10 Important Tips for IELTS Exam Preparation

The International English Language Testing System, popularly known as IELTS is currently one of the widely accepted English language exams across major countries in the world when it comes to either seeking overseas education or acquiring permanent residence in a foreign country. Various multinational companies and government bodies are in constant search of individuals who have English as their second language. Thus, it becomes mandatory for those who aspire to pursue their career in any of these categories to prove their English Language proficiency by taking up the IELTS test and meet respective eligibly criteria by scoring well.

The IELTS exam holds a reputation of being one of the difficult tests to crack which actually is not, provided you take a proper approach and make use of various strategies while preparing for it. You will be happily surprised to see how the 10 important tips for IELTS exam preparation mentioned in this article will turn out to be so helpful to you in assembling all the essential skills requisite to attain an optimum score in the exam.

1.      Try to incorporate English Language in your everyday life

There are numerous activities which you can carry out in order to practise English Language like reading a novel, newspaper or a magazine, watching an English film, interacting in English with people around you or even have a self-talk for that matter. Implementing this practise will immensely reflect in your improvement of the Language.

2.      Keep updated

One of the very significant points to keep in mind is that IELTS essay topics are mostly based on current affair. So stay cognizant of what’s going on around the globe. Let’s say, you are aware of the perils of global warming, how should it be constrained and how it could affect the generations to come, but do you have enough vocabulary and thoughts to pen down an essay?

3.      Figure out your weakness

 Each one of us has that one feeble area or skill be it reading, listening, writing or speaking, we need to polish. You need to identify and work upon it to hone that skill. Perform diverse tasks related to it and take plenty of tests of that particular section to do so.

4.      Improve your logical thinking abilities.

This generally applies to the reading and listening sections of the IELTS test where you encounter a range of question types like multiple choice, true, false or not given, fill in the blanks, etc. Many a time, it happens that you are running late on time or have no hunch about the answer, guesswork comes into play. Logical thinking helps you rule out the incorrect ones leaving behind less options to choose from. Moreover you don’t lose points on guessing the wrong answer, instead you might get lucky at times. Cherry on the cake!                                   

5.      Read the instructions properly

Test takers usually think they are wasting time by going through the instructions. Nonetheless it could actually cost you more by losing points.  Make sure you do not skip the instructions before diving in to the test straightaway. The instructions part has some imperative information needed to be followed to give correct response to questions.

6.      Do not go above the word count

Writing task one has the word limit of 150 words whereas writing task two is of 250 words. If you go overboard with the word count, you will eventually tend to underperform and shall be restricted to just 5 bands. Ensure to write the correct number of words for each task by allocating sufficient time to both, because writing more for one and less for the other is only going to doom you.

7.      Speed is the key

The IELTS test is structured in a way which requires you to perform more tasks in less time. So to overcome this, all you need to do is keep practising and practising until you get it in time. Read, write speak and listen as much as you can.

8.      Check your Grammar

Now a days, ample grammar books and tests are available online as well as offline. Make the most of these resources at your disposal and try to avoid any grammatical errors in your test commonly in writing and speaking tasks. A very silly yet vital mistake that students make is in using article i.e. ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’. Master this and half of your job is done.

9.      Simulate the real test scenario

At the time of your mock tests, try to create an actual test atmosphere to get an idea of how the real time test would be like. This helps overcome your fear, boost your confidence and prepare you better for the test day.

10.  Get yourself a good tutor

Foreigneducation industry has countless Institutes that offer IELTS coaching. Enlist yourself with one of the best which can groom you to achieve your desired band score. While there are scores of coaching institutes, Rao Consultants happen to be among the top 10 IELTS coaching centres in Ahmedabad. They have also been awarded as the No. 1 IELTS coaching classes in Ahmedabad by a leading media house. Go search for ‘IELTS coaching near me’ in Ahmedabad and you will see Rao Consultants pop up. This shows how renowned and trustworthy they are.

This article is sure to be an apt guide to assist you with your IELTS exam preparation.