I hope all of you are fine. With so many people aspiring to give IELTS and few asking me how I scored well in that, I decided to write a post that could help the masses. OK let's start in pointers.

Secondly, I am writing this post as a summarized set of guidelines to practice and remember before giving IELTS. Here goes:

General Guidelines:
1. IELTS is nothing to be feared of. It is a test designed to judge your English skills. You are not expected to be perfect or exemplary in that, even the natives aren't that good to score full marks. You just have to prove that you have adequate skills in listening and interpreting English, reading and understanding it, writing in it, and conversing/communicating in it, and by adequate I mean average or above average.




2. IELTS is all about practice, practice and practice. And not a lot of it. One month of intense practice would do.

3. For people who want to give the test in the far future, here is a bonus tip, start practicing now. Present in your classrooms in English, watch movies with English subtitles. Read English newspapers, use apps that assist in pointing out grammatical and vocabulary mistakes, etc.

Now coming to the detailed tips. Basically, IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is a test with 4 sections. 1. Listening, 2. Reading, 3. Writing and 4. Speaking. Section 1, 2, and 3 are taken in one day, and the whole duration is about 2 and a half to 3 hours (excluding the arrival and settling time, etc.). Speaking test is usually scheduled on a different day. All these sections carry 9, 9, 9, and 9 marks separately, and the final band/score is an average of these 4. Generally, a score above or equal to 7 is a good score.

Now, the first 2 sections namely listening and reading carry absolute marks, which means you have 40, 40 questions to attempt in both and there is a scale that converts those marks (out of 40) into bands (out of 9). These scales are available on the British council's website. Your best bet is to score very well in these two since the writing and speaking test scores depend on how much the examiners are impressed with your attempt (honestly). For listening and reading, do as much practice as you can.
Tips for listening:

1. Listening is the easiest part, and it is usually very easy to score at least 8 in that. When you practice at home, use good-quality headphones. Keep the test in front of you and attempt it in one go. Don’t go back if you miss a question, if you start thinking about the missed one, you’d probably miss 3, 4 others as well.

2. Be very attentive during listening. Keep your mind on high alert all the time.

3. Utilize the time they give you to read the questions beforehand. Believe me, this is the best thing you can do in listening. When you read the questions beforehand, you have an idea of what you have to look for while listening.

4. Read the main question very clearly. I can’t stress it enough. Every time in the fill-in blanks section, you are asked to use no more than a fixed number of words (two or three mostly), but because many people don’t read the question and directly read the sentences with the blanks, even though they answer correctly, they are given no mark since it exceeds the word limit.

5. Referring to the above point, if an answer is longer than the allowed word limit, summarize its gist in the required number of words, this must be done very quickly since the recording being played is non-stop.

6. Remember you will have an extra 10 minutes to transfer the answers on the actual answer sheet, so don’t worry about the neatness of your answers on the question paper.

7. Practice as many tests as you can, but don’t do it on a single day. Doing regular practice for several consecutive days is better than practicing a lot on only one day.

8. Never pause or rewind the video when practicing. Attempt in one go and calculate your score, notice what you did wrong and improve it the next time. I am sure you’ll be a pro in no time.

9. Learn from your mistakes. When you tell the answers, don’t only look for the correct answers, look for the wrong ones and see what you did wrong. Did you summarize the answer wrongly? Was your answer grammatically incorrect?

10. Listening tests generally follow a format. They start from easier sections and gradually become tougher. But even at the toughest stage, they are not very hard to solve, I repeat, it is easy to score very good marks in listening.
The second section is reading. For me, it was the toughest part. 1 hour of time to read 3 passages and answer 40 questions. Seems simple enough? The problem is, the questions are very tricky.

There are broadly 5 types of questions (I might be wrong) in this section. General tip 1: When doing practice at home, practice 2 strategies. 1. Read the passages first and then attempt the questions. 2. Read the questions first and then read the passages to look for the answers (this worked far better for me). General Tip 2: Try to solve the first 2 sections in the first 20-25 minutes (I know, sounds impossible but try your maximum. You just have to be smart). Solve the last one in 15 minutes and leave at least 10 minutes to revise. This section is ALL about time management.

In listening, you have recordings that are exactly scheduled for 40 minutes giving you all the necessary gaps and pauses. You just have to go with the flow, but in reading, you have 3 passages for 1 hour. It is up to you to utilize it very efficiently and effectively.

1. True/False/Not Given (Can also be called Yes/No/Not Given): These questions are very tricky. But if you understand only one thing, it would be easy for you to solve these. If the thing is explicitly mentioned (in a rephrased manner) in the passage somewhere, it is true. If its exact opposite is mentioned in the passage (with words such as not or other words that nullify its effect or lead to a different answer that implies that that particular statement is false), ONLY then it is false. However, if nothing is explicitly mentioned against it and no other sentence implies that that sentence is wrong, then the answer is not given. Match your attempt with the correct one and learn from your mistakes.

2. Matching headings: These questions should ideally be the first you should attempt since they let you get a basic idea of each paragraph. First look at the headings, then read the first 2 sentences of each paragraph. If you are still confused, read the last sentence as well). This should generally help you get to the answer. If you find two headings suitable for a single passage, don’t waste your time and write both headings in front of the paragraph. Come back to it later.

