Advice From A Guy With IELTS Band 8...

Image Credits: Yash Singh

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Listening: 9.0, Reading: 8.5, Writing: 7, Speaking: 8, Overall Band: 8.0. In my experience, IELTS is an extremely accurate estimation of a person's English language capabilities. Hence, if one wants to prepare for the test, they work on improving language skills rather than taking to preparation like a conventional examination. Rote learning and exercising stress for cracking IELTS is a strict no. Having said that, it is always helpful to be aware of the format in which the test would happen, and practice to get accustomed to the time limits.

My preparation was focused on taking as many mock tests as possible. I opted for the British Council and they provide a booklet with approximately 4-5 mock tests. The booklet was extremely helpful as it contained the exact format and type of questions  asked in the test. Additionally, a number of YouTube videos are available which provide useful information on all the four segments. I personally did not find the speaking videos of much use but the other modules are good. For people who are not in the habit of sitting through long sessions, I strongly urge them to take the mock tests for all three sections one after the other; as in practice by taking Listening, Reading, and Writing one after another without a break in between. For speaking, recording your responses and then listening to them definitely helps to iron out small issues.

The trickiest part I encountered was writing because getting accurate feedback for this section is not always possible. To mitigate that issue, I'd recommend coming up with a broad format wherein you decide how many paragraphs to write and what type of information to include in each paragraph.

On the day of the test, the only advice I would give is to be relaxed and have confidence in your abilities. For the speaking test, it is important to speak in your natural flow and avoid pauses as much as possible.

To summarise, focus on improving your language skills and don't prepare for this test like how you would for a conventional test. Nothing supersedes this point! 

You can follow Yash on LinkedIn and he is more than happy to help any IELTS aspirant for all kinds of queries. Thanks Yash for this blog post! I have written an extensive post on my preparation strategy for IELTS Academic test. You can read it here.