When you watch films and serials in english, people grew more fluent, learn new words with correct pronunciation and grow familiar with spoken english. Well, I've never been a big fan of watching films and serials. Truthfully, I deeply regret that I never spent time doing it since such activity has a positive influence on your listening and speaking skills. Speaking skills, in my opinion, are hardest to improve, yet watching serial in english is one of the most effective ways to do it.
I have been preparing for IELTS since 11 grade. However, I reckon that it was not so effective as I did not organise time for preparation. In the result, I got upset, became exhausted and lost motivation. It is better to improve your level by watching films/TV shows/ using songs which you are interested in. It is enough 3 months to prepare IELTS by following these recomendations:
ReplyDelete1. You should believe in your abilities and create your schedule for preparing IELTS (include all details: how much time you will work, etc.)
2. Practice Listening and Reading sections
3. Pay attention to teachers’ feedback in writing and speaking and work with your mistakes.
4. In your free time watch films/ TV shows or listen BBC radio in English
5. Learn vocabulary related to different topics every day and think about how you will use them
6. Find speaking partner, it can be your classmate/ friend and practice using video call.
7. I think that this can be really useful in speaking section. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiVm8XcbwS8-pcDEa5lFXIA
8. Read about tips and tricks in all sections and apply them
HOWEVER, pay attention to IELTS preparion exams starting frow now as it is needed to build basement and get preperad in the best way!
To begin with, I want to mention that I started my intensive preparation at the end of spring. An important point is that you should pay attention to the quality of your training since the long length of the background without identifying the mistakes cannot lead to success.
ReplyDeleteI assume that surrounding your environment with a foreign language is the most indispensable aspect that should be considered. For instance, watch favorite movies, read scientific journals, and write your thoughts in the diary in English. Before starting doing these actions, prioritize them. Everyday practice of reading and listening sections are more vital than watching the movie. Hence, this part of the entertainment should be done once a week. It is enough. As I have mentioned before, practice must be completed every day without any pauses, ergo it will be fruitful for your progress tracking. I hope that you know this method, you should plot a graph, where you have days with scores on the x-axis and y-axis, respectively. Added to this, watch Ted talks of the native speakers.
Getting more than 7.0 from the reading section is possible. Why? Cause the answers are in front of you. All you need is to understand the text and search for the keywords. I recommend you to practice with Collin's book, which is really helpful.
It is explicitly observed that repeating words in order to enhance pronunciation from the films have a great impact. Find a partner, who will practice speaking with you. Actually, we practiced using the probable questions paper. Learning advanced vocabulary and idioms are essential. I also recommend learning the vocabulary from Barron’s book, which is dedicated to the IELTS and the topics are divided. There are myriad bloggers on YouTube, who prepare for all sections without any expenses. Practice your fluency and pronunciation. Be confident in yourself since no one is going to judge you.
Improve your time management. In writing, you should write more than the written number. Advanced grammar and vocabulary, following the structure, and having enough arguments will increase your score. The book which is called “Advanced grammar in use” helped me a lot.
From my point of view, it is possible to get a score of 9.0 from listening and reading. Practice makes perfect, obviously. Follow the teachers’ advice and be active.
To be honest, I practiced listening and reading maybe once a week during the September, because the date of IELTS and even its format wasn’t revealed, so I didn’t take it seriously. However, after the exam date was fixed and we knew that it will be in computer-based format and that even speaking will be taken by video-call, I started my intensive preparation. So, I can say that preparation for this new format of the test took a month.
ReplyDeleteIn speaking, preparation by videos and practicing topics from “SPEAKING RECENT TOPICS 2020” booklet was very helpful. Actually, we had 1-2 full practices every week with different teachers and received our feedbacks with some recommendations. Personally, I think that it is not enough and in order to speak confidently without hesitation and to practice as much topics as I can, I had additional practices with my friends almost every day. It is really necessary, and I even got one of the topics in Part 1 on the real exam which I’ve already practiced with my peers. Moreover, there are many useful Youtube videos with sample answers, ideas and tips that you can also watch (Fastrack, E2 channels were my favorite ones). However, watching videos cannot replace the practice, so do not rely on them too much and do not watch them too often (1-2 videos in a day will be enough), you will waste your time (because they are too long). Do not learn many idioms and etc., just try to find 2-3 unpopular idioms and phrases that will suit any topic. Then, practice using them every day and make it a habit, so on real exam you will naturally add them in your speech. Also, because of the reason that speaking in pandemic conditions is carried out by ZOOM call, practice your speaking with camera on, so you will get used to it too.
Listening and Reading is about practicing only. You have to set the time and work under exam conditions by using similar earphones and even keyboard. You must write at the moment when you hear the answer, because you will not have time to come back and write it. At the end, you will have time only to check the spelling of words which is really important to do. Reading was the easiest part for me, and I even had time to check and revise my answers at the end. It is really comfortable to do reading on laptop because you can see whole passage and questions on screen, and you will not waste your time to turn the page or rewrite your answers to the answer sheet.
Writing was a bit problematic for me and I had big troubles with the keyboard, because the keyboard on my laptop was different (I mean there is a difference on Macbook and other Windows laptop’s keyboards). It was really challenging for me on the real exam because I used to type on my personal laptop with another keyboard, that is why it was uncomfortable for me. It may seem like a simple and unimportant thing, but after passing the exam, I realized that by practicing on a similar gadget with a similar keyboard, mouse and headphones, you feel much more confident during a real exam, as your eyes and hands get used to such things. And also learn how to write an essay on the keyboard quickly and without spelling mistakes. Due to the fact that we had only a month to prepare, I had difficulties with this, since I was used to writing by hand and it was quite difficult for me to switch to a laptop.
Pay attention to such kind of external factors, so you will not lose your confidence or concentration during the exam. Good luck
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete: IElTS
ReplyDeleteWithout doubt IELTS is one of the most vital exam in our lives and preparation is extremely important. Students should know that practice makes perfect and the score of the exam depends only on the preparation and practices.
The main thing which student should keep in mind is that whatever you had learned will not work without practice , because our brain need to remember the working processes and in future use it. To be honest I did not practice a lot during the summer holidays , however , when school has started I renewed the preparation.
Reading and Listening are not an uphill tasks , however Speaking And Writing skill are hard enough. The speaking section was the scariest part of the exam , however , by practicing with my friend of mine in the evenings I developed this skill. Everybody says that if you want improve the fluency or speaking skill at all - just speak , and you know it works. Really it has its own effect , now I can speak fluently without any confuses. What about Writing ? Hmm , just read a lot , because books or articles can give the best ideas in order to write essays .
Do not worry! If you continue to worry , it will has its own negative consequences on you , so just remember that it is just an exam and keep practicing.
I intensively prepared for IELTS for about 3 months and during this time I realized that, first of all, you need a strong motivation to move. And I also want to give you some tips on how best to prepare for this exam.
ReplyDelete1. Practice makes perfect. Practice all of your skills, especially listening and reading.
2. Use all content in English, including all TV shows, movies, YouTube,, and songs. Change the language of your gadgets to English.
3. Do not forget to rest if you overwork, lose motivation and desire.
4. In my class we used the Focus To-Do program. This program works according to the Pamadors method. Most importantly, it motivates you to be more efficient at work, you see that your friends are learning and you don't want to leave them, and you start learning too. The program also helps to manage time and devote it correctly to everything.
