how to improve your level and get the ielts score you want

www.myieltsteacher.com

How to improve your

LEVEL

and

Get the

IELTS SCORE

you want (without paying for expensive courses or

books!)

Copyrigh

t © 2010 - 2012. My IELTS Teacher. All rights reserved.


Copyright © 2010 - 2012. My IELTS Teacher. All rights reserved.

Contents

Translate this pdf document 3

Before we begin 4

Reading 6

Listening 11

Speaking 16

Writing 20

In conclusion 27



Translate this document I know as a student of English that you should take every opportunity to read

things in En glish to he lp y ou im prove. And having lived in a non-English

speaking country, I al so know how time-consuming and frus trating it ca n be

searching on the In ternet and struggling to read things in a for eign language,

when you just want the answer NOW!

This document has been written to help you with your IELTS preparation. I’d

be m uch h appier if you c hose t o translate th is doc ument so that you c ould

access that information as quickly as possible. Then you can put these ideas

to good use and focus on improving your level of English.

So thank God for Google translate! I know the translations aren’t perfect but

they are a gr eat he lp and tim esaver. S o p lease feel free to fo llow the

instructions below:

Step 1: Open Zoho Viewer by clicking this link:

http://viewer.zoho.com/Upload.jsp

Upload this pdf file.

Step 2: Zoho Viewer will then provide a URL (web address) for this document. Copy this web address and go to Google translate using this link:

http://translate.google.com/#

Paste the web ad dress and se lect th e la nguage yo u wa nt to translate to . Click the Translate button. Happy reading!

http://viewer.zoho.com/Upload.jsp

http://translate.google.com/#



Before we begin Unfortunately th ere’s n o m agic f ormula to h elp y ou im prove y our lev el of

English. The only way to improve is t o PRACTICE PRACTICE

PRACTICE. In t he pa st your Englis h teachers pr obably told you to do

more practice outside class.

Now this advice is more important than ever if you want to get 6.5 or

more in your IELTS exam.

Getting this result means you can study at university or live/work in another

country.

Not getting this result means you can’t. However, you don’t n eed to spend lots of mo ney on English courses or

expensive books. A ll the help you need is FREE. You need to understand

where to find this help, and how to use it.

Before you start the most important rule is: ‘Little and often.’ Doing a little practice e veryday is far m ore beneficial than 2 h ours once a

week. You only need to spend 15 minutes every day to help you improve. If

you have time, spend 30 minutes.

But, you must decide how much time you can spend EVERY DAY. And then

STUDY AT THE SAME TIME EVERY DAY and make it part of your routine.

For example, you can study for 15 minutes:

After breakfast before you leave the house On the bus to school / work



D uring your lunch break On the bus home Make it the first job you do when you get home A fter dinner Instead of sitting in front of the TV Before you go to bed

Why is this routine more beneficial?

Because when you study for a short time every day:

you remember things more easily because you are reminded every day y ou don’t get bored you don’t daydream so you achieve more during your study time little successes are motivating so you feel like you are improving

However, ONLY doing IELTS practice tests WILL NOT improve your level or your overall IELTS score.

You need to focus on the different skills in English in order to improve your

level. That means improving:

Read ing Lis tening W riting Spe aking Gr ammar Vo cabulary

If you think yo u ha ve mor e problems wit h one o f these sk ills than t he

others then you need to focus on that skill. For example, if reading is the

most difficult part of the exam for you, then spend most of your time trying

to improve that skill.

And remember, you need time to improve. With daily practice of one skill

you c an i mprove y our lev el ov er 1 mon th. If you n eed to i mprove yo ur

level in more than one skill, you might need 6 months.

So let’s get started.



Reading You need to develop your ‘reading strategies’ so that you can read more

proficiently in English. What does that mean?

Think about how you read a newspaper in your own language.

Do you start at the top of the page and read everything to the

bottom?

Do you read every word carefully?

Do you stop reading when you don’t know a word in your own

language?

The answer is NO.

Generally your eyes move over the page looking at the story headings.

When you find an interesting heading you stop. You look more carefully at

the first sentence of this story.

If you’re interested your eyes move over the story quickly looking for the

main words that tell you what the story is about.

If these are uninteresting you give up and move on to another story.

If these are interesting you slow down and start to read the story.

