Hey,
Usually I'm the one asking random stuff here on this forum, but I feel like contributing something on IELTS domain and share my experience.
I had 2 IELTS test, Academic and General both. Never practiced for Academic, just got the idea of the pattern of Listening and had gone through reading/writing pattern. I scored overall 7 (R/W-7, L-6.5, S-7.5) - after that I appeared in General, had to score 8 in listening to make the most out of CRC point and finished with (R/W/L-8 and S-7), I only practiced handful of listening tests and set the target of 35-36 right answers to score 8. Didn't even touch reading, writing part.
Point is, English is not my first language, neither it has been my mode of communication, having said that, I watched a lot of english movies and tv dramas, so that might have helped me in some way or other. What I believe, you can score well by just going by the books.
- Listening is all about your smartness to grasp the said words/statement and decipher the context
- Reading is all about skimming and searching, I did read the whole text in my first attempt, hardly read on second try, just skimming to find the matching words, and if you got time, you can read to verify but focus of skimming
- Speaking, just be smart enough to produce and present your ideas well, I believed my second speaking test gone better than previous, but score tells a different thing
- Writing, I have no large set of vocabulary, neither I memorized anything. All I can say about writing is you have to elaborate your answer thoroughly, usually they ask you to defend one out of two options, and justify your choice, so you can opt for the one and do your best to defend, but at the end, do drop few lines on "what-if-then-else" thing on the other option. Don't completely ruled the other option out.
Generally, these tips helped me, so I hope it might help you too:
- I've been told to use pen for writing task and not pencil, pencils make it difficult to read
- Don't bother yourself to count words, it's better to write more so just put your emphasis on writing instead of word count (I took 2 extra sheet, my 150 min word task were actually 250+ words)
- Skimming, as I mentioned earlier, helped a lot in writing
- Don't bother wasting your time on reading and writing training material, there is 99.9% chance that you won't get the same text in exam so why waste your time. Instead focus on developing strategy on how to write on any topic, like brainstorming on the topic (like, What is this, How it works, What if this, What if it not?, Ok if it is like this then what?, But there is this thing also?, What is better, Conclusion) - this will make you very comfortable writing on any topic
- They say you to practice in front of mirror for speaking, Please Don't. At the time of speaking test, it's mostly the inner fear that gets into your way and the not pretty face of the instructor, so it's better to make your fear disappear by being confident and showing yourself that you indeed are confident. You can practice speaking english by visualizing yourself at the exam center and assuming the questions yourself, better to watch youtube videos of student having speaking test. I develop the sort-of-english-accent just by trying to copy the english actors - so you can practice it even when you're out or on bed sleeping .
That's all I guess, Good Luck!
