If you want to get the IELTS English language certificate, make sure you take the right time to improve your basic English level.
Steps
Step 1. Choose a realistic and achievable goal
To get a satisfactory grade on the IELTS test, you need to be realistic. If the goal is to reach a certain level of language proficiency, the goal can only be achieved with a lot of practice. It is important to know the meaning of each IELTS grade in the various fields before setting the goal.
Step 2. Follow a regular study plan
Set a maximum number of hours per day that you can spend practicing English in all 4 sections of the test - don't just focus on the areas where you are weakest. Be regular in practice and rest between exercises. Take at least one day a week to relax and completely forget about the test. The secret to success is to work calmly on your goal, steadily and steadily. Take every opportunity to listen to English, anytime, anywhere. Watch TV shows and movies, listen to radio programs and recordings in English. Have as many conversations as possible with native English speakers and speak English with your friends who are not native speakers. Try to read at least one English text every day. You should always read a book in English, a page or two every night before going to bed. Read newspapers, magazines, novels written in an English suitable for your level (you can find them in a good bookstore). College applicants can read academic articles, for example. Always carry the English texts with you, so you can read when you have free time that you would otherwise waste. Don't worry about understanding every word. Read articles in detail and others faster.
Step 3. Increase your speed
In the IELTS test, time is your biggest enemy. Candidates who failed to perform the test as expected often complain that they were unable to give all the answers in the listening test because the recording was too fast, and they had little time in the reading test. First, don't worry about not being able to finish the test. Remember: the test is designed to measure candidates in a range of results from 0 to 9 (0 indicates that the test was not performed). Candidates whose English is near perfect can expect a 9, but even native English speakers may not finish the listening test by answering perfectly or not finish the reading test long before the exam is over. Remember, the test is designed to be a difficult test: IELTS measures many aspects of your English proficiency, including the speed at which you can listen, read, write and think in English. Your personal speed doesn't change much from day to day, but it can change over a long period of time as a direct result of practicing English. Your speed and skill in the 5 mentioned areas is fixed well at all times. The IELTS grades you will receive are extremely accurate, because each test has been carefully designed so that standardized results are achieved for candidates of all levels. Nonetheless, there are many things you can do - before the test and on the day of the test - to maximize your use of time and give yourself the best chance of success. Consider the following situation: a racing car cannot go faster than its maximum speed, but the race can always be won and the maximum speed maintained for a long time, if the driver is experienced. The listening, reading and writing tests are in this order and are administered in a single morning. The overall length of the three tests is 2 hours and 30 minutes (the oral test is carried out with an appointment in the early afternoon); only a small pause is allowed between the read and write test. You will therefore need to be at the best of your abilities for an extended period of time, and therefore you will need to sleep and eat well before the test. The tips and guidelines in this article will help you reach the "highest speed". The more effort you put into it, the faster you will be on the test day.
Step 4. Increase your sentence reading speed
The faster and more accurately you read, the more questions you will be able to answer. Throughout the test, the instructions, the example and the questions themselves must be read quickly, and be well understood, so that you have more time to answer. This is why it is important to increase your overall reading speed.
Step 5. Develop a memory for English
In the reading test, it's important to remember as much as possible of what you just read, but at least the words can be reread. In the listening test there is no going back and the recording is played back only once. If the answers are before the key phrase, the memory of what you have heard so far is even more important. However, the answers usually follow the phrases or keywords and are close in time to the main part of the listening.
Step 6. Manage your time carefully
The listening test. The tape is played only once and questions are answered as you listen. Time is therefore not managed by you, but you have a short period of time after each passage heard to check the work. Do not use this time to copy the answers in fair copy because you will have 10 minutes at the end of the test to do this. The reading test. A certain amount of time is usually recommended to complete the three sections of the test. Check the time as you go along and each time you complete a set of questions. Make sure you are done answering when the recommended time is up. Move to the other set of questions even if you haven't finished answering the previous ones. If you don't, you won't be able to answer as many questions as possible. Remember that you can manage time during the reading test.