5. Speak to yourself in English, look in the mirror and talk, exercise.
6. When you write an essay, first write it without any reading or searching information, then look at the sample that scores 8 or 9 and rewrite your essay while looking at the sample.
7. Read more examples related to the speaking section because these examples will teach you some idioms and uses of words.
I prepared for my IELTS exams actively since September, but actually, I was preparing for the entire 11th grade. It was decided to pass the computer-delivered exams due to the COVID-19, so I did a variety of mock tests on a special website called ieltsonlinetests.com. To be honest, it is a really useful page for preparation. Moreover, I usually practiced speaking with my classmates and teachers to be aware of my mistakes and work on them. In speaking we should use idioms, and it is vital to learn how to use them in a speech naturally. I would like to recommend you to make listening and reading exercises every day. Firstly, you will be ready for the structure and the possible question types, and secondly, it is helpful to train your listening or reading skills. In terms of writing and speaking, I used to copy and analyze the sample essays or model answers since it is not only about the ideas, but also about the vocabulary and grammar which is highly assessed in the exams. By learning the samples it is possible to understand the essay question, structure, and other significant points. Furthermore, in order to use, for example, conditionals or inversions you should know the correct usage, be confident when you are going to include it in the essay. Time-management is also important, so try to time yourself and be prepared for it. Of course, practice makes perfect! Watch video lessons, listen to speeches, and read articles! Do not forget about your sleeping and eating routine before the exam because your emotional and physical states are connected!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell, it would be fair to say that i started my main preparation in Autumn. it is not as hard as students get used to think, moreover, if you will do MOCK tests every single day you are going to become much more confident, and you can rely on your abilities and skills without a shadow of doubt. I got my desired score and I reckon that thanks to my efforts and desire to work I accomplished my goal.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you have to visualize your desired score and split your goal into mini-goals in order to come up with good preparation. Then, if I was forced to choose I would definitely recommend ieltsonlinetest.com for listening and reading preparation. If you reckon that speaking is your weakness I recommend you to watch "English Speaking Success" on Youtube. Thanks to this chanel and practices on regular basis I got the highest score for my speaking. For instance, I've learnt PPF(Past-Perfect-Future) strategy which was very useful when it came to Part 2 questions. Also, I wrote down complex sentence structures and new words in notes while I was listening to music or podcasts.
My main advice for you is that you have to work with your given time properly. Never try to edit your essays at the last moment, otherwise, you will make my mistakes.
Speaking and Listening
ReplyDeleteActually I do not remember all topics in speaking even though there was a lot of them, but the thing I do remember is that what I feel. I wasn't nervous at all. In speaking, initially I decided to talk slowly in order to avoid some grammar mistakes, but when examiner started to talk I just followed his fluency and also started to speaking quickly as he did. Maybe that's why I admit I did some mistakes. As far as I remember, We talked about picnic, humor, sports and study, and I think I answered all questions properly. On the balance, speaking part was relatively easy for me. In listening part, there was 'only one word' tasks, so I have to say it was pretty easy compared to mock tests. I recommend you to watch only english content videos or people who speak in english very well. I think it helped me a lot. Secondly, I have practiced my speaking with my friends everyday for 1 month before exam just to know the questions. We used "Predicted questions book" that actually works. So, pay attention for that.
Reading and Writing
When it comes to writing, I had a lot of time to plan my essay, and wrote 300 words. I know its maybe too much, but it was 'Discuss both views and give our opinion', so I tried to cover all topic. However, I have to say that you have to consider your eating and drinking habits. Staying hydrated is important, but in exam dont drink too much. When we are especially nervous, we often want to go to bathroom, but in IELTS exam, inviligator will not let you go in breaks, you can only use your exam time. Since I have been preparing for SAT for 4 month, and decided that if I am quite prepared for SAT, IELTS will be easier. DONT think like that. Their level, it turned out, is same! Especially, when you are under pressure and do reading after listening. So, only tip I can give - to do all reading past papers and carefully analyze all mistakes. Just follow all recommendations of people and bear in mind - practice makes perfect. Take your time, but start preparation as earlier as you can.
Best of luck!
My preparation to the IELTS was one of the enjoyable activities to me, because I chose wonderful way to do it. Approximately 6 month before to my exam I purchased a premium subscription to the Netflix, one of the biggest film platforms in the world. Obviously, I have watched a lot of films, series and cartoons in English. I learned multitudinous new words, collocations and trained my listening skills. However, after 4 month, when I had 2 month before my exam I started to do practice tests every day. Firstly, I found a lot of sample essays with band 8 or 9. Then, I analyzed these works and started to write my own essays. My first essay was definitely terrible, but my next works was becoming better and better. With regards to the listening and reading, these sections were the easiest section personally for me, because all you have to do in these sections are only to read and listen and clearly understand the questions. The good daily preparation and doing mock tests can lead to the success. Speaking was easy too, because before the preparation I had huge experiences in speaking. I have played a lot of CS go games, where I negotiated with my teammates in English. I did practice in speaking with my friend through the discord, extremely convenient platform to socialize online. I suggest to IELTS candidates firstly to enjoy the preparation, then to understand the importance of this test. Test costs 64000 tenge which is not cheap and you fail your exam you should pass it again, take the responsibility and do not waste your parent’s money. Good result allows you to study abroad or take a grant from Nazarbayev Univrersity. Good luck!!!
ReplyDeleteI started preparing for listening and reading sections of the exam itself 2 weeks before. I consider this period of time completely enough to get your desired score, but only if you practice English on daily basis for several months or even years. Let me explain why:
ReplyDeleteApart from pretty much obvious tips that my peers already have listed, I would like to suggest the next long-term approaches that helped me to get 7.5.
First of all, the overall structure of IELTS is pretty much simple and requires a little time to get fully accustomed. If you do one practice of each section per day for a few weeks before the exam, you're all set. Doing practice tests over and over won't help you to succeed as those method doesn't develop your overall English reading and listening skills. You, probably, will get stuck at one specific score and become frustrated due to a lack of progress. Instead, I recommend learning English for fun and pleasure: watching TV shows, films, reading books, and listening to music and podcasts. DO NOT STUDY FOR IELTS, LEARN ENGLISH!
With regards to the writing section, this part can be fully mastered within a month of practicing, learning essay structures and vocabulary, taking into consideration that you are already good enough at delivering your thoughts on paper in English. My own experience made me realize, that the main problem among Kazakh students is spelling, so you guys better make a great emphasis on learning the spelling of complicated words. Learning grammatical structures and collocations are overestimated in terms of complexity, just read and write a lot, and you will get a hang of it.
Speaking is one of the most difficult parts. As someone who got 7.5 on this section, l recommend you to learn how to lie. Again, having a good range of vocabulary is entirely essential, but this is an easy part. You have to learn how to improvise and create ideas and stories out of nowhere, cause there is no time to recall your past experiences. Learn to talk in details, descriptively as every little detail, your feelings have an important role to play in your narrative. This is the only way to extend your monologue, it also gives room for showing off your vocabulary baggage.
