Test Takers Approach 7-Days Before IELTS Exam

If you aspire to study abroad and belong to a non-English speaking country, then you need to provide proof of English proficiency for any kind of course overseas. Some of the most common tests which are accepted worldwide are TOEFL, PTE, and IELTS.

IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System, and the exam is jointly owned by IDP (International Development Program), Cambridge Assessment English, and British Council. The exam is open to anyone who wishes to study abroad, without any eligibility criterion. It is a standardized test that evaluates the skills of a candidate in all essential areas of English, i.e., reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

If you have been preparing for IELTS and the exam is in just one week, you must have apprehensions and anxiety about how to spend the last seven days before IELT. Many questions might invade your mind, such as which topics to concentrate on, how to revise properly, and so on. In this article we will give you an efficient 7-day practice program to get you excellent scores in IELTS.

IELTS Overview

IELTS is one of the leading authorities in international studies and immigration. More than 4 million students take this test every year to present as proof of their common knowledge of the English language to various universities. Here are some highlights of the test:

• Registration fees - 15,500 INR
• Band score scale - 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest)
• Exam duration - 2 hours 45 minutes
• Sections - Reading, writing, listening, and speaking
• Exam modes - Computer-delivered and paper-based.
• Types of IELTS - General training and academic
• Result validity - 2 years

The exam pattern is as follows:

• Listening section - It is of 30 minutes duration with 40 questions. It tests a candidate's skills in:
• having a conversation
• listening to concrete facts like places, times, prices
• Understand in detail the main points in the audio.

The type of questions asked are MCQs, summary completion, sentence completion, flow-chart completion, matching information, diagram labeling, etc.

• Reading section - There are 40 questions to be answered in 60 minutes. The skills tested here are:
• Ability to understand the opinions and ideas of the author
• Ability to gauge the main idea or theme in the sections of text or paragraph
• Ability to find specific information from the test.

The types of questions in this section are matching headings, short answers, MCQs, sentence completion, flow-chart completion, summary completion, diagram labeling, etc.

• Writing section - There are two questions in this section to be answered in 60 minutes. This section tests the following skills:
• Ability to properly summarize the most relevant and essential information and trends.
• Ability to present arguments on a topic or issue provided.
• Grammatical accuracy and range.

The two tasks involve writing essays in 150 and 250 words by summarizing information available in the form of graphs, diagrams, tables, etc. The second task has an argument presented to the test-taker, and s/he has to respond to the given point of view in an academic and neutral style of writing.

• Speaking section - This section has three parts to be completed in 15 minutes. The first part is personal information where the candidate has to talk about their family, studies, work, etc. In the second part, a card is presented and the candidate needs to speak on the topic for two minutes which can be followed by a couple of questions from the examiner. The third part involves a detailed discussion between the examiner and test-taker on the topic presented in part 2. This section tests the following skills:
• Ability to communicate information and opinions clearly.
• Ability to speak coherently for a longer duration on any topic.

How to Prepare in the Week Leading Up To IELTS Exam

To begin with, all test takers must keep realistic expectations, develop a study abroad plan, and follow it through in the last seven days of the exam. Being realistic here means you are probably not going to gain any new skills or learn new strategies in the last week. Hopefully, you have already prepared for a month or more, learned strategies, and applied them to practice tests. The week leading to the exam is more about mental preparation than practice. We have broken down your seven-day approach to the IELTS exam as follows:

Day 1 & 2 - Devote these two days for writing tasks. As per a recent survey around 90% of students do better in the speaking section than in writing. Understand the ideal strategy for the two writing tasks and practice them as much as you can. Make sure you are sticking to the clock when practicing i.e., spend only 20 minutes for task 1 and 40 minutes for task 2. You could read an English newspaper and summarize opinions and information in the news in your own words. Practice writing on IELTS answer sheets.

Day 3 - This day is for becoming a fluent speaker. There is no rule here but to practice extensively. Some of the ways to practice are watching an English movie and then talking about it with your friends explaining the movie plot and your opinions on it. You could also talk out loud to yourself in front of the mirror to gauge your speaking capabilities minutely.

Day 4 - Today, you will transform into a keen reader and not just an ordinary reader. The trick here is to not read every word since you are reading to answer and not as a pastime. While reading books, look out for italics, underlining, tables, graphs, title, and heading. You must remember that all the answers are present in the text itself. 

Day 5 - Practice the listening section and the mantra here is to stay focused and calm. Listen to podcasts, songs, and TED talks in English and pay attention to pauses, words, intonation, and repetition used in these pieces. You must also get used to various accents spoken in different English-speaking countries by listening to podcasts from different countries.

Day 6 - Today, you should devote time to those sections of the exam which you find most difficult. Today you should also review test strategies for all the sections of the IELTS exam.

Day 7 - Today is the last day before your exam, so revise all that you have done till now. Today is also the day to relax and remind yourself that you have worked hard to the best of your capabilities and you will do great in the exam. One way to unwind yet keep practicing is to exercise and listen to podcasts. Do not forget to eat a healthy dinner and have a sound sleep on your last day before the exam.

There is no magic wand to get a high score in IELTS. The key is not to panic before the last seven days of your exam. Rather, utilize this time to stay focused without getting panicky. Grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary are the three pillars of the IELTS exam, and if you master them, there is nothing stopping you from getting stupendous results. Understand your strengths and weaknesses, analyze the mistakes that you have made, and work positively on them to rock your IELTS exam.