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- Why IELTS preparation and practising IELTS tests are different.
Why IELTS preparation and practising IELTS tests are different.
A huge number of students prepare for the IELTS test by going through endless practice tests. This method of IELTS exam preparation is very limited and will not help you to achieve your band easily or quickly.
Here are the reasons why:
- Practice tests are normally the final stage of learning for any exam – it is assumed that you already know all you need to know and this stage is exam preparation – under these conditions the tests are effective. If you are a native or near-native speaker (i.e. at band 8 or 9) then you may be able to prepare for the test simply using the practice tests as you already have all the English language knowledge that you need.
- Exam practice tests do just that, practise the test itself they will not necessarily improve your English language skills and therefore they are limited and can actually give you a false sense of security as when you get into the exam and are faced with something that you haven’t encountered in the tests you will not have the necessary skills to cope with this.
- These practice tests DO NOT help you to focus on the skills that you need to develop and improve in order to achieve a high band. It stands to reason that a native speaker of English will get a high band in the IELTS exam (even if they don’t do any practice) and a beginner will not. The reason is that there is a wide difference in their respective skills. To get the high band you need to have such skill and you can only gain this through practising English – not IELTS.
- Using practice tests as your only means of preparation is indeed one strategy and I have met countless students who do this, but in all cases their IELTS journey was a rocky one and also a long one. If you want to get a quicker and more certain result then focus on your listening, speaking, writing and reading skills – stay away from practice tests until you are ready for the exam (after all if you do these tests at the beginning there will be nothing left for you to practice when it really counts!!)
- Finally, there is a psychological cost to not making sure your language skills are up to scratch. If you are not getting the score that you want in your practice tests the thing to do is not keep doing more of the same tests. If you do this you will most likely keep getting the same results. You need to find out why you are not getting the score you want. Once you know why your score is not reaching the band you want then you can begin to address these areas and you will very quickly increase your score. I meet many IELTS students every day who are very depressed about their IELTS preparation because they keep working hard and studying hard but they are not making much progress.
Hard work isn’t enough in fact once you work a little smarter you won’t be working as hard as before!
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