Everything You Need to Know About Preparing for Your IELTS Test
Whatever your reasons for choosing to study or work in an English-speaking environment, it’s crucial that your English test scores are recognised by schools, universities, and employers. You’ll probably also be looking for a good range of preparation materials to help you achieve your very best score.
In these aspects and more, IELTS stands out, offering you the opportunity to excel.
Preparing for IELTS is often the first concern for test-takers. With four modules and numerous tips and strategies to grasp, it can feel overwhelming. So, where do you begin?
Read on this blog as we take you through 5 essential steps for IELTS preparation.
Firstly, why should you take an IELTS exam?
IELTS is the test of choice for people seeking to move to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. IELTS is already recognised by over 12,000 organisations around the world. This includes leading universities and schools, government departments, professional associations, and companies - institutions that are keen to welcome your talent and potential.
With IELTS, your score can help you with an Australian study visa. It also helps you with entry into Australian universities, schools, training colleges and other tertiary institutions.
Find out which institutions accept IELTS in Australia.
How does the scoring work?
ELTS scores are calculated by taking the mean result for all four modules of the test.
Based on your performance, you will receive an IELTS band score - ranging from 0-9 for each section: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. These scores provide organisations insight into your English proficiency and are averaged to determine your overall band score.
When marking your IELTS test, the examiner will be assessing each component against the IELTS marking criteria to establish your band score. You can see the different IELTS band scores, plus a description of what is needed to achieve that IELTS score in the table below.
Scores ending in 0.25 will be rounded up to the nearest half band, and scores of 0.75 will be rounded up the nearest whole band.
If you want to calculate your overall IELTS band score - check out this IELTS Band Score Calculator.
What’s the required IELTS score for studying in Australia?
Most universities and institutions have different requirements when it comes to IELTS scores. So, what is the best way to find out about the requirements for the course you’re interested in? Of course, you can contact the institutions directly. But you can also get in touch with an education consultant. They have access to information from multiple education providers.
Now that you've got a handle on the basics of IELTS, it's time for what you've been waiting for: 5 steps to prepare for the IELTS exam.
Step 1: Choose the right test
The first step begins with make sure you understand the requirements of the test and which type of IELTS test you need to take.
There are two types: IELTS Academic and General Training. They’re slightly different so you need to make sure you prepare for the right one!
You must take IELTS Academic if you’re intending to apply to study abroad in Australian universities or colleges, or some other form of education. General Training is for those intending to work abroad or immigrate to another country.
A lot of the elements of the tests are the same but the reading modules are completely different and part of the writing module is not the same.
Step 2: Understand the test format
The next thing that you want to do to know how to prepare for IELTS is to get to know what the general format of the test is.
First, understand how the scoring of IELTS works and official IELTS public band descriptors. It’s based on band scores, and you need to know which one you’re aiming for and how they are calculated/graded across the modules.
Then you should go through one practice test for each of the modules, so you know exactly what you have to do in each part of the test.
Check out this IELTS Online Practice Tests for sample tests.
When you first do this, don’t worry about timings or specific skills, just have a go at a reading and listening test so you know what it involves.
Have a read through some speaking tests to see what the format is and what kinds of questions asked. You can search IELTS Speaking Mock Test on Youtube to give you practice.
Looking at some sample writing questions and try writing an essay and graph (academic) or letter (general training).
Step 3: Study sample questions and answers
From going through step 2, you now know what to expect generally in each module.
But there are lots of different types of questions so it’s a good idea to get to know more about the different question types and the ways that people answer the questions.
There is no point in looking at model answers for reading and listening as they’re fixed answers that are right or wring. But for the speaking and writing there are a variety of ways that you could answer each question. So, for these it is a good idea to look at sample answers and models.
Step 4: Learn strategies and tips
Now it is time to delve deeper into the specific strategies of how to answer specific question types for all modules of the test: speaking, writing, listening and reading.
Try to work on a different skill each day so you don’t get bored with the same thing, or if you have the whole day free, spend the morning on one skill and the afternoon on another.
Immerse yourself in other English activities as these will all help with the test, try to read as much high-quality English as possible. You can read from online news sites like BBC, The Guardian, The Times or New York Times. Tip to read for grammar and vocabulary as it will help your writing and speaking.
Or, TED Talks can be helpful because they usually come with excellent subtitles. Tip is to listen to talks on subjects you are interested in so that you can refer to them in your IELTS level. And of course, speaking English if you can.
You don’t need to spend all your time on IELTS based activities and if you do you will get very bored.
Step 5: Practice under timed conditions
It is essential that once you have started to understand the test format and the strategies you can use to get a high score, you practice under test conditions.
Finishing on time is one of the major problems that candidates have in the reading and writing tests. So get some reading practice tests and writing task 1 and task 2 questions and do a lot of practice keeping strictly to the times allocated in the test - one hour for the reading, and one hour for the writing (with 20 minutes spent on task 1 and 40 minutes spent on task 2).
Candidates have particular problems finishing the writing in the allotted time so make sure you spend plenty of time practising the Task 1 and 2 using a variety of question types.
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