The last recommendation is to have a rest before the test day. I fell into a trap of overworking before an exam, and suddenly in the reading section, I got sick and tired, couldn't focus on the last passage, so I blame this situation for not getting the desired 8. I definitely had all skills and knowledge to get band 8, but I screwed up, should have take my time and relax a little before an exam. Guys, do not tear yourself apart and take a chill pill :)
I have been preparing for IELTS since the beginning of 11th grade, the time which includes junior year, my overall english language level development in summer through preparation for SAT and concentrated preparation for IELTS from the october. To be honest, from the time when I came to NIS till now I was struggling with english subject, because I came to the school with 0 level of knowing it compared to my other classmates. Then I realise that the most important thing in the way of both successfully passing IELTS and increasing language understanding is your attitude towards learning it. If you want to get a high score your english should be higher too, and if you develop your overall language level your IELTS score will also be higher. However, the IELTS is not just about your English as any other standardised tests it is also about spending time on exam system awareness. The month before the exam it was announced that due to global pandemic we will take Computer based tests. So from the beginning of October right after having my SAT, I, personally made a 4 week schedule in which I did full IELTS mock test every friday, weekdays except friday i concentrated on the reading and listening, and every weekend i was working on my writing, speaking, thanks to our school teachers we also had scored mock speaking once a week.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned before, my preparation for SAT reasoning also made a huge impact on my english level since it also includes reading and writing sections. Moreover, from the beginning of quarantine, I decided to surround myself with the language by watching tv series, Youtube videos and reading textbooks only in English. Of course, it seems really hard, you cannot enjoy your favourite series if you cannot understand what’s going on, why these people talk to fast and different accents is also seems difficult, but by starting from russian subtitles you can adapt your ears on the variety accents and repeat it when you speak, then moving to english subs you start to learn new vocabulary, at the end you can totally understand what is people talking about and enjoy. Translated films are good for people who cannot watch it in its original language, but only by watching original versions we can fully “hear” what idea the author wanted to convey.Moreover, this way you can also remember everyday idioms and complex structures which are widely used by native speakers. Therefore, my first advice to juniors is to increase your understanding of Language itself, before starting preparing for the exam.
Secondly, practice makes perfect. The more you practice, the more you are ready for the actual exam. However, keep in mind that quality is always superior to quantitate, not only should you practice more but also practice efficiently by working on your mistakes.
The best resources for practising and knowing IELTS:
www.ieltsliz.com for writing task 1& task 2 especially
Youtube channels:
English speaking success( analysing speaking questions and sample 9 answers. All in all full package for speaking)
E2 english (methods, study hacks, structures--highly recommended)
Fastrack IELTS
Practices:
www.ieltsonlinetests.com --- recent practice tests & mock tests with timers very convenient
Useful:
www.powerthesaurus.org synonyms & antonyms & definitions must have godsent
I have been preparing for IELTS for about 6 months. Of course, the school also prepared for the IELTS format, but I started independent training via Internet resources closer to the spring of grade 11. These preparations lasted until May. After my preparations were interrupted for 2 months due to some circumstances, then I prepared for another 3 months.
ReplyDeleteAt the heart of my preparation were three things that, in my opinion, helped me the most, these are practice tests, consumption of video content in English and reading sample answers. Many practice tests will help you adapt faster to the exam format. By completing them often, I reached a certain pace of completing tasks and learned to perform tasks in accordance with the time limit. At the beginning of the 11th grade, when the preparation for IELTS at school had just begun, I had problems with that. I didn’t have time to complete all the tasks in this time, but some practice tests helped me solve this problem.
Watching the video helped me better understand spoken language and we can say that it helped a little in terms of vocabulary, and speaking of vocabulary I do not mean that I began to know more words, but I learned the correct use of words. Simple memorization of words will give you nothing if you do not use memorized words. To do this, I recommend watching TED speeches and content related to science. If this makes it difficult and boring for you, you can watch movies and videos that interest you. For example, I did so, in my subscriptions there are now more channels with topics of interest to me in English. Overall, watching the video helped me improve my speaking and listening skills.
The third is reading sample answers on the internet. I began to get a better understanding of what my answers should roughly look like thanks to exemplary answers. The main thing here is to find popular and trusted sources and always check the number of points received for a certain exemplary answer, because you can read the answers that were given ratings that are below the desired level.
Regarding sleep and nutrition, I advise what I did not do myself or did wrong. You need to sleep at least 8 hours, as due to lack of sleep you will be drawn to sleep during preparation, which often happened to me. In nutrition, I do not know any advice except that you do not need to overeat, because a full stomach also leads to drowsiness. I want to say that you need to spend at least an hour or a couple of hours a day on the street or playing sports, this improves concentration when you return to school. These are all the tips that I could give you and I hope this is useful to you. Good luck!
I have been preparing for my IELTS exam for 2 month. We started preparing for the exam at English lessons in 11th grade, where I got a whole picture of format, useful tips and learned about my weak skills and sections that I should improve before passing the exam. Our preparation was interrupted by a global pandemic, the exam was shifted to unknown date and that is why I take a break and was completely mistaken. If I prepared intensively whole summer time, I would get higher score, than I have in reality. However, the online education gave us a lot of free time, which we used for practicing effectively.
ReplyDeleteWell, from my own experience I suggest future candidates do not waste time and start to practice as soon as possible. In my eyes, the most effective way is a strong time management, which will assist you to work at each section during a week and pass mock test on Sunday to analyze your success. As for me, the MOCK exam, which we did every Friday until the actual test, was genuinely helpful. In addition to, ‘practice makes perfect’ is an essential rule number one that the IELTS future candidates should remember during the preparation process. The second tip I want to share is teachers’ feedback. Without analyzing your mistakes and working on them your preparation will never be effective, especially it related to Writing and Speaking sections. The last month before IELTS we had a speaking session with our teachers on a regular basis, where they highlight our weak skills, such as grammar or fluency and pay more attention on them in order to get higher score in real test. By practicing speaking though video call, in real test I was calm and confident with a real examiner, because our speaking part was via Skype.
IELTS is one of the most crucial exams in your life. Therefore, I recommend you to start preparing right now.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing you should do is of course completing Cambridge practices from 1 to 15 entirely. The format on the actual exam will be the same. Try to avoid doing them from unofficial resources, because they are harder and might reduce your self-esteem.
Find you a regular speaking partner. By practicing with each other you will gain confidence and perform much better in real IELTS speaking. Questions are pretty common, so you can read model answers from speaking books. There is excellent YouTube channel which focuses on speaking only- "Ielts speaking success" . It is highly recommended to everyone who wants high scores for speaking.Also there are videotapes of real ielts speaking exams with candidates from wide range of regions. Examiners talk about pros and cons of their speech.
Prepare to writing by using model anwers from IELTS Liz. Another great resource is youtube channel called "Fastrack Ielts". She analyzes model essays for band 9, and tells about most common mistakes, by avoiding which you can get your desired score. Write your own essays and get feedback from your teacher.
Another important thing is there is no need to take additional courses outside of the school, it will be waste of money and time. You can perfectly prepare to your exam on your own. Internet is full of useful resources. Practice is the key !
I have been preparing for IELTS for 4 years. For me the most efficacious way to prepare for listening was to watch movies and serials in English. For the reading section the best one can do is read world literature books in English and do a lot of practice with Cambridge past papers. Ideally you can finish doing all of them. However, I think it is highly important not only do it for the sense of practice, but also to work with mistakes, make analysis why you did that mistake and how to avoid it the next time.
ReplyDeleteFor the speaking rich vocabulary was the thing that I put an emphasis on. You can watch videos on YouTube, especially the channel "English speaking success" with Keith. He is really brilliant. Then make sure you use new words in a real life during your speech.
