IELTS Study Plan Prepare for the IELTS Exam in 6 Steps
Hi, I’m Gina.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you’ll see how to make a
study plan to prepare for the IELTS exam.
You’ll see a six-step plan which anyone
can follow.
You’ll learn how to prepare for the different
parts of the IELTS exam, and you’ll also
see useful books and resources to make your
IELTS preparation easier and more effective.
If you need extra help with your IELTS, don’t
forget to check out our website: Oxford Online
English dot com.
Our teachers can help you to prepare for the
IELTS exam in online classes.
We also have many free video and listening
lessons which you can use for IELTS study.
Now, let’s see the first part of your IELTS
preparation plan.
Step one: take a practice IELTS test.
You can find practice tests on the British
Council website.
There’s a link in the video description
if you’re watching on YouTube.
If you’re watching on our website, you can
find the link underneath the video.
Do the listening and reading, check your answers,
and work out your score.
Do the practice test under exam conditions,
meaning that you work with a time limit, and
without a dictionary or any help.
For the speaking and writing, it’s best
to do the practice test with a teacher, so
that you can get accurate feedback on your
level.
It’s difficult to assess your own speaking
and writing.
If you can’t do this, then do a practice
writing exam by yourself.
See how it feels.
Could you finish everything in the time limit?
Did you write enough words?
Come back to your answer a few days later—is
it clear?
Does it cover all the necessary information?
To do the speaking by yourself, record yourself
answering the questions in a practice speaking
exam.
Remember: you can find all these materials
on the British Council website, in the link
which is under the video.
Record your answers, then listen back.
Could you answer the questions fluently?
Did you hesitate or pause a lot?
Could you give developed, detailed answers
to all the questions?
Again, it’s difficult to do this alone,
but hopefully you’ll get some idea of your
abilities and weaknesses.
You should also read the public IELTS score
schemes—you can find all the links in the
video description.
Read the score scheme for your target IELTS
band, and read the bands above and below.
Think about what it means; what do you need
to do?
Where are you stronger or weaker?
Make a list of your weaknesses in order of
importance.
This will help you with the next step.
Step two: set daily time goals.
First question: how much time can you spend
studying each day?
Be realistic.
Second question: how are you going to spend
that time?
Think about the list you made in step one.
Obviously, you want to spend more time on
your biggest weaknesses.
If your biggest problem is the writing exam,
then you should spend more time there.
If you’re already above your target band
score for reading, then you probably shouldn’t
spend time on reading practice.
You’ll see more details about how to work
on different exam sections later.
For now, just make a general plan.
For example, maybe you have two hours a day
for study.
You might decide to spend one hour on the
writing exam, thirty minutes on listening,
and thirty minutes on speaking.
Finally, think about how you can stick to
your target.
How are you going to stay motivated?
You could use a habit tracking app on your
phone, or put a calendar on your wall and
tick each day you hit your target.
You could also give yourself a reward for
hitting your target regularly.
Think about what will work for you!
Step three: useful books and resources.
We’ll remind you once more: links for everything
we mention can be found underneath the video.
Use official resources if possible.
That means resources published by Cambridge
or the British Council.
There’s a lot of free IELTS material available
online; some of it is very good, and some
of it isn’t.
If you can’t tell the difference, you could
create problems for yourself.
First, it’s useful to have some practice
IELTS exams.
Cambridge publish books of past exams.
These include answer keys, as well as model
answers for some writing questions.
Secondly, get some vocabulary-building resources.
The Cambridge Vocabulary in Use books are
effective and easy to use.
Cambridge also publish a Collocations in Use
series.
Collocations are important for your IELTS
score, so we recommend at least getting the
intermediate book.
Thirdly, get a grammar reference book.
The most popular is English Grammar in Use,
also published by Cambridge.
It comes in three levels: elementary, intermediate,
and advanced.
They could all be useful, depending on your
level, but you should definitely have the
intermediate book.
For writing and speaking, get a teacher if
you possibly can.
You might not want to spend money, but taking
IELTS is expensive, especially if you have
to take it several times.
Probably, not getting the IELTS score you
want will cost you something, too.
Investing in lessons with a professional teacher
can save you time and money later.
Online, IELTS Liz has lots of information
and tips about the IELTS exam, as well as
lists of recent IELTS questions and topics.
Also, check out IELTS-Simon, which has lots
of useful advice, especially for the writing
exam.
There are other good websites and online resources,
but remember to be careful!
There are also lots of sites with low-quality
materials which can give you the wrong idea
about the IELTS exam.
In particular, be careful with sites which
provide model writing answers.
