I often get asked for recommendations of books and magazines and other resources which can be used to prepare for the IELTS exam. There is a plethora of things out there that will, purportedly, help you prepare for the exam - some are good and some not so good. I believe that there are some basic things that you must have access to in order to have the level of English that will get you band 7 or 8 and there are some others that will put the icing on the cake – so to speak.
So here are my top 5 resources that serious IELTS Band 7 and 8 students must have access to.
1. A Good English Grammar Book
Having a good grammar resource (book or website) is an essential tool for any language student. Grammar ‘rules’ feature in your accuracy for IELTS Writing and IELTS Speaking especially and you need to be clear on the errors you make and how to identify and correct them. You may not realise that also in IELTS Reading and IELTS Listening there are some questions where understanding grammar is also essential and it is surprising how often IELTS students make mistakes in these parts of the test not because they cannot find the correct answers, but simply because they are not recorded on the question paper correctly. This is quite tragic and one of the main causes is not taking into account a change in grammar in the question as compared to the text or audio. It is a simple thing to change from singular to plural, for example, but you have to notice that you need to change and this is one of the more subtle ways that IELTS really tests your language ability.
As a serious English student you should have access to these essential materials either by owning the books, borrowing from the library or using a good online resource.
If you don’t already have a grammar book then here are some suggestions.
- For books one of the most comprehensive and ‘easy’ to follow is Raymond Murphy’s An Essential Grammar of English (often just called ‘Murphy’ by teachers) – the Intermediate version is best and gives all the basics on grammar with clear explanations and exercises to practise.
- I personally like Thomson & Martinet – A Practical English Grammar
- A third recommendation would be Advanced Learners’ Grammar – Longman what is great about this book is that you can test yourself on various aspects of English grammar and see which ‘rules’ you are making mistakes with and just practise those bits
- For quick, online checks I use the British Council LearnEnglish site or the BBC Learning English site.
2. A good English/English dictionary
The English language has over a million words – that’s a lot to learn! Some of these are different forms of the same words (important for IELTS students) and some are archaic and not really used any more. A few thousand new words are added each year – to learn English vocabulary is quite staggering. Words in use as defined by the Oxford Dictionary are around 170,000 which is a better looking number perhaps.
You will only require a fraction of these for your IELTS Writing but having a wide vocabulary is a really good thing in IELTS and it’s important to build this up as you go along through your study. Having a good English-English dictionary to check words and how they are used (collocation) is vital for your IELTS. A bi-lingual dictionary is only partially useful as English has more words by far than any other language and many of these words have multiple meanings which may not appear in a small bilingual dictionary. I have experienced many students make mistakes because they did not take into account multiple meanings.
There are lots of good dictionaries around. Oxford, Cambridge, Longman and Macmillan all do various sizes. The best way to choose is to find one that has a good range of definitions so that you can get lots of information on usage.
Personally, although I like book versions of resources, I do feel that an online dictionary has an advantage as it is easy to look up things like collocations, synonyms, antonyms etc. within the one site and this makes life easier.
My favourite online dictionary is Macmillan and I have it bookmarked to my browser so I can look up words in a flash.
3. An IELTS course book
Again there are several to choose from. You may wonder why it might be a good idea to have an actual course book. Generally these are written for use by teachers and it is true that some of the exercises will not be relevant to you if you are studying by yourself but a course book will give you an explanation on how to do things and also why certain answers are the right ones. There is a lot of learning in these books which will help you much more than the practice tests you can find online.
The books should guide you through different parts of the test helping you to learn good strategies and techniques for all the different parts. You can use them as reference books and also as practice books so they provide double the value.
Here are some suggestions:
- I use Direct to IELTS for my face-to-face courses – it is aimed at the higher bands and is comprehensive with an online component including 4 practice tests accompanying it. It has especially good sections on IELTS Writing. It is an Academic IELTS book so somewhat limited for GT students but the listening and reading advice would still be good and the Task 2 writing also helpful.
- I have also used Focus on IELTS - again it is thorough but aimed at academic IELTS students
- A lot of students use Barron’s. I have never used this but it looks very comprehensive.
It does seem to be more difficult to find dedicated General Training books – maybe there’s a gap in the market?
4. IELTS Test practice Books
Without a doubt – practice tests are the favourite and in many cases the ONLY resources that students have and use. They are essential that is not in doubt but what I find is that students depend too heavily upon them without ensuring firstly, that their English level is up to the Band score they want and secondly, that they are continually improving their overall skills in reading, listening, writing and speaking. For me the tests should be coming at the end of your study, as real preparation for the test and just before you take it, not as the sum total of your study.
The Cambridge IELTS Practice Tests are the closest thing to the actual test and naturally the very best resource for exam practice. Probably books 8 to 13 are the very best but even though the older ones are a little out of date on some things, they still provide sound preparation.
5. Authentic Materials
The above materials should all form part of your IELTS preparation pack and each in its way will help you to improve your skills for IELTS. However, many of the students I work with are looking for the very top Bands 7s and 8s and to achieve these requires more attention to detail and generally rather longer study. The average IELTS test result is Band 6 so those reaching these higher scores are in a minority and as such if you are looking to achieve 7 and above you are in a sense an ‘elite’ in performance terms and this requires you to go an extra mile.
Exposing yourself frequently to authentic materials is one way of making sure you get the language level you need to produce Band 7 and 8 level work in your IELTS. Authentic materials are those intended for native speakers.
Radio – radio is ideal for listening practice but also helps with vocabulary, pronunciation and general all-round language. Topics can also be the same as the ones in the reading. Listen to anything you like but some good choices would be:
- BBC World Service – brilliant selection of programmes from around the world, lots of different accents, topics and types of programme. Perfect for IELTS
- News and Current Affairs: BBC, NBC, ABC news (Australia)
- Magazine programmes
- Discussion programmes
- Magazines and Journals – you’ll learn a lot from publications in terms of vocabulary and also an insight into the sorts of topics that appear in IELTS reading and listening. Your own industry journals are a good source too of useful information for your job as well as language. Read in short bursts just one article or 30 minutes regularly. Many of these are obtained through subscription but should be available in your library.
- New Scientist
- The Economist
- National Geographic
- Industry publications for your field or industry
- Anything you are interested in reading
- Television – when we watch tv and movies a lot of the information comes visually so these are less good for language however they are fun and do give you exposure to the language. Put on English subtitles to help you and it will be more rewarding and also more useful. Look at some documentaries and magazine programmes.
- BBC Breakfast (or any similar programme)
- Planet Earth (or similar programme – documentaries on radio too)
My own website (Gapfillers) has lots of authentic texts and listening material as well as exercises in grammar, vocabulary and writing. You can subscribe for as little as £20 for a whole month.