For better learning and teaching IELTS courses, please create a strategy and structure for writing section. I mean for the particular type of essay, what structure can you use? So if you use universal model structure ,then you are good. Again writing is all about practice: if do writing task 2 essay every day one week before the exam, it is a virtuous way to revise and be confident in yourself.
The piece of advice that I would like to give to future fellows is just *keep* your *concentration*(!). I really mean it, because listening and reading are mostly affected on how carefully you listen and read. Therefore, the best that you can do is just look at your screen/paper, and imagine that other things do not exist. Even though you are an international Olympic champion, if you loose your focus even for a minute, you might end up loosing 3-6 marks. And this is important.
In the end, practice makes perfect. Go ahead and be confident!
8.0 and even 8.5 are far more than real👌
“IELTS is not a piece of cake” – that’s what I thought when I first came to school in the 11th grade. With that in mind, I decided to take some extra lessons at IELTS academy, which was, to be honest, not so productive as I thought. However, at that moment, I had no idea about IELTS, in general. Thus, taking these lessons helped me to have a strong foundation for further learning.
ReplyDeleteAfter spending 3 months on that, I started my own preparation: writings beyond the school curriculum, listening and reading practice tests almost every day, and speaking practices on Omegle (warning: the site contains a tone of native speakers, but there’s no guarantee that all of them are mentally stable).
In February-March, a NIS Alumna contacted me via Instagram to prepare for the speaking part. I didn’t and still don’t know her motive, but I accepted her help and we practice on a regular basis. March. The IELTS test is canceled.
I stopped my preparation. At all. However, I downloaded Tiktok (a popular app for comedy, dances, and everything). Somehow, the algorithm of Tiktok made my “for you page” entirely in English. Well, I spent more than 5 months on Tiktok and my English skills significantly improved, especially the listening one.
But in August, I registered for the SAT (reasoning). When I took my first mock test without knowing even the format, I had a shock, no cap. The reading section was the MOST DIFFICULT READING I’ve ever witnessed. 65 minutes, 5 passages, each passage contains 750-800 words. There is a historical passage, which is sometimes an official document from US history. Wow. I have finished Erica Meltzer’s critical reader in September and took my SATs on October 3. My beyond-school-IELTS was on October 10. A week after my SAT. to be honest, I hadn’t prepared for it since the lockdown began. I spent the whole week (-2 days for transportation between cities) doing listening and reading practices. A day before my IELTS I watched “Asiya Fastrack”’s videos on YouTube about writing (well, I watched only 2 videos; 1 wt1, 1 wt2). I was on cloud 9 when I saw almost the same tasks on my real IELTS writing (I was just lucky. Kids, don’t do that, prepare beforehand). So, my result is 7.5 overall.
I didn’t prepare for the IELTS, which was held at school (kids, don’t do that too). I was pretty confident and got 7.5 again. My English language skills were good from the very beginning, which also affected my result. But, to reiterate, these are the tips: watch Asiya Fastrack on YouTube, prepare for the SAT, and do tons of mock tests under exam conditions.
P.S. IELTS is a lot easier than you think, don’t stress too much
This road of an endless cycle of i-just-need-to-make-it-without-mental-breakdowns and permanent depressions was extremely tough. An IELTS exam isn’t just about the language proficiency, but also about the comprehension of given material and ability to make correct decisions in short amount of time. It’s all about your preparation. Some folks wondering why their essays never improving although bunch of practice tests are done and they’re learning various vocabulary of C2 level which “guarantee to get band 8+”. However, concern isn’t there, problem is in strategy they’re using, I mean utilizing wrong essay structure and poor comprehension of the task are the features pulling your writing down. Instead, explore different essay structures for particular tasks(could be found in ieltsliz.com which is most reliable one) and think about possible arguments and claims related to the given topic(you don’t have to take most complicated ones, you can take most obvious ones and go with it because evaluator will not examine your TA for its complexity, but rather for understanding the question and giving logical and reliable(common) arguments). Another valuable thing to be considered is work with mistakes and time. After every practice you’ve done, you can feel as a task is completed unless you made full evaluation and reconsidered your mistakes. What I mean by this is that observe what kind of mistakes you’ve made, why you made it and figure out correct solution for these types of question on the test. If you have followed such a pattern, you would get comparatively higher score for sure because at this time, you’d be aware and prepared for the mistakes you’ve made in previous practices and you’d know how to make it in a correct way. Furthermore, work with time-management. You know, single minute could make a difference between you getting 6.5 and 7. When you’re working for time, set the timer for an hour for reading/writing, 40 minutes for listening and record yourself while speaking in order to find out your usual length of speech. However, when you’ll sit on the actual exam, you could feel that time is going ridiculously faster(based on personal experiences) and there is a possibility that you wouldn’t finish your work at a time, in particular, your writings. That’s why I highly recommend to work with a short amount of time for each section, like spend 50 minutes for reading/writing(do it only when you can fully manage your work during 60-minutes period).
ReplyDeleteI used to prepare for this exam since the beginning of previous year. I really didn’t have so much experience on that and was doing pretty nice for 11th grade student(that moment I thought 6.5 would be enough for me). I got 6.5 on mock tests and was worried about absolutely nothing, until… All of a sudden, pandemic lockdown came through and our fall IELTS exam was cancelled. For the first time, it felt like loss of great opportunity when my preparation and willingness were “on the high level”. I clearly remembered that moment when teachers were telling us about test cancellation and it was regretful for me and kind of terrifying about the future because there were other exams for which I had to prepare too and no information about test further transfer. However, now I am totally aware why those particular feelings got me worried. I can explain it just in three words: lack of comprehension. This period of self-time provided with gaining more self-knowledge and reconsideration of priorities of my own life. I mean, it’s not about doing everyday practices and frequent conversations with teachers and natives, but rather being self-conscious about why this test is so important. When you get this idea, this comprehension of extreme necessity, you’ll be on fire. Although if you were doing practices every single day and writing essays every two days, it would not show gradating results until you know that eventual thing you’ll get undoubtedly worth those everyday-painful-exhausting efforts. Trick your brain to reframe negative pressure into positive, give yourself small reward for your achievement, work under various conditions and elaborate resistance to the pressure and ultimately, enjoy the process because that’s what really matters.
ReplyDeleteNothing would be equal to the feeling when you realize that test is over, you’ve made it through the tough way, your own unique way. You’re realizing that all of those efforts you made during the loooooong period really were worthwhile. This feeling when you give no worries about the results of the test, but understanding of the whole process as your ups and downs, when you was upset about 6.0 on listening and made another practice trying to figure out where you made a mistake, when you got 5.5 for writing and immediately opened the ieltsliz and fastrack trying to observe correct structures, when you made hesitations and “bullshit” answers while doing speaking and recorded yourself trying to improve your fluency, when you didn’t managed your time during the reading and read bunch of articles from bbc trying to get as much information as you can in short amount of time. That’s what I mean when I’m mentioning THE WHOLE PROCESS. Just try it and see the results:)
Just make practice tests. That's the secret.
ReplyDeleteI had a problem with having various score results as I practiced, ranging from 5.5 to 8.5 on my listening and reading. It really pissed me off, but soon I realized that it was a part of the process. Don't really stress out about it, just keep doing and, more importantly, analyze your own mistakes. I recommend doing Cambridge tests 9-15, and you will be fine for your reading&listening.
