Feeling nervous about your upcoming IELTS test? Don’t worry. You probably have some time now and if you use it to prepare properly, you can get a good score…something like a 7.0 or more.
The IELTS test includes different parts and phases, such as Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. In this post, we’re going to take a look at some comprehensive tips that you can follow to pass nicely in all those parts.
1. Improving Grammar and Vocabulary
If you want a good score on the IELTS writing test, you’ll have to brush up on your grammar and vocabulary skills. For one, the writing part of the IELTS test is aimed at evaluating how well you can write, and you can’t afford to make basic errors here like messing up the grammar or punctuation.
Although we are mentioning grammar and vocabulary together, they’re not the one and same thing. That is why we will look at the tips for improving both separately.
a. For Improving and Perfecting Grammar
Here are some tips that you can follow to improve and perfect your grammar:
i. Take an online grammar crash course. You can use platforms like Coursera and Udemy to find good courses on grammar.
ii. Read some professionally-written content. If you read content with little to no grammatical issues, you will automatically learn from it.
iii. Find common grammar errors and their solutions. Another thing that you can try to improve your grammar is to simply look at the errors you’re prone to make and how you can avoid them.
b. For Improving Vocabulary
The following are some tips that you can follow to improve your vocabulary.
i. Use thesaurus and dictionaries to discover new words and their meanings. This practice has to be done regularly and carefully otherwise it can provide little benefit.
ii. Read high-quality content. Just as you can learn grammar rules and regulations by reading content, in the same way, you can also learn new words and phrases.
iii. Use an online paraphrasing tool: An online paraphrasing tool can be a great way to learn new words. You can enter your content into these tools and then look at the outputs they provide along with all the new, unexplored words.
2. Read Awesome Stuff
We did enumerate “reading” as a tip multiple times in the above section and now we’re mentioning it again here.
As we mentioned earlier, there are four main parts of the IELTS test, one of which is the Reading part. This part is made to evaluate your reading ability, which means that you have to sharpen the latter to get a good score.
Improving your reading skills is simple and straightforward. You just have to pick some high-quality material and read through it carefully. Of course, there are some things that you have to do to make the most out of your reading sessions.
1. As we said, be sure to pick and read high-quality material. Reading low-quality stuff can possibly harm your reading skill rather than improve them.
2. When reading, note down the main points covered by the content. Yes, that’s right. You don’t just have to drone over the content. You need to make sure that you’re grasping its meaning.
3. Read the same content multiple times to make sure that you understand everything about it. The first time you read something, your focus will be on something else. The second time you read the same thing, your focus will be elsewhere. That is why it’s a good idea to read the content a couple of times.
3. Utilizing Time Management Strategies
Gestion du temps is important if you want to score high on your IELTS test. If you don’t manage your time properly, you could run short on it and end up with a partially completed test.
Here are some things that you can try doing:
- Begin by timing yourself on practice tests to get a feel for how long it takes to complete each question.
- Knowing how much time you have for each section will help you make the most of your time during the real test.
- Create a plan for how you will approach each task – decide which information you will include, how you will structure your answers, and which examples you will use.
4. Practicing Writing as Much as Possible
When it comes to preparing for the IELTS writing test, practice really does make perfect. You need to practice writing as much as possible so that you don’t baulk when it comes to the actual test.
There are a number of benefits to doing “writing practice.” For one, you can learn to write quickly. This can come in handy when the time will come for you to actually write stuff in the test.
Final Words
Getting a high score on your IELTS test is easy…if you prepare well for it. You have to remember that blandly reading practice tests and going through IELTS test notes isn’t going to help much. Rather, you have to be smart about how you prepare yourself by doing stuff that would actually come in use.
And following the tips mentioned in this post is a good way to get started.