Hi. Welcome to www.engvid.com.
I'm Adam. Today we're going to look at an IELTS study
plan, and as usual, when I look at IELTS, or TOEFL, or any of the tests, I'm going to
speak a little bit faster so those of you taking the test can get a little
bit more listening practice. And everybody else, this is very good practice for
you as well to listen to slightly faster English. So we're going to look at IELTS. And for those of you who are just starting
to prepare, starting to think about taking this test, maybe you want to go to university,
maybe it's for immigration purposes, whatever, you're just starting out, you've just signed up for
the test, now you need to start preparing for it. So here's a five-point
study plan. And number one is the most
important part because... And I'll tell you
in a minute why. Know the test. Now, what does this mean? It means that you have to know
exactly what you're about to face. I've met many test takers who've taken the
test maybe several times, and the first two or three times they got a really low score
because they still didn't really know what was coming. Right? They didn't understand how the test is structured,
what the timing is like, all of these things. So, know the test, means:
Know the structure. There are four sections; listening,
reading, writing, speaking. Make sure you know how each of them works, how
much time is going to be used for each one. In the listening section you have four sections,
in the reading section you have three passages to read, in the writing
sections you have... Section you have two tasks
that you have to complete. In the speaking section you're going to be
speaking with a native English speaker face to face, one on one for
about 12 to 15 minutes. Make sure you know exactly what they're going
to be asking you, what you're going to be expected to answer back. Okay? So know the structure
of the test. Know the timing. You have 40 minutes, roughly, for the listening
section, including a 10-minute time allotment for copying your answers from the
question sheet to an answer sheet. This is very, very important. Know what to do that. If you're finished writing your answers on your
answer sheet before the 10 minutes are up, you can't go to the
reading section. You have to sit and wait,
close your eyes, relax, etc. Make sure you know the question types that
you're going to face in the listening, and the reading, and the writing
of course, and the speaking. Knowing the question types will make sure
that you aren't surprised by anything. Okay? You do not want to have
surprises on test day. Know the question types, prepare for them,
begin to think about how to answer them. Okay? Make sure you know
all the directions. Every section of the test will
have its own set of directions. Do not spend time reading these or
listening to these during the test. You should know all of the directions long
beforehand, you should memorize them. That way, you don't spend time reading
them, you go straight to the task at hand. Okay? So know the test very well. Now, the best way to actually know the
test is to practice taking the test. Practice the test. Now, I don't mean do, like, 10 minutes
here, 10 minutes there, 15 minutes here. I want you to sit down at least once a week from
the time you registered or started thinking about it until the
actual test day. There are lots of places where
you can get full practice tests. The Cambridge books are
excellent for that. They are past papers and
they're real tests. Make sure that you do a full test at least
once a week from beginning to the end. Give yourself three full
hours undistracted. Now, what does this mean? When you go to the official test centre
you cannot take your phone in with you. You do not have internet, you do not
have music, you do not have anything. You have you in a room with
a bunch of other people. The listening is for everybody,
it's on the speakers. And the reading, and the writing, everything
is by yourself, quiet in a quiet room. Get used to this situation.
Okay? I want you to take the full test
start to finish undistracted. Lock yourself in a room every Saturday morning,
for example, tell all your friends and your family not to disturb you. Leave your phone outside the room, don't even
take it inside with you, and do it exactly as you would on test day. Get used to that way
of doing things. Now, if you do the full practice test a few
times before the real test then you will also understand what it's like to sit for three
hours or at least two hours and 40 minutes and focus on the test. Now, the speaking section may be a few minutes
after the paper test, it may be a few hours later, it may be the next day. Get used to that idea, but learn to focus
for a long stretch of time on English. Speaking. Now, speaking is a little bit difficult because
you're not going to have somebody to interview. But get one of your friends or even get online, you
can get some people even just to say the questions. Get somebody to feed you the questions
and just practice answering them. Record yourself. Record the answers, and then listen
and try to give yourself feedback. But I'm going to talk about
feedback in a minute. Okay, next you're going
to have to strategize. What does this mean? It means create a
strategy for yourself in what scores you need and what your overall
objectives are. So, start by knowing the scores you
need overall and individually. So let me give you an example. You have person A and person B.