Regarding writing and speaking, I can for certain say that it has a subjective judgment because someone will evaluate your performance. But still, do practice, write in this blog(really helped!), talk to yourself(you have a reason, so keep doing it!). From my experience, I did more emphasis on reading&listening, because for me it was easier to get a desirable score. But that depends on you.
In all, relax. It's just a test. Don't panic and do your best. You will be fine if you do the practice.
Good luck! You got this.
P.S: advice from 7.5+ taker.
I remember I first heard about our IELTS exam in the 11th grade and was attending some courses. (Let me give a spoiler: it was just a waste of money as well as time). Only this year realized that I was not seriously taking this upcoming exam at that time. During my preparations in the 11th grade, I have familiarized with the structure and format of the exam but would not say that I was getting good scores. Just tried to improve my level of English since this exam is supposed to check it. So I have listened to podcasts, read some books in English. However, only in the 12th grade, a month before the exam - I have started my real preparation. Hence I had a month to prepare for IELTS and enhance my score from 6.5 to 7.5.
ReplyDeleteRemember that practice makes perfect, and this helped me a lot. The daily practice tests have amazingly increased my reading skills. I did the listening and reading sample every day, and practiced my speaking skills. The interesting thing is that I have never practiced speaking, and in my first MOCK, I got 6.0. However, then by following the advice of my teacher and her feedback, with daily practices, I got a 7.5 for speaking in the real IELTS.
My biggest mistake is that I did not pay enough attention to the writing part. I recommend to future students to write mock writings every day, get your feedback, and analyze it to find how you can improve it. Read sample essays to know how to use grammar structures, topical vocabulary, and understand essay structure, which is crucial in IELTS. Also, I advise you to read articles, short stories, novels in English: this will expand your vocabulary, and show how to use vocabulary concisely as well as accurately. Talk to yourself every day, talk about various and random things for 2-3 minutes, think in English - it would make your speech more natural. Learn how to use idiomatic language - that is really important. Moreover, try to show your emotions during talking, because you are a human and in your real life you do not speak like a robot, yes? To practice it - talk to your friends in English via zoom/Microsoft teams as we did. Lastly, be confident!! Use your time wisely by showing the best of you.
p.s. Do not attend any courses for 100k tenge; our teachers can do much better than most teachers there. Believe in yourself and break a leg!
Despite the announcement of the IELTS exam at the end of the summer, we (our group with Mrs. Nagima) were closely familiar with this exam and its format. However, my preparation wasn’t good enough, so I started to work with practice tests only. Unfortunately, just doing those tests won’t upgrade your score at all. Moreover, I understood that it is necessary to work on mistakes after checking reading or listening, so you will know your weaknesses and can sharpen your skill further. Also, watching serials, films (without CC), reading articles, news in English can be handy in improving vocabulary and understanding the context. Additionally, I recommend reading on time with speed without and with skimming technics, so you will be able to grasp the passage’s gist and improve your comprehension skills, which are key in the reading section. Even though Cambridge official practices may be seemed easy enough, you shouldn’t stop on that, and start doing tests that are much more difficult than that. I can surely say that based on my experience of actual IELTS.
ReplyDeleteWhat about other sections (speaking and writing)?
In preparation for speaking, I used to search for some recent questions and answers for them. Moreover, I did work on some specific topics after practicing with someone in a pair. In spite of learned fancy words and complex grammar structures, you must be able to combine those skills with your fluency and task achievement. Thus, practicing with someone and implementing your external knowledge can help in boosting the speaking score. Moreover, the speaking section is not scary at all, just calm down, and the examinator will not try to fail your exam, never ever, instead, he/she will only support you and kindly respond.
While preparing for the writing section, I’ve realized that I should work on the structure of the essay as well as criteria such as TA, CC. You should keep in mind that Task Achievement has an effect on all other sections, so balancing them is key in writing. My recommendations are reading the statement and question very carefully, mind mapping your ideas and how you will develop the body paragraphs. Also, youtube channels like Fastrack Ielts, Ieltsliz, Simon Ielts are useful to upgrade your writing skills. Moreover, you cannot just write the “water” and some unnecessary info in order to extend a number of words, instead work on structuring your essay with fully developed ideas and clear intro/conclusions. And make it easy for the examiner to read.
In fact, we started to prepare for our IELTS exams in 11th grade when it should have taken place in Spring of 2020. However, due to pandemics it was canceled, and since then I stopped preparation for exams, but watched almost all films and TV shows in English. In my point of view, that was essential part of developing English language skills, to implement language into daily life. After discovering the date of exams, we all were surprised and frightened because it was going to be after 2 weeks. When I checked my reading and listening skills, I was shocked more because I took around 6.0-6.5 points what was really bad for me. In terms of writing and speaking, teachers gave we 5.0 and 6.0, respectively. Then, me and friends of mine decided to take speaking exams daily. I did at least 2 speaking and one day I took 5 practices with my friends to increase my skills. I watched videos on YouTube only in English, same for news in BBC, articles, Netflix and other platforms, I also watched Adrian’s speaking practice videos which were really advantageous. I copied a lot of writing samples and did at least one practice for reading and listening daily. The main problem of reading tests for me was that I couldn’t do it on time and didn’t understand some words, but two days before exams time passed much slower for me, since I was familiar with vocabulary and was able to read everything properly and easily. I have started getting 8.5 and 9.0 points, the same for listening, but in real exams there were hard exercises with matching at which I was really weak. I hope that you will get high score, prepare for your exams and break a leg!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIELTS is, without a doubt, one of the most popular exams around the world as it is required by many top universities.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, my intensive preparation for IELTS had started in 12’s grade. During the preparation time, I was learning vocabulary, making mock tests and just trying to surround myself with the English language. As I have passed IELTS there are some tips for students and useful links!
Advice:
1) Learn the structure/format of the test and tasks’ types - so you will not be shocked in the exam;
2) Increase your range of vocabulary! In the IELTS speaking session lexical resource is one of the 4 marking criteria;
3) Improve grammar! Demonstrate your proficiency and show your opinion by the grammatically correct sentences;
4) Time and planning! Time-management is your friend. During the writing session divide your time wisely. For instance, in WT2 spend 2-3 minutes for brainstorming and organizing your essay; 30 minutes for writing; 5 minutes for checking because due to stress/pressure you may have silly mistakes on your essay. You should plan your preparation for this exam and try to cover all skills before the test;
5) Practice! There are a great number of free mock tests on the world wide web. Do mock tests and analyze your mistakes.
6) Also, don’t forget about the rest! Nevertheless, your relaxation should not last more than half an hour :) and even in your leisure time make an effort to think in English.
7) Surround yourself with English! Write a diary in English, speak with yourself in English, watch movies/videos in English, read articles in English, change the language on your devices and listen to TED talks.
8) Are you struggling to focus on work? Work with your friends: organize online meetings, do mock tests and discuss it. The conversation must be in English only!
9) Test day is coming and you feel nervous/uptight/ under pressure? Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you have done hard work and take it easy. Negative thoughts/emotions/feelings will distract you. Sleep well and drink water so you will stay awake and concentrated. IELTS is only one step to your dream. Do not be afraid!
Helpful links:
- YouTube channels:
- BBC learning English
- Fastrack IELTS
- AcademicEnglishHelp
- E2 IELTS
Sites:
- ieltsmaterial.com
- ieltsonlinetests.com
Also, there will be extra resources after booking the IELTS test. Our English language teachers helped a lot!
