IELTS is a popular English language test that is used by universities and employers. The IELTS Exam evaluates your ability in four critical areas of the English language: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. It is the world’s most popular English language proficiency exam.
Whether you’re looking to study abroad, work in an international company, or just want to expand your horizons, a good IELTS score can make all the difference. It’s the key that unlocks the door to the world of global education and career opportunities.
Achieving a score of 9.0 on the IELTS exam is a high goal, but it is certainly possible with dedication and hard work. In case you need professional help, cealea is a private IELTS academy that offers the best infrastructure and staff to help you reach your goals.
About IELTS
IELTS has two versions: the Academic Version and the General Training Version.
The Academic Version assesses a person’s ability to understand university-level lectures, while the General Training Version assesses a person’s ability to deal with everyday tasks in an English-speaking environment.
It is an accepted examination for entry into undergraduate or postgraduate degree programs at universities in the UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and other countries worldwide.
IELTS also provides opportunities for people to progress in their careers through higher education or professional development programs such as teacher training courses or nursing qualifications.
Here are a few IELTS tips and tricks that can help increase your chances of getting a 9.0 on the exam:
How to Score a 9 Band- Speaking IELTS Tips and Tricks
This is the trickiest area to cover for non-native speakers. Even with all the writing and reading practice in the world, it won’t be possible to create a good impression on your examiner if you do not showcase your speaking abilities well enough. Since your English speaking will be tested subjectively, the invigilators pay attention to the following areas:
- The vocabulary you choose to use in your conversation.
- How fluently and smoothly you speak the language.
- The usage of grammar and tone.
- Your accent and how you pronounce certain words.
All of these factors will be marked individually and then rounded up. Therefore, you must work on all these aspects to achieve a high mark. These speaking ielts tips and tricks will help you get a better command of your fluency.
How to Improve Your Speaking Skills
To get a perfect speaking score, there are a few tips that you can try at home.
Say It Out Loud
To speak English smoothly, you must practice speaking daily by conversing with your friends or family. It is better if you could find a native speaker as your partner as you will be much more able to find your drawbacks in that case.
Another practice is to start recording yourself while you speak to yourself. This will help you discover the area you lack so you can work on them and keep repeating them till you achieve your goal. Practice speaking in front of a mirror or recording yourself to get a sense of how you come across to others
Read Up!
A daily dosage of some book reading, podcasts, radio, tv shows, and newspaper articles will help you broaden your vocabulary so you can show your vast knowledge in your words and express your thoughts easily. There are many tests and books available online that will help you get a better command of your grammar. Test yourself on a daily basis and work on the areas that you find tricky.
Listen To Others
Listen to motivational speakers or any audio in the niche of your interest and pay focus on their accent, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Look up words you do not understand and use those words in your daily conversations.
Go Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Try to take part in more extracurricular activities in your academic life. Sign yourself up for class speeches and debates. Doing this will not only help you gain confidence, but you will also learn how to manage your time better and how to act in high-pressure situations.
It Is All In The Details
Use linking words and phrases to connect your ideas and create coherence in your speaking. Use specific examples and details to support your ideas and make your responses more convincing. Pay attention to your pronunciation and intonation. Use online resources or work with cealea to improve these skills.
Relax and try to be natural. The IELTS examiners are more interested in your ability to communicate effectively, rather than your ability to memorize set responses.
Scoring a 9 Band- IELTS Tips and Tricks for Reading
While working on improving your reading, these are the things you need to get a better command on:
- Time management
- Comprehending the used vocabulary
- Figuring out complex structures
- Linking one point to another
Make sure to construct your answers carefully. Be sure not to make any grammatical or spelling mistakes because even though this is a reading test, your English is being tested, so even a tiny silly mistake can keep you from scoring your ideal band. Since we need to manage our time, it is advised not to spend more than a minute on a single question.
Ways to Improve Your Reading
Take It All In
Make it a habit to read an article, blog, or chapter of a book on a daily basis. Practice reading authentic materials, such as news articles or academic texts, to build your reading speed and comprehension skills. Test or not, reading helps you greatly expand your knowledge and build a personality.
Reading out loud improves your listening skills as well as your comprehension skills. It also makes you go slower so you can understand what you are reading.
Practice and Practice
Try to picture what you are reading. Imagination helps with better understanding, and you will be able to retain the information for much longer. Go through the lengths of a newspaper. It will not only fill you in on the happenings of the world but improve your grammar and vocabulary.
Going through online academic reading tests will also help you a great deal in this regard. It will help you find your weaknesses to work on them and improve yourself.
Scan and Skim
Grab some journals and papers and learn the art of skimming and scanning to save yourself some precious time. This will help you focus on the critical information so you can get right to the point and answer the questions quickly and effectively.
Try to use your finger or a pen to trace the sentence you are reading in order to maintain focus on what you are reading. Use the process of elimination to narrow down the options for multiple-choice questions. Use the headings and subheadings to help you understand the main points of the text and to guide your reading.
Look For The Keywords
Try to focus on the keywords. While reading, you may come across words you are not aware of. In that case, you should look for contextual clues in order to guess the meaning of the word or sentence you are reading.
Pay attention to words that signal a change in the direction of the text, such as “however,” “on the other hand,” and “despite.” These words can help you understand the main idea of the text and the relationships between different ideas.
Don’t worry too much about the unknown vocabulary. Try to understand the main idea of the text using the context clues and the rest of the passage.