If you don’t understand a word it doesn’t matter because you just want to

know what happens in the story.

These are ‘reading strategies’. You need to transfer these strategies

that you use for your own language to English.



Tip 1 One of the most important things you need to do in the IELTS exam is to use

these re ading s trategies to q uickly look a t ea ch paragraph in the text and

answer this question:

What is the main topic of this paragraph?

Maybe you can underline a few words to answer this question. Or maybe you

can write 1 or 2 words next to the paragraph. Here’s an example:

Turkish people are renowned for their hospitality. Whatever their financial

status, they welcome, and feed their guests as much as their resources allow.

It may sound unbelievable but in Anatolia it is acceptable to knock on any

door and ask for shelter, and it will be given, because unknown visitors are

considered to be sent by God. This is, of course, too much to ask of the city

dwellers who have lost trust in others after years of migration and the ensuing

urban unrest. 1

So, if I wa s reading the whole article I wo uld underline the words in the firs t

sentence, OR write n otes at the sid e of th e pa ragraph, eg. Tur kish pe ople

hospitality. I would repeat this process for every paragraph in an article.

This process should take you about 5-7 minutes for a 750 - 900 word text. At

first you will find it takes you longer, especially as it can be difficult sometimes

to separate the main topic from the supporting sentences. Unfortunately not

every par agraph has the ma in i dea in the firs t se ntence! So, it is essential

that you practice this technique in order to increase your speed.

Using th is process in the I ELTS e xam will h elp you ans wer the qu estions

more quickly because you won’t spend time searching the whole text again. 1 Taken from Culture Shock! A Guide to Customs and Etiquette Turkey (p.71). Arin Bayraktaroglu. Times Books

International. 1996

Comment: Hospitality of Turkish people is the main topic

Comment: These sentences support and explain what the writer means by hospitality in Turkey

Comment: In contrast to the main topic, this sentence states that in cities Turkish people are not hospitable and explains why.



Tip 2

Another imp ortant tec hnique is to use punctuation and sy mbols to help yo u

find information quickly.

Punctuation: we always use capital le tters for names – John Smith, the

city of Sydney, the month of October etc.

If you need to find the name of something in a long text then look for capital

letters.

Symbols: percentages - %, a third – 1/3 etc.

If you’re looking for ratios or rates of something it’s a good idea to think about

looking for these symbols.

Money – £100, €750, $55,000

Look for currency symbols.

Numbers - 350

You’ll f ind all these things more quickly if you move your eyes over the text

instead of re ading. An d th is saves you time in the exa m. Yo u can use the

same technique for specific words

finding a specific word such as ‘table’ in a text,

or if you need to find words related to a t opic, for example finding

different types of fruit such as ‘melon’, ‘apples’ etc.

To improve your speed at these strategies you need to practice reading ‘real’

English texts and try to find the topic in each paragraph. Then find names,

numbers and symbols. Time yourself.



Tip 3 Where do you find real English texts ?

On the internet – and they’re all FREE

IELTS read ing texts a re ta ken fro m newspapers, b ooks, magazines and

journals, and so these are the best places to practice your reading strategies.

Try choosing articles from the following:

www.guardian.co.uk

www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-magazine-archive-

page.htm

www.theaustralian.com.au

www.nytimes.com

www.economist.com

www.newscientist.com

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/archives

www.newint.org

www.time.com/time

www.newsweek.com

It he lps to c hoose an article w ith a t opic th at in terests you, but y ou s hould

choose from a var iety of cultural, environmental, business, medical, scientific,

educational and political themes.

What subject are you planning to study at university? If you can visit a library

with English lan guage boo ks you can bor row books re lated to th is s ubject.

You can prepare for your IELTS exam AND for university.

If yo u’re em igrating, w here are you going and w hat are y ou go ing t o do?

Search the internet for this country’s newspapers. You can prepare for your

IELTS exam, read local news stories about your new home country, find your

ideal home AND a job!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-magazine-archive-page.htm

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-magazine-archive-page.htm

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.economist.com/

http://www.newscientist.com/

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/archives

http://www.newint.org/

http://www.time.com/time

http://www.newsweek.com/



Tip 4 If you’re studying in an English class (or have done recently) or are taking an

IELTS class, go back over your notes. Read through your notebook and your

English class book – you should continue to remind yourself about what you

have learnt. If you don’t , then you will forget everything. And that means you

have wasted your money and your time.

