How can I get a better IELTS, PTE or TOEFL score?
You can’t trick the test
Many learners assume a number of things when answering this question. The first assumption is that the best preparation is extensive practice of similar Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing tasks. However, this thinking is flawed, because you can put a lot of time and effort into doing such activities without necessarily improving your English. In addition, most learners do these things without feedback. How can you measure your success without feedback from a competent teacher who is familiar with the exam (IELTS, PTE, etc.)? Furthermore, these exams are designed to stop candidates from achieving success by merely giving pre-prepared memorised responses. There are always many different sets of topics and tasks for and it would not be possible to memorise all of them. Nevertheless, despite my earlier comments, preparation and practice activities are invaluable. It’s important to know the format of the test and what strategies will maximise your chances of a good score, but remember you can’t fool these tests. If your English is good, with the right strategies, you have a good chance of doing well. If your English is poor, strategies will not magically give you a score above your true ability.
So what should I do?
I said earlier that it’s possible to put a lot of time and effort into practice activities without improving your English much. I argue that while knowledge about the test and practice are very important, it’s much more important to make sure that you are using English as often as possible in real communicative situations. If you live in an English speaking country, this should be much easier.
My personal experiences
When I was planning to go to Latin America to live for a few years, I planned ahead and began to learn Spanish. After about six months, I realised that my progress had been limited and that I needed to change what I was doing. Although I was living in Australia, I was able to become involved in some Latin American social groups and make new Spanish speaking friends. I made it my aim to use Spanish every day, whether it was Speaking, Reading or Writing (it was before the days of the internet, so Listening materials were a bit scarce). To cut a long story short, after two years I left for Latin America with a high degree of fluency. This served as a valuable lesson later when I studied Indonesian at university. As there were few Indonesian speakers in my hometown, immersion and real practice was hard to find. However, even though by that time I had access to the internet and its many language learning tools, I found that my progress was slow. Once again, I knew that I had to find a way of getting real practice, so I signed up for a summer course in-country in Singaraja, Bali. During my time in Indonesia, I lived with a local family and quickly got to know everyone in the neighbourhood. My weeks consisted of five days of classes followed bu interactions with my host family and neighbours and trips away on weekends. In those two months, I learned far more than I had learnt in two years of classes at university.
Does and don’ts for IELTS
IELTS Speaking
Do:
- Practice speaking in real contexts. Make friends with people who speak English and do not speak your first language, even if they are also not natives. The value of practising English in realistic social or work environments cannot be overestimated. In addition, it’s not realistic to think that you can study English 24/7. Getting real speaking practice is a way of learning without hard work.
- Find some realistic Speaking Practice exams such as in the Cambridge IELTS books and practice – Get someone to test you and make it a 15-minute test with three parts as in the real test.
- Find a way to do realistic practice tests with feedback from a teacher – this may be a teacher in your school or an online paid service (you may be able to find a paid service by searching “online practice IELTS speaking tests with feedback” in Google or Yahoo). The teacher should be able to point out weaknesses and suggest strategies for fuller, better answers. They should not (and probably won’t be able to), give you exact feedback relating to a score).
- Listen to advice from IELTS experts and watch recorded sample IELTS tests on YouTube on the IDP YouTube Channel (IDP is one of the owner partners of IELTS).
- Listen to advice from British Council IELTS experts in the Speaking section here.
IELTS Reading
- Read for pleasure (you will be able to learn a lot, while not ‘working’).
- When doing Reading practice tests, push yourself to complete three-reading practice tests in 60 minutes (the actual time given in the test). *
- Review your answers after finishing practice tests to see why you got answers wrong.
- Use a book of practice tests that gives explanations (not just answers). I especially recommend IELTS Test Builder 1 and IELTS Test Builder 2 by Sam McCarter.
- Answer EVERY QUESTION. If you answer T/F/Not Given questions totally randomly, you will probably get 33% right. If you answer four-option multiple-choice questions randomly, you will score about 25%.
- When answering T/F NG or multiple-choice question, eliminate answers that are obviously wrong. If you are left with two answers that look correct, you need to look for why one is incorrect.
IELTS Writing
- Do a variety of Writing tasks (the task types vary a lot, especially in IELTS Academic Task 1).
- Do a Task 1 & Task 2 test together within 60 minutes.*
- Spend only 20 minutes on completing Task 1.
- Spend only 40 minutes on Task 2.
- Get feedback on your practice test answers. You need to know your weaknesses so that you can address them. For example, if you know that your grammar is generally correct but limited in range, you need to find strategies that will help you use a wider range of structures. For example, when describing trends in a graph, you could describe one notable number and then refer back to a previous period in the timeline – this will require using the past perfect., thereby showing the examiner that you can use it accurately and appropriately.
IELTS Listening
- Again, real listening activities are valuable. Some of the listening resources here will be useful for your general listening skills. If your real Listening skills are good, you should do well in the test.
- The Listening Test can be stressful and a lapse in concentration can be disastrous. You may need to move on from a question you can’t answer because if you continue to focus on it, you’ll miss the answers to the next five questions. Doing practice tests will help with this.
* The test day will be stressful and tiring. If you don’t put yourself under stress during your preparation, you won’t be properly prepared. Remember, you will have to do the Reading, Writing and Listening one after the other and you will be tired. You should also sometimes do a full practice test in one session to prepare yourself. You should always stick to the following timelines:
- 60 minutes for Writing both Task 1 & 2
- 60 minutes to complete a full Reading Practice Test
- Get a friend or teacher to ‘play examiner’ and ask you practice questions you are not prepared for – make sure it is a 15 minute practice.
- A Listening Practice Test will take about 30 minutes plus 10 minutes at the end to transfer answers to the answer sheet. You won’t need to manage this as the timing should be recorded in the instructions in the practice test recording.
For more information, click here to refer to the IELTS Australia website.
Click here to find some IELTS preparation resources.
