How To Prepare For Your IELTS Test

Awesome. You are in a great position. You are planning ahead and have plenty of time to really prepare properly and get the score you need, first time. 

What you need to do is to start creating a healthy pattern of English consumption. By that I mean make sure you are reading and listening to general English for extended periods of time as often as possible, daily would be ideal. Make sure you are also engaging in English conversation where possible and start keeping a vocabulary journal of new words you come across. 

Continue doing this until six months out from your ideal test date and then complete a mock IELTS test under timed conditions. Now is the time to start really working on your weak areas. Work out strategies for different question types (or use the ones I give you on this site) and apply them to practice tests.

Try to get feedback on your speaking and writing from native speakers or preferably IELTS professionals. Actually listen to their advice and really focus on improving those areas.

Continue to consume English everyday as much as possible and continue to practice different past papers making sure you get teh strategies correct. If you don’t get your answer correct in listening and reading sections go back and workout where you went wrong. Use the audio transcripts and answers to do this. At this point 4-6 months out you do not have to put yourself under timed pressure just yet.

Under four months from the test you need to start doing timed practice tests under exam conditions and get really comfortable with the pace of the listening recordings, how quickly you will need to read on test day, how fast you will need to write your essays, and in speaking on your own for 2 minute time periods.

From 2- 3 months make sure you are reviewing the vocabulary that you have been making notes about and just keep reading and listening to English. This should be part of your routine now having done it for so long.

In the final 2 months you need to be sitting down and working on your ability to concentrate in English for hours at a time under timed pressure and sticking to the strategies you have devised. So, start doing listening tests followed immediately by reading, writing and speaking sessions. Really work on your English endurance! This will help massively on test day.

If you have done all this up until the last couple of weeks before the exam then you can actually start to relax a bit. You have done all of the hard work. You know how to do each part of the test. You have improved your vocabulary and you can work in English for extended periods of time without any concentration issues. 

Relax and just make sure you take care of your lifestyle in the last few days. Make sure you sleep, eat and drink correctly and that you know where the test centre is and how you are going to get there in plenty of time. 

You are in a good position to do this, so go ahead and get this test done!

Awesome. You are in a great position. You are planning ahead and have enough time to really prepare properly and get the score you need, first time. 

What you need to do is to start creating a healthy pattern of English consumption. By that I mean make sure you are reading and listening to general English for extended periods of time as often as possible, daily would be ideal. Make sure you are also engaging in English conversation where possible and start keeping a vocabulary journal of new words you come across. 

Continue doing this until six months out from your ideal test date and then complete a mock IELTS test under timed conditions. Now is the time to start really working on your weak areas. Work out strategies for different question types (or use the ones I give you on this site) and apply them to practice tests.

Try to get feedback on your speaking and writing from native speakers or preferably IELTS professionals. Actually listen to their advice and really focus on improving those areas.

Continue to consume English everyday as much as possible and continue to practice different past papers making sure you get the strategies correct. If you don’t get your answers correct in listening and reading sections go back and workout where you went wrong. Use the audio transcripts and answers to do this. At this point 4-6 months out you do not have to put yourself under timed pressure just yet.

Under four months from the test, you need to start doing timed practice tests under exam conditions and get really comfortable with the pace of the listening recordings, how quickly you will need to read on test day, how fast you will need to write your essays, and in speaking on your own for 2 minute time periods.

From 2- 3 months make sure you are reviewing the vocabulary that you have been making notes about and just keep reading and listening to English. This should be part of your routine now having done it for so long.

In the final 2 months you need to be sitting down and working on your ability to concentrate in English for hours at a time under timed pressure and sticking to the strategies you have devised. So, start doing listening tests followed immediately by reading, writing and speaking sessions. Really work on your English endurance! This will help massively on test day.

If you have done all this up until the last couple of weeks before the exam then you can actually start to relax a bit. You have done all of the hard work. You know how to do each part of the test. You have improved your vocabulary and you can work in English for extended periods of time without any concentration issues. 

Relax and just make sure you take care of your lifestyle in the last few days. Make sure you sleep, eat and drink correctly and that you know where the test centre is and how you are going to get there in plenty of time. 

You are in a good position to do this, so go ahead and get this test done!

Okay, so you just about have enough time to prepare properly but you need to get on this straight away. Start by setting aside time each day to read and listen to English. Use any spare travel/commute time to really immerse yourself in English. 

Complete a mock IELTS test under timed conditions. Now is the time to start really working on your weak areas. Work out strategies for different question types (or use the ones I give you on this site) and apply them to practice tests.

Try to get feedback on your speaking and writing from native speakers or preferably IELTS professionals. Actually listen to their advice and really focus on improving those areas.

Continue to consume English everyday as much as possible and continue to practice different past papers making sure you get the strategies correct. Work through past papers but not undertimed conditions, just focus on your technique and working out how to answer the questions effectively.

 If you don’t get your answers correct in listening and reading sections go back and workout where you went wrong. Use the audio transcripts and answers to do this.

Under four months from the test, you need to start doing timed practice tests under exam conditions and get really comfortable with the pace of the listening recordings, how quickly you will need to read on test day, how fast you will need to write your essays, and in speaking on your own for 2 minute time periods.

