Happy new year! Now is the time many people think about their goals for the year ahead. What about YOU? Maybe you have some big goals for this year! Maybe you want to get a fantastic IELTS score in 2019 to go to a great university or travel to a new country?
Guess what? You can do it!
Here are five ways you can get a great IELTS score in 2019!
LISTENING:
1: Use the time before the listening begins wisely
Before the listening begins, you always have a moment to look at the test questions. This time is very important! Look carefully to see what you will have to do – are you answering multiple choice questions? Filling in missing words? The smartest thing to do during these few moments is to make your best guesses about what the answers might be.
2: Use the time after the listening finishes wisely, too!
Pay attention when you are transferring answers from the test paper to the answer sheet. Review the answers you wrote down. Is the grammar correct? If the grammar is wrong, the answer is wrong. Check your spelling - if you spelled the word incorrectly, you will not get credit even if you have the right answer! The time after the test when you transfer answers is a great moment to double check your work.
SPEAKING:
3: Don’t be shy!
The best thing to do in the speaking test is to say as much as you can! If you are afraid of making mistakes, I have a secret for you: EVERYONE makes mistakes!
Even when speaking in a first language, most of us make mistakes; we just feel better about it because it’s our first language. In the IELTS exam, you get scored higher if you know you should use a certain vocabulary word or grammar structure, even if you make a mistake with it. So go for it! It is always better to say too much than too little!
READING:
4: Read the questions carefully - not the reading text!
A lot of students HATE the reading test. “It’s too long!” “It’s too boring!” “It’s too hard!” They say.
Well… that’s a reasonable opinion… but these students are making the mistake of READING the Reading test.
Sorry, I should be more clear: These students are making the mistake of reading ALL of the reading test when they should only be reading SOME of the test.
The purpose of the reading test is to use your reading skills to find information. The best way to do that is to:
read the question carefully
decide what the best way to find the answer is
use the appropriate reading strategy to find the answer (skim and then read for detail, scanning, etc.)
WRITING:
5: Wait five minutes before you begin writing your answer
So many students start writing their IELTS answer as soon as they open the test booklet. Big mistake!
By waiting five minutes before beginning, you are likely to get a much better score. Why?
Because you will use that five minutes to do very important things.
First, you can take a couple of minutes to make sure you really understand the test question. Then, take a few minutes to consider your ideas and start planning your answer. After that, start writing. These simple steps will actually save you time because you’ll know what you want to say - and by taking a few minutes to plan, you increase your chances of getting a higher IELTS writing score. Have you tried any of these tips? Do you have any other good advice for increasing IELTS score? Let us know in the comments!
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