Tip 5

The Australia Network has produced an excellent TV series on IELTS which

you can download from the internet:

http://australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_about.htm

There are 3 s eries to watch a nd they c over al l aspects of Gr ammar,

Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading for Academic IELTS.

First of all loo k through the topics of the episodes for each series and decide

which p rograms wou ld be mos t useful for you. Once you h ave c hosen t he

program yo u would like to watc h y ou can download wor ksheets and

transcripts too. I would re commend lo oking a t Series 3 as a lo t of these

episodes focus on reading strategies.




Listening Like reading, you need to develop your ‘listening strategies’ so that you

can listen more proficiently in English.

Think about how you listen to the news on the radio in your own

language.

Do you sit and listen carefully to every part of the news bulletin?

Do you listen to every word carefully?

Do you stop listening when you don’t know a word in your own

language, and focus on the meaning of that unknown word?

The answer is NO.

Generally you listen to the radio while you are doing something else, like

driving. So you are not concentrating on every word they say, but your ears

can hear the sound.

When you hear words connected to a news story that you want to know

about, you concentrate on listening to the radio.

But you still don’t listen to individual words. You normally listen to phrases.

Because you know how your language is constructed you can often hear the

beginning of a phrase and guess the ending. (Think about a bad telephone

connection. Imagine every 4th word is missing because the signal is weak.

You can probably still understand the conversation because your brain

automatically ‘fills in’ the missing word from its memory bank of phrases)

So, when you listen to the news on the radio you are only half listening

because your brain does all the work of predicting and filling in gaps. And if

you don’t know the meaning of a word you don’t care because it doesn’t

affect your understanding.



This kind of listening behaviour is very difficult to transfer into English listening

because your knowledge o f phrases and grammar s tructure is more l imited.

However, you ha ve le arnt g rammar a nd v ocabulary p hrases s o y ou can

sometimes guess what words will follow.

Tip 1

When listening to something in English the best idea is not to focus on every

word because th is bec omes v ery tirin g. Yo u als o ge t bored and then y our

brain ‘turns of f’, so you ac tually m iss the most important in formation. You

should focus on the words that you understand. This will hopefully

help you i n un derstanding th e main i dea. And don’t panic when you he ar

unknown words.

The good news in the exam is that you have time read the questions before

you listen. This gives you time to think about the topic you might be listening

to, and to use your knowledge of English to help you guess the answer.

The topic – us ing the in formation in the questions you can think about a ll

the words you kno w related to the topic. These words will probably be verbs

and nouns.

Guess the answer – for ‘gap fill’ type questions you’ll need to think about

the grammar of your answer. Does the ‘gap’ require a noun, adjective, verb

etc? For other types of questions are you listening for a name, number, place,

time etc?

Tip 2

To generally improve your listening ability you need to listen to the radio

and watch TV.

If you’re liv ing in an E nglish speaking country you have lots o f choice. Yo u

can also secretly listen to people speaking on the bus, in the street etc. And



you will obviously listen as you go about your normal life doing activities such

as ordering takeaway food on the telephone, buying tickets for the bus etc.

If you do n’t l ive in a n Eng lish s peaking co untry t hen you ha ve l ess ch oice.

First of all check out your channels on digital or c able TV. Normally you can

find news channels in English, such as BBC World News and CNN, as well as

other c hannels sh owing En glish la nguage programs. You can als o watch

your favourite series or a f ilm in English, but make sure you turn off or c over

the subtitles (reading subtitles won’t improve your listening!)

Tip 3

There are sites on the internet where you can listen to news:

www.uksuperweb.co.uk/radio.html This we bsite allows ac cess to lots

of radio stations in the UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm This web site

has short n ews video clips fro m th e BBC . The benefit of recorded

video is th at you can listen to it several times, and this allows you to

note down some interesting and useful new vocabulary.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/vodcast/ For mp4 video news from Australia

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/video.aspx For more recorded video news

from Australia.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/ For recorded news from the USA.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/how2 Subscribe to this weekl y

pod cast.