Good luck with your exam! You can do it! Just believe in yourself!
I’ve been preparing for IELTS exam for quite long time, but understood that attitude towards exam is also very important. Since the date of exam was altered from April in 11th grade to October in 12th grade, I had many pauses in preparations, which is not good. However, constantly practicing 2-3 months before the exam was the most effective in my experience. In the beginning, the most difficult part of IELTS exam was writing. However, by reading and analyzing sample answers and practicing different types of essay I developed my writing skills. From my point of view, it is important to devote some time for this part, learning new vocabulary according to the topic of an essay and practicing, until you get more skilled. I also have mentioned that all of the parts of an exam are linked and by practicing one of them, you are also developing the others. For instance, from reading passages you can find new words and sentence structures that might be used in speaking and writing. You can also improve your pronunciation by doing listening practices and so on. There are many ways and methods for preparing, and you should find yours according to your own personality and level of preparedness. Nevertheless, try to look at it as an opportunity to get knowledge and skills needed for your future studies and job, so that the process will become easier and more pleasurable.
ReplyDeleteI have been preparing for IELTS since the beginning of 11th grade. At the beginning, our test should have been in April 2020. However, it was postponed due to pandemic and quarantine.
ReplyDeletePractice makes perfect. Reading and listening parts of the test are easiest to prepare. You might get 5.0-5.5 for first tests, but as time goes on with daily practices you will be able to achieve 8.5. Furthermore, reading books, listening to podcasts and watching tv shows in english can be your additional preparation. Although it can help you to get used to the language, it will never be like a real preparation.
Writing part was one of the hardest for me, even though this part contains only structure and topic vocabulary. There are a plethora of band 9 samples for each and every type of task. Start observing them, learn the structure, maybe even copy a few of them just for preparation( do not use samples on your real test, it will be plagiarism). In addition, there are a number of books in free access with samples and structure.
Try to practice every day speaking with your friends and teachers, listen to all of their advices and work on them. There are a big deal of videos on youtube with idioms for IELTS and some tips for them.
Do not worry before the test, it will not help, it can just lower your mark
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI had started my intensive preparation for this exam since the beginning of the 12th grade because the format of it has been changed from paper-based to computer-delivered. Then everyday starting from the october I tried to practice my listening and reading skills with the help of this site ( https://ieltsonlinetests.com/ ). In the listening of conputer-delivered IELTS exam format you must have to write answers at the same time when you hear them because you will not have the additional 20 minutes to come back and write it as it is in paper based exam. So, you will have time only to check the spellings which is really important to do because wrong spelling will cost you a point. What about speaking, preparation by youtube channels such as IELTSspeakingsucsess as well as E2 IELTS and practising using recent topics from the Internet were very helpful. However, watching videos definitely cannot replace the effect of practices, so do not rely on them and do not watch them too often and I can say that 1 or 2 videos per day will be enough, in other cases you will waste your time because you will see that they are too long. Actually, we had ar least 1-2 full practices every week with different teachers and received our feedbacks with some recommendations. Personally, I think that it is not enough and in order to speak fluently without hesitation and to practice as much topics as I can, I had additional practices with my classmates almost every evenings through videocalls in teams. So, we tried to work like in exam conditions. The main thing in this part is do not learn many idioms and do not learn by heart sample answers, just try to find 5-6 idioms and phrases that will suit any topic. Then, practice using them every day and make it a habit, so on the real exam you will naturally add them to your speech. Writing was the most problematic part for me and I had big troubles not with either vocabulary or grammar but with managing ideas. It was really challenging for me to not get out of topic. Also, it may seem like a simple problem to some of you, but after passing the exam, I realized that practicing on a similar gadgets such as a similar keyboard, mouse and headphones, you will be much more confident during the real exam, as your eyes and hands get used to them. And also learn how to write an essay on the keyboard quickly and without spelling mistakes. Due to the fact that I was used to writing by hand and it was quite difficult for me to switch to a keyboard.
ReplyDeletePay attention to such kind of factors and be ready to all 2 formats of this exam. Each of them has own benefits and drawbacks but practice makes perfect. So, try to practice as much as you can.
Good luck :)
I have started preparing for IELTS since the 9th grade. I have had my first IELTS test when I was 15. 2 years passed and I am 17 now, having took the second test a few weeks ago. That is not to say that I prepared for IELTS every day. To be honest, I did not particularly care about preparing for IELTS that much. That is why in my opinion, it is better to not pay too much attention to IELTS preparation.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the 9th grade, my mother bothered me about IELTS a lot. At that time, instead of preparing I was doing my all to slack off. My first IELTS resource, from which I gained preliminary knowledge about the IELTS test was called “edX.org”. First, I opened the browser, then in one tab, I had edX, while in another I was reading books (slacking off). To prepare for IELTS, I dedicated about a third of the week, which sometimes translated to 2 to 3 days a week, 1.5-2.5 hours a day. (P.S. I still got 7.5, so duh)
About the desired score: just make sure to aim higher than you think you are worth. If you think you can score about 6.5 with all your best efforts, then aim for 8, if you think you are barely able to receive 7.5 then aim for 9.
As all of the people who passed IELTS at least once in their life and received a good score (ranging from 6.5 to 9.0), I would of course recommend doing the practice tests. A good practice test repository is the https://ieltsonlinetests.com. Do your best in tackling IELTS Practice Tests. Do not shy away from slacking off a little bit here and there. Make sure to have a schedule (for the best results). If you cannot continue preparing for IELTS and have no motivation, you can just throw away your schedule and stop doing IELTS tests for the time being. Relax for about half a month doing nothing, then prepare for another month, relax again, prepare again, repeat ad infinitum. The END.
The following is for those English language practitioners, who:
1. Have a good foundation in grammatical structures (know all tenses, use “a, the, an, at, in, over, etc.” on a good level, have once practiced English grammar for at least 2 years with tutors)
2. Know more than the basics in the art of constructing proper complex and compound sentences not only in written form, but also verbally.
3. Have a rich vocabulary, can strictly manage themselves for short periods of time (2 weeks +)
4. Who do not shy away from challenges
Relax for as long as you want. Leave about two weeks and a half before IELTS begins for intensive IELTS hell training. If you go the Hell Training Route, then you must do at least 6 hours a day at minimum, 8 hours maximum. I personally recommend 2 hours in the morning when you wake up (6 am for IELTS training), 2 hours a day after school, 2 hours before going to sleep. Spend all the allocated hours doing the Practice Tests. If you have any questions when doing Hell Training, do not shy away from asking for advice. (Internet has all kinds of interesting answers to everything. I, for example, sometimes find some of the answers to my grammatical questions on Quora, though better take it with a grain of salt) Do NOT time yourself for the first week. After doing everything correctly, you can time yourself all you want. Bother your peers to speak with you in English twice a day. Bother your teachers to have IELTS speaking with you in English every day. (I personally was too shy to always bother teachers, so I practiced with my family and by myself through recording my voice). Polish your listening to perfection. Remember that reading is the easiest part, so leave it for last. Do your daily writing. Have fun!
All in all you will have 17 days doing IELTS non-stop with at least 6 hours a day, which translates to 102 hours at minimum. 102 hours is about 51 days if you do IELTS every day for 2 hours a day. Imagine it – almost 2 months of preparation, done in 2 and a half INTENSE weeks.
