A great deal of us experience severe anxiety before taking the IELTS exam. IELTS causes a lot of non-English speaking beginners nightmares, steals their hope, and makes them want to give up. However, based on my IELTS experience, I believe that their excessive knowledge is the root of their concern.
It feels similar to having a spider next to you. You are first completely unafraid as you were unaware that it was seated close to you. But as soon as it comes into view, you quickly leave the room. The same situation occurs with IELTS test takers; they have too much knowledge about the test, how individuals have failed to earn the desired score, or how others have studied for 14 hours a day and yet have not achieved the desired score.
Before you begin the IELTS, you need to gather yourself, calm yourself, and remember one thing at a time: “IELTS is easy.” You also have an option to opt for professional and experienced IELTS tutor to get better hand-on experience and prepared for the test.
Light the inside fire.
Learning is, let’s face it, quite dull. If you’re like me, you’ll realize that I can’t learn anything while I’m bored. To be honest, I hardly dedicate an hour or two a day to my IELTS studies. So I developed a method called “Lit up the inner fire” to deal with this issue. The answer is easy: play some amazing movie soundtracks repeatedly until you start to feel as though your body is being controlled by your “inner” energy. I recently made a playlist with all the songs that I listen to when I need a pick-me-up (don’t judge me; most of them are anime soundtracks).
Test of listening
I received the highest score (8.5) on this test. But did you know that I only received a band 5 on the hearing portion of a mock exam, approximately a month prior to the actual IELTS test? When I took the practice exam at a center that teaches English. For whatever reason, the test tape plays back so quickly that I was unable to understand what the folks were saying.
I’m anxious since I have a month till the actual IELTS exam.
“After taking multiple online listening tests, I received scores ranging from 7 to 8, but is that still insufficient?” — I questioned.
I nevertheless made the decision to go forward with my judgement day. I carry that anxiety and tension into the testing room a month later. I will never forget the sensation of not understanding what the recording says. I set my headphone volume to about 80/100 and pray that I make it through the test. It was so easy—much simpler than the test I took at the English-teaching center—that I completed it without realizing I had. I received an 8.5 and am well aware of my mistakes. Remember that “IELTS is easy and you must trust your instinct” because of this.
Let’s go straight to my IELTS listening exam preparation strategies now that the narrative is over.
View a brief clip from a movie.
Since I actually don’t have time to see the complete film every day, I watch snippets of it on YouTube. One moment from the well-known film “Silence of the Lambs,” for instance, is one that I truly adore. I can tell how each statement will sound depending on the circumstance by viewing it again. This is really helpful as it shows you how different native English speakers pronounce a given word depending on the context.
(Warning: some viewers may find the video’s material unsettling.)
Movieclips is a really fascinating channel that I discovered. For every film, they have a lot of brief sequences.
Watch comedy stand-up and sitcoms.
When you initially start learning English, comedies like Friends or HIMYM (How I Met Your Mother) are excellent resources for you to watch. But if you’re ready to learn more about the English language, I suggest watching comedies like The Big Bang Theory or 2 Broke Girls that have sophisticated terminology or clever humor. Watching stand-up comedy can also help you improve your comprehension of English as it gives you the opportunity to hear various accents. I enjoy watching the following comics:
- Russell Peters;
- Michael McIntyre;
- Dave Chappelle;
- Noah Trevor;
- Gabriel Iglesias
Reading
On the reading exam, I received a score of 7.5, which is below my greatest performance. As previously said, on the day of the test, I entered the room terrified and gave the listening test everything I had. After passing the hearing exam, I feel relieved and my “inner fire” has subsided. I thus find it difficult to concentrate on the reading exam, and as a result, I worry too much about it, which affects my score. You should thus give up fretting and hold onto the notion that “IELTS is easy.”
It takes more than simply learning to read to practice reading. Finding out what the question wants us to answer is the key. If you can rapidly determine the meaning of the text, you may spend your time reading the entire reading exam. I have read a lot of books, though, and I have never known how they ended. Instead of reading the entire reading passage during the exam because I know I won’t sleep well if I do, I merely scan it and utilize my deduction skills to answer the questions.
Advice: To help with your pronunciation, consider reading articles aloud as you’re reading them.
My approach to reading practice is a little “old school.” In addition to reading as much as I can in English, I attempt to take some online tests.
Go through articles on Medium.
One of the best ways to get better at reading is to read Medium articles. You may address that issue if you attempt to read the online newspaper at first and then immediately move to YouTube by reading articles on Medium.
You may choose from a large selection of subjects on Medium. Read about sports if you enjoy them, and if you enjoy programming, read about programming. The issue with reading the newspaper is that it makes you indifferent to the news and the way those politicians control the globe. Why even read it if you don’t care about it? Take some online tests (even though you should attempt to read it sometimes because it will affect your life).
Once more, you may practice reading tests by using the vast quantity available at https://ieltsonlinetests.com. Do try some other approaches in addition to mine, since everyone has a distinct approach that they think works for them.
Writing
This seems to be the most difficult section of the exam. Since I deal with computers all day as a programmer, I have to keep pounding the keyboard until something useful comes up. I no longer really know how to handle a pen because of this.
Regardless of the circumstances, I will attempt to complete a writing test at 5 PM each day leading up to the exam. Thus, there’s a good possibility that a programmer you encounter the next time will also be preparing for the IELTS if you notice him with a red, swollen middle finger.
I write about everything when I practice writing for the IELTS. I’m not suggesting you should limit your writing to paper by writing about everything. Writing about anything is meant to serve as practice for utilizing various tenses and structures. You may also write things on a computer to achieve that goal. This is an excellent opportunity for you to launch your own blog. You are frequently quite meticulous about what you write on your blog since the way you write might have an impact on how readers view you. You will thus need to continuously enhance your blog article, which will help you become a better writer.
You ought to make an effort to write on paper in addition to using a computer. (That’s what the IELTS exam does, so obviously). These two websites are where I often get my IELTS writing questions:
Speaking
Things get a little complicated at this point. The majority of IELTS test takers in my nation made the decision to form a group and refuse requests to speak English with strangers who appear to be from the West. That may be alright for you folks, but I’m not able to ask someone to stop and speak English with me since I always feel like I’m disturbing them. They’re having the fun of their lives when this random Asian guy walks up to them and asks to talk to them in their native tongue. It feels uncomfortable and strange.