Let's say person C, too. Each of you needs
different things. One of you needs an
overall 6.5, that's it. Doesn't matter what you get
in each individual section. Overall, you need a 6.5. Person B needs an overall of 7, with a minimum
of 7 in each category, in each section. And person A needs a 7.5 overall or a 7 overall,
but a minimum 7.5 in writing and reading. Okay? These are just examples. There's all sorts
of combinations. Now, first of all: How do you
know what score you need? Well, if you're applying
to university... Excuse me. If you're applying to university, go to the
website of the department or the faculty you're applying to, they will tell you
exactly what scores you need. If you're applying for... If you're applying for immigration, go to the
government website of the country you're applying to, they will tell you what scores
you need, and if you need overall scores or if you need individual
section scores. Now, once you know the overall score or the
particular things you need, then you can create a strategy. So let's say you need an overall 7 band, 7.0
band and it doesn't matter what you get in each section. This gives you a lot of opportunities because
if you are a very weak writer, for example, then you can aim for a 6 in the writing section,
you can then aim for an 8 in the reading section, and your overall will be 7, assuming you
got 7 or higher in speaking and listening. If you need... If you don't need individual scores, then
you can play with the different categories and you can focus your energy... You can focus your energy on your strong sections,
on your strong skills, and just do enough in your weak skills and
then get your average. But if you need specific scores, then those are
the sections you're going to start working the hardest on. Now, person A needs
as 7.5 in writing. For most people who take this test, and you
can even find research on the IELTS website that will confirm this, most people that take the
IELTS test score the lowest in the writing section. This is the hardest
of the four skills. If you need a high writing score, then
start working on your writing first. Before you practice listening, before you
practice reading, before you practice speaking, start working on your writing because that is
going to take you the longest time to improve your score on, to get the skills you need,
and to get the structures you need, etc., the vocabulary. If you need, for example, the highest score
in listening, which is not really common, but it happens, if you need the highest score
in listening start listening all the time to English; TV
shows, radio shows. But especially start listening to actually IELTS
content, IELTS listening practice exercises and practice tests. Okay? Okay. Basically know where the scores are
you need, so I mentioned that. Focus on the sections that are weakest first,
and make sure you make up with the strongest for those. Have a plan for reading. Now, the reading section... Again, you're going to be given three passages
to read with a total of 40 questions about those passages. Have a plan. Most people can't go to the test and read the
entire passage, and then answer the questions. There are different strategies. If you look on engVid in the search box, you'll
find videos on different ways to approach the reading section and a lot of other videos
on how to deal with all of these sections. But very, very important that you have a plan
for reading; very, very important that you practice your writing skills. Those are the two hardest
sections on the test. As far as the speaking section, it's not so
much about whether you can speak well or not. It's: How comfortable are you
with a live interviewer? If you're not very comfortable, make sure you
have some practice with a native speaker, ask somebody to help you maybe do the test,
or just go speak to native speakers. Get that fear out of your
system long before the test. I've met many test takers who spoke very,
very good English, they go to the test their official test day and they get like a 6
or a 6.5, and they need like a 7 or 7.5. And I say: -"What happened?
You're such a good speaker." -"I panicked. I got scared. The... The interviewer
didn't smile." Okay, they're not
all going to smile. Some of them are actually going
to be quite mean to you. They're not going to
be friendly at all. Get over it. If you know how to speak, speak. If you don't know how
to speak, practice. Practice with anybody you
can long before test day. Create an idea bank. Now, this is very important
for writing and speaking. An idea bank is basically a list of vocabulary,
and questions, and ideas, and examples for different topics. For example, in the writing
section there's going to be a... There's a very good chance you'll get a question
about, like, your essay question about education, or technology, or health, etc. There's a few of these topics. Have all your ideas
planned before test day. Write yourself a bunch of
words related to education. Think up of different questions, or get online
or get books, create yourself a list of possible questions about education, and study all of
these and practice writing a few essays before test day. You can also use the idea
bank for the speaking. You'll have all kinds of different
topics they're going to ask you about. Don't try to think
in the moment. You might panic, you might lose
focus - your test is done. Have a lot of ideas
ready in your head. When they ask you about
it, you're ready to go. So many times I've had
test takers come to me... And I know that they're good writers,
they're good enough writers, but: "Oh, the question, I just had no idea.
