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Tips in Acing Your IELTS
As students climb up the academic ladder, they will eventually come across many hurdles and obstacles that will measure their capacity to move forward into higher education. One of these obstacles each student must face is a test known as the IELTS. And if you have no idea how to do well in the said test, then you are in luck for this article will discuss how to get good results on your IELTS exam.
The IELTS, or the International English Language Test, is an annual examination to test the capabilities of students in the English language. It is commonly commissioned by the British government in the form of their embassies all around the world. The IELTS is made to measure the ability of individual students to listen, read, write, and speak the English language.
One of the main benefits of the IELTS is to help individuals work, study, or migrate to any country that speaks English as a native language. This will be useful for those who wish to leave the country and travel to nations which natively speak the English language.
How to do well in your IELTS
You may think that you just need to be good at speaking and understanding English to get a good mark in your IELTS. However, the skills to be measured include all of the basic English language skills taught at school.
One of these skills include reading, which is one of the main modalities you will encounter when the questions and passages are given to you. Other skills you must possess are speaking, writing, and comprehending.
These tips will help you improve the skills needed to get you through your IELTS exam with flying colors. And without further ado, let us begin.
1. Practice skimming and scanning
Since the IELTS measures all of your abilities to communicate the English language effectively, you should prioritize speed and efficiency when reading to maximize the time you have to process the information you read to arrive at an excellent answer.
Skimming and scanning notes is a method used by a lot of professionals to save time by not having to go over every little detail in the text and only focusing on the points that matter. It is similar to speed reading but differs in the fact that you are still going to pay attention to the main parts of what you are reading.
By practicing this skill, you will be able to breeze through any text given to you and be able to have more time to think of a suitable answer to the questions that may follow. The more time you have to think of a better answer, the better your results will be as you will be able to factor in every aspect of the English language that you need to display to get a good mark in your IELTS.
2. Expand your vocabulary
There will be times when the IELTS will include words that will seem unfamiliar to you as you have never come across that word before. And if you can’t figure out what that word means based on the context of the passage, then the results you will get might go for a nosedive.
It is better to work up on your vocabulary before your IELTS so that you will be able to understand, comprehend, and read a passage better. By expanding your vocabulary, the instances where you come across an unfamiliar word will greatly diminish in number and you will have a relatively easier time though your IELTS.
3. Improve your rate of reading
It was mentioned previously that the faster you finish reading a text, the more time you will have to think up of an excellent answer to the questions that follow. Having a faster rate of reading will be a great tool to have which will give you an advantage over your peers.
You do not necessarily have to speed read and disregard every word you come across just to make your rate of reading faster. You can just practice by reading passages and texts faster than you normally would to get your brain accustomed to a faster reading rate. Build up on it slowly so that you can balance having a faster rate of reading while still being able to comprehend the texts or passages that you have read.
4. Learn to identify key words
Unlike languages like Chinese and Japanese which tend to prioritize efficiency in their passages and texts, the English language is notoriously known to add a lot of flowery and excessive words to make a text seem more attractive. And while it does do the job, it will become a hindrance for you when you are trying to ace your IELTS.
Learn and be familiar with identifying only the key words and phrases of a text or passage to save time from comprehending every adjective used to describe the floor. If you deem certain parts of a text irrelevant or play only a minor part in the overall plot or theme, then you can omit those parts from your brain and focus on the phrases or words you deem important and relevant.
5. Brush up on your grammatical skills
The IELTS is a constantly changing exam, where the questions and passages included are different every year to make sure that it is up to date. And just like any other component of the IELTS, grammatical rules are also constantly being updated as well to suit the ever-changing world we reside in.
The basic rules for grammar, such as subject-verb agreement, are still relevant in the IELTS. However, there will be minor adjustments to other grammatical rules that you may not know. So, it is better to look up and be aware of these grammatical rule changes that occur constantly. You wouldn’t want to be asked whether the plural form of octopus was octopi or octopuses, only to find out that both are technically correct.
6. Practice reading difficult passages
You may never know what passages or texts will be included in the IELTS you will be taking. They could be lenient and include easy passages, or they could be in the mod to include difficult passages which will make your brain go into full power mode just to make sense of what you are reading.
You can overcome this hurdle by getting used to making your brain process difficult texts or passages by reading said passages ahead of your IELTS. Try to read articles in your local newspaper, or science journals, or even complicated literature from your local library. Anything that will make your brain use considerable effort to understand what you are reading.
7. Get used to a stressful environment
The examination hall can be a stressful environment. With the limited time given to you to answer all the questions, the security measures put up to make sure no cheating is done, and the constant pressure of having to do well can all ad up to make your experience taking the IELTS more difficult than it should be.
The best way to counter a stressful environment is to get accustomed to one. You can do this by replicating and recreating that same stressful environment you will be in. While you study for your IELTS, time yourself for the same amount of time you will take the IELTS, ask someone you know to watch over you and make sure you do not do anything aside from study, and show your practice results to your parents after to make sure you feel the pressure as well.
By replicating the stressful environment in which you will take the IELTS in, your mind will be able to get a sense of familiarity with the environment and not be as shocked than if you did not replicate a stressful environment.
8. Patience and practice
You cannot expect to do all of these tips on your own in just a week and see improvements right in your scores right away. It takes time and effort to make your brain get accustomed to reading faster than usual, skimming, and finding the keywords of a passage or text.
You need to practice and slowly build up your skills through time to make sure that they develop properly and are not prematurely depended on. A lot of patience and even more practice is needed in order to see significant improvements in your results during the IELTS.
There is no easy way out of studying. even those geniuses you know spent a lot of time and effort building up their skill and intellect. So, it is better to start ahead early and build up on your English skills to make sure you see significant results in your IELTS.
9. Hire a tutor
If you feel like you cannot do all of these on your own, then you can always rely on external help. For instance, you can hire a tutor to help you get through your study sessions and guide you with what you need to do and improve to get high marks on your IELTS.
And if a tutor is what you need, then you have come to the right place. FamilyTutor is a leading home tutor in Singapore with thousands of highly skilled and capable tutors. We offer private English tuition to make sure you get past your IELTS with flying colors.
Carelle
Carelle is a teacher who has been through the ups and downs of the teacher and learner life. She wishes for every learner to gain educational satisfaction that will help embody the people they want to be in the future.
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About FamilyTutor!
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