From 2- 3 months make sure you are reviewing the vocabulary that you have been making notes about and just keep reading and listening to English. This should be part of your routine now having done it for so long.

In the final 2 months you need to be sitting down and working on your ability to concentrate in English for hours at a time under timed pressure and sticking to the strategies you have devised. So, start doing listening tests followed immediately by reading, writing and speaking sessions. Really work on your English endurance! This will help massively on test day.

If you have done all this up until the last couple of weeks before the exam then you can actually start to relax a bit. You have done all of the hard work. You know how to do each part of the test. You have improved your vocabulary and you can work in English for extended periods of time without any concentration issues. 

Relax and just make sure you take care of your lifestyle in the last few days. Make sure you sleep, eat and drink correctly and that you know where the test centre is and how you are going to get there in plenty of time. 

You are in a good position to do this, so go ahead and get this test done!

Okay, so this might be okay if you are a fast learner and your level of English is near where it needs to be already.

Complete a mock IELTS test under timed conditions and highlight what your weak areas are. Work out strategies for those different question types (or use the ones I give you on this site) and apply them to practice tests.

Try to get feedback on your speaking and writing from native speakers or preferably IELTS professionals. Actually listen to their advice and really focus on improving those areas.

Consume English everyday as much as possible and continue to practice different past papers making sure you get the strategies correct. Work through past papers but not under timed conditions, just focus on your technique and working out how to answer the questions effectively and get used to the style and format of the test.

If you don’t get your answers correct in listening and reading sections go back and workout where you went wrong. Use the audio transcripts and answers to do this.

With two months left you need to start doing timed practice tests under exam conditions and get really comfortable with the pace of the listening recordings, how quickly you will need to read on test day, how fast you will need to write your essays, and in speaking on your own for 2 minute time periods.

You also need to be sitting down and working on your ability to concentrate in English for hours at a time under timed pressure and sticking to the strategies you have devised. So, start doing listening tests followed immediately by reading, writing and speaking sessions. Really work on your English endurance! This will help massively on test day.

In the last month before the test you need to be mainly working on exam technique and being comfortable with different question types. The last thing you want is to be surprised on test day with a question type you are not familiar with.  

In the final week leading up to test day make sure you are ding as much as possible in English. This will hopefully put you at the peak of your English powers. Even listening to English on the journey to the test centre and speaking English with a partner immediately before the test will help.

Be confident on test day, go out there and do it!

Now, time is a bit tight so the best thing to do is to simply concentrate on exam technique. The good news is my website will give you all the exam technique and strategy you will ever need. The bad news is that you only have 4 weeks to learn how to apply those under timed pressure.

The best thing to do would be to take a mock test under timed conditions and work out what your weak areas are. You can then focus on ‘fixing’ those areas with the exam strategies I teach on this site.

You won’t have much time to actually improve your level of English so simply focus on exam technique and getting used to doing the test under timed conditions. 

Make sure you look at the mistakes you are making and work out why you are making them by looking at the audio scripts and analysing the answers in reading and listening tests. 

Ideally, you would do a mock test with feedback from IELTS examiners like this one here.

Well, in this case I recommend you read this article about how to prepare in two days. Okay , so you have got a bit longer but the advice would be the same really: https://ieltsfreeway.com/how-to-prepare-for-ielts-in-2-days/

Well, in this case I recommend you read this article about how to prepare in two days. Okay , so you have got a bit longer but the advice would be the same really: https://ieltsfreeway.com/how-to-prepare-for-ielts-in-2-days/

Honestly, if you have failed the test just once then whilst it is annoying it isn’t the end of the world. On a survey of my site users, 50% of people have taken the test more than once already. So, in other words it is kind of normal to have to take it more than once. 

Now, we certainly don’t want to take it more than twice, so, sort yourself out. In my experience, if someone is fairly confident in their English and they fail the test the first time then it is often because they simply didn’t prepare properly for the exam.

They might have been over-confident and just hoped they would get through the test without having to put too much time into it.

Unfortunately, the test is not like that, so, if that was you then now you know that you need to prepare properly. Complete multiple past papers, get feedback, workout where you are going wrong, use my strategies to try and improve and make sure you are used to the time pressure of the test.

If you did spend time preparing and failed on the first attempt then you may have an idea about where you were going wrong.

Did you run out of time during the reading and writing tasks? Did you ‘get lost’ during the listening test. Did you keep umming and erring during your speaking test. You will more than likely now, have an idea what you were doing wrong and have some more motivation to fix it. 

You are in a position whereby simply going through my web-site and applying the strategies I am teaching you on here, this may well be enough for you to get the band score you need on your next attempt.

If you have failed the test multiple times already you absolutely must work out where you are going wrong. There is no point in just keep taking the test hoping you will get luckier next time - you won't, unless you are only half a band off, in which case you could get lucky.

Sure, you might get different topics next time but the level of complexity will be exactly the same. At this point you need to except two things: 

1. a) You should not book to do the test anytime soon. 
2. b) You will need to get the help of an expert to help you.

I would highly recommend this service here in order to just get the feedback you need to succeed. Please don’t go and throw your money away at IELTS, they have enough money already.

Please go an get some professional advice and then you can start making real improvements to your technique and band score. It may still take months before you are ready BUT you will at least have a sensible starting point.