I never think about this stuff." Well, think about it
before the test day. Okay? We're going to look at a couple more
things that you need to think about. All right, so now you know
what's coming, you knew... You've done a few practice tests, you know
exactly what you're going to be looking at, you have your strategy, you know what
scores you need, you know how to approach. Again, sorry, I forgot to
mention about the strategizing. Keep in mind that nobody,
nobody needs 9 on the IELTS. Very few people need an 8 even. 8.5, 8, nobody needs this. 7.5 is the standard, it'll
get you into most programs. What does...? What does
this information tell you? That on the reading section, on the listening
section you can miss a few questions and still get the score you need. So the main thing
is: Don't panic. Now, another way to make sure you don't panic and
that you do well is to practice and feedback. Now, I mentioned before
practice the test. Now I'm talking about practice
each individual section. You need a minimum score in writing, practice the
writing; you need a minimum score in reading, practice the reading. Of course, practice all of the sections because
you need all of them for the test, but focus on your weakness. And if you think you only need an overall
score then focus on your strength, and it'll raise your weak score up and
you'll get a good overall average. Read every day. Listen every day. Write every day. Speak every day. Now, I cannot stress this enough: You cannot
practice or prepare for this test a few days before. If you know you're going to take the test
three months from now, two months from now, a month from now, start
practicing every single day. Read anything in English. Listen to anything,
native speaking English. Speak every opportunity you get. If you don't have anyone to
speak to, speak to yourself. Record yourself. Listen to things online, get a transcript,
and just try to copy what the speaker said and record yourself,
listen and compare. Okay? Writing every single day. Make sure your
handwriting is legible. I've seen many people get low scores because the
graders probably couldn't read what they wrote. If the graders can't read it, they
can't score it, and you're going... Your score is going down. Okay? If you have messy handwriting,
practice cleaning it up. Try not to write in script. If your script is messy,
change to block letters. Start practicing writing in a different
style, in a more legible style because you... When you go on the
test day, if you... If you haven't practiced,
that'll cut down your time. It'll slow you down. Make sure you've
practiced that as well. Now, keep in mind that reading and
listening are passive skills. That means the English is coming into you, and
you process it, and you answer the questions. It's much easier than speaking and writing,
which are active skills where you have to produce the English and then
you have to express it. Here, it's coming in,
you process, you do. Here, you process, you create,
and then you express. Very different approaches. Much more difficult, so you
need much more practice. Now, ideally, you will get
feedback, especially on these. Reading and listening,
if you get a practice... A practice material, usually it will come
with an answer sheet, an answer key. So you can check by yourself where you did
wrong, what you got right, what you got wrong. Your mistakes, you can go back to the reading,
back to the listening and try to figure out where you made your mistake. Writing and speaking,
very different. You need somebody else to tell
you what is good and bad. In a writing, you can try to do a self-edit,
but again, you still need somebody to tell you why you're getting a 6.5 instead of a
7, why you're getting a 7 instead of a 7.5. And keep in mind the difference between a
half band in the IELTS is a big difference. It looks like half of a
point is not that much. It's a big difference. Make sure you know
what's going on. Now, I've had plenty of test
takers come to me and they say: "You know, I've taken this test 10 times,
and every time I get 6.5 on the writing. I need a 7." So I say: -"Well, did you get
any feedback on your essays?" -"No." So I say: "So basically you're making the
exact same mistake 10 times because you don't know it's a mistake." So they say: "Yes", and I... They show me, I
show them what... Where their mistakes are, what they need to
do, and then the next test they get their 7 or their 7.5 just like that. Make sure you know what
you're doing wrong. This is a very expensive test. Don't take it 10 times. If you need practice, don't do
it at the official test centre. Get a book, do the practice at home, save
yourself some money, some time, some energy. That all has to do with
mental preparation. You have to prepare yourself
mentally for this test. It means that you're going
to have to exercise... It's an exercise in
project management. Don't think about
it as English only. Of course it's English, but
