These are called productive skills and you really need to produce if you want to improve them.
Speaking
The best option is to try and find people to speak to. Set up a group on WhatsApp or Skype and try to meet regularly.
Learn what you can about the speaking test and exactly what you have to do.
What to focus on:
- It’s first and foremost about communication
- To get a high band you need to perform well
- Good grammar and vocabulary are important but focus on communication mostly
- Listen VERY carefully to the examiner – listening is part of communication too
Practice:
Part 2 is the part many students tell me they find difficult yet it is the easiest to practise.
- Choose a topic - pick one that you really wouldn’t like to get in the exam
- Try to speak about it as per the cue card and record yourself
- Listen and decide how you can improve it – make some notes
- Record the same topic again and this time make it better
- Listen and do the whole thing again (same topic)
- After 3 or 4 times you will see an improvement
- Rinse and repeat!! (this means do it again with another topic 😊)
Writing
This a bit more difficult as I really believe that it is hard to improve your writing by yourself. There are some elements you can improve though.
The very best way is to work with a teacher. If you can’t do this then ask someone who is good at English – they may spot any errors – they may not be able to help you fix them though.
If you have to do this alone then here are some things that might help:
- Look at models – written by examiners or teachers (there are some in some of the Cambridge books).
- Analyse these and see what makes them good – choose some of the sentences or vocabulary or phrases to use yourself.
- Work on your planning – this can make a big difference.
- Work on your correction – this can also make a big difference – it is really important to eliminate any errors.
- Work on your grammar and vocabulary
But my advice is that if you pay for anything in your IELTS study, pay for an IELTS teacher to check your writing.