Top 7 tips to prepare for IELTS

IELTS

When it comes to discussing the International English Language Testing System, commonly referred to as IELTS, it is an English language proficiency test organized worldwide for academic purposes. The IELTS test is mandatory for anyone who hails from a non-native English-speaking country but wants to get a job or study in an English-speaking country. The core nations which accept the IELTS scores are the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Moreover, the IELTS test is divided into four modules: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Below mentioned are some of the top tips to ace all four sections of the IELTS.

1. Plan Your Study:

One of the first steps that a future IELTS test taker should take is to create a proper plan and schedule for the IELTS preparation. Start by maintaining a timetable wherein you will be designating specific time to the four sections of the IELTS. Moreover, you should also ensure that you stick to your schedule if the preparation works positively for you. However, if you face any disruption or inconsistency in your current plan, you could modify the schedule and study plan accordingly.

2. Enhance Your Writing skills:

This section of the IELTS test is considered the most difficult by many test takers due to its variable properties. In other words, the scoring of this section would completely depend on your quality of writing and your ability to showcase your English proficiency to the fullest. Hence, the basic tip you can follow to ace the writing section is by translating your thoughts into words. Another great tip that you can infuse into your preparation is by reading a newspaper and watching international programs and news. It will provide you with a ton of information about varied topics.

3. Listen to English Content:

The best tip to prepare for the IELTS listening section is to watch the English language speaking media such as movies, documentaries, news channels, and podcasts. Through your constant exposure to these contents, you will eventually be able to identify different pronunciations, accents, synonyms and other major parts of the modern English language. After that, you need to ensure that you listen to the recording in the practice tests only once and concentrate on the information that doesn’t interest you. This method will help you grasp minute details in the recordings efficiently and remember them for later questions.

4. Improve your Speaking Skills:

You have to focus on your pronunciation, fluency, grammar, and vocabulary usage for the speaking section. To achieve good English-speaking skill, you have to first start by reading. Reading will help you understand the tone and the overall sentence formation of a particular topic. Secondly, you must record your voice when talking about a certain topic and listen to it later to review and analyse what mistakes you have made. Additionally, it would also aid in making you realize your strong areas and new inputs each day.

5. Core strategies to improve Reading Skills:

To master your reading skills, you must develop a habit of reading every day. You should make sure that you read all sorts of different content, right from newspapers and novels to articles in magazines.  This will not only help you to gain knowledge about diverse topics but will also help you to identify the gist and the tone of the content. Moreover, your reading speed would increase, which is very important for the IELTS test. Most importantly, you will gain a complete understanding of English grammar, vocabulary and sentence construction.

6. A dictionary will always come in handy:

Whenever you are studying for your IELTS exam, make sure that you have a dictionary to find the correct meaning or synonym of an unfamiliar word. Most of the time, when you are reading or listening to a piece of content, you may come across some uncommon words which you can immediately note down in your notebook along with their meaning to learn and use in your IELTS preparation.

7. Practice regularly:

Last but certainly not least, the best tip is to consistently and daily practice for your IELTS test by taking regular practise mocks. These mocks are curated exactly as the actual IELTS test, which makes the whole experience worth it. These mocks contain time-stamped questions similar to the original IELTS test, which will help you maintain proper time management and speed to attempt maximum questions. Moreover, it allows you to review your score and identify the weak areas, thus improving these weak spots.

Conclusion:

Considering all these tips, you will find yourself in a much better position when preparing for the IELTS. When implemented into practice, all these tips will surely enhance your practice scores and boost your overall confidence.

Also read: GMAT preparation guide

Author Bio

Abhyank Srinet is a passionate digital entrepreneur who holds a Masters in Management degree from ESCP Europe. He started his first company while he was still studying at ESCP and managed to scale it up by 400% in just two years. 

Being a B-School Alumni, he recognized the need for a one-stop solution for B-School to get in touch with schools and get their application queries resolved. This prompted him to create MiM-Essay, a one-of-a-kind portal with cutting edge profile evaluation and school selection algorithms, along with several avenues to stay informed about the latest B-School Updates.

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