Save Time
If you get stuck on a question, do not waste time thinking about it. Leave the question and move ahead. You can revisit the question when you are done with the rest, as you will not be provided any additional time. You don’t have to spend hours on end going through boring material when Celeia offers classes that are designed not only for children but also adults who have never had any prior experience with learning English before.
Getting a 9 Band- IELTS Tips and Tricks for Listening.
This is an area that most non-native speakers struggle in. Listeners can be confused by the English accent of the speaker or the fluency. But with daily practice and familiarization, this task can quickly be overtaken.
Read the question written on the paper and focus on the keywords. Try to predict the context of the information before the recording is played. Concentrate on the questions and try to guess what information is needed to fill the gaps. When you transfer your answers to the question paper, be careful regarding your spelling, capitalization, and grammar.
Following listening IELTS tips and tricks will help improve your focus and retention abilities.
Ways to Improve Your Listening Skills
Catch Up On Content
Listen to podcasts or the radio every day. Since they do not require your eyes to be busy, you can easily listen to them while you’re on the bus or on your car ride home. This way, you can practice your concentration and focus while listening.
Whenever you find yourself free, try to play a TED talk or a TV show in English and pay attention to the vocabulary and the subject that the speakers are explaining. Try to notice their accents and how they pronounce various words, and search what these words mean.
Focus and Concentration
The most common mistake people make in the listening exam is ‘fazing out.’ If you do that, there is no going back since the audio is not going to repeat. Try not to miss any information, and gradually you will learn how to block the surrounding noise and provide your full attention to the person speaking.
The best practice is to choose the audio of your interest. If you wish to challenge yourself, however, then choose a topic you would generally get bored with. This exercise will not only help you ace your listening IELTS listening exam but help you generally increase your concentration power.
Try to predict what the speaker will say next. This will help you focus and stay engaged with the conversation.
Look For The Clues
Don’t worry too much about the unfamiliar vocabulary. Try to understand the main idea of the conversation using the context clues and the rest of the dialogue. Pay attention to the tone and attitude of the speaker, as they may be giving hints about the content of the conversation.
Use the headings and visual cues provided in the test to help you understand the main points of the conversation.
IELTS Tip And Tricks to Score Band 9 – Writing Tips and Tricks
The task that IELTS candidates struggle most with is writing. The reason is that since this is a test of your English language knowledge, this British exam focuses on punctuation, paragraph structure, context, wording, grammar, etc. So that is a lot of pressure to write a perfectly structured essay on an utterly unseen topic in the specified time. However, if you have excellent command over structure and grammar, you can easily score an 8 in writing.
It is also essential to keep in mind that your scores will be based on the examiner’s judgment regarding your:
- Grammatical efficiency.
- How well you structure the essay and link one paragraph to the other.
- The range of your vocabulary.
- What you understood from the title, and how you responded to it.
How to Get Better at Writing?
Test Yourself
Keep working on your grammar daily with the help of online tests and grammar books. Practice it with writing and talking to your speaking partner. Try writing within the time limits of the IELTS exam. It is important to manage your time effectively and leave enough time to proofread your writing.
Use apps that can help you build your vocabulary and grammatical structures. Just take a little time out of your day to view these apps, including IELTS tips and LearnEnglish Podcasts, or join the cealea online course!
Collect Your Thoughts
Start journaling – try to write about everyday occurrences, things you are fond of, your hobbies, your life goals, your favorite things, etc. Practice writing your thoughts with logical organization. Brainstorm beforehand how you will be structuring your essay.
Stick To The Guidelines
Familiarize yourself with the different types of writing tasks that appear on the IELTS exam, such as the academic Writing Task 1 and the general Training Writing Task 1. Each task has its own specific requirements and scoring criteria.
Use the appropriate tone and style for each task. The tone of your writing should be formal for the Academic Writing Task 1 and more personal for the general Training Writing Task 1. Use the provided prompts and questions to guide your writing and stay focused on the task.
Practice Writing Essays
If you find yourself lost after looking at the topic, try to make some critical points in your head regarding the essay’s introduction, body, and conclusion, and then start working from there. Do not start jotting down your thoughts immediately.
Give it some thought and create a clear structure in your mind first. This daily practice will aid you in learning time management, organization, and structure as well as increase your overall knowledge of various topics.
IELTS Tips and Tricks: TakeAway
IELTS is an international English language test that measures the ability to use and understand English in an academic setting.
Do you need to get your IELTS certificate? You can do that with one of our cealea online courses or in-person training in Islamabad. We provide you with the materials, guidance, and support to help you build your skills and confidence so that you can speak and write confidently in English.
FAQs
How can I ace my IELTS in 10 days?
Make a daily study routine and make sure to stick to it. Take time every day to read something new and catch up on English podcasts, exercises, and programs that would include your vocabulary and grammatical structures. Incorporate writing into your daily schedule; pen your thoughts or summarize any piece that you have read. Work on skimming and scanning, and keyword recognition in order to get better at time management.
How can I get 9.0 in IELTS?
Practice, practice, and practice. There is no shortcut to getting a 9-band score. Work on the tips and tricks provided above and be consistent. Incorporate plenty of reading and listening exercises in your daily schedule and speak to a partner daily to get smoother in the language. Join an IELTS practice course in Rawalpindi, Islamabad to get professional help.