IELTS Results

• Listening 9
• Reading 8.5
• Writing 7
• Speaking 7.5

 

My IELTS Tips for Band 8

Good day, I wrote UKVI academic IELTS and got band score 8 overall.

First of all, I want to appreciate your efforts in making the whole exam process easy for me and others around the world, your lessons really helped a lot.

IELTS Writing 

I’ll start off with my weaknesses. My weakest section was writing, I “hated” it with passion. I don’t enjoy any exam that requires me to write an essay, either short or long, and since this is unavoidable, I always try to find out alternatives/shortcut to the essay writing. Also, I had a very busy work schedule and would get home in the evenings, very tired to read or practice. This is where your tutorials came in, I found it easy to follow, and the way you presented your examples and explained how the essays were marked gave me some confidence in approaching it.

I’ll also say this was one section where I followed your instructions totally, especially in task 2, which I believe helped me to crawl to that 7.0 I got there. I downloaded the sample answer booklet and practiced with the little time I had as you suggested, which made me know the number of lines I needed to get to the required number of words.

The task 1 on the other hand was another issue. The only type of question I did not practice was what we were asked to describe, the maps/diagram description and comparison. I didn’t have enough time to go through all the types and had to select the ones I felt were high yield. This I believed translated to a poor task response and organization which dragged my score in writing down.

 IELTS Speaking

The other section I dreaded was the speaking section, I have this phobia for oral examinations and tend to get nervous about it. Though I went through most of your tips on speaking, I didn’t practice by recording and evaluating my answers, and this affected me in the exam. I don’t think I started well because I was using “sir” for the examiner in the first few minutes and jumbling up my answers, but when I eventually settled in, things began to go smoothly. I believe that early period of nervousness caused me to lose some points, hence the 7.5 for speaking.

 IELTS Listening and Reading

Now to my strong sections, the reading and listening. I love reading a lot and I’ve found IELTS reading passages a lot of fun to read. It provides lots of new information and interesting facts, and I even sometimes just read the passages without answering follow up questions. Despite this though, I didn’t want to take the exam a second time so I still went ahead and watched your video tutorials and followed all your instructions. I wrote my answers in capital letters for both sections, I also practised more of both sections than the writing and speaking, and I found it more convenient to read passages before answering questions.

I need to say here though that it was not all sweet for me during practice as I remembered a listening practice test I did where I scored 26. I just blacked out and lost focus while listening to the tape and missed a lot of answers, this jolted me up and made me realize that the exam was not going to be as simple as I thought.

 Overall

To cap it all up, I’ll advice anyone preparing for the test to first if all identify a pattern that suits them, work well on perfecting it and do lots of practice questions. It also helps to simulate exam conditions as this goes a long way in calming the nerves on the day of exam. The most important advice though is to listen to Liz 100%. I listened to get 85% and got an overall score of 8, I wonder what would have happened if I had listened to her 100%.

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PS: you might be wondering how someone who hates writing was able to write all the above, well, it’s because I want to show appreciation to a wonderful teacher.

Message to Jubril: Thank you so much for sharing your tips and experience of the IELTS test. Very well done with your results 🙂 From Liz

Nilay scored 8.5 Overall in the IELTS Academic test this month. Below are his tips for his great score in IELTS.

Nilay’s Scores: Overall 8.5

• Listening: 9
• Reading: 9
• Writing: 8
• Speaking: 8

Nilay’s Tips for IELTS 8.5

Nilay here. I am an orthopedic surgeon from India and currently trying to specialize in spine surgery. I appeared for the IELTS to register with the Canadian medical boards for which I needed minimum 7 in each of the four categories. This was the academic version.

Message to Nilay: Thanks so much for sharing your tips! I know students will be inspired by your results and also grateful for the experiences you have shared. Well done again with your excellent score 🙂

Heather scored overall 8.5 in IELTS and below are her tips for success 🙂

Heather’s IELTS Story

I re-wrote the IELTS general training exam and I got my writing band score increased from 6.5 to 7.5 with an OBS of 8.5, all thanks to you. 🙂 I have attached my TRF.

Overall Band Score = 8.5 (L 9 / R 9 / W 7.5 / S 8.5)

I would like to thank you, Liz, from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful lessons which helped me a lot. I thought of sharing how I overcame my weaknesses and rectified my mistakes this time.

Heather’s IELTS Tips

Here are some of my tips and tricks for before the exam and during the exam.

Listening & Reading:

1. Practice all the listening and reading tests from Cambridge IELTS books.
2. Make sure you take printed copies of the tests and answer sheets and practice it within the time limit.
3. While practicing,try to get all answers for listening in 30 mins and spend 5 mins checking whether all your answers make proper grammatical sense.
4. Try to complete reading in 45 minutes and spend 15 minutes going over each question making sure you selected the right answers. (especially true or false questions).
5. Keep practising until you are able to score between 38-40 right answers.

