New Year is the time for new starts, a time to reflect on life and where it is taking you. If you have your life ‘on hold’ because of IELTS then now is the best time to think about how to make sure you pass the exam and move on with your future. Make 2019 the year that you start afresh with your new career, your new country or your new course.
Whether you have been trying for a long time or have just started to look at the IELTS, here are 10 steps to take TODAY to kick start your IELTS preparation and make sure that your next IELTS test will be your last.
1. Check exactly what score you really need
You may have great ambitions to achieve a really high score and that is not a bad thing but if you want to get through the IELTS as soon as possible then make sure you know what the minimum requirement is. Being higher than this makes it more likely that you get the desired result in the exam so if you need 7 and you can score 8 then even if the test is hard you should be able to achieve your score of band 7.
If you require an overall band then you can see where you have the greatest strength and aim to have a higher band in that part and reach the minimum in the area you feel is weakest this strategy should help you to fulfil the requirement. If you require equal bands in each part then your job is harder and you cannot leave anything to chance. Students often pick one area to focus on and neglect the others and this is not a sensible strategy as you must be able to achieve the same score in all parts of the test – in reality you need even more practice.
2. Make sure you know EXACTLY where you are in relation to this IELTS Band
If you have already taken the test then you will know exactly where your strengths lie and where you need to improve. The IELTS results are very accurate regarding how you performed on the day of your exam. If there are reasons why a score fell then you will probably know what this is. The score will tell you how far away from the band you want you actually are in each part. The parts that fall below the desired score will need extra practice BUT, you will need to continue to practise every part before you re-take the IELTS exam.
If you haven’t taken the exam before then you can try a practice test as a mock exam – do this according to exam conditions including the timing and then see what the score is. Generally results are a little lower in the exam so you may need to take this into account when you check your results.
What both of these will not tell you is exactly where you lost marks overall. The reading and listening test will show you where the answers were wrong (not in the real test) but not really why and the real tests will not give any very useful feedback at all. To find this you will need the help of a teacher. They can analyse your results and explain why your answer choices are not correct. Understand exactly what you missed in the questions or texts/listening or where you are losing marks in the writing is the key to improving - so having this support as you begin your study is really valuable. If you would like to get this kind of help then read on to the end of this post and you can find out how you can do this.
3. Collect together practice materials that will help you achieve it
Once you are clear exactly where you need to improve and even which tasks, questions or parts of English, you can collect the relevant materials to help you do this. If there is a grammar point you have to improve them find a grammar resource that will help. If you need more vocabulary then find a source for this or check through model tasks and reading for new words that will be helpful to you. Check you understand the meanings and exactly how to use them as well as their collocations – all this information should be in a dictionary.
My favourite is Macmillan: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/
If you are finding YNNG or Headings difficult then search for reading tests with these questions. If you find listening to more than one person hard then practise more of these and try to find other things to listen to as well – online chats or discussions with more than 2 people will be helpful. Remember podcasts and radio is better than films and TV for this but TV and movies are a fun way to keep in touch with English so do this too but not all the time.
4. Set yourself a robust study plan that you can follow
You should now have a collection of different materials and also some websites bookmarked for your vocabulary and grammar study. Now is the time to organise all of this into a study plan that will help you to address everything systematically and reduce the overwhelm that you may be feeling with so many different things to do.
I have shared this study plan before and you can find a complete document in my free resources on IELTS Learning Tips:
If you are looking for band 7 and 8 you really need to address every part of your performance at IELTS and a plan like this will help you keep on track with everything. A serious student needs a serious approach to their study. A serious student will be successful and in my experience, which is long, I know that those who generally succeed are those who take a serious and systematic approach.
So, here is a plan that works and you can use straight away as a ‘done-for-you’ gift 
However if you have your own plan which works and you are used to, then use it. All I want is for you to have something that will help to systematise your work.
5. Take small, effective steps to address the issues
Now, rather than just going over test after test you will have more of a strategy for your study and will be addressing exactly the things that need to be improved so that your total score can improve. Remember it is by focusing on the small areas that the overall picture will change - Just like a marathon runner doesn’t run marathons every day but practises small parts of their technique and this helps them to improve their marathon running overall.
Focus on these small areas until they improve. By making sure you get all your YNNG and headings correct you will greatly improve your reading score. It is all just common sense.
Work on these small areas of each part of the test and then gradually you will find that when you do try a whole reading test or a whole listening test the band will go up.
6. Check and correct everything in every exercise that you do
Do, check, go over, understand, repeat. This is a study method that will help you overcome all the challenges you have with IELTS. Without doing you are nowhere, without checking you won’t know if you are right or not – without going over the correction to understand why you were not correct then you can’t stop making this mistake and finally without repeating the process you will not improve. This last point is very important – knowing is simply NOT enough you have to practise again and again to make it stick.
7. Analyse your results
Make sure that you really understand why you made the mistakes in your answers. If you don’t understand why this is not the correct answer then it will be hard to stop making the mistake. Check with your teacher or, if you don’t have a teacher, try one of the forums for IELTS and ask another student. Once you can see why this answer is incorrect then you will avoid the same mistake in future. It is likely you will make one or two errors but for a high overall score you can only afford one or two errors so make sure you are really clear in the mistakes you made and then you will be able to increase you score steadily. As you improve each type of question you’ll find that you become more confident and as a result your scores will improve. Without this analysis you will still be ‘stabbing in the dark’.
8. Move on using this knowledge
Now you know why you were getting some question types wrong go ahead and try more of these questions with your new knowledge and hopefully the answers will now be correct and you will be able to gain even more confidence. Having resolved one issue move to the next area where you still have challenges until those questions also improve. Gradually you’ll get towards the score that you want. Improving language skills in not a quick fix it’s a long, slow burn and you need to be patient and keep moving forwards.
9. Monitor your progress
Keep track of your progress. This is important for two reasons. Firstly you will want to see your score increase but secondly it is very easy to underestimate the progress that you make. Students often accuse me of giving them a ‘very easy test’ when, in fact, it is their own progress that is giving them higher scores. If you monitor how you are doing you will be able to physically check your previous scores against the new ones and this will provide the proof that things are improving – this is really good psychologically especially if you have been worrying about a particular question type or part of the test.
10. Book your exam ONLY when you know you can achieve the score you want
Many students are driven by external reasons when they book their test. It might be a submission date for a degree course, it might be the fear that regulations (for immigration) will change or it might be a personal reason. The fact is that if you are not ready to achieve the score that you want you will not receive the score so the only reason you should be booking an IELTS test is because you are confident you can achieve the results you want and you feel ready to sit the exam. In a college I worked in several years ago we would not allow students to register for any exam if we did not feel they had a really good chance of reaching their desired score. It is a waste of money and it also tends to sap your confidence if you go into the IELTS test not fully prepared.
There is, in my opinion, only one reason to take the exam when not fully prepared and this would be to test yourself just to see where you are with respect your desired score. It is an expensive way to do this and any good IELTS teacher can tell you this information, but for some people the official delivery of their score means more and so as long as you are prepared to bear the cost if you are unsuccessful in reaching your goal; this would be a legitimate reason.