IELTS Tips for Success from Andrei, Band 8.5

I am sure you remember Andrei Florea, who took the first place in our IELTS results competition last month. When we asked Andrei what would he suggest to other test takers who want to maximize their IELTS score, he said:

Band 8 in IELTS “I am most grateful for having been awarded the 1st prize in this month’s competition. Regarding my advice for those who will soon sit the IELTS exam, here is the most important thing that everybody must have in mind: if you go there, be confident.

In your Listening exam you may find yourself in the situation of having missed an answer. Don’t worry, it also happened to me. Just do not concentrate too much on the ones you miss, because these may distract you and make you less attentive to the tape. Of equal importance is not waiting for the answers, but being proactive and anticipating when an answer will come on the tape.

In your Speaking test, be yourself. It is okay to have a strong desire to use a vast array of lexical structures so as to make a good impression, but do not focus your entire attention to these. You may end up not achieving the task completely. Also, do not hesitate to state something for fear of it being wrong. There is no such thing as right or wrong opinion, as long as you stick to the topic.

Regarding the Reading part of the test, I have seen many different approaches to this. Personally, I first read the question, then rapidly skim through the whole text, more like looking for the answer than reading the text. Pay attention more to the context than to the content, as it may help you discover the answer. For me, paying attention to every detail doesn’t help, as it makes me less aware of the rapidly passing time.

Finally, in the Writing test you should be constantly asking yourself how do any ideas that you write connect to the topic and help achieving a task. It is preferable to stick to only a few ideas and be consequent to those, that just going from an idea to another in a rather disorganized way.

In conclusion, be relaxed, but stay focused at all times.”

Many thanks to Andrei for sharing these tips, and good luck to everyone!

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