ENGLISH WITH KEV!
IELTS Study Plan
How to prepare yourself for the IELTS,
step by step,
from day one to test day
By
K.A.Dean
IELTS Study PLan
The right of Kevin.A.Dean to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
No part of this publication shall be reproduced in
any form in any medium without the prior consent
of the author and shall be personally attributed to
the author. Permission may be granted if a written
request is submitted. All trademarks in this guide
are the property of the author.
IELTS Task 2 Sample Essay Structures .A.Dean
i
Welcome to my new e-book, I decided to write this
after several students asked me if I could create
an IELTS study plan for them, to take them
through the various stages of preparation in the
weeks and months before the test. I wanted to put
as many resources and links into this document as
possible, so this is more or less everything I
recommend.
Introduction
First, a disclaimer, I want to make this clear from
the start, although it should be obvious, we need
to be realistic here, if you only have a week or so
before your test then you will be very lucky to get
the score you need. For most people, the optimal
time is three months (more is better obviously) as
you not only need to have a good level of English
(upper-intermediate for most people looking for
6.5-7.5) but you also need to understand
everything about the IELTS, how it works, how it is
assessed, the difference between the question
types, the common topics, and the techniques and
strategies you need to answer them.
What I will outline here is a general strategy
for the four sections and also more specific
strategies and links to various resources which will
help you in your preparation.
I do not personally endorse any websites or links
you might find in this guide, I enclose them only
for your reference, there are many others of course.
The links to other teacher's sites are for your
information and to give you ideas for study.
General Strategy Step 1
Step 1
So, if you haven’t taken the test before I suggest that the first thing is to have
someone who knows what they are doing to give you a thorough assessment and
see what your current level/score is, and what specific areas need to be improved.
Even if you have taken the test before, I still recommend you have a consultation
with a professional IELTS teacher, they can look at your writing and speak to you
and get some idea of why you didn’t get the score you want and offer advice as to
what needs to improve.
If you want to test your listening and reading yourself, then try these links below…
https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/take-ielts/prepare/free-ielts-practice-
tests/listening
https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/take-ielts/prepare/free-ielts-practice-
tests/reading/academic
https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/take-ielts/prepare/free-ielts-practice-
tests/reading/general-training
As for writing and speaking, you can contact me and I will send you some writing
tasks and you can mail them back and I will assess them, and we can arrange a
Skype session where I will go through a complete speaking test and assess you
accordingly.
General Strategy Step 2
Step 2
Then, you need to have a thorough understanding of what the IELTS is, how it
works, how it is assessed, etc. Two overviews are available from IELTS.org and the
British Council that will explain more about this and the different question types.
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/publications/information-for-candidates/ielts-
information-for-candidates-english-uk.ashx
https://www.britishcouncil.ps/sites/default/files/ielts_information_for_candidates_mar
ch_2010_0.pdf
You will also need to get a sense of what the current and past topics and questions
are, I recommend you simply Google IELTS common topics or whatever, and you
will get many pages of topics for both writing and speaking.
You will also need to know how your scores are calculated.
https://www.ielts.org/for-organisations/ielts-scoring-in-detail
After this, you need to understand what the criteria are for writing and speaking, you
can find the public versions below.
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/speaking-band-descriptors.ashx?la=en
https://ieltstutorials.online/images/ielts_task_1_writing_band_descriptors.pdf
https://ieltstutorials.online/images/ielts_task_2_writing_band_descriptors.pdf
General Strategy Step 3
Step 3
The next step is to set yourself a time frame for your study. One reason for this is
that you need to be realistic, if your current level after an assessment is 5.5 and you
want 7.0, and you are taking the test in a week, it is going to be very hard, if not
impossible, to get the score you want. I see this with students all the time, many of
them have unrealistic expectations, they are taking the test in a matter of days or
weeks and they have no study plan, no idea what to do, and they expect me to wave
my magic IELTS wand and help them get band 7.0 or whatever. Unfortunately, this
is never the case.
So, you need to consider this, as a general rule which most teachers would agree
with, for most people to increase their overall band score by 0.5 it can take around
200 hours of guided study and practice. Obviously, if you are just wanting to improve
one skill then it may well take less time, depending on the individual and
circumstances. However, in general, as I said, you are looking at around 200 hours
per half a band score.
