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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