Starter ielts

My advice is study, study, study.  Do you have textbooks already?  Do you use the Internet to practice?  Have you spoken with others that have taken the test?

I hate the IELTS, personally.  It is my opinion that the speaking portion can not be graded in a fair manner, or equally, and that the test itself works some into a state of nervousness that they find difficult to overcome when it's time to take the test.

Hi! your post reminded me of myself.) I am 2nd student of ftu and I applied for the high quality program . You just need to take it easy, practice a lot, especially listening. i am afraid that the final test is unbelievably crazy. It is much difficult than the real test, and the sound quality is terrible, which made the score worse . You will have to study yourself a lot, that 's for sure. The teachers are not really helpful. Try ur best and good luck!))

Join a 3 month English course with a good teacher who can give you the orientation or build up a frame for ur test & help u check the essays.
U dont need to use too many books, in the beginning, i used to be worried like u and downloaded dozens of books to study but at last i didnt touch them at all. What a waste of time! You can learn anywhere, anytime from your friends, media & even people unknown.
Overall, take it easy because if u dont reach your target, u can make an attempt at other tests.

Good luck!

Try to work at one of the restaurants or Ben Thanh market in district 1. By talking with other will your English increase dramatically. Also watch movies or TVs with English subtitles. It will help with your writing.

Hi Kim Chung

Since your time to prepare for the IELTS test is short, I would recommend you to buy an IELTS course book and follow its instruction step by step. The tips will help you to improve your score. If you haven't taken a model test or a real test, then 2 months is just enough for you to get yourself familiar with the question types and you would need to work hard! But if you have tried it ealier, then you can improve your score quite well, especially for the reading and speaking sections. Of course you would need to work on your grammar and vocabulary too, but this should be done like a daily habit, not a high pressure task.

I myself prefer the TOEFL ibt to the IELTS test too, cuz it takes more skills to do well the IELTS test. In other words, what I feel is if you haven't tried any of the two tests, it will take longer to prepare for the IELTS test than the TOELF ibt.

rabbit94 wrote:

hi all
I'm Kim Chung.
now, I'm living in Hanoi
I'm very happy because I have passed the exam for high quality program at my college.
however, the most difficult thing that is learning english.
I have to finish the Ielts test with 6.0 since the end of first term.
now, I only make 600 toeic test.
it is very difficult to finish ielts with 6.0
I need advices from everyone.
speacially skills at listening and speaking ESL.
thank you!

thanks so much!

peeves wrote:

... If you haven't taken a model test or a real test, ... tried any of the two tests, it will take longer to prepare for the IELTS test than the TOELF ibt.

Where can you fnd these "model tests" on line?

Thanks for any URL's.

Jaitch wrote:

peeves wrote:

... If you haven't taken a model test or a real test, ... tried any of the two tests, it will take longer to prepare for the IELTS test than the TOELF ibt.

Where can you fnd these "model tests" on line?

Thanks for any URL's.

I have quite a bit of materials.  You know where I hang my hat, so grab your laptop and come on over.  That's not meant in a threatening manner, because I'll freely share anything I have with other teachers.  Some teachers I insist on meeting , however.  You would be one of them.

Mind mapping rocks! http://www.ieltsbuddy.com/ielts-mind-map.html

Pick your free test: Google results:  IELTS practice tests free

Good golly Jaitch.  The first hit is canadavisa.com!

TOEFL iBT:  Google results:  TOEFL iBT practice tests free

This looks like a good one, with various links compiled on one site:  http://www.wiziq.com/tests/toefl-ibt-test

I have been teaching English since 2009 and have watched as the amount of TOEFL iBT classes plummeted and the amount of IELTS classes rose.  Since American universities decided to accept IELTS scores in 2007(?) the folks at IELTS have kicked their competetors at TOEFL in their rear ends.

I anticipate that the company that owns the TOEFL will abandon it within a few years and concentrate on the TOEIC, which they also control/own.  My advice...and it sickens me to say this, is to take the IELTS test, regardless of the foreign country that you're planning to study in.  Why does it sicken me?  Standardized testing is awful,dreadful,abhorrent, and a lot of other adjectives that describe bad things.

There is no way to standardize a speaking test, which pins the hopes and dreams of students on the mood of some jackass examiner.  These types of tests aren't going away though, so the snobs at Cambridge can keep collecting money, while dashing and destroying the hopes of many students worldwide, who would probably do fine at a foreign university after they had became acclimmated.

IM_VIETKIEU wrote:

Try to work at one of the restaurants or Ben Thanh market in district 1. By talking with other will your English increase dramatically. Also watch movies or TVs with English subtitles. It will help with your writing.

You have to be careful with the subtitles, because they have been written by someone who may not be a native speaker (if it's a pirated copy).  I've watched movies that had errors in every other sentence.  Homophones are especially problematic.  For example, a character may say "I know what you mean.", but the subtitle is written as "I no what you mean."