Preparing for IELTS involves understanding the test format, how it is marked and making a plan to achieve the points you wish. To do this, you will need to improve your English, practice test skills and join a preparatory course to check your progress before signing up for the exam.
How to Prepare for IELTS Examination
Below is a quick checklist to help with your IELTS preparation:
- Understand the test format
- Know how the test is marked
- Surround yourself with English
- Make a plan of action
- Join a preparatory course
- Practice using questions
- Improve your IELTS skills
- Check your progress
- Sign up for the test
- IELTS Preparation: Pass 3x Faster
One of the most popular questions I find on my YouTube channel is:
- Chris, how can I prepare for my IELTS exam soon?
- In fact, the answer to this question will vary from person to person, making it difficult for me to come up with a single solution that works for everyone.
- However, what I can tell you is how you can REALLY prepare for your exams!
Find out how you can improve your preparation and speed up your IELTS journey here:
- Why Is Preparing for IELTS So Hard?
- Simply put, there is a lot of information out there and readers do not know what sources they can trust. IELTS can take months (sometimes years!) Of hard work and thousands of dollars in tuition and testing fees, so there is a lot of pressure to fix it for the first time.
- There are three important things you need to improve:
- English Standard (Slow)
- Assessment Skills (Medium)
- Knowing how a test is marked (Fast)
- Improve Your English Standard Level
IELTS is actually an English language test, so, when your English level is high, your scores should be better. Just learning IELTS skills and doing practice exercises will not be enough if your English level is not high enough.
As shown above, this is probably the slowest part of your preparation. Many English schools recommend at least 6 months to improve the English student level in line with the 0.5- 1 band school.
I'll show you how to improve your English standard, at home, below.
Complete Your Testing Skills
There are four sections for the IELTS test - Writing, Speaking, Reading, and Listening. Each of these sections contains a number of different questions that may be possible and each one has a specific skill that you need to master.
For example, academic students can expect to see one of seven different types of question-writing in Activity 1. Each of these different types of questions requires different skills.
Listening and reading tests have more than 10 types of questions. Also, all of these questions require a different strategy and a set of skills.
Most of your IELTS preparation should be used to learn these skills and if these are combined with a high level of English they should result in higher scores.
Learning these skills does not take as much time as learning the language itself, but it does take a lot of time. Many schools recommend spending 2-3 months learning these skills.
I will talk about how to improve these, at home, below.=
Know-How A Test Is Marked
The fastest and most effective way to improve your score is to know exactly what the examiners want and give it to them. Most of my teachings are based on this principle.
However, you cannot simply read this and get high scores; should be integrated with improving your English level and assessment skills.
Below we will look at the official marking method to help us understand what the examiner wants.
