A Brief Discussion on IELTS Preparation

1 All Link for IELTS Preparation1

  1. IELTS LIZ
  2. English with Emma
  3. English Lessons with Dori
  4. Asad Yaqub IELTS

General Suggestions on How to Use These YouTube Channels

I would recommend you to start with channel 1, IELTS LIZ. This is the easiest channel
for a beginner. Finish every video and don’t forget to make note on them. When you
listen, you will find them very easy but you will forget few days later. So, I strongly
suggest to make separate note for 4 sections of IELTS exam and keep note on all videos
you watched. It will be helpful to review at your spare time ( as you will not be able to
watch them again due to time constraint).

  1. Once you finish watching channel 1,you may consider watching channel 3, English
    Lessons with Dori. She explained different strategies very clearly. Make note as before.
  2. Now you can start watching channel 2, English with Emma. The difficulty level in this
    channel is slightly higher than other two channels. But, this channel is very conducive to
    your preparation for IELTS exam. Taking note is strongly recommended.
  3. Finally you can review channel 4. I don’t have very good idea about this channel but I
    believe it is a good channel. You can try and see if it can be helpful.

Although I recommend to review one channel after another, you can review two channels
simultaneously. For instance, you can review reading parts from channel 1 and 2
simultaneously. It is sometimes helpful as you will be able to distinguish between the two
channels. It depends on which approch you are comfortable with.
You must remember, your objective is not just to finish watching all videos. The objective is to
improve your English skills. So, you can watch a video many times if you don’t understand
watching 1st time.

Suggestions on Each Section

Writing
This is the most difficult part of the IELTS Exam. It takes a lot of effort to increase score in this
part. The results on this part is very important to be considered for Research Assistant
Position. You must not get below 6 while higher is better.
Some of my suggestions are below to achieve your desired score.

  1. Read Tsk 1 and Task 2 example from Cambridge IELTS Official Book. Get overall Ideas on
    what kind of question appear in exam.
  2. Read sample answers from Cambridge book. They have sample answer for different band
    score. Compare your writing skills with those band scores.
  3. Buy one very good book on writing. Try to read minimum 2 hours everyday that book.
    You must write to improve your writing skills. Writing book has strategies on how to use
    different phrases and vocabulary to present your writing as high quality. Master those
    strategies.
  4. Finally, practice everyday at least one writing example from Cambridge book.

Listening

This is the easiest section of IELTS Exam. You need to get as high score as possible in this
section to increase your overall score. I am discussing some common strategies to improve your
score in this section.

  1. This section is case sensitive. That means you will get 0 score if you spell incorrectly,
    wrong use of capitalization, incorrect article. You must be careful about grammar and
    spelling in this section. I have attached a list of most common 1200 words2
    . You must
    learn how to spell them correctly. Just with correct spelling and proper use of grammar,
    you can increase band score by minimum 1 in this section.

Generally there are 4 parts in this listening part with part 1 being easiest followed by part

  1. You need to cash in on these two parts. I would suggest not to prepare on whole
    listening section at a time. Start section by section.
  2. For example, start part one first. You practise and see how much you can score. If you are
    getting below 9, out of 10, you should try to analyse where is your problem and work on
    them. Most are related to booking a restaurant or recreation center. So you will be
    expected to know date, days, place name, common English name. I would strongly
    suggest keep practicing this section until you get score 9 consistently in this section.
  3. Once you are comfortable with first part, focus on second part. This part is basically on
    maps and diagram. You listen YouTube video separately on how to solve diagram and
    maps problems. You are expected to prepare until you get minimum 8 in this section.
  4. Next part is relatively difficult. Most of the time two to three people speak and questions
    are multiple choice type. You need to prepare again separately for this section. Practice
    and review until you get 6 to 7 in this section.
  5. Part 4 of listening section can be difficult or easy depending on how much command you
    have on overall English Language. It will test your grammar, sentence structure and
    sentence completion abilities. You will have to fill in the blanks and they will have
    indirect answers in their discussion. Answer will not be straight forward. Sometimes you
    will have to use different tense or add auxiliary verb. But, once you understand the trick,
    it is easy to score in this section

Reading

This is a relatively difficult section. It is easy to score up to 6 but very difficult afterwards. The
strategies to score well in this section are below:

  1. Read New York Times and The Economist at least one hour everyday. You are generally
    required to subscribe for these papers. One trick is to like their pages on Facebook and
    read everyday. Initially you will not understand anything, but it will be easier over time.
    Don’t worry if you don’t understand meaning of many words. Check if you understand
    the context of these papers.
  2. Practice Cambridge book for reading. I would not suggest to practice reading from
    Cambridge everyday as it is stressful and tiring. Schedule two to three days per week
    when you will practise on reading. Initially you can practise on each paragraph without
    considering time limit. Solve all of then no matter how long it takes. Once you find that
    you can solve them correctly given sufficient time, start solving them under time
    constraint.
  3. Reading section has numerous question types and you must be familiar with each type of
    problems. Different types of problems require different approach. Work on them and see
    which works best for you. Capitalization and spelling are very important for this section.

Also you must be familiar with grammar topics i.e, voice, narration, sentence and tense to
do well in this section3

  1. You must remember that you don’t have to understand every word in the passage. If you
    try to do so, you will kill your valuable time and end up with lower score. Your objective
    should be to have overall idea on what the passage is talking about. Then read the
    question and look for relevant answer from the passage. If you practise a lot, you will
    have the idea on how they ask the question and how to find the answer from the passages

Speaking

This is the section in which you can easily increase your score. Scoring well in this section is
also important to get Teaching Assistant Position4
.
I am discussing below some common strategies to do well in this section.

  1. Review Cambridge book to have overall idea on Speaking question.
  2. In first part they will ask about you and your family. Be comfortable discussing about you
    and your family.
  3. Part 2 where you will be given a cue card and will have to speak one to two minutes on
    that topic5
    . Topics can be anything including national holiday, national festival, your
    journey etc. You are allowed to lie about them. Maybe they asked about a train journey
    which you did not experience ever. You can make up a story on the journey by train. It
    will not deduct any score. Remember, this is to test your English Speaking skills not your
    integrity. So feel free to lie in this section.
  4. There is a paragraph book named 300 Plus Paragraph. I would recommend to review
    this book so that you can modify and speak on that topic following the book.
  5. Everyday speak at least 1 hour with your friend (anyone) in English. Tell your friend to
    ask you to talk on any topic. Then you talk for at least 2 minutes 30 seconds on that topic
    and record them. You continue practising until you become comfortable speaking on any
    topic for at least 2 minutes and 3o seconds.
  6. Speaking practice is the only way to score well in this section. So, Keep Practicing

Caution: I took IELTS Exam five years before from today. So, some sections can be
changed since then. Feel free to inform me if you notice any such change.

Prepared by:
Tuhinur Rahman Chowdhury
PhD student in Agricultural and Applied Economics ( Majoring in Quantitative Economics and
Econometrics)
Email: tuhchowd@ttu.edu

Published : https://www.facebook.com/groups/HigherStudyAbroad/permalink/7856191287775817

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