Students often ask how they can improve their chances of getting a good IELTS score. There is no magic bullet, but here are CF INDIA PORTAL top 3 tips:
Read as much as possible in English, to improve your reading skills and speed and build your vocabulary. Broadsheet newspapers, the Economist etc, and not just the Metro! Try to learn 10 new phrases a day from the material you've read.
Have Radio 4 or BBC London on in the background while you're eating your breakfast, getting dressed etc. Don't worry if you don't understand much, gradually your ears will tune in more.
Don't join an IELTS class until you have a good intermediate level of English, and keep going with some general English lessons until you are at least upper-intermediate - far too many students are in too much of a hurry to start preparing for IELTS, and switch to IELTS-only classes when they really need to focus on their general English for a bit longer. However good your exam skills are, if your English language isn't up to scratch, you will struggle.
So, you have to get a 6.5 in the IELTS exam? A 7.5! An 8.0!
You want to make sure your registration fee for the CAE exam is not a waste of money?
The Proficiency exam is your next challenge?
Everyone deciding to invest money in private tuition will have their own personal objective, but how can you achieve yours?
Here are a few basic tips:
Be realistic, especially about your own work ethic. No amount of classes with a tutor, private or otherwise, will help you achieve your objective unless you are prepared to put in some hours of individual study as well.
Read. And read. And then read some more. Reading is an excellent activity for you to do whenever you have a spare moment - while having breakfast, when waiting for the train, before the film you want to watch finishes downloading. Reading can help to improve your chances in an examination in many ways - it increases your vocabulary; it gives you new knowledge and information; it can help you with ideas for topics which may come up in the speaking or writing exam.
Open your mind to different things; don't just hope to win the topic lottery on exam day. The exams cover a very wide range of topics and you may be asked to speak about something you know very little about, and care about even less. That's bad luck, but if you want to reach your goal, you need to play the game during the exam. And playing the game means being prepared to answer questions about anything and everything. Watch a variety of TV programmes, listen to talk radio, buy newspapers/magazines (and read them!), enjoy a short story, play, or even a book for children.
Many candidates enter the IELTS exam being very unprepared. In my experience, many candidates do not achieve the score they need not due to their language ability but due to a lack of understanding of the requirements of the test. As teachers, it is our job to make them fully aware of the standard required and skills that they will need.
For example, I met a native speaker recently who received a 6.5 for the reading test simply because he had no idea of what to expect and the time limitations. There are simple ways that we can make sure the candidates do not waste their time and money by taking the test before they are properly prepared and know what to expect.
Simple mistakes like not fully answering the question in Writing Task Two can seriously affect their overall scores. It is a mistake for a candidate to think that because they are good at English they will automatically receive the highest scores.
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