IELTS Advice: boring hard work

I often advise students to try to enjoy studying English and preparing for the IELTS test.

However, sometimes the boring things are the most useful: rewriting an essay to improve it, looking up words in a dictionary, learning correct spellings by heart. If you're not doing any boring work, maybe you're not working hard enough!

Comments

[mike.gou]

Yes, simon, I agree with your opinion.

[James Z.]

I'm so tired.

[DR-ALI]

Thanks Simon

[Jimmy]

Mr Simon, You are right. I have found myself a much more improvement in IELTS as well as in general English as well after a long time I keep doing THE SAME BORING THINGS EVERYDAY. They are:
- listen and transcript CNN student news
- re-read the passages in the Cambridge books
- hand-writing again your model band 9 essay and learn something new
That's what I doing everyday and I believe if I work hard enough, band 8 will not a expensive thing to me.
so I would like to thank you again for your " hard work" to all of us.
---one of your students from Vietnam-----

[Mary]

I just took Ielts exam GT module
Writing task 1: I remember it just in my own word
You have rented a holiday apartment before and despite of few problems you are happy with it and you decided to do it again , write a letter to the owner and say:
1: why you were happy
2:what was the problem
3: when do you want to rent it and give the details for that
Start with :
Dear ………….,

Writing task 2:

Nowadays many people prefer to buy from supermarkets and big shops rather than small shops and local markets why do you think this happens?
Is it a positive development or negative?

[Lana]

Hi Simon
Today I sat ielts exam .... Your website , the clues , information and advices are really helpful , I might not get the required score but I think I did very well in comparison to previous time when I didn't know about your website ...thanks again I was very organised in my answer ( the credit come back to you ) specially the brain storming for writing was really beneficial ..
Many thanks I am very optimistic that ielts is no longer impossible for me .

[sam]

the key is just never give up

[[email protected]]

The most useful tip ever toward hogher band .. truely Thank you

[Yip]

Hi Simon,

Just wondering if a sentence is right in a native speaker's view. I guess this is a tough challenge for us to overcome as well.

Modern technology has increased people's mobility and independence and thus contributed to international labour migration.

Thanks!

[sjm]

Yip

This is basically a good sentence, however the word 'thus' is a bit old fashioned today.

[niraj]

Hi simon
I’m gonna take IELTS test within a month. I need your help and I have no other choice than you. I’m from Nepal and I don’t have any card neither account to get your book. Its almost herculean task to get your book by here however I attempted so many time to get but I couldn’t. so please tell me whats the difference between your IELTS- Simon blogs and the book you provide. I follow your all blogs that has been running since 2009. Is it necessary to get your ebook or its just enough to follow your all blogs to notch up good marks in IELTS. I don’t have good English proficiency as well and I hope you understand what I mean please help me

[TUCHIBA]

If it doesn't challenge you
It doesn't change you
I not fear a man who kicks the balls with 1000 times
But I fear a man who 1000 times kick only one ball
Detail work is important

[Abee Mencias]

Hello Simon! I just want to share this to all. I accidentally found your website last month, 2 weeks before my scheduled exam. One of the things that drew my attention to it is you make every lessons seem so easy. From that moment I started reading and using every activity to practice my skills. I took the exam last April 30 and I just got the result today (May 13). The good thing is my reading and writing tests have improved. From 6-6.5 in reading, I got a 7, and in writing, I got 6.5. I was not really expecting to get a 6.5 in writing but thanks to you I did! I followed your advice especially in essay construction, however, I still need to up my game since I need to get 7 in all of my subtests. I'm more positive now than before because I know I can get better by the help of this website. I want to thank you for helping us all improve our skills by dissecting each details of all these lessons and making it easier for us to absorb. I'm really glad I found your website coz it has helped me so much in understanding and analyzing all there is to know in every subtests. Take care and God bless Simon!

-Abee :)

[Simon]

Thanks Abee. I'm glad you found my site!

[Dragon]

I do a lot of boring work, and I believe that my English language level is way better than my score. Unfortunately, the exam tests performance under certain conditions which can be inconsistent. I took the exam twice, first try scored 6.5 in the listening and in the second I scored 8.5....!
Knowing that the period between the 2 exams was less than a month. How could someone improve his skills by 2 marks in such a short period of time?

The simple answer is my skills are much better than my scores, I use English so often, and natives are usually blown by my English fluency, this exam is nonesense.

[Sherzad]

thanks for recommendation!
I only have a month to prepare and I need 7.5. I have scored 6.5 a year ago. Please give me the most useful hints of IELTS as I am in shortage of time!