Here are sites where you can listen and answer questions:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-listening-downloads-

articles.htm

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/professionals-podcasts

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-professionals-

archive.htm

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/ielts-mock-papers

http://www.uksuperweb.co.uk/radio.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm

http://au.news.yahoo.com/vodcast/

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/video.aspx

http://edition.cnn.com/video/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/how2

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-listening-downloads-articles.htm

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-listening-downloads-articles.htm

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/professionals-podcasts

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-professionals-archive.htm

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-professionals-archive.htm

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/ielts-mock-papers



www.esl-lab.com

Some students have told me of a te chnique they ha ve foun d r eally us eful.

When they liste n to s omething i n English at h ome (the news, t he cla ss C D

etc.) they listen again and again, and they try to write down every word they

hear. O ver time they s ay it has rea lly helped the m to i mprove. I t’s not

something I’ve tried, but if students tell me it w orks, then I’m happy to share

the idea with you.

Tip 4

If you’re studying in an English class (or have done recently) or are taking an

IELTS class, go back over your notes. Go b ack over the lis tening ac tivities

from class. You can listen to the CD several times to work out why the correct

answers are correct, or check the tape script at the back of th e book. Think

about w hich word s and phr ases help yo u to understand this is the c orrect

answer?

And don’t forget to read through your notebook and your English class book –

you should continue to remind yourself about what you have learnt. Just like

for reading, if you don’t, then you will forget everything. And that means you

have wasted your money and your time.

Tip 5




There ar e 3 series to watch and they cover al l as pects of Grammar,

Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading for Academic IELTS.

First of all loo k through the topics of the episodes for each series and decide

which p rograms wou ld be mos t useful for you. Once you h ave c hosen t he

http://www.esl-lab.com/




program yo u would like to watc h y ou can download wor ksheets and

transcripts too. I would re commend lo oking a t Series 3 as a lo t of these

episodes focus on listening strategies.



Speaking

If you ha ve problems w ith fluency then y ou c an’t s peak naturally and

confidently, a nd you a lways s top and s tart bec ause you c an’t f ind th e r ight

word. In order to improve your fluency you need to speak more.

Tip 1

In an English speaking country there are more people to practice with, but it

can be a li ttle frightening. You need to find someone who is ha ppy to listen

and speak to you. Often you can find another student in your class, but make

sure they are from a different country so you have to speak English together.

Or maybe you are living with a host family. Their job is to look after you and

provide you with o pportunities to speak at home. Yo ur job is to th ink about

subjects y ou wan t to talk ab out and then s tart a c onversation with them.

Please do n’t expect the m to w ork hard trying to make you s peak – you

need to think about topics if y ou want th em t o speak to you. Make

sure you are prepared to talk about different subjects – you need to be able to

give op inions an d ex plain wh y you ha ve these opin ions. But be c areful!

Remember your host family is from a different culture and may have different

opinions. Choose topics that won’t cause problems if you have very different

opinions.

If you don’t live in an English speaking country it can be more difficult to find

someone to practice with. You can find another student in your class, but you

have to be very strict about not speaking your own language.

Nowadays ma ny s tudents ar e mee ting up o n Facebook a nd other

networking sites, looking for speaking partners, and speaking for FREE online

using Skype. If you have a Facebook account then search for Splendid

Speaking, Best IELTS Online a nd My IELTS Teacher – t hey all

have Facebook pages. You can post a message on their ‘discussions’ or ‘wall’



page looking for a speaking partner to practice with for the IELTS exam. You

then need to share your Skype details with each other and organise a time to

call.

Again you need to plan this carefully so you don’t have lots of silence. Maybe

agree a few top ics th at y ou ca n talk a bout in ad vance, giving your op inion,

explaining why you have this opinion, and asking for your partner’s opinion.

You could even find some IELTS speaking exams and test each other! Tr y

these links:

http://www.myieltsteacher.com/speaking_test_practice.html

http://www.ielts-blog.com/ielts-preparation-tips/speaking-tips/ielts-

speaking-test-questions/

Tip 2

If you can’t find a pa rtner then speak to yourself (in Englis h)! You c an

talk about:

what you have done today

what you’re going to do tomorrow

any problems you need to solve

any arguments you’ve had and what you wish you’d said

the topics and situations are endless

It’s bes t to do this privately i n your room! However, if you speak s ilently i n

your head, you could do this on the bus on the way home!

To help you improve you should sometimes record yourself doing this.

