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I was speaking to another IELTS teacher today and he was telling me about his students and how they struggle with the reading and writing part of IELTS. During our conversation he mentioned the fact that many of his students really didn’t do much reading or writing because they didn’t really ‘like it’. I get that, these activities are not everybody’s cup of tea – but – the fact of the matter is that they are an important part of the exam and ignoring them just isn’t the answer.
Nor is tinkering around the edges of the job by simply watching a few YouTube videos and hoping that you will absorb the information in some kind of ‘magic’ way.
Learning English (and indeed any language) is a skill and there is only ONE way to perfect a skill and that is to practise and practise it. You do this by doing it – over and over and over until you are a master.
Why do you think we are not all great pianists, or great athletes or amazing footballers? To become one of these (you need a bit of talent to be fair) you have to dedicate yourself fully to the task, to the training, to the effort day in and day out. You may say that many of these people earn large amounts of money but they had to work hard to achieve this and I am certain that for every person that made it, many fell by the wayside.
For IELTS Band 7 and 8 you don’t have to work quite as hard as an athlete in training but you do need to be serious about your study, focus well and keep up the momentum right up to the day of your exam so that when you sit the IELTS you know that you will get your Band. This means that for the time you are preparing (a few months most likely) you do have to act like an athlete in training and make sure that you keep up your practice and this does not mean watching endless YouTube videos – that is NOT practice that is learning techniques – you then have to put what you have learned into action and do the reading, do the writing as often as you can so that you will see progress and then do some more.
There are NO short-cuts
There are NO tricks
There are NO quick fixes
Just hard graft, consistent practice and the rewards for you will be just as amazing as those of great athletes, musicians and yes, even footballers.
Actually learning a language when you are able to use it every day isn’t that hard – just focus and get on with it!
And by the way, passing IELTS is not the end – many of my successful students report that what they needed to achieve in English after the IELTS was much harder – so the learning will go on – but in a more relaxed and happy way.