In many cases, the website doesn’t tell
you what band score the model answer would
get.
Some sites include model answers which might
score from band six to band eight, but they
don’t indicate which is which.
This is dangerous; you might read an answer
and think it’s a good example, but in a
real IELTS exam it would get band six.
Only look at model writing answers if you
know the band score they would get.
Now, you have the resources you need.
Let’s make a detailed study plan for different
exam sections and key skills.
Step four: reading and listening.
Your reading and listening practice should
be divided between three things.
One: do practice tests.
Two: do general reading/listening practice.
For example, for reading, you could read newspapers,
blogs, magazines, novels, and so on.
For listening, use TV shows, podcasts, films,
or whatever you can find.
Three: learn vocabulary.
Don’t try to do too much.
For each thing you read or listen to, try
to learn between five and ten new words or
phrases.
These three things are in priority order,
so if your time is limited, focus on practice
tests.
There are other ways to build vocabulary,
so if you don’t have time for vocabulary
building here, don’t worry.
When preparing for IELTS, you also need to
think about how much time you have before
your exam.
Reading and listening are slow skills to build.
To make a significant difference, you need
months of regular work.
If you don’t have much time, then make reading
and listening lower priorities.
Do some practice tests, but spend most of
your time on other things.
If you have an exam in a few weeks, then you
can’t make big improvements in that time.
Step five: writing
Once again, we really recommend you find a
teacher to help you with the writing exam.
Otherwise, it’s difficult to get feedback,
which is essential to improve.
Either way, here’s how to practise effectively.
There are four steps to good writing practice.
One: do vocabulary pre-work.
For example, are you writing a task 2 essay
about the environment?
Use your vocabulary books to learn some words,
phrases and collocations.
Then, try to use these in your answer.
Are you writing a task 1 academic answer describing
a pie chart?
Learn some phrases to talk about proportions
and percentages, and try to use them in your
answer.
Don’t try too hard to fit all the vocabulary
into your writing.
For higher IELTS scores, you need to use vocabulary
naturally.
Accept that you won’t be able to use most
of the vocabulary you learn in one writing
task.
That’s fine!
If you can use even one or two new words or
collocations, that’s useful.
With all vocabulary learning, it’s better
to learn chunks of language.
That means: try to learn phrases and sentences,
rather than single words.
Two: write your practice answer.
Do it under exam conditions.
Three: get feedback and do supporting grammar
work if needed.
For example, did you make mistakes with conditional
sentences, or perfect tenses, or prepositions?
Use your grammar reference book and practise
topics which you have problems with.
Also, think about your use of vocabulary.
Did you use the vocabulary you learned before
you started writing?
Did you make mistakes with it?
Were there any places where you couldn’t
find the word or phrase that you needed?
Finally, rewrite your answer and try to improve
it.
Try to avoid the grammar mistakes you made
first time.
Try to use a wider range of vocabulary.
Step six: speaking
Like writing, speaking practice should be
done with a teacher if possible.
If not, then the best way is to record yourself
answering speaking test questions, and then
listen to your own answers, and try to find
problems or mistakes.
Take a similar approach to writing practice:
do vocabulary pre-work, practise, find mistakes,
do supporting grammar work if you need, then
repeat the task and try to improve.
When you’re speaking, it’s better to focus
on one thing at a time.
For example, on one day, you can focus on
fluency.
Try to speak without pausing or hesitating.
Record yourself, listen to your speaking,
and count the number of hesitations and pauses.
Repeat the task, and try to get a lower number
of hesitations.
Another day, you can focus on using different
verb forms in your speaking.
Record yourself, and count how many different
verb tenses you use.
For example, if you use the present simple,
past simple, and past continuous in your answers,
then that’s three.
Repeat the same task, and try to use one or
two more verb tenses in your answer.
Of course, there are many other things you
need to think about for speaking: intonation,
stress, grammatical accuracy, using different
sentence forms, using linking words, and so
on.
However, it’s better to focus on one thing
at a time.
With speaking and writing, practising by yourself
will only be effective if your English is
already quite high-level.
If your English is at a lower level, you won’t
be able to find many of the mistakes and problems
which you have.
In this case, you need a teacher to help you.
And, that’s it!
Follow this six-step study plan to prepare
for IELTS efficiently and effectively.
Be flexible and adjust your plan as you go.
You might need to spend more time than you
thought.
You might realise that the writing exam needs
more work, and so you need to spend more of
your daily time working on that.
What about you?
Do you have any useful IELTS study suggestions?
Please share your ideas in the comments, and
see what other students have to say!
Good luck if you have an IELTS exam coming
up soon.
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!