IELTS or the International English Language Testing System can be aced in a dedicated two-month preparation window. IELTS is the test of linguistic skills of a test taker. Every year students from more than 150 countries take this test. It’s very important to get more than a certain score band to secure admissions to universities abroad. The test is taken by students, job seekers, and those planning to migrate to English-speaking countries. Universities in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc., rely on IELTS scores to select students and potential workforce seeking entry into these predominantly English-speaking countries. Students need to strategize their preparation in order to get a score band of more than eight or more to secure admissions to top universities of the world.
There is a lot of myth around the exam, and many students are under the impression that it needs several months of preparation. The exam is all about strategizing and practicing. In the IELTS exam, one needs to focus solely on the syllabus by the IDP(the test conducting body). As far as resources for preparation are concerned, there is no shortage of resources. IELTS sample paper is readily available on websites, and there are many books available for the exam.
Strategize IELTS preparation With A Blend Of Hard Work and Smart Work
IELTS is a three-hour duration test that tests an individual’s reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities. One must strategize all the sections separately as IELTS has no “one size fit all” approach. Each section demands a dedicated preparation, and one must strategize accordingly.
Contents
Strategy For the Listening Section
The IELTS listening section is all about keeping the focus on the monologue. The test taker has to listen carefully to the content of the listening module. There are a lot of resources available online that help students in practicing and understanding the question types. One of the skills that test takers must develop is understanding the tone in which the other person is speaking, the way words are pronounced, the stress on particular words, etc. One should develop the habit of listening to conversations, whether it’s in public or through video or course material of the IELTS listening section. This way, one will develop a sense of affinity towards the language, and the conversations in the English language will appear more familiar.
Strategy For the Writing Section
The IELTS section has two or three writing problems in this section, and it depends on the test, i.e., whether it’s the academic or the general training test. Students have to prepare well for the writing section irrespective of the test type since both emphasize the writing section—discursive essays or the ones that are asked in both forms of IELTS. Discursive essays test a student’s ability to express their opinion on matters concerning politics, culture, and other trending topics that are part of the public discourse. In this essay type, the test takers have to put forward their point of view with facts, data, and past instances that substantiate their present argument. Another type of essay is the descriptive type. The test takers have to write about their surroundings, their personal experiences, any place they have been to, and write about the data represented in graphs, pie charts, tables, etc. One needs extensive practice as it may appear simple on its face, but it requires a lot of practice to write detailed articles without missing relevant data provided in the question.
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Strategy For the Reading Section
The IELTS reading section is all about understanding the comprehension, vocabulary, and the way English is understood and spoken. The questions are crafted to test these skills, and every question type tests these skills in one way or the other. The best way to strategize for the reading section is by going through all the relevant online and offline literary sources. And, relevant article means newspaper articles, IELTS reading material, academic texts from different Publications, journals, etc. This will help students develop command over standardized texts that form part of the comprehension. The words used in reading materials help students develop solid vocabulary; listening to online lectures helps them understand the way proper English is spoken. In the reading section, students have to choose paragraphs that contain facts and opinions. The crucial task for a test taker is to differentiate facts from opinions. It needs a lot of reading from both IELTS and other reading sources to ace this section.
Strategy For the Speaking Section
The IELTS test in its entirety is pivoted around the ability of an individual to communicate in the English language. Speaking is a crucial part of it as most of the test takers from non-English speaking countries face problems when it comes to speaking. First of all, for those who can write, read and understand the language, not being able to talk is merely a mental trap and nothing more than that. Listening to English podcasts is one of the best ways to understand the language and then try speaking. There are many courses available on the internet that can be used to improve English speaking. Test takers can try speaking with those who are fluent in English and notice how they speak. Another reason why people don’t get fluent is that they think speaking sophisticated words is the only way to speak English. IELTS listening modules must be used wisely to improve speaking as this section is one of the easiest and fetches good scores.
Strategy For the Test Day
Test day or some IELTS test takers love to call it the “D-Day” when all the knowledge, hard work, and smart work are put to the test. So, strategizing this day is very important. There are several instances wherein students with good preparation lose their cool and end up scoring low. The test day shouldn’t actually be seen as a “D-Day” or anything like that since there is no last attempt for this test. One can give this test at any point in time. Start keeping the things like ID proof or any revision material you have to bring to the test center a day before the test day. Don’t read too much just before the test, as it will not make any difference; in fact, it might adversely affect the test. Do enough practice with the online calculator as many students waste a lot of time on this, and try to take at least four to five full-length tests in a time-bound manner before the original test date.
Don’t overeat or stress a night before the test and try to take a sound eight-hour sleep. Having a balanced physical and mental state is paramount to ace the test as no amount of worry can help; it can only harm months of preparation.
Strategies always defer from one person to another. The one mentioned above is one strategy, and there can be others too. Students can directly take these strategies with some minor amends to make them suitable for themselves. The strategy also differs depending on the current level of English of the test takers. One with a good grasp of English might have to make less effort while others might have to put in more. However, it’s been observed over the course of the year that the current understanding of English only gives a head start; the rest of the journey is by and large the same for every test taker. So, even those test-takers with a good understanding of language will have to strategize to get a decent score band.