When you listen you can check several things:

how often do you hesitate or use ‘er...’?

do you use the same words all the time?

you could try to us e n ew vo cabulary th at you have learnt and no tice

which words you use

http://www.myieltsteacher.com/speaking_test_practice.html

http://www.ielts-blog.com/ielts-preparation-tips/speaking-tips/ielts-speaking-test-questions/

http://www.ielts-blog.com/ielts-preparation-tips/speaking-tips/ielts-speaking-test-questions/



do y ou u se d ifferent tenses to talk ab out different th ings? Ag ain yo u

could try to include new grammar structures that you have learnt

A good ide a is to record y ourself t he first time y ou do this. Th en if y ou

continue to practice this speaking activity every day, record yourself again 10

days later. And then record yourself again after another 10 days.

When yo u compare the recordings ca n y ou hea r an improvement? There

should be some ch ange a fter a ll th is practice. If you’re n ot h appy th ough,

think abo ut try ing to i mprove your vocabulary an d grammar an d then ad d

these words and structures to your speaking.

With 5-10 minutes daily practice your fluency should improve over 1 month.

Tip 3

If you have problems with accuracy then you are making lots of mistakes

with y our grammar and v ocabulary when you s peak. Very o ften these

mistakes o ccur because you h ave mis understood something and lea rnt i t

wrong.

If you have English lessons you can ask your teacher about the mistakes they

notice with y our speaking. If you’re not taking any classes then you need to

ask someone you trust to comment on your accuracy – this could be an old

student, family member or other friend. Or if you hav e no ne o f these, th en

maybe you can ask your Skype partner.

To try a nd so lve y our p roblems y ou n eed t o record your speaking as

mentioned above. However, when you listen to the recording your job now is

to notice when you make mistakes. For ex ample, you c ould lis ten

and focus on your ve rb te nses. Ar e you us ing th e c orrect te nse for eac h

subject you talk about? Or you could focus on prepositions.



Check a g ood grammar boo k (eg . Murphy’s Es sential Gramma r in Use

Intermediate – s ee if you c an borrow a co py fro m a friend o r a li brary) or

search for specific grammar topics online:

http://www.englishcorner.vacau.com/grammar/grammar.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar

http://esl.about.com/od/intermediateenglish/u/continue.htm

http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/

http://www.world-english.org/

If you know what mistakes you normally make you’ll be surprised how often

you make them on the recording. But this tells you that you need to think and

speak m ore carefully when using the se words. Ev entually you can c hange

your mistakes.

Tip 4




I would recommend looking a t Series 2 and 3 as a lot of these e pisodes

focus on speaking. First of all look through the topics of the episodes for

each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once

you h ave c hosen the pr ogram you wo uld lik e to wa tch you c an do wnload

worksheets and transcripts too.










Writing

For the IELTS exam yo u need to write an e ssay, and e ither de scribe a

graph/process o r writ e a le tter, de pending o n w hether yo u ar e tak ing the

Academic or General exam. T o understand how to answer these questions

you need training. I s uggest you check out a few I ELTS websites to find out

how to brainstorm and pla n essa ys, and d evelop your v ocabulary for

describing graphs and writing letters. Here are a few to get you started:


www.bestieltsonline.com

www.dcielts.com

To improve your formal writing skills you need to focus on several areas.

Tip 1

Grammar

If you have problems with grammar, you need to work out what your

main problems are. How do you d o this? Lo ok back over past writ ing

you h ave produced. Th is ma y be homework o r ac tivities from an E nglish

class. When your teacher marked the writing, what mistakes did you make?

Have you written reports or emails at work? Is there someone you can ask to

check over you r writ ing a nd highlight your mistakes? Th is c ould be an old

English teacher, a fl uent English speaking friend or relative, a fr iend’s fr iend,

or someone you meet on Facebook.

The most important thing is to find out where you are making mistakes. Th is

could be verb te nses, p assive stru ctures, p repositions, articles etc . Y ou

should u se a good gr ammar book (eg. M urphy’s Essential Gra mmar i n Us e

Intermediate – s ee if you c an borrow a co py fro m a friend o r a li brary) or

search for the se sp ecific topics o nline. Here are some us eful En glish

grammar websites:

http://www.bestieltsonline.com/

http://www.dcielts.com/









Most of these websites also have practice pages so you read the rules and

then test yourself.




