Friday, December 10, 2010

Tips In Scoring IELTS

Recently I've just received my IELTS result. Boy was I seriously happy when the results was out. I couldn't sleep. Too nervous.

Imagine clicking "Search For Result" button gave me serious goosebumps! God bless, I won't be paying another RM570 to re sit the paper.


Okay, so you guys might be asking me, how was my results? 

Listening: 8
Reading: 7
Writing: 7.5
Speaking: 6.5
Overall: 7.5

The results were something that I didn't really expect it to be because during the test, I thought that I did badly during writing but quite ok during speaking. But it went the other way around. Same goes to my mock exam too; managed to get 5 for writing while in speaking I did better than the actual one.

So tip number 1- 

DON'T TRUST YOUR MOCK RESULTS.


I was shocked when I managed to get band 7.5 for writing because my writing usually sucks. But I guess that wasn't the case here. A week before the actual exam starts, I read a few good writing examples in the internet- scribd.com

In scribd, you guys type in "IELTS writing task 1/writing task 2 examples" or any relevant keywords in the search button and walla! There you have it, good examples where you guys can download it in pdf format and in my case, I placed the file in my ipod so that I could read it everywhere I go.

Don't just read- but understand the whole context of the passage and analyse, what does it takes to get the band that you want. I would recommend 5 paragraphs for writing task 2 and you don't have to write too flowery in the writing task, a little bit would do. =P.


Reading. I suck on that.

Reading section in IELTS are one of most toughest paper because you have to read a lot text and answer a hell lot of questions in a short duration of time- one hour, that is.

Sometimes its hard for us to understand what the text means and to get the best out of the reading paper, I'd recommend on reading forums- get social with the people in the internet. One good forum is, www.thestudentroom.com

Its a forum for students, usually from the university of UK/England to hang out and talk/discuss regarding any topics, which is a good thing if you participate in and get involved. Read good discussions, skim good points and write out your ideas.

Participating in forums greatly improves your general idea on what topic is currently discussed and you'll probably get slated if you write something out of the topic, which is one of the things what the reading section in IELTS is about. GET THE GENERAL IDEA OF THE TEXT, SKIM FOR POINTS AND WRITE IT OUT.


Listening?

I'd recommend on listening to some good english musics. If you have time, search for the lyrics regarding the song that you're listening now and sing along, it's a good practice. Maybe watching a movie without reading the subtitles would do some good. Listening in IELTS are one of the easiest paper to sit. If you're an IELTS candidate, try to get the most of out of listening, you'll regret it if you don't.

I'm not a native english speaker but most of the time I'd try to talk english to some of my friends. You won't be improving if you talk your native language with other people rather than english. Try to set a day in the week to speak english with you friends. One good example is that I see my friends from BMI talked english during the IELTS exam and I've asked them, how long have you guys did this?

"It was long time ago"

If you're a lil bit shy, try on speaking infront of a mirror, like the SIMS game. Improve your charismatic performance by talking with yourself.

Remember to talk English with a good set of coherency and pronunciation. People wouldn't understand you if you talk gibberish.


To those of you who weren't lucky during the IELTS exam, don't fret, there's still time to improve and get a better result.

Congratulations to my friends who passed the exam- probably this could be the start of something positive. Stay cool, everyone! I'm envious to see you guys next semester! This holidays are kinda boring without you guys.

=P

P:S// If you guys have some better tips to share, please do! Email me @ syleuphoria@gmail.com

2 comments:

TikkoSS's Blog said...

wah seh.. got this type of exam one meh ..and need to pay so high

Buzz said...

Nice post about IELTS Writing Topics Every Students should properly know about it's structure

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