How I got 7.5 in IELTS! (Best Tricks & Tips)

how to get 7 in IELTS


Studying abroad has always been one of my few ambitions for which I was ready to give my utmost effort! But the doorway to moving abroad is IELTS. After putting in a decent effort, I managed to get an overall band of 7.5 in IELTS. Today I will be sharing with you how I got seven in IELTS. Let’s dive in!


What Is IELTS

IELTS is a standardized test, standing for ‘International English Language Testing System’. Basically, IELTS tests people’s English proficiency by measuring the four skills (Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking).

My journey to get 7.5 in IELTS

So, coming to my journey, I had never been that good at English during my school days. Because my schooling was in a religious institute where learning English is the least encouraging subject. However, I was able to develop a keen interest in learning the English language over time.

Finally, with proper guidance and consistent practising for two years, I took IELTS in March 2020. But I started preparing for IELTS passively ever since one of my friends told me about IELTS in 2017.
Now let me share with you how I used to feel about each module of IELTS.

 

Speaking:

First of all, I want to talk about Speaking. Well, speaking was the most difficult module for me. IELTS speaking consists of three parts. Moreover, the whole speaking test lasts about 11 to 14 minutes. When I started my IELTS journey, I could not even speak a single word without hesitations and grammar mistakes. On top of that, I was a very introverted person, meaning I could not muster up the courage to practice with others.

Later, I watched videos on how I should deal with the speaking module, and I tried many approaches to improve my speaking. Some of the techniques include speaking English with friends daily, watching English content, listening to podcasts, and going through the sample previous speaking questions. But the most effective strategy that boosted my performance was the recording method. I used to collect some recent speaking cue cards and record my speech on those topics. This recording of my voice helps me understand my weaknesses and work on them wholeheartedly. My major problem was my long break in between sentences.

After I worked on spotting my weaknesses, I considered recording a cue card should be my daily priority and I fill the hesitation gap using filler words like well, you know, and so forth. By the way, I scored an 8 in the speaking module which was the highest band of all for me.  

Reading:

Reading is by far the trickiest section in IELTS. In IELTS Reading, there are three passages with 40 questions. Answering forty questions in just one hour really requires your previous reading habit. My struggle was finishing the module on time.

At times, I was not able to answer all the questions within one hour. Then I realized, there is no better alternative or better strategy to improve reading scores except practising as much as possible. I started giving reading tests regularly for two consecutive weeks. In these weeks, I ruthlessly gave timed tests. I followed strategies like skimming, scanning, and writing one-sentence summaries for each paragraph. Moreover, reading the book named, Speed Reading by Tony Buzan, allowed me to learn many tactics to pick up the pace of my reading.

Finally, I ended up getting a 6.5 in the reading section.

 

Writing:

Among these four modules in IELTS, the writing module was my favourite one. I have always loved writing, as it allows me to rant about things that I usually cannot open up to someone.

Starting off, IELTS writing has two tasks, namely, task one and task two. But task two carries the double marks of task one. In task one, students write a report depending on the given graphical information. This task includes graph and bar charts, tables and maps, etc.

They need to answer task one within twenty minutes. But in task two, students are given a topic on which they should write a well-developed essay within forty minutes. As I have mentioned earlier, I have a knack for writing that helped me crack this module.

Especially, I followed a website called IELTS ADVANTAGE from the very start. All the strategies presented on the website are really simple yet helpful. If you can work through all those simple tips, and mark my word, you are going to reach your target score. I was able to score 7 in writing.

 

Listening:

I was not really worried about the listening part. Because I have been a movie buff since my school days. This habit helped me build up my listening muscle. Many of my relatives told me scoring high in listening is the easiest. But I realized this statement is only when your ears are already used to English sounds. Because I was struggling to concentrate on the listening test all the way from start to end.

So, I think if you want to score high in that particular section. Not only do you have to increase your listening skill, but also you have to take care of concentration. To enhance your focus, you should not get distracted by any missing answer, unless you are aiming for a perfect band nine in that module. So, if you cannot catch any answer, without regretting the missing answer you better focus on the next question. By the way, I bagged an 8 band in listening. 

That’s all about my journey to getting seven in IELTS. If you ask me what impact IELTS has on my goal, I will say ‘huge’. Now I can easily move to my favourite country Germany! To know more about education in UK, Germany, Canada and more, click the link. Happy learning!

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