How I Work Full Time, Study for JLPT and Score IELTS 6.5 (Part 1)

The reason why I wanted to take the IELTS test was that I felt that I encountered some bottlenecks in my English study, which may be different from many people who want to study abroad.

Although I often use English in my work, such as Email writing in English or reading English reports, in fact, I don’t know whether my English has improved or not.

The main reason to prepare for IELTS is basically to evaluate my English level.

So I bought some IELTS-related books by myself, and then started a two-month reading plan.

The books I bought are Cambridge Exam Questions 6–12 and other free resources online.

Cambridge Eglish:

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/ielts/preparation/

『Listening』

I think the fastest way to improve my listening is to practice questions every day,
I have done all the 6–12 listening tests of Cambridge test questions to familiarize myself with the test questions.
List all the questions, grammar, vocabulary, etc. that I don’t know, and record them in my notebook.

I read online that some people watching British soap operas for practicing their listening skills, but I personally feel that it has no effect in short term.

I myself still particularly like American TV series, such as The Good Wife, Modern Family, and Billions.

I have watched these TV series at least twice, The Good Wife has watched it twice, Modern Family has watched it 3 times, and Billions has also watched it 3 times.

I got 7 points in listening.

『Reading』

The difficulty of IELTS reading lies in its variable question types.

I personally think that the most difficult questions are True, false, not given.

It takes a lot of practice to know whether to choose false or not given.

The way to practice is to write and read immediately after writing the listening comprehension so that you can get used to focusing on the topic for a long time!

In the formal exam, there are many questions about geography which is my weakest link, so my reading is only 5.5!

『Writing』

I will copy all the essays and writings I have read and then memorize the writing formula.

I score 6 in Writing.

For Task 1, I will use a fixed template:
The first sentence (title in other words): The diagram illustrates ……
The second sentence (the overall trend): Overall, it can clearly be seen that ……
[Change to the next paragraph]
The first sentence (emphasis one): Looking at the data in more detail, we can see clearly that the next few sentences are free to play~

For Task 2, I read the sample essay on Simon’s blog, and sort out the templates corresponding to six kinds of questions.

IELTS Simon: https://www.ielts-simon.com/

The six questions are:

1. agreement or disagree
2. discuss both views and give your own opinion
3. advantages and disadvantages
4. causes and effects
5. causes and solutions,
6. two-part questions.

In fact, the composition structure is the same, which is divided into four paragraphs.

Let’s deconstruct these four paragraphs:
For the first paragraph: the first sentence is to rewrite the title and the second sentence is directly gives a clear answer to the question
The second paragraph: list out two to three main ideas and supporting your ideas
The third paragraph: list out two to three main ideas and supporting your ideas
Fourth paragraph: one to two sentences to summarize the full text

『Speaking』

I highly recommend that you download an app called “IELTS Bro”.

IELTS Bro: https://ieltsbro.com/

There are exam questions that everyone has recently taken.

It is said that IELTS will change the questions every four months, so practicing the real questions will definitely help!

There are 2–3 sections for Speaking:
Part 1: A quick answer + supporting sentence (details or reasons or examples or comparisons or frequency of occurrence or future plans)
Part 2: Write a one-minute note and talk for two minutes. I think the way to write keywords in a tree diagram is really super easy to use!
Part 3: One sentence quick answer + one sentence explaining the reason or example + one sentence conclusion or concession

In addition, you can practice with relatives and friends, and get the feeling of talking to a real person will be completely different from talking to yourself.

By the way, if you want to practice by yourself, you must record it yourself to know how to improve

I also sorted out the keywords of each topic and increased my vocabulary.

It was really helpful to memorize before the exam!

For example, when asked about holidays, you will think of marvelous/incredible/stunning natural scenery; local delicacies; the locals are hospitable to foreigners; steeped in history; the aroma of amazing food, and so on.

I was asked about work and punctuality-related topics that day. It just happened that I had a lot of topics to share, so I kept talking about it until the examiner interrupted me and asked me other questions.

I scored 7 in Speaking.

You must first think about how to answer some of the special topics of the speaking test, such as asking about your favorite movies, albums, travel topics, clothes, history, weather, television, internet, pollution, etc.

I think the preparation time is really in a hurry, and even the written template is almost too late to memorize.
The learning time is very tight, yet the learning efficiency was very good.

In addition, in order to prepare for IELTS, I also find friends on the Internet to prepare for writing and peer review. I think the effect is good, and I can work on many different topics.

The next article will tell you more details.

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