The International English Language Testing System, also known as IELTS is a test designed to test your English speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills. It can be especially helpful to those planning to move abroad to a country where English is the native language. English is currently one of the most spoken languages in the world and the IELTS test is currently accepted by 8,000 universities, employers, and immigration organizations worldwide.
Each year more than 3 million IELTS tests are conducted. To ensure that you do well on your IELTS test it is important that you make sure you are well prepared.
FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE FORMAT
The first step is to make sure that you go over past papers and understand the test format. Analyzing not only the content of the tests but also how the questions are phrased. One of the most common mistakes students tends to repeat every year is that they are unable to understand the question fully and thus write answers which aren’t necessarily incorrect but just tend to be irrelevant to what the question is asking. There are four parts to the IELTS test (listening, reading, writing, and speaking). The IELTS website provides information about the test format and in which order it will be taken. It is important that you thoroughly read the description for each of the tests to make sure you don’t miss anything.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
This is also another way of helping familiarize yourself with the format of the test. It also helps point out your mistakes and where you need to improve. Timing yourself while attempting questions helps you learn how to attempt questions while being under time constraints. Sample test questions for all four parts are available on their website.
EXPOSING YOURSELF TO THE LANGUAGE
The best preparation is practice, which is why you should make it part of your daily routine to read, write, speak and practice English every chance you get. Little practices incorporated into your daily routine can bring a huge improvement. Every time you have to write something, even something as small as your grocery list, try and write it in English. Try and read every signboard in English you see as you drive or walk. Reading as little as ten minutes of English a day can help you improve. It helps improve your vocabulary and also your reading and writing speed.
The best way you can prepare yourself for the IELTS test is to familiarize yourself with the language and practice as much as you can. This is so that when you attempt the test it is like second nature for you.
You can also take up a course that will help you prepare online. You can check out our online IELTS Preparation Course here!