IELTS Advice: some ideas for repeated practice

In last Saturday's lesson I asked you to think about the power of repetition in terms of developing your English skills. Here are a few ideas:

• Listening: Listen to the same recording several times, but focus on something different each time you listen. I explained this idea here.
• Speaking: Compile a list of questions, and practise answering them every day. Record yourself so that you can listen for mistakes, and make notes about how you could improve. The aim is to 'master' your list of questions before you move on to anything new.
• Reading: If you've done all of the tests in the official Cambridge IELTS books, do them all again, and again! It doesn't matter if you remember some of the answers; you'll still learn something new each time you do the tests. If you can 'master' every reading test in the Cambridge books, I guarantee you'll get a high score in the test (but you'll only master them if you repeat each test several times).
• Writing: Instead of writing four different essays (which will probably all get the same score), try rewriting the same essay four times. Each time you rewrite the essay, try to improve one aspect of it. For example, for the first rewrite you could work on grammar, then the second time you could try to add more detailed explanation, then for the third rewrite you could improve the vocabulary or the coherence.

Repetitive exercises might seem like boring hard work, but I believe that you can use them as a form of 'training' to develop both your English skills and your exam skills.

Comments

[Aftab Ashraf]

Many thanks Simon!
This is a great way to be trained for IELTS.

[tania]

I am grateful of you Simon. You has been such a great help to us here. Thanks a lot. I liked your advice on repetition.This is going to help me to improve my English skills more effectively. I didn't know about the value of repetition.

[Shweta]

Thanks sir really I improved my score.it really works

[jk]

I totally agree with you sir. There is alot that we can achieve through repeating lessons many times.

[sabz]

I love u simon because you keep all your students in a right track ...other teachers sometimes misguide their students.

[Viktor]

Thank you, Simon

[Evgeniy]

Thank you, Simon!
A great piece of advice. Only through hard work the high result can be achieved.

[Anil vijay]

Hi simon !
i really like your blog. i am happy to find your blog as i am getting great help in my IELT preparation.i hope i would get ready in short time and get 6+ band score. Once again best of luck to you for what ever you do in life with pure desire.

thank you.

[Helen ESL]

I absolutely agree. I would also add that students should review their corrected essays and study their teacher’s comments. It makes no sense to keep writing new essays if you haven’t learned from the mistakes of your previous ones!

[Kyo]

Hi Simon!
I really appreciate your advice about repetition. It helps me a lot to prepare the next exam in a week. Thank you!

[ku-ept]

Thank you for your advice.