Step 7. The Golden Rule of IELTS
The Golden Rule is: "Always give the monkey exactly what he wants." If a monkey asks for a banana, you have to give her a banana, not an apple. In other words, your answer to a question must describe exactly what is requested. You need to be sure of the type of information you are asked for and how to deal with that information in order for you to give a satisfactory answer. But failing to apply the Golden Rule is one of the main reasons candidates do not get the desired marks on the test. Read the questions very carefully. Study carefully the type of information that the test asks you to give: is the answer a method of transport? A person? A place? A number? If you understand this, you have more hope of giving the correct answer. Understand what to do with the information: do you have to complete a sentence or fill in the spaces with missing words? If so, your answer must then be grammatically correct within the sentence. Do you have to provide an answer of no more than a certain number of words? Then your answer must not contain more than that number of words. Do you have to name two objects contained in the recording or two passages of the song? If so, your answer will need to contain two items or two passages. Three objects will constitute a wrong answer. Always understand what information you are asked for and how to use it.
Step 8. Read the instructions carefully
Candidates who don't read the instructions carefully may think they save time, but the instructions contain vital information that needs to be understood about the topic of the passage and that helps predict what you will read and hear. The instructions tell you what to do, what answers you need to give, and, in the case of the listening test, they will tell you when to respond. However, read the instructions quickly and accurately. You may not have time to complete the test if you read them too slowly.
Step 9. Always look at the examples
An example is given to you for many good reasons. It is important to read or listen to the example carefully; some candidates believe they can save time by not paying attention to the example, but that is a mistake. If you don't know how to give an answer, chances are you will end up giving the wrong one or the right one in the wrong form. The example tells us 3 important things about the task to be performed: 1) it tells us how to give an answer; 2) it gives us information on the passages of the reading and listening tests; 3) tells us when to start listening or where to start reading to find the right answers.
Step 10. Use the keywords of the question to find the answer
The phrases or keywords will help you find the answer. This is valid for the reading and listening tests. First, you have to choose which phrase or word to listen to in the recording or to read in the passage. They can be more than one in a question, and they can be asked before or after the answer.
Step 11. Check before ending the test
Step 12. Don't forget the logical solutions
In the reading test, if you have trouble completing particular questions, leave a few minutes at the end of each recommended time period for each section (usually 20 minutes) to solve questions that can be guessed with some logic. In the listening test, you will have a minute of silence at the end of each section. Candidates who forget to give logical solutions to questions they would otherwise not know how to answer lose the chance to score for that question too!
Step 13. Are you answering grammatically correct?
While it is true that not all answers to listening and reading tests have to be grammatically flawless, you can often solve a few questions with your grammar knowledge. Always think about the grammatical correctness of the answer before making the final decision. This is especially true for questions with short answers, for exercises with tables, cards, diagrams and notes, for exercises with sentence completion or filling in spaces. Verbal forms, plurals and other grammatical forms are important when giving answers to listening and reading tests. A good rule of thumb is to always give the answer in a grammatically correct form.
Step 14. Always give only one answer
Give only one answer to each question, unless you are explicitly asked for multiple answers. Even if one of the multiple answers is correct, you may receive 0 if too many other answers are wrong. Surprisingly, candidates often give more answers than necessary! If you are asked to indicate only 3 items that you heard or read in the passage, there is no point in writing 4. You will receive 0 as a score, even if all 4 answers are correct (remember the Golden Rule). Note that with the short answer questions, especially in the listening test, there are more phrases and words that provide the correct answer. However, you will lose valuable time if you enter more than one correct answer in these types of exercises.
Step 15. Check the spelling
In reading and listening, spelling is not always fundamental; it is necessary in the listening test if the word is spelled in the recording itself. Other answers in these two sections may also be spelled incorrectly, will still be counted in the score, but must be written well enough to be understandable. Copy the answers accurately into the reading test. In the listening one, if you are unsure of the spelling, write an approximation based on the sound you perceived.
Step 16. Make sure the answers are understandable
You can't expect to do well if the answers aren't legible. Candidates do not realize that their answers may not be understood by examiners. be careful! If you have problems with letters, write in block capitals. The letters will thus be distinguishable. Pay particular attention to the letters E, F, I, J, L, M, N, W, U, V and T (it is difficult to differentiate these letters if the candidate is writing quickly). Numbers can be even more complicated to read. Again, applicants do not realize that numbers may not be recognized by examiners. Practice making the numbers look like the ones shown above.