P.S. It is very exhausting so you better prepare thoroughly. Or even better, do not attempt it! Just prepare normally and all will be smooth sailing.
I got my IELTS results, and they are pretty good. I spent 8 months preparing for the exam with a break of 5 months(1st wave of a pandemic).
ReplyDeleteSo let me share my experience and knowledge about the IELTS exam.
Well, here are some tips you can follow to be ready to sit for an IELTS test and score a higher band like 7.5-8.
Get acquainted with the IELTS
First, you need to know more about the test itself. Understand the structure of the test, how it is divided into 4 different modules, the time allotted for each of them, types of tasks and general rules of the test. Get to know the exact pattern of the IELTS exam by going through test modules. Once the whole pattern is clear to you, then you can easily score high band.
LISTENING SECTION
If you have enough time for preparation (5-6 months), then work to improve your general listening skills:
watch movies and TV shows in English without captions.
listen to the podcasts, radio and audiobooks.
watch documentaries from the BBC, Netflix, National Geographic and etc.
PRACTICE. Practice to gain confidence and monitor your progress.
READING SECTION
watch E2 IELTS youtube channel, learn reading strategies and apply it in PRACTICE.
Also, read some magazines and newspapers. Some of the useful ones are The Economist, The New Scientist, The New Yorker. They can be a great source of getting ideas from a wide range of topics along with a simple, yet impressive vocabulary (more importantly, they are used naturally)Once you read them your reading comprehension boosts up and you will understand most of the IELTS reading passages.
WRITING SECTION
I got a low score (6.0) in this section. Here some of my mistakes during preparation(and exam):
I wrote too much. Learn to balance your writing. The examiner is looking for quality, not quantity! You will not necessarily get more marks for writing more, so don’t write more for no reason. However, this will really depend on your writing skills (especially grammar). Someone of a higher level who needs to spend less time checking their grammar will have time to write more. So do not write too much do not write too little. The optimal amount is 160 words for Task 1 and 270 words for Task 2
Spend more time of preparation for Task 2, but do not forget about Task 1.
PRACTICE + FEEDBACK. Write at least 3 essays for each type of Writing Task 2 essay. Get feedback, define your weaknesses and fix them.
General tips:
Plan and check your work. Don’t just start writing when the time begins and stop when it finishes. Use some time, in the beginning, checking you understand the question, brainstorming your ideas and planning your answer. Then spend some time in the end checking your grammar.
Write clearly/ Improve your handwriting, if you have problems with it. (for paper-based)
Prepare an idea bank and vocabulary list for common essay topics. Use a notebook or word document where you will write opinions, ideas and words about certain common essay topics.
SPEAKING SECTIONS
Record yourself, listen, analyze, define problems and fix them.
Speak clearly, don't worry about your accent. Everyone has an accent when they speak English. The important point is that you enunciate the best you can so the examiner can understand you.
Stay as natural and normal as possible. If you make any mistake, you need to be sure that you don’t lose your confidence and screw up your remaining test.
Idea bank and vocabulary list prepared for writing might be useful for your speaking.
IELTS Speaking is a lot more than any single part of the test. If you don’t perform well in a specific part; don’t get demoralized and continue to perform till the end.
In addition to everything mentioned above, I would like to say that health habits such as eating and sleeping patterns are linked to academic performance. Therefore, I suggest you to:
Deletehave a balanced breakfast that will fuel the body (fruits, proteins, cereals)
Once studies and dinner are done, sleep needs to be the priority. Lack of sleep can lead to problems with attention and memory which will have an adverse effect on your performance in the exam.
To summarize, IELTS is not as difficult and challenging as it seems to be. Just focus on your strengths, improve your weaknesses and you will be able to get your required band.
Resources:
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/E2IELTS
Writing book: https://www.pdfdrive.com/ielts-advantage-writing-skills-e166091815.html
Idea and opinion bank: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KqPAg76cjb-zm_JDo0i2jNZNcjHNAarI/view?usp=sharing
Practice tests: https://ieltsonlinetests.com/ielts-exam-library#academic
Preparation: https://ieltsliz.com/
How long the preparation lasts?
ReplyDeleteI started to prepare for IELTS since the beginning of the 11th grade, but it was not intensive, I spent around 2 hours a week for preparation. In the last weeks of preparation, I started to work much harder. The results are affected by the time duration allocated and the intensity of the work.
Organization of the work
At the beginning, I signed up for courses and was attending it for 9 months, but it did not have great impact(even if I worked on my own also) on my IELTS success because all we did there was a practice without learning strategies, vocabulary and grammar. In addition, I went there after lessons, when I was exhausted and sleepy, so I did not get more than 6.5 points. The courses are not effective on all people. Therefore, do not worry if you work by yourself only, all you need to do is to find your “weak spots” and work with them. Furthermore, the quality of sleep is extremely significant while you are in the test. Try to sleep well before the exams because you cannot focus well although your skills are very high.
In the summer 2020, I created a mail account with my best friend and uploaded all materials we have there and then, we had an enormous number of books, materials, word-lists, etc. so we did not even use them all. So, it is also helpful if you find a study buddy who will be preparing with you. I watched helpful videos on youtube, used some handy books, which have grammar explanations and word-lists.
Who will get high score?
Regarding personal qualities, the self-discipline, organization and willpower is necessary to get your desired score. The test- taker should plan his/her week, make organized lists of activities (nothing gives more inspiration than those ticks in the to-do-list). Make your preparation plan distribute it in the time you have till the test. Ability to force yourself to work is valuable also. Generally, all these qualities are immutable in the process of preparation.
How to prepare?
There are some parts of language learning, which are should not be missed while preparation both by individual student and courses. It is necessary to print out the rubric of the writing and speaking part(available on the internet)The whole process includes the learning (gaining knowledge and skills) and practicing (using these gained knowledge and skills).
Reading
ReplyDeleteIt is crucial to manage the time correctly because some test-takers miss whole passages due to the lack of time. Generally, it is recommended to spend 20 min to each passage, but I did passage one in 15 min, passage 2 in 20 min, passage 3 in 25 min because the first passage is usually simplest and the third is more challenging. Moreover, each test-taker should find strategy, which is effective for his/her and be able to use it perfectly. My English teacher helped me with this.
Listening
The practice is the most significant especially for listening. As in reading, find your own strategies and exploit it while practicing. In spite of the simplicity of preparation, the listening part may increase your score.
Writing
As it is stated in the criteria of the writing part assessment, the grammar, vocabulary and organization of the writings are essential. To commence with, it is necessary to know the writing part 1 and 2 structures towards and backwards. (“IELTS advantage” website)There are many videos on how to manage your time in writing (“IELTS advantage” channel). “IELTS language practice” is exceptionally handy book to learn grammar and topical vocabulary.
