f you are at the beginning of your IELTS journey, you probably do not know what to start with and what steps to take first. Should it be an IELTS practice test or reading about IELTS assessment criteria? Or maybe writing an IELTS essay? Or maybe you should relax and prepare yourself in a week? We bet the hardest part for you is to decide how to start. Don’t panic. Our short guide is here to help you start preparing for IELTS.
Understand what your goal is
Before you actually start IELTS preparation you need to understand what type of test is necessary for you to take: IELTS Academic or IELTS General Training. In short, if you are going to study abroad, you need to take the IELTS Academic. If you want to join your family in one of the English-speaking countries, you need IELTS General Training. However, if you plan to work abroad, it is always better to check what type of exam is required.
The other important thing to understand is what score you need. For example, if you are an academic student and you want to go to university, the required score depends on the level of education you are going to obtain: Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD. However, it also depends on the actual university you are going to: the requirements are vastly varied from university to university. Most students need to get between band 5.5 and 7. So, it is a good idea to contact the educational institution or your future workplace and find out what score and what type of exam is required.
The bands that we have mentioned are describing upper-intermediate and advanced levels of English or B2 and C1 according to CEFR. If you know your current level of English, it can be a very good predictor of the score that you can expect to achieve.
As IELTS tests not only your language skills but also some academic skills such as writing essays or summarizing academic texts, it is important to understand where you start, and your IELTS preparation will greatly depend on this too, especially if your level of English is lower than expected.
Learn about the format of the exam
This tip is useful if you prepare for any kind of exam, not only IELTS. In order to achieve excellent marks, the test-takers must be aware of the test format. This means you have to understand what the exam tasks look like if you do not want to find yourself surprised and unprepared on the day of the exam. It is good practice to learn about each section of the exam (Speaking, Reading, Listening, and Writing), question types and the amount of time you have to do the tasks.
Take a free practice test
Taking practice tests is another way to familiarize yourself with the test format. You can do one of such tests at the beginning to see what the tasks look like and to see what task types you find difficult. However, you should remember that doing the practice tests is not the equivalent of IELTS preparation. Many candidates tend to think that the more practice tests they do, the higher their score. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Practice tests are good only for practice. That’s why they are called ‘practice tests’.
IELTS preparation includes learning strategies for each type of task, learning how to answer different types of questions, learning vocabulary and grammar for IELTS tasks, learning from mistakes and tracking your progress, practising, getting feedback and more.
When doing practice tests at the end of your preparation remember to do them under exam conditions. For example, if you do the reading tasks, spend no more than 60 minutes reading the texts and answering the questions. If you do the listening tasks, listen to the recording only once, i.e. in a way you are going to do that on the day of the exam. If you practise writing, remember about the timing as well.
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Learn about the assessing criteria
Once you have done the practice test, take some time to check your scores. It is quite easy to do in the Reading and Listening sections because only correct answers count in them. Use IELTS Band Score Calculator to save your time and see what your band is for each section in each type of exam.
It is more difficult to assess the tasks in the Writing section on your own, but you can read how IELTS Academic writing tasks are assessed to understand the criteria. There you will also find a sample essay analysed by our IELTS experts with some comments on the candidate’s performance.
Preparing for the Speaking section on your own is not a piece of cake either. That is again because you will not be able to check your performance on your own. However, there is nothing difficult about this part of the exam if you know and understand IELTS band descriptors for your desired level. IELTS has made them public. This means that you can see what exactly you are required to do, say and write to get the desired scores:
IELTS Speaking Band Descriptors
IELTS Writing Task 1 Band Descriptors
IELTS Writing Task 2 Band Descriptors
Work on your vocabulary and grammar
Needless to say that if you want to get a high score, you will need to demonstrate how wide your range of vocabulary and grammar is. If you read the assessment criteria carefully, you will see that vocabulary covers 25% of the marks for Speaking and Writing tests, so the better your vocabulary the higher the score. While the exam consists of four sections, there is one common thing in all of them – vocabulary. We have already written about the best ways of getting vocabulary for IELTS.
Although there is no section in the IELTS Academic or General that tests your grammar, it is still very important. It obviously helps you in the Speaking and Writing sections where you have to build sentences and express your thoughts using different structures. It can also help you understand the reading or listening passages, for example, when you get confused by different sentence structures or parts of speech.
One of the biggest mistakes the students make is mastering the exam skills and forgetting about improving their English skills. But IELTS is first of all a proficiency test, so your English really matters.
Learn different strategies for each type of tasks
Another mistake is taking an exam without knowing its strategies. IELTS tasks and questions require specific strategies to be used. For example, in the Listening section candidates hear the recording only once. They also have to answer various questions and do such tasks as note completion, multiple-choice, summary completion, matching, etc. Getting lost is not a problem in such situations. But it becomes a disaster if the students do not know how to approach the tasks in this section, how to get back and continue answering them even if they got lost.
The Reading section also requires students to use specific strategies and have a wide range of reading skills such as reading for gist, scanning, skimming, reading for detail, etc. Get accustomed to each type of reading question during your exam preparation so as not to be caught by surprise on the day of the exam.
Start preparing for IELTS as early as possible
It is best to start your preparation as early as you know you need an IELTS certificate. As you can see, even at the beginning of your preparation, there are still many things to be done. It is good to have a study plan to organise and guide your IELTS Academic preparation process. In our online course, you receive a personal study plan depending on how much time you have: a week, a month or two months. In this study plan, you will find lots of ways you can benefit from the course and improve your chances of scoring higher in the IELTS test. It also helps you find out what areas need improvement the most. Finally, it shows you how to develop all of your skills gradually and guides you through the parts of the course.
Despite their level of English, sooner or later most students need some guidance at the different stages of their IELTS preparation. We have combined the three most important things in our course: focus on practice, best self-study solutions, and ongoing support.
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