3. Matching sentence endings: These are relatively easy. Look at the questions first and then look at those sentences in the passage, look for how they end and write them in the answer section. Please note that these sentences would not be stated in the exact same way in the passage but in a rephrased manner.

4. Table/flow chart/diagram completion: These are also very easy. You just have to search the paragraphs and hunt for the lines that match those in the questions and look for the missing words. These are generally in the fill-in-the-blanks form.

5. Short answer/questions: They are similar to question answers and have very small answers (two to three words, again, look for the required number of words in the question). They are easy as well.
The third section is about writing. It has two parts, namely part 1 and part 2. Part one carries half the marks than part 2, so put more effort into part 2. Both parts have a maximum allowed word limit, and +-10 words are allowed, but please don’t overwrite and NEVER write less. Stick to the point, leave no important details. Structure properly and make no grammatical mistakes.

In writing part one, you will be given a figure, map, table, chart, or any pictorial representation. You will be asked to summarize it in around 150 words. Remember some key points: You are not required to give your personal opinion in this part. They are not judging your knowledge on the subject, but your ability to summarize the figure. Use the first paragraph to introduce the diagram. The question that you are given also contains a line that introduces the diagram, but it’s best not to use any words from that. Use the second paragraph to explain the facts and figures. Use the third one to highlight the interesting findings. Use the last one to conclude it. Use adverbs and adjectives as much as you can for example steep curve, dramatic increase, steady growth, growing exponentially, etc.

In writing part 2, be very creative. First, find some free space to create a “Mind map”. A mind map is a pictorial representation of all the concepts you can think of, related to the given topic. It is a good exercise for attempting part 2. Write the topic in the center and draw lines and make clouds at the end of those lines. Write the keywords of each concept in one bubble. If it is an argumentative statement on which you have to write (means having favor and against the type of topic) then annotate the bubbles with plus and minus signs for differentiating between pros and cons. Please note that this mind map is for you and not for the examiner. So this should be on a rough sheet or back of the paper, and it is better to explicitly write rough work on that page.

Do this at the beginning of attempting part 2, spend only 3-4 minutes on it. Refer back to it repeatedly during attempting part 2. Remember, this requires good brainstorming skills (and practice is the key). This part should ideally be of 5 paragraphs. 1st and last for introduction and conclusion respectively, 2nd for pros (or points in favor), 3rd for cons (or points against), and 4th for your opinion.

In conclusion, it is best to summarize paragraphs 2,3, and 4 in three sentences and finish.
Bonus tip: There are TONS of material online and even at the end of many books, that show sample attempts along with the comments of the reviewers and their scores. They not only show the best and good attempts, but they also show the bad and worst attempts (bands equal to and below 5). Read all those to find the good and bad practices.

Bonus tip 2: If you know someone with good English (a teacher, colleague, class fellow, sibling), then ask them to evaluate your attempts and give their views on that.

The last section is speaking. As mentioned earlier, this can be scheduled on a separate day. For this, the first thing is to dress up accordingly. Look for personal hygiene. For preparation, look for some videos. And remember this, the best thing is to not practice for any topics, since by practicing any topic, you fix your answers which is not good. When they give you the topic, think then and there and write the key points on the paper they give you. They will give you 1-2 minutes for that. By “they”, I mean the examiner, who is an individual sitting in an otherwise vacant room, so it will just be he/she and you. So people who get nervous in front of panels etc. don’t need to worry about that.

The total speaking test takes up 15 minutes. First, the examiner will introduce himself/herself, then tell you that your test will be recorded for evaluation purposes, then ask you to introduce yourself. Now, this is something that you can practice. Use a paper and pen (at home) and write an introduction that doesn’t take more than a minute. It should include your name, educational background, career background (if any), and your present status (what are you currently doing and why are you giving IELTS). Don’t say explicitly that “I am giving IELTS because …”, say things like “currently I am looking for scholarship positions in MS in XYZ degree in ABC country, and I hope I’ll be able to land on a good position in 2,3 months” or something like that. Practice it over and over at home until you get fluent in it.

Try to communicate with the examiner confidently, maintain eye contact, don’t do a lot of umm’s and err’s. Use your hands to emphasize important points. Give clear opinions, don’t say “this is good plus band” or “yes and no”, say things like “I agree on this” or “I am for it” or “In my opinion, this is not right” etc., that clearly highlight what you think on the matter. Let the examiner speak when he does and if you don’t understand anything, don’t be shy and don’t hesitate, simply say “I am sorry, could you repeat that?” or “Come again” or “pardon?”. Try to smile once in a while and behave pleasantly. Leave a good impression.

With this, I believe I have written all I know on the subject. I wish you all the very best of luck in your IELTS attempts. Do share your scores with me after you get your results. Also, I am a busy person (not exaggerating), so it is highly likely that I won’t respond to many messages. I am glad that I spent my free time productively today! I leave with one message and one request. The message: “Please remember, IELTS is merely a step in your journey, your flight is very high and your destination is very fulfilling In Sha Allah.” My request is to simply keep my Parents and me in your prayers. I’ll do the same for you. Allah bless you all and Fi AmaniAllah!