I would recommend looking a t Series 1 and 2 as a lot o f these episodes

focus on grammar and writing. First of all look through the topics of the

episodes for each series and decide which programs would be most useful for

you. On ce you have chosen the program you would like to watch you can

download worksheets and transcripts too.

When you do some writing in the future, always check it when you’ve finished.

It’s amazing how ma ny p oints students lose bec ause th ey don’t ch eck th eir

writing. We all make basic mistakes when we write so it’s e ssential to read

through your work when you’ve finished. You should check those structures

which you normally have problems with. If you know what your problems are

you’ll be more ca reful in th e fu ture. But rem ember, you do n’t ha ve to b e

perfect t o g et the IELTS sc ore you wan t (un less you wa nt 9! ). For most

students who need 6 .5 or 7, you need to make su re your bas ic grammar is

accurate (tenses, prepositions, spelling, possessive apostrophes). You al so

need to use some complex sentences (see Tip 5 below).










Tip 2

Vocabulary

If you have problems with vocabulary, you need to work out what your

main problems are. How do you do th is? In the sa me wa y with

grammar, look back over past writing you have produced. What mistakes did

you make?

There ar e va rious types of vocabulary mistakes that IELTS s tudents

tend to make:

1. using the wrong grammatical forms

This means you have chosen the correct word for the topic, but you have

used th e n oun form instead of the adjective fo rm, or in stead of the ve rb

form.

eg. verb - decide, noun – decision, adjective – decisive etc.

2. using the correct word but in the wrong place in the

sentence

Some words m ust be us ed in a specific place in a se ntence. This is

especially true for adverbs, but there are lots of other rules too.

eg. Th ere are still many peo ple who b elieve tha t we s hould do mo re to

prevent global warming.

The positioning of the word still depends on whether you use the verb ‘be’

(as in this sentence) or other verbs (as in the next sentence).

Eg. These people still believe we should do more.

3. how a word is used with other words

Some w ords can be us ed together with l ots o f words, b ut s ome wor ds

cannot.

eg. Global warming causes the climate to change and some areas of the

world suffer fr om ex treme weather co nditions su ch as heavy rain at

unusual times of the year.



Here th ere are a few phrases where certain wor ds g o to gether, global

warming no t g lobal heating, suffer fr om no t s uffer a gainst, weather

conditions not weather situations, heavy rain not strong rain.

In order to know how to use a word correctly use an English-English dictionary

for students, or check online:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

http://www.ldoceonline.com/

An English-English dictionary will tell you which word you need to use, how to

use it c orrectly a nd how to sp ell it . I t al so gives you a v ariety o f e xample

sentences using the word.

Tip 3

If you think your vocabulary is too basic and you need to develop it

for th e IELTS ex am there is lo ts of a dvice and lin ks t o useful we bsites on

these web pages:



www.dcielts.com

Again, th e Aus tralia Ne twork TV s eries on IEL TS prov ides som e e xcellent

programs on IELTS vocabulary.


I would recommend looking a t Series 1 and 2 as a lot of these e pisodes

focus on vocabulary. First of all look through the topics of the episodes for

each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once

you h ave c hosen the pr ogram you wo uld lik e to wa tch you c an do wnload

worksheets and transcripts too.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

http://www.ldoceonline.com/

http://www.myieltsteacher.com/






Tip 4

Finally a word on how to learn and remember vocabulary. The best way

to remember words is to re peat them. Only by repeating words a sufficient

number of times can your brain actually set up a system to try and remember

it when y ou need it. (Th ink about how yo u try to rem ember a n ew p hone

number – I often try repeating it until I finally remember it.)

The bes t (and mos t fun) way to repeat words is to write the new word on a

yellow post-it note. Include other important information if you want, such as

form (noun, adjective etc.), pronunciation, translation etc. And always add an

example s entence th at inc ludes th e wo rd. This s entence must hav e s ome

personal s ignificance for you or be re lated to yo ur life in some way. Wh y?

Because personal information is easier for you to remember and relate to.

I would choose about 10 wor ds for 1 we ek, ea ch with th eir s eparate pos t-it

note. (Be realistic with your learning and memory ability. Learn 10 words well

in 1 week so tha t you ca n still re member them 1 mo nth la ter. If you try t o

learn mo re t han th at you’ll find you ha ve forgotten them after only a fe w

weeks.)

