The IELTS General Training exam is taken by those who require proof of English proficiency for migration or training purposes. In this post, I explain the exact process I recommend to my own clients for IELTS exam preparation at home.
DISCLAIMER: This formula will require serious discipline and hard work. There are no magic tricks to language skill development – just dedication and FOCUSED effort!
Active reading
One of the most important habits to cultivate during your IELTS exam preparation is ACTIVE READING.
What’s active reading? Glad you asked!
Active reading (as opposed to passive reading) may include:
- Highlighting or underlining words you don’t recognise or understand, and then looking them up in your dictionary or translator
- Taking note of new words and adding them to a vocabulary tracker in an Excel or Google spreadsheet
- Writing down the definition and/or translated version of each of these words in the same spreadsheet
- Linking each word to its entry on Dictionary.com, Merriam Webster or Forvo to HEAR the way it’s pronounced. Make sure you select the relevant version (American or British)
- Identifying any confusing constructions (i.e. passive voice, use of the present perfect) and researching them on your own
- Making marginalia: notes in the margins based on your own thoughts and analyses of certain sections. I HIGHLY recommend this as a practice, even in your own native language.
It will be important for you to be interested in order to commit to this task; as such, feel free to use any kind of text, as long as it means you will stick to this practice. Having said that, I would recommend non-fiction as they will most closely resemble the types of text you will read during the exam. Two books I HIGHLY recommend are Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
Acquire Vocabulary Specific to the IELTS exam
- Magoosh offers a very effective flashcard app for vocabulary acquisition SPECIFICALLY for the IELTS exam
- The New Academic Word List, a highly comprehensive and widely recognised list of the most common words in English academia
- New General Service List – a comprehensive and widely recognised list of the most spoken words in the English language, created specifically for English second language learners
Study official IELTS exam preparation materials and resources
You can find information on official IELTS exam preparation materials, practice tests, the IELTS preparation app and more here. It is very important that you familiarize yourself with the test format, structure, and rules to save you precious minutes of time the day of your exam. A good place to start is to read the IELTS Candidate’s Booklet.
Preparing for the Listening Section of the IELTS
The BEST way to boost your listening skills – besides practice tests – is to listen to podcasts. The radio is still a good way to practice – but nowadays, talk radio is being increasingly replaced with free podcasts you can stream or download to your phone for free. There are podcasts on every subject you can think of, but here are a few podcasts that some of my clients love listening to:
Harvard Business Review Ideacast
You can also listen to IELTS specific podcasts. Here is a comprehensive list.
Preparing for the Reading Section of the IELTS
See my note above – and read as much as you can. It doesn’t matter what you read; if it interests you, you will have a much easier time remaining dedicated to your task of DAILY study. Try to aim for at least 30 minutes of reading every day.
If you’re stuck and aren’t sure what to start with, check out some of the following online resources:
Test your skills with sample reading tests AT LEAST once a week.
Preparing for the Writing Section of the IELTS
In order to develop your writing skills, you will have to practice by…. you guessed it! Writing. This will be difficult to achieve without someone grading you; however, you can ask a friend or a language tutor FAMILIAR with IELTS exam preparation to review your work and provide feedback. Remember that writing isn’t just about knowing the English language; it’s about understanding the structure of whatever written task you are asked to perform (i.e., a letter, an opinion, an informative piece, an essay, etc.). For the purpose of the IELTS exam, it will be very important for you to learn the structure of a letter responding to a given situation (General version), a short essay (General and Academic version) or a summary of information (Academic version only). It will be equally important that your essay be COHERENT and COHESIVE.
In order for your essay to be coherent, it must have a logical flow: introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Your introduction must have a strong topic sentence, and introduce your idea; your body paragraphs back up your idea with supporting points; and, your conclusion provides a summary of your main points, and a reiteration of your point of view/argument.
Cohesion, on the other hand, is the ability to CONNECT your thoughts and ideas with the correct syntax, linking words and other cohesive devices. Learning connecting words, conjunctions, transition words and discourse markers will be a very important element in your writing. Some examples of transitional words and phrases are furthermore, moreover, however, that being said, nevertheless, nonetheless, consequently, as a result, for example, this is illustrated by, this demonstrates, etc.
Try to incorporate these in your writing and get feedback on your COHERENCE and COHESION.
Preparing for the Speaking Section of the IELTS
Unfortunately, there is no way to practice the Speaking part on your own – unless you have the opportunity to speak English daily WITH feedback. Fortunately, you can hire an English coach to work with you in the comfort of your own own home, OR over Skype /Facetime/ Zoom. Make sure your English coach is familiar with the IELTS exam, including band scores and marking descriptors.
I offer IELTS exam preparation coaching at my office in Old Montreal, Quebec, Canada and online. Contact me for more information or to schedule a free consultation!
