I often hear from students who are disappointed because their scores have only improved by half a band. For example: "I've been studying for 3 months but my score has only improved by 0.5".
My reply is always this: You should be happy! An improvement of half a band is great, and it shows that you are on the right track.
Remember: small, gradual improvements are signposts on the path to success!
In sports, we call this "The doctrine of Marginal Gain"
Posted by: Yves | February 24, 2020 at 01:21
Yves
On the scales at gym, I call it "The doctrine of Marginal Loss": 0.5 grams is a victory.
Posted by: colette | February 24, 2020 at 03:24
Yves,
Yes, the marginal gains idea was popularised here in the UK by the coach of the British cycling team. It’s amazing to read about what he/they achieved.
Posted by: Simon | February 24, 2020 at 11:16
Every time I hear about British Cycling team, I immediately think of Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Bradley Wiggins.
This is one of my techniques in IELTS Speaking. Associating/Linking certain topics to people or events for me to generate ideas.
Posted by: Yves | February 27, 2020 at 00:11
Good idea Yves!
Posted by: Simon | March 02, 2020 at 20:28
Hello Simon,
I've followed your website for months and really enjoyed reading your tips as well as ideas for the IELTS test. I'm writing to you to ask for your favor although I'm not sure if you could read this message (I've also sent you an email)
My IELTS journey is absolute painstaking and arduous because I had no background in English. The first score I took was 4.5 in 4 skills, and after 2 years of constant practice and failures, I got 7.0 in 2014, with 7.5 in reading.
After 4 years with no practice, I decided to take the IELTS again and scored 7.5 in all four skills, with the same 7.5 in Reading despite months of studying vocabulary in Cambridge series (I've repeated completing those 3 or 4 times) and also a large amount of academic collocations in CPE tests. I've also read a lot of English books, ranging from economics to marketing, to improve my Reading score.
Despite all my efforts, the score is still 7.5 (for Reading) after the fourth attempt and now it seems like a dead-end to me. Please give me some advice on how to raise my reading score to 8.5 as I really need an 8.0 in total for a scholarship.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Please be safe and take care,
Thank you and best regards,
Han, from Vietnam
Posted by: Han | April 21, 2020 at 18:59
Hello Simon !
I have been practicing reading and listening for a long time but best techniques lacked so I will be grateful if you send techniques how to practice efficiently.
Posted by: Tony | June 03, 2020 at 15:02