My IELTS preparation online to get 7+ every time in 2 weeks!

Introduction: It's 14th February, the year of 2023, post-pandemic period in most of the countries and maybe few of you are planning to go abroad while some of us are still struggling to get a permanent or temporary ticket there somewhere for study or residence 😫 Happy Valentine's Day btw 💝 I actually have attempted for IELTS exam (academic) for the first time back in 2020 with a very little to no knowledge about the format, yet I was able to earn a Band score of 7.5. My preparation was fully based on online, was taken with 14-15 day practice; thanks to my good base in English as a subject since childhood! I took the exam for the second time in 2022 with the same score of 7.5! 

I will talk about my IELTS preparation in brief here, with some useful tips and resources for now. If you have sound basics and need to get a score of more than 7 in less than a month, try following few of my suggestions and also have a look at my YouTube Channel for further insights. If you're not yet confident and have more time in hand for practice, my tips will guide you there too! Stay connected till the last 👇 (don't follow my writing style in general here, as I'm writing very simply so that you don't have any confusions :3.). See the picture below to have some idea about IELTS band score.

- What is IELTS and why is it important?

IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing System. It is designed to help you work, study or migrate to countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, USA etc where English is the native language. Your Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking skills will be tested and graded on a scale of 1-9. The exam is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP IELTS and Cambridge University Press and Assessment right now. I won't waste any more of your time as I think you already know much about the definitions and reasons and reading this article here for just the tips. So, instead of getting into the theoretical and conventional parts, I'll mainly focus on the good mindset, confidence build-ups etc. So, let's go! 🏃

My IELTS Preparation online: 

This article primarily will talk about my individual preparation, techniques I followed during that time and some common tips that helped me earn a score of 7.5 overall twice in a row. That doesn't imply you'll automatically get good marks too by just blindly imitating them. So, before following my guidance, please also asses your strengths and weaknesses, understand the scoring systems and dig deeper while you read my suggestion below:

IELTS Listening Test: Quite surprisingly, I got 8.5 in both of my tests even after not being 100% sure if I'd get good marks in this particular portion. If you've been planning for a long time, I'd suggest you to watch movies, series, news or anything in English until your exam (native accents and headphones are recommended for better practice). For short time, do the same efficiently with online practices (I'll provide some links at the end with my bonus tips for extra marks). 

Remember that you'll have 30 minutes to cover 40 questions in this part (both academic and general). The first 2 recordings will talk about everyday-context situations and experiences, will be the easiest and have direct answers. So, the time is enough if you use it wisely with occasional pauses for taking breath. The last 2 recordings, however, focus on educational/ training context and will be tougher with indirect answers/ synonyms. I didn't waste my time when the speaker was reading the instructions, rather focused on the questions in these times and memorized most of them in mind so that I could find the closest answers quickly while listening to them. Also, nothing is repeated in this full section. So, keep your complete focus while listening and move on. One more thing, recordings 1 and 3 will be conversations between two or more speakers while 2 and 4 will be monologues.

You will need to answer questions connected to the recordings ranging from multiple choice to matching information, headings, features and sentence endings, as well as sentence, summary, note, table, diagram or flow-chart completion. I will write a detailed article on separate parts individually if needed by anyone later on.

Bonus tips: The speeches follow a predictable pattern. The more practice you do, the more you understand that pattern. Master the skill of answering the questions while continuing the listening (multi-tasking). Having a rich vocabulary would also help you find/predict relevant answers even if you missed an answer. All the answers come in order. So, always look out for the next 1-2 questions as well to understand if you've missed an answer already and focus on the next one. Try highlighting the key-texts in the questions while reading them so that you can find out answers quickly while listening. 

IELTS Reading Test: Welcome to the hardest part (according to the most candidates) of the exam! With the previous experience, some online researches and thoughtful study, I was able to earn 8 here (previously 7). Both the academic and general Reading Tests are made up of 3 long texts taken from current books, journals, magazines, newspapers, notices, advertisements etc. While the academic texts are related to topics you might face at an undergraduate/ postgraduate level or any purpose in an English-speaking environment, the general texts will be different. Section 1 in general test focuses at your Social survival skills (notices, advertisements, timetables etc); Section 2 concentrates on Workplace survival skills (job descriptions, contracts, manuals etc) and Section 3 talks about longer and more complex text on topics of general interests.

The most effective and shortcut to succeed here is mastering the Skimming and Scanning technique, following which, I was able to improve my score. Please note that the topics and questions are not massively difficult but answering all of those in time could be. Another technique is, reading the questions first so that you know what you are looking for. Skimming is reading fast to get a general summary of the material which I followed paragraph after paragraph to predict the location of the answer initially. After that, Scanning is reading comparatively slowly but in fast rate to find specific keywords related to my answer. While skimming tells you about general information within a section, scanning helps you locate the particular fact.