Speaking
This part needs more preparation because it requires psychological readiness. Test-taker should demonstrate his/her lexical resource, grammatical accuracy, fluency and pronunciation in about 15 minutes. And if he/she is nervous, he can make mistakes or hesitations even if he is a perfect user. Therefore, it is significant to get prepared and practice. I learnt topical vocabulary, grammatical structures and idiomatic expressions from the book, but it is not enough for being prepared. It is highly recommended to watch videos on youtube. There are many videos of speaking tests with feedbacks there. It is comfortable because you learn how you should speak in order to get, for example, 7.0 and what are the differences between the speech of 6.5 band score and 7.5 band score. In addition to speaking exams, there are many other types of teachers on the internet, who share with recommendations. Personally, I really enjoyed “English speaking success” channel on youtube, which is really helpful with any parts of speaking test. He also records video on vocabulary, especially idiomatic expressions. I used them and once I got 8.0 on practice test with school teacher. It is worth a look. Overall, it is necessary to learn vocabulary and grammar, be confident, not to be nervous and speak more.
IELTS is the test that evaluates your language-using skills, do not worry even if you believe that your English level is not satisfying, it is more important to gain skills needed on IELTS. Just follow your plan and work hard.
I got news that our IELTS will be at the end of 11th grade from my classmates at the beginning of academic year and, to be honest, was a bit shocked, because initially I thought we will pass it at 12th grade. It meant that I needed to work hard. So, I started to prepare for the exam. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, it had been rescheduled and we passed it on October. I need to say that our teacher really helped us in preparing for it: she gave us various resources, tasks and advice. I had been doing many reading and listening practices and speaking with school teachers. I would say that the key is to keep training regularly, it helps to gain an experience and confidence that are very important. Of course, we need to try to get better results and do our best. In my view, students need to look at sample works, and learn different structures and usage of words. Moreover, I think that people need to concentrate on learning certain thing and then go to another, instead of learning many things briefly. I really recommend to candidates to keep calm and have enough sleep a day before the exam, feeling tired or nervous will negatively affect to the results. In addition, it is necessary to believe yourself that you can get a high mark.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStarting from the seventh grade, almost all of our exams and formative assessments were in the format of the IELTS exam, including all four sections. In my opinion, it might be difficult to prepare for this exam in just 2 weeks or even 2 months, because we have honed all our skills over the years and our result is a combination of these factors.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience, I can say that in preparing for any exam, the most important thing is to define your goal. You need to ask yourself questions like: Why do I need this exam? What score do I want to get? How much time and effort am I willing to devote to preparation?
Secondly, the 2021 graduate was supposed to pass the exam at the end of grade 11, however, due to the pandemic situation, the exam was postponed to October. I began my preparation for the IELTS in the summer of the tenth grade. Since at that time I had 9 more months before passing, I started my journey by studying the format of the exam. There is a lot of information and sources on the Internet and on YouTube that explain the subtleties of each section and assessment criteria in an accessible and understandable way. You should not ignore such nuances, because the student must know for what he gets a point, what mistakes should be avoided and what is not allowed.
In addition to introductory videos, the Internet is full of resources for preparing for all sections. On the official websites of the Cambridge exam, the British Council and so on, there are many practical tasks. It is not necessary to sit for 7-8 hours a day for these papers, it will be enough to do several listening and reading tests every day, since the chance of getting good scores in these sections is high. It will be a big bonus for you to be able to analyze the texts and questions and think quickly. Another important point is to follow some tips in doing, for example, matching headings or filling the gaps exercises.
In the writing section, the most important thing is to get the gist of the matter. I will not delve into the types of essays, but only by understanding what is required of you, you can achieve a high score. During all the preparation time, I realized that it is not important what ideas you have, but how you present them, using different structures. By the way, it is worth paying attention to grammar and vocabulary, as they make up half of the grade. Ideas and sentences should be logically related, structured, and include linking words, academic words and complex sentences. I also rewrote many essays and tried to memorize the words and structures that are used. Lastly, I recommend you do not use words or complex constructions if you do not know their meaning or not sure how to use them correctly, because misuse will reduce the score.
Finally, the speaking section also requires extensive preparation. Many students underestimate this section, thinking that they can talk and that's enough. However, it also includes exploring the topics, reading samples, watching videos and a lot of practice. It doesn't matter if you speak correctly or not, you need to speak and speak. You can do this with your friends, with yourself in front of the mirror, with teachers and, if possible, with native speakers. The next point is to record your speech on a voice recorder and find grammatical errors or problems with pronunciation and work on them. Try to learn many useful words and advanced structures, and most importantly, feel confident.
The exam is not the end of the world and getting a high score is quite real. Be confident in your abilities, don't forget about your health and be afraid to ask for help, learn from your mistakes,work hard and practice a lot.
Good luck to all!
I do not think that my preparation for this exam was different from the preparation of other people; it was a daily routine of numerous practice tests. However, I started my intensive training a week before exam, and before that, I did practice tests occasionally. A week before the exam, I fully concentrated on practice, but I believe that it is necessary to start intensive training much earlier. Despite this, I got the point I expected to get.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the exam has 4 parts, I would divide it into 2 parts. The first part includes listening and reading, and the second consists of writing and speaking. I am of the view that the first part is much simpler than the second one, since the first part does not require knowledge of complex structures, phrases, collocations and a wide range of vocabulary, but requires attention. Each part takes a lot of practice. However, listening and reading require personal preparation, while improving speaking and writing skills requires a mentor who will provide feedback.
I believe that intensive preparation should start one month before the exam. I would advise you to devote as much time as possible to speaking on various topics, since our teachers will organize trial speaking for you, you must use this as an opportunity. It is also necessary to practice listening and reading as much as possible. The best option would be to make 2-3 practice tests of each section every day. For the writing section, you need to know the format of the tasks, as well as the structure of each type of essay; fortunately, there are not so many types. I would say that ieltsliz.com is a very useful resource to prepare for writing, thanks to which I was able to get a good score in this section.
The main advice: do not panic on the exam, as due to panic and stress you may lose concentration. Concentration is most important in listening, if you get distracted you may not hear important details.
Overall, I would say that IELTS is not a difficult exam at all. You just need to allocate your time properly for practice, because practice is the key to success in the exam.
Good luck!
HIGHLIGHT:
DeleteOne very important point that I forgot to mention is that in the writing section I scored 6.5. I was informed that this is a very good result. I must say that I did not use any resources to prepare for this section, except for this blog. Perhaps using other resources I could have gotten a higher score, but the bottom line is that I got my score thanks to the blog. Reading various essays here filled my mind with interesting ideas, and also slightly improved my grammar.
The most important thing in preparation is to understand what you are preparing for. Therefore, first of all, I collected information about the exam on the Internet. I have found various videos and text files explaining the exam format and assessment criteria. With a clear understanding of what IELTS is, I started preparing. My teacher advised me to buy the book Grammar in use. I started by reviewing the grammar with this book and working in parallel to improve the vocabulary. As soon as I felt that I had learned enough grammar, I started practicing and doing test IELTS at school with my teacher. Each lesson we practiced listening and reading for the first time. A little later, we began to start the writing part, in parallel with which we regularly did speaking.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing I want to indicate is do listening for understanding, and do not be focused on answers. In general, there is no need to rely on intuition, the ailts is designed in such a way that intuition will not help in most cases. Always pay attention to the instructions - my teacher always made a comment for me about this, I always made mistakes because I did not read the instructions. As soon as the quarantine began, I stopped intensively preparing, which was my mistake. But since the beginning of the new school year, my teacher and I have fixed this.
Many people wonder whether it is necessary to take courses outside of school? In general, we have professional teachers at our school, so I don't consider it necessary to take paid additional courses, since our school provides us with the same quality for free.The most important thing is regularity, you need to keep regularity in your preparation and you don't need to worry, and you will pass this exam.