How to improve your IELTS score in the exams

Build up your overall English capability

IELTS exam are designed to assess your skill to correspond in English, so finally you cannot score well without a high standard of English. Learning any new language requires hard work and perseverance. The most excellent way to advance your English is to immerse yourself in English by taking every chance you can- to listen, speak, write and read plus,  try to grow usual habits for doing things in English, such as, reading newspapers, novels or published interviews of prominent personalities. Try to infer the meaning of words you aren't familiar with and only use a dictionary to check your guesses. This will enhance your vocabulary for reading sections.

You can improve your listening skills by listening news presentations on BBC, FOX and CNN news or watching cartoons and movies. Here, try to understand what the speaker is saying, and do NOT rely on subtitles!

Writing can be improved by writing more often like starting a web blog or joining a forum or writing articles in web and get reviews. Try to translate a local book titles into English. This will force you to know the required words to get your job done.

If you are from a non-English speaking country, speaking can be a problematic one. Try to talk at least 30 minutes with yourself in front of a mirror on a regular basis.  You can also record your speaking and listen to it for mistakes.

Understand the IELTS Exam Requirements

The IELTS exam always follows the same format, so you should learn about the different question types and approaches to answer them. At first, you should be clear about whether you will be taking the General IELTS Exam or the Academic IELTS Exam because the Exam requirements are quite different for each.

Reading: You should know about the different text types that are used in the reading exam, and also the different question patterns. This will help you to build up reading skills and strategies to answer each type of questions, and also let you develop time management skills for each question type.

Writing: All test takers will write a 250 words essay, so everyone should practice writing a absolute 250 words essay within 40 minutes. Many students practice essay writing, but they fail to practice with the time constraint - as a result they are incapable to complete their essay during the actual exam. You need to make sure you are preparing for the correct type of exam because General IELTS test takers will write a letter whereas Academic IELTS candidates will write a report based on a graph/diagram. Clearly the requirements are different, so the preparation for each type should be different.

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