This is why I always give my students a thorough assessment, I calculate their
current level, find out their test date, the desired score, what time they have
available for study, what they currently do, what resources they use, etc. The reason
for all these questions is so I can calculate and see if what they want is realistic. If it
is, I can make them a study plan, and off they go, if not, I do the best I can but I
know that in all probability they will not succeed.
The best thing to do is to discuss this with me and we will see what your weak points
are and set an achievable and practical time frame for you to improve them. As I
wrote above, the general guidelines are just that, “guidelines”, and if you are only
wanting to improve one or two skills then the time frame may be less.
General Strategy Step 4
Step four
Create a study plan, or ask me for advice and we will create one together.
As with the IELTS, and with all things, the “secret” is to have regular and consistent
practice, this is true in all activities, whether learning a language, learning to play an
instrument, or whatever, the people who are successful are those who put in the
hours, it really is that simple! What that means for your purpose is to spend some
time every day, doing something in English. You can try to make the most of your
day, maybe do some listening on your morning commute to work, some reading at
lunchtime, and in the evenings, talk to a language partner on Skype, or do some
writing practice to send to me. See the sample table below for some ideas,
remember you need to tailor this to meet your needs and your time.
Sample weeks study plan
This is just an idea as to how it might look in general, as you see, you need to cover
as much ground as possible, the general strategy of reading and listening, and the
more focused strategy of getting to know the difference between the question types
and the techniques you need to answer them. Also, you need some time for lessons
and having your writing corrected, and general speaking practice with a
study/language exchange partner, and more skill-specific sessions with your
teacher.
This plan can be tailored according to your particular needs and time availability.
Sample Schedule
Skill Specific Strategy: Listening
Skill Specific strategy: Listening
Listening…to be fitted in every day, when you have time. General listening, and
focused exam listening.
This is a two-part strategy, the first is to “tune” your ears into the sounds of English,
by listening to podcasts, internet radio, etc...this can be done while you are
commuting to work, or whenever you have some time to spare. Some of the
podcasts allow you to download a transcript, which is very useful, as you can follow
it and annotate it if you hear some new vocab, etc. What I would suggest is that you
don’t simply listen to the audio passively, as background noise, you really need to
concentrate on it to get the best out of this kind of practice. So, for some good links
to pods, books, etc, although there are many more and I encourage you to look for
those that suit your tastes, see below for my recommendations.
http://tunein.com/
http://www.internet-radio.com/
http://teacherluke.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/the-english-we-speak
http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks
And for IELTS specific material..
http://ielts.allearsenglish.com/episodes/
http://www.ieltspodcast.com/
And for lessons about the different question types
http://ieltsadvantage.com/listening/
http://ieltsliz.com/ielts-listening
Skill Specific Strategy: Listening
Once you have a basic grasp of the techniques for listening, you have to put this
knowledge into practice, try these sites for online tests below.
http://ieltsmaterial.com/listening/
http://ieltsonlinetests.com/
Or, you can buy previous papers from Cambridge 1-16 if you prefer.
So, in sum, you need to be doing some “active” listening everyday, as well as
reading through the difference between the question types, and trying out your
technique on the practice tests. How you fit this in is up to you, but as you will see in
the sample weekly plan, it could be by making the most of your travel time to work
and back, as lots of my students do.
Skill Specific Strategy: Reading
Skill Specific Strategy: Reading
The main reason reading is so vital is to develop your vocabulary, as the reading
test is essentially a test of your vocabulary knowledge. Many of the questions expect
you to locate synonyms and paraphrases of keywords in the text, which will be very
difficult with a low level of vocabulary. Additionally, the criteria for both writing and
speaking call for you to display a knowledge of topic-specific language, if you don’t
use such language then you won’t get a very high score as far as Lexical Resource
is concerned. For example, if writing or speaking about crime, you would need to be
able to use language such as imprisonment, incarceration, justice, sentencing, etc.
Another reason why reading is such an excellent tool for IELTS is ideas, a lot of
students tell me that they have trouble thinking of ideas for the essay task,
especially if it is an unfamiliar topic. This goes for speaking also, although the IELTS
questions are supposed to be on topics that the average person could speak about.