Now s tick these p ost-it no tes around the h ouse, for e xample on th e fridge,

bathroom mir ror etc. Eve ry time you see the post-it note say t he word and

sentence. You could see it 7 times a day, so say the word and the sentence 7

times a day. Do th is every day for 1 week and you have said the word about

50 times. That’s repetition!

Save the post-it notes so that after 1 or 2 weeks you can test yourself. Over a

few months you could easily learn and remember about 150 words that

are useful for IELTS. Excellent!



Tip 5

Using complex structures

Some studen ts hav e problems using comp lex g rammar s tructures in their

writing. T hey may be too fri ghtened of us ing these s tructures because they

aren’t su re how to use them correctly, or they use them but make m istakes

every time.

First of all, what are complex structures?

If you need to get a minimum of 6.5 in the IELTS exam you need to know and

use passive structures, relative clauses and if-

clauses/conditional sentences. And you need to use them accurately

most of the time.

As wit h the g rammar p roblems m entioned before, you s hould u se a g ood

grammar book (eg. Murphy’s Essential Grammar in Use Intermediate – see if

you c an b orrow a c opy from a friend or a libra ry) so that you c an p ractise

these structures. Or search these topics online:







If you need more help on how to use these complex structures in your writing

for the IELTS ex am you sh ould check th e adv ice an d links on thes e we b

pages:



www.dcielts.com







http://www.myieltsteacher.com/





The Au stralia Network TV se ries on IEL TS h as a lot of help for g rammar:


I would recommend looking at Series 1 and 2 as some of th ese episodes

focus on grammar and complex structures. First of a ll look through

the topics of the episodes for each series and decide which programs would

be most useful for you. Once you have chosen the program you would like to

watch you can download worksheets and transcripts too.




In conclusion

So there is my advice on how to improve the 4 skills you are tested on in the

IELTS exam. A ll o f the ad vice can be foun d for FREE wi thout bu ying

expensive books or paying for English courses. Of co urse, these books and

courses are excellent ways to improve your English but only if you also study

every d ay, for at le ast 15 m inutes, to improve your level. Spending

money does not guarantee results. Working hard does.

And how long do you need to prepare for the exam? This depends on your current level and what score you want. Have a look at

the table below:

Common European Framework (CEF)

Cambridge ESOL exams

Typical Language school levels

IELTS scores

A1 Elementary 1-2 A2 KET Pre Intermediate 3 B1 PET Intermediate 3.5- 4.5 B2 FCE Upper Intermediate 5-6 C1 CAE Lower Advanced 6.5-7 C2 CPE Advanced 7.5+

If you believe you are currently an Upper Intermediate student and

you need 5.5 then you are nearly ready to take the exam. First of all you

need to do a practice reading and listening test, you can find some online at:

http://www.myieltsteacher.com/reading_practice_tests.html

http://www.myieltsteacher.com/practice_tests.html

Count how many correct answers you get and then use the IELTS score

calculator on these web pages to find out your approximate IELTS score.

http://www.myieltsteacher.com/reading_practice_tests.html

http://www.myieltsteacher.com/practice_tests.html



If you get less than 5.5 you need to use the advice in this document to make

some improvements for 1 or 2 months. In the meantime, you should also use

the websites sug gested to work on your sp eaking and writing, an d tr y a

practice test.

Then take an other practice rea ding an d li stening tes t t o see if you h ave

improved. Once you have reached the ri ght score then you a re ready to tr y

the exam.

If you are currently an Upper Intermediate student and you

want 6.5, y ou ne ed to wo rk on im proving y our lev el. This c ould take 6

months. A fter th at you c an try a pra ctice test a nd c heck y our reading a nd

listening scores.

Remember, if you only do IELTS practice tests you WILL NOT improve your

level or your overall IELTS score.

You need to work on the different skills that are causing you problems. Once

you have improved these skills, then your level wi ll increase. And then your

IELTS result will increase.

One final word….

Don’t give up. Don’t get depressed. If you work hard you can achieve. If you

really want to s tudy at university or em igrate, and you need a s pecific IELTS

result, then your motivation and desire is strong enough to he lp you. Believe

in yourself.

how to improve your level and get the ielts score you want

Documents