 (This is if you want to score a band score 9)

I think the listening and reading sections are the easiest and they give us the added advantage because the answers are already given to us in an indirect form. So if we can focus and scrutinise the available data, we can easily score a 9, unlike the writing and speaking sections where you have to completely develop the answer on your own.

Writing:

I thought I was pretty okay at English writing but came to know that I am terrible at “ielts writing” which I realized after my first test. I always thought I have been writing stories and poems and blogs since school days, so I assumed writing would be a piece of cake. But to be honest, IELTS writing is  something quite different and they definitely don’t want you to ramble on for pages. I would say the approach to this section should be “focussed writing”.

The second time I wrote the test I took expert advice from none other than Liz and made changes to the way I wrote.

1. Purchase Liz’s advanced videos, they are amazing and a must do before you attempt to write.
2. View all of Liz’s videos on YouTube, they teach a lot of important tips.
3. Plan your essay. You just need 2 primary points to write two main body paragraphs of 90 words each.
4. State your opinion (only when asked) in the introduction and continue to support your opinion in the body paragraphs. Do not deviate from your opinion.
5. Introduction and conclusion are very important and I personally took time to write 2 lines roughly for each before I started the essay.
6. Make sure to write fast but in legible handwriting. Use a pen if you can write faster with it. We all haven’t used a pencil in ages and it can be quite difficult to write fast with it.
7. Go through Liz’s 100 ielts questions and jot down points or arguments you could use at the time of exam. (Just get ideas, don’t learn lines by heart).
8. Go through Liz’s recent ielts questions for the month you are taking your exam. Chances are quite high that one of those questions might get paraphrased and asked again.
9. Write the essay first, as it has twice the weight as the letter. I wrote letter in the last 10 minutes of my writing test.
10. Allot one paragraph to clearly answer each question in the essay/ letter.

Speaking :

1. Go through Liz’s recent ielts questions to get an idea of the latest topics and prepare to speak about them.
2. Practise speaking in front of the mirror to improve your confidence.
3. Go through the blog “52 speaking part 2 topics 2017” which really helped me.
4. Take the simulation test by Liz on YouTube, it really helps you to time your answers.
5. Have discussions with friends or family about the topics you need to prepare. They can really help boost your morale.
6. The importance is on how you can speak fluently and communicate with ease, not on making intelligent arguments. So relax and just have a fun conversation with the examiner.

On Exam day :

I don’t know about IDP but if you are taking the British council test , I have some tips to share.

1. Exam is usually scheduled for 1pm but you have to report at 11.30am for registration, which means you’ll have to skip lunch and write the exam on an empty stomach which can make you lose focus while you write.
2. Registration takes a long time and you’ll end up waiting impatiently till 1.30pm (the exam never starts at sharp 1pm) in the exam hall, if you register first.
3. You are not allowed to take washroom breaks after you register and during the exam , unless, of course, at your own risk of losing time.
4. Reach the venue on time for registration but do NOT get registered immediately. Wait outside.
5. Carry energy bars, bananas or chocolates that you can munch on before you enter for registration.
6. 12.30pm is a good time to register and make sure to use the washroom just before this.
7. Limit the amount of water you drink after you get into the exam hall.
8. Take 2 sips of water after you complete each section to feel fresh and start the next section with a clear mind.
9. Try not to use the washroom during the writing section ( I saw one candidate who could not complete the essay)
10. Wear warm and comfortable clothes, the exam hall can be quite cold.( I took my hoodie jacket)
11. Raise your hand and inform the exam conductors if  your audio is not loud enough during the audio testing.
12. Carry pencils, pens, eraser and a sharpener. (I saw someone come into the exam hall unaware that we have use to pencil for L&R)
13. Try to focus all your energies into the exam. Don’t be stressed, stay relaxed.

• IELTS Cambridge books for listening and reading: Book List
• Liz’s free videos and tips for writing: Task 2 and Task 1
• 100 IELTS Essay Questions
• Recent IELTS Topics and Questions
• Practice Speaking Test & Tips

Overall IELTS 9: A student’s Tips

Learn how Gokul, an IELTS student, got overall band score 9 in IELTS this year. He shares his useful tips and experience with you in order to help and inspire you to achieve your best in your IELTS test.

IELTS Test Results: Band 9

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka.

• Overall Band Score 9
• Listening: 9
• Reading: 9
• Writing: 8
• Speaking 9

Gokul’s Tips for IELTS Overall Band Score 9

This was my first ever IELTS attempt. I never thought that I’d be required specifically to do IELTS, since my studies have only ever been in English. Even the university that I’d applied for my Masters seemed happy enough to accept me without an IELTS requirement. However, I was told by my destination country’s embassy that they can only issue a visa given that I show an IELTS grade of 7 overall or above.