One point regarding this I want to mention is that some of the topics are very
“Western-centric”, (an oft-aimed criticism of IELTS in general). For example, one of
the essay qs asks about “What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a
year off between high school and university”, a gap year in other words. Well, for
many parts of the world this is an unheard-of concept, many students from South-
East Asia (to name but one region) would have no idea what this question referred
to and would consequently find it hard to answer. So, to avoid this, complete and
thorough knowledge of possible topics and question types will serve you well.
The first step then is to read more and widely, for example, books, blogs, whatever
interests you, you are spoiled for choice online these days, or to focus on the kind of
topics you might expect in the test, education, crime, technology, etc. A good
resource for reading material is the Guardian newspaper which has different
sections, travel, science, education, as does another online news source, The
Conversation. The reason I recommend these is that, unlike many other
newspapers/journals, they are not currently behind a paywall and are free to access.
https://www.theguardian.com/international
https://theconversation.com/uk
Skill Specific Strategy: Reading
In the second stage, again, as with the listening plan, you need to know what the
different reading questions are (matching headings, true/false/not given, etc) and
know the techniques for all of them, such as skimming and scanning, close reading,
etc. For that, as I don’t have the time to make lessons for such things, I recommend
the following websites.
http://ieltsadvantage.com/reading/
http://ieltsliz.com/ielts-reading-lessons-information-and-tips/
Now, in terms of developing topic-specific language and ideas for the essay task,
there are around 20 common themes for IELTS, such as crime, education,
transport, health, etc. As a general strategy, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself
with these topics and make a list of them (Google top twenty IELTS topics and see
what comes up), what are the possible questions, (easy to find online), think of
some ideas from your own research (Google the essay question keywords and see
what comes up again), copy some ideas and language from sample essays (many
available online), and put all this information together into your lexical notebook. The
idea is to build your own "Ideas Bank" as it is sometimes called, where you gather
all the ideas and language from your topic list into one place. You can go through
one theme or topic at a time, collate ideas and vocab, and then review this regularly
and memorize it in context. this may be time-consuming but I guarantee it will serve
you well come exam time!
Skill Specific Strategy: Writing
Skill Specific Strategy: Writing
Writing is the one that students dread the most, I get mail every week from people
who have taken the test several times and can’t get through the 6.0/6.5 barrier and
ask me to help them. So what to do first? Again, as before, you need to have your
English level/current band score properly assessed by someone who knows how the
writing section works, not just a random native, but someone who specializes in
IELTS. The reason for this is that the writing section has certain criteria which you
need to address, and if you have your writing looked at by someone who doesn’t
know what these are, they will probably only correct your grammar and vocabulary
and that’s all. This is ok, but grammar and vocab are only half of the assessment
criteria, task achievement and cohesion/coherence are the other half.
So, how to study writing? Start with the criteria, find out what the examiners are
looking for and what that means in practice.
As I mentioned in the other sections, you need to know what the different question
types are, and to have a strategy for writing. There are 8 or 9 possible academic
task 1 question types, graph, chart, table, map, process, etc (general training is a
letter, either formal or semi/informal) all of which have a slightly different approach
and language required to write them. As for the essay, we have five different
question types, to what extent, discuss both views, problems/causes and solutions,
advantages vs disadvantages, and the two-part questions. All of which have a
typical four/five-paragraph structure but a slightly different structure at the level of
the sentence depending upon if it is an opinion or discussion question.
There is a lot you need to know, about the writing process, the importance of
planning, time management, how to analyze the question, and how to structure your
essay sentence by sentence. I have a book of structures where I go through this,
sentence by sentence, (write to me if you don't have it) and many videos on my old
channel where I go through essay writing in detail.
Skill Specific Strategy: Writing
For general guidance, I recommend the following resources.
https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-1-lessons-and-tips/
https://www.ieltsadvantage.com/writing-task-2/
And my YouTube channel with many videos for writing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=5dXtZPP3ODk&list=PLkwVNlaIqVmkpdyxo2PV2YULLcwBjgcUR
You might also search for Pauline Cullen on Facebook and Twitter as she is one of
the authors of the test and has many helpful tips for writing.