Bonus tips: Try reading critical journals like The Guardians, somedays before the exam and practice experiencing the pressure. While skimming/ scanning, our mind subconsciously reads and pronounces every word which takes additional 5-7 minutes per text overall. From now on, try not to read rather just practice looking at some words together only. Our brain automatically can see 3-4 words at a glance and this practice enables us to work faster and solve problems. Try highlighting the key-texts in the questions while reading them so that you can find out answers quickly. Also, spare 12-15 minutes in the first text, 20 minutes at most in the second so that you can have more time for the most difficult part at the third part (25 or more).

IELTS Writing Test: My marks for this parts were 7.5 and 6.5 respectively. Both the General and Academic Tests comprise of two tasks though the topics are different. For Academic Writing Task 1, you will be asked to summarize a visual information/ graph/ table/ chart/ diagram. I made sure to organize my response into three main parts; the introduction, an overview and the main features from the diagram.

In Academic task 2, you might be asked to agree or disagree with a point of view or argument, discuss two opposite views, or the reason of a problem and offer a solution from the topics ranging from the environment to immigration, culture and even technology.

In General Writing task 1, you will be asked to write a letter to suggest any improvement plan/ request information/ explain a situation. Examiners will check your ability to provide general and factual information about the task, express needs, wants, opinions, complaints etc.

General task 2, you will be asked to write an essay on an argument/ problem/ point of view. You will be assessed on your capacity to provide factual information, outline a problem, present a solution, justify an opinion or evaluate and challenge ideas, evidence or an argument. 

Bonus Tips: Try not to think much before writing any of those parts if you're giving the Computer-based exam (like I did). Write whatever you have in mind as rough to utilize your time wisely, and afterwards come back and replace the low-value linking words, sentences, conjunctions with idioms, phrases, high-vocabulary enriched words. I'm sharing a picture below for your better understanding. Try remembering and pushing these words naturally in your writing part accordingly. Please inbox me if you have difficulties with anything or want to know more about the usages.

IELTS Speaking Test: This was one of the strongest part for me this time as I had a continuous speaking practice being an Online English Tutor (also known as ESL teacher). I got 7.5 this time followed by 7 earlier. It's same for both the General and Academic Tests. It's conducted face-to-face with a certified IELTS examiner and are recorded in case they need to be reviewed later. 

The test takes between  10-15 minutes and consists of 3 parts. Part 1 is the first part where the examiner will ask you some general questions related to work, family, studies, hobbies etc. In part 2, you'll be given a topic card, with a pencil and a paper to take notes and prepare response for 1 minute. You'll then be given the chance to speak on it for 2 minutes. In part 3, you'll have a two-way discussion with the examiner where they'll ask questions related to the topic discussed in Part 2. Listening, Reading and Writing takes place one after another without any break. You can choose to appear for your Speaking test before or after all the parts.

Bonus Tips: Grab a partner to talk anything about your life in the last 7 days casually, in English. Remember that before you focus too much on your grammatical errors or vocabularies, your fluency will be assessed; how you talk informally in a natural setup. Try not to sound fake, avoid too many complicated words or vocabularies. One bonus thing is that for most of us, we form sentences in our native language, then translate those in English which takes time and makes it complicated. You can practice (if you have more time) forming words in English throughout your speaking without any native language help. You'll automatically sound natural and better this way. Moreover, just like the writing part, I'm sharing another picture of words that you can practice to insert in your speech more naturally.

Common Question: Computer or Paper-based exam?

- I'd definitely go with the computer one! In this modern era, we all are good with typing speeds (thanks to our engagement in social medias). You can have all sorts of benefits in all the parts here. You'll have an individual headset for listening, can see the time while doing reading practice, highlight texts in the texts and questions whereas the best part comes in the writing section. As mentioned above, you can correct, insert, replace all kinds of mistakes and words once you're done with the rough.
For those opting for the paper-based exam, I won't discourage you either if you're more comfortable and confident with it.

Resources: So, this part is crucial if you have come this far and want to get away with good marks without any coaching. There are several online free ielts preparation material that you can find suitable for you. My suggested ones would be the tests from British Council, IDP, more computer based demos so that you get familiarized with it. I also practiced more difficult online versions to strengthen my knowledge. My idol throughout the journey so far was YouTuber Asiya if you want to have a look too. Additionally, if you register through online portals, you might be provided with some more useful free material just like I did with IDP IELTS and got certifications as well for completion of all of them!

Conclusion: That was all about my preparation! Before going away, I want to remind you all that your mental preparation is more important before sitting for the exam. As it will take considerable amount of time and money from you, you won't want to waste any of those without being fully confident. So, please work on building those amidst your textual preparations. Have a look at my YouTube Channel for further insights if you need any.

#IELTSexam #IELTSspeakingtest #IELTSwritingtest #IELTSreadingtest #IELTSlisteningtest #IELTSbandscore #IELTStips #IELTSresources #IELTSpreparationOnline 

Best of luck, Keep SCORING!