I had barely 10 days to prepare and do the test, since the results would take roughly 2 weeks to be released.

I’m listing some of the things that I followed, and I hope that you find it useful in your own preparation.

IELTS Listening Band Score 9 Tips

I’d say that the listening test is all about practice. I did about 8 practice tests, and as I was doing them I was able to see that I was getting better at picking up the points needed for the answer the more I practiced.

In my own test, I had a woman who spoke in a Scottish accent, and I’d say that this is one of the accents that people outside of the UK seldom come across. This is why it’s imperative that you try out some practice tests by yourselves. This would enable you to get used to the formats as well as the intonation and accents used by the people that you hear in the recording. Liz has a number of excellent practice less0ns on the blog at the IELTS Listening page.

You might sometimes find that you’ve missed the answer to a given question. If this happens – don’t worry! Panicking will only reduce your concentration and might cause you to lose more answers.

I also also recommend writing the answers in capital letters so that the examiner would find it easier to read what you’ve written.

Finally, make good use of the extra 10 minutes that you’re allowed at the end of the test (update – 10 mins for the paper based test only – the computer test has only 2 mins checking time). This can be used for filling out any answers that you may have missed.

IELTS Reading Band Score 9 Tips

I found the reading exam the easiest of the lot. You can read the passages at your own pace as opposed to following a pre-set sequence of events as in the listening test. I finished the test in about 40 minutes and had time to go through my answers again to check them for errors.

While there are some that say reading the entire passage is not worth it, I would still suggest that you at least skim the passages to get the gist of the content before you start. I recommend this in particular to people whose reading speed is high. This way, when you encounter a question, you’d have an inkling of where in the passage you saw the answer point.

Another point that I can’t stress enough is that you should never overthink the question. This was my biggest problem in the reading practice tests. Over-analysing the statement will often lead to incorrect answers. For YES/NO/NOT GIVEN type questions, if the passage explicitly agrees with the statement, say YES, and if it explicitly contradicts the statement, say NO. In all other cases, say NOT GIVEN.

Again, Liz has a set of excellent tips as well as practice questions in the IELTS Reading page.

IELTS Writing Band Score 8 Tips

My writing test for Task 1 involved a bar chart which compared bottled water vs. soda consumption in some western countries, while for task 2 I had the following:

Most countries want to improve the standard of living through economic development, however others think social values are lost as a result. Do you think the advantages of economic development outweigh the disadvantages?

I followed Liz’s tips on writing task 1 / writing task 2 to the letter and found that having a strategy helped me immensely. If you’re just starting out answering the tasks without a plan, it would likely end up costing you more time. As Liz rightly states, time management is vitally important in the writing test. I’d also recommend that you go through the answers you’ve written as well, which will help spot any errors that you may have made. A quick once-over may help you save points that you’d have lost if you’d misspelled any word.

IELTS Speaking Band Score 9 Tips

My speaking test went very well, and I almost felt as if I’d had a pleasant chat with the examiner as opposed to being graded.

My speaking part 1 was mostly about work/life balance (probably because I’d said that I was working full-time).

Then, for part 2, I was asked to speak about an important historical event and how it had helped shape the present. I picked the Assassination of Julius Caesar and it went without a hitch.

Part 3 then followed up on history and why it’s important to learn it.

For part 2, I made some short notes on the notepad given to me, which helped me marshal my thoughts before the talk itself. You can also structure your own flow which would enable you to showcase your language skills without being held up by lack of content. This is important because pauses due to language limitations will negatively impact your score.

It’s also worth noting that what’s being tested is your language level and not the content you’re presenting. Hence, if you don’t have an answer, you can say no and take it as an opportunity to display your proficiency. For instance, I was asked whether I had any pets, and I said something along the lines of “No, I’ve never really had the chance, but my neighbour has a beautiful Labrador that I enjoy playing with..” and so on.

Be clear and confident, and you’d do fine.

Closing thoughts from Gokul

Lastly, though you’re probably here to prepare for your exams, I’d urge you to develop an interest in the English Language in general. Not only would you find that it provides you with new opportunities, it would also help you enjoy some of the finest literature ever produced.

Liz – I can’t thank you enough for your collection of resources and materials for prospective test-takers. They were invaluable to me, and doubtless to countless others as well. Keep up the good work.

Message from Liz: Thanks for sharing your tips and your experience, Gokul. You’ve done amazingly well and clearly understand IELTS. I hope this will inspire students to learn more about their test before taking it. You’re tips are great for each part of the IELTS test and I highly recommend people to learn from what you’ve shared.