These sites are the best around currently (all though there are many more of
course) and have all the tips and hints you need, examples, etc, and of course, if
you have any questions you can ask me at any time. A quick word on sources,
obviously online there are 100's of IELTS sites and videos on YouTube, what I do
recommend is that whatever you do, do not use too many different sources, as this
often causes information overload and confusion. Often students say to me, "but
Kev, this guy said this, you say that, someone else said so and so, etc". To avoid
this, find one or two sources you like, and stick to their advice, this way you will not
be confused with conflicting information.
That being said, what I would suggest is that you spend some time every week (as
per your plan) studying the differences between question types, and writing timed
practice exercises. Then you can send them to me for discussion in class with
feedback and comments.
Skill Specific Strategy: Speaking
Finally, let us now turn to the speaking test. So, the speaking test is in three parts
and is around 14 mins in total, more or less. When you enter the room, you will be
greeted and the examiner will introduce themselves and ask for your full name, then
they will ask what you would like to be called and where you are from, they will ask
for your ID and the test proper will begin.
In the first part (4-5 mins) the examiner will ask about you and your family, or your
studies, hobbies, or any familiar topics. This is designed to get you “warmed up”,
relaxed and talking naturally.
In part 2, you will be given a topic card, this usually asks you to describe and explain
something, and will have a list of points that you should talk about. You have a
minute to prepare and up to two minutes to answer the question, the examiner will
not usually speak during this time.
For part 3, the examiner will ask general and more abstract questions related to the
topic on the card (4-5 mins). These questions might be about past, present, future,
you might be asked to speculate, hypothesize, make comparisons, etc, there are 7
question types more or less.
See more here
http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/understand-test-format/speaking-test
To see how the introduction works and the opening part 1 questions see the videos
below
https://youtu.be/dlKw5SIPw7E?t=19
And for part 2
https://youtu.be/_0DYAYAV6Xk?t=8
And 3
https://youtu.be/EyrccL7wGpU?t=8
Skill Specific Strategy: Speaking
These should give you an idea as to what to expect.
The next step is to understand what the criteria are for this section, you can
download a table here
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/speaking-band-descriptors.ashx?la=en
If you want to see the difference between the band scores then search YouTube for
IELTS speaking band 9,8,7, etc, and you will find many video examples of the
differences and that should give you a better idea.
What you need now if you have not taken the test before, is to get your current level
assessed, this is what we will do/have done when you contact/ed me. I will tell
you/have told you what you need to improve and offered advice on how to do so.
In our lessons together I will elaborate/will have elaborated on the strategies and
techniques you will need to answer all three sections of the test. I have written a
short booklet of the strategies taken from my old IELTS blog, if you do not have it
then write to me and I will send it to you.
In Conclusion
In conclusion.
To put all this together now, as I wrote above, the “secret” to success in IELTS is
essentially regular and consistent practice, a thorough understanding of the test,
and having an appropriate study plan to guide you along. Which is the reason for
setting this down here, in black and white. If you follow the steps and advice in the
book then, although I cannot offer personal guarantees, you will be as well prepared
as you are ever likely to be.
As I see every week, as I again mentioned above, too many students contact me
with totally unrealistic expectations of the score they want, in the time they want, and
at the level they are at. If only I could wave my “magic” IELTS wand, then I would do
so, and save both them and me, a lot of disappointment. So, what I would suggest is
that you read this (and my companion e-books) thoroughly, check out the links and
resources, and if you need any help or you have any questions then send me a
message at [email protected] or via italki.
About the author
I have been working as a teacher since 2009 and
have lived in Turkey, China, Hungary, the Czech
Republic, and now Slovakia.
I specialize in IELTS/PTE/OET/TOEFL and other
exams but I can also help with general English,
conversation, grammar, and vocabulary
development.
My background is in History and Politics, and I hold
BA and MA/MRes degrees in both those subjects
as well as in Applied Linguistics. I also hold several
teaching certificates for TEFL, etc.
I also have a YouTube channel with many videos
which you might find useful, link below
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTblrPMw6rj
dBEHeVrcrn1w