it's project management. Set yourself a goal: "This
is my goal, I need a 7.5. I need a... I need a particular
band in each section." So this is the goal, here are the steps I'm
going to take, and I'm going to work it all together to reach my target. It's an exercise in
project management. Okay? Every test, IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, GRE, GMAT, it's
not only about your knowledge, it's about your ability to prepare, to focus,
to do what needs to be done. Okay? Again, going back to the essay, I've had many
people who are very good writers get very low scores on their
essay section. Why? Because they didn't bother to find out
what the IELTS wants in an essay. They didn't have a proper
introduction, body, conclusion. As soon as I showed them the structure that's
necessary, they went and they got their score the next time they
took the test. Know the test, know what you need
to do, prepare yourself mentally. Now, turn on your English brain. Okay? Think, do everything in English. Whenever you have the opportunity, whenever
you're not speaking to your friends who speak your language, your native language, think in
English, read in English, listen in English. Do everything you can to keep
your brain focused on English. And the day before and the day of
and the night before, all English. Don't study the night before, don't do practice
exercises, don't read anything too complicated. Read a comic book, read a sports newspaper,
listen to some English songs, watch a TV sitcom in English, but just get your brain used to
the English so when you go to the test your brain's already ready for the
English that's coming to it. Okay? The day before or the night before go to sleep
at a proper time, get a full night's sleep, be fresh the day... The day of the test. If you're a coffee drinker, have your coffee
earlier and don't drink another coffee before you get to the test. Coffee will bring you up, but then it will
bring you back down halfway through the test and you'll lose focus. Okay? Eat protein, egg, whatever protein you
like, have it before you go to the test. You can take a bottle of water
with you, that's about it. Make sure you're not hungry,
make sure you're not thirsty. Make sure you're fresh and
concentrating on English. Don't study the night
before or the morning of. Just English. Surround yourself with English. That's all you need to do. If you don't know where the test centre is and
you're trying to find it out on the morning of, I guarantee you: You will walk into the
test centre stressed and you'll do badly. Make sure you go to the test center at least
a day or two or a week before so you know how to get there, you know how long it'll
take you, you know the best routes, etc. Go early, relax. I personally recommend don't talk
to other student, they'll... They'll just stress you out. "Oh, do you know this?
Do you know that?" No. Relax, sit by yourself, listen
to some music, close your eyes. Be fresh, be
confident, be ready. And when you go to the speaking
test, it's just a person. This person is not going to
take out a knife and stab you. This person doesn't care
about you, to be honest. The graders are doing a job, they're
getting paid, they don't care. If they don't smile,
they don't smile. If they do smile, don't let
that fool you, either. Just do their test,
go home, relax. And another thing to remember, this is the
most important thing: Once you pass this test and get the score you need, you
will never have to do it again. So do it properly, do it well the
first time, pass, and move on. Okay. I hope this helped you and I hope those of
you who are getting ready to do this test will do this properly and get your
score the first or second time. Save your money, save your
time, save your energy. Okay? If you have any questions, by all means, please
go to the www.engvid.com forum and ask your questions there. I'll be happy to help. If you need study materials, again, go to
www.engvid.com, go to the search box, type in "IELTS", we have lots of videos there to
help you with the writing, the reading, the speaking, the listening. All the sections are covered. Lots of videos. I've made some videos there, other teachers
have made some very good videos there. Look around, start preparing. If you need even more help than that, if you
want a little bit more explanation on grammar and writing especially, you can
visit my site, www.writetotop.com. I concentrate on the writing section and
help you prepare for these English tests. You can also watch some videos there as well
that I've made for this particular purpose. I will put up a quiz at www.engvid.com just to
make sure you understood, that you absorbed all this information. I really hope you like this
lesson, I hope it helps you. If you did, please subscribe to
my YouTube channel and I'll... You're going to see lots
more good videos like this. And come back again, and I'll have
some more videos for you next time. Bye-bye.
