Post your IELTS goals for 2014!

[Ryan]

Happy 2014!

Well, a new year has started and thus it is a perfect time to establish some objectives for the next 12 months. I want to invite you to post your IELTS goals for the coming year as a reply to this opening post (just press "Reply" to do so).

Please note that this is for serious students only. In December of 2014, I am going to individually contact every single person that participates and hold them accountable to what they've posted here. Following this, I will create a video summarizing the outcome. My hope is that this little exercise will hold you accountable to your studies and push you further towards success. (We want more successes than failures in the resulting video!!)

You may post your goals in any format you find effective, but you must be specific. You are much more likely to achieve your goals if you have a clear plan for this year's studies.

Here is the information I suggest you include:

1. Your current IELTS band in all four sections (listening/reading/writing/speaking). If you have never taken the IELTS before, you may leave this section blank.

2. Your target IELTS band in all four sections that you plan to achieve before the end of 2014.

3. How many hours per week you plan to actively listen (noting new speaking patterns as you hear them; engaging practice tests; ...)

4. How many hours per week you plan to actively read (underlining vocabulary and noting word forms; engaging practice tests; creating a personal dictionary of new colloquial phrases; ...)

5. How many hours per week you plan to actively write (memorizing band 9 essays and reproducing their sentence patterns in your own writing; experimenting with vocabulary and phrases and having this work checked by an IELTS coach; ...)

6. How many hours per week you plan to actively speak (exercising with speaking partners; repeating listenings after you hear them; ...)

7. A detailed description what you envision to be your typical IELTS study week in 2014.

To help you get started, here is an example response:

1. L -6 R - 6 W - 5 S - 5 (Overall 5.5)
2. L - 8 R - 8 W - 7 S - 7 (Overall 7.5)
3. 5 hours
4. 5 hours
5. 3 hours
6. 5 hours
7. My typical IELTS study week will involve 6 study days and 1 rest days. However, I plan to use English as much as I can, even on my rest day.

I will make arrangements with my colleague to actively practice IELTS speaking with them after work for 1 hour on 5 of my study days. We will push each other to speak at length and give each other feedback on our performance.

As I commute for an hour by bus, I plan to sit and listen to conversational English from movies and example IELTS listenings while I travel to work. I will keep a journal while listening of any colloquial phrases or vocabulary I hear that is new to me.

I plan to use my commute home to actively read. I will read English texts about subjects I enjoy and occasionally sample IELTS readings. I will keep a journal of all new phrasings and vocabulary.

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will write either a Task 1 or 2 response after I get home from work. Every 2 weeks, I will get my grammar checked by my native English speaking colleague.

On study day 6, I plan to spend some time reviewing what I have noted in my journal during the week. I will also engage practice IELTS listening and reading tests. I will record myself speaking on a subject for 5 minutes and review this recording. I will try to use the new phrases I have learned while speaking.

Let's make 2014 the year you say "GOODBYE" to IELTS forever!

[tuonglau]

Hello Ryan,
My name is Tuong. I recently took part in ielts test at twice in Vietnam and the result is not enough for my requirement. I must get at least 6.5 overall score, but I got 5.5 overall score at twice.
1. First times, L: 5, R: 5.5, W: 5.5, S:6.0.
Second times, L:5, R:5.5, W:5, S: 5.5.
2. L:7, R:7, W: 7, S:7 (overall 7.0)
3. 5 hours
4. 5 hours
5. 5 hours
6. 3 hours
7. I enjoy reading English as much as possible because it helps me improve vocabulary and know much more meaning of phrases. However, I don't have native speaker to practice more.

[Muhammad Ghazali]

I have attempted two examines but not satisfied and could not fulfill my requirement. I am living in Australia on student visa and I want to apply for permanent residency. I must require minimum 7 bands in each section.
1. L – 6 R – 5.5 W- 5.5 S – 6.5 (Overall 6.0). 2nd time L -7 R – 5.5 W – 5.5 S - 7 (Overall 6,0)
2. L -8 R – 7.5 W – 7 S - 8 (Overall 7 or more)
3. 3 hours
4. 5 hours
5. 4 hours
6. 4 hours
7. My typical IELTS study week will involve 6 days, however I will try to interact with people more and more in English.
I am doing bachelor in information system so, mostly we use English language at university and at work place.
If I analyse by myself, I know I am very week in writing, main issue in spelling mistakes and in grammar, means over all I am very bad in writing .
I have to achieve my goal by the end of this year.
I already speak with my teacher she is ready for to check my writing mistakes.

[Chi]

Hello,

My took an IELTS test few months ago and I did not achieve what I targeted for. I got 6.5 in writing, 7 and 7.5 in reading and listening (or other way around) and 7.5 in speaking. That was an overall of 7, which is half band lower than my previous test taken 2 years ago. I plan to take the test again very soon, in two to three weeks, so you can count it as my "IELTS goals for 2014.

My goal is to get 8 in each band, but 7 each band could also be acceptable.

For me, writing is the most challenging task, which is the only thing I am practicing at the moment. I practice whenever I can, from morning till evening except for when I am at work (and distracted with Facebook). I also do reading and listening but mainly to support my writing. I listen to TED talks, university lectures and watch documentary on Youtube, which can be considered active listening as I do note down words and phrases that I find interesting. I also read news articles every day, mostly focus on science, environment or anything I think might relate to Ielts writing topics. One problem with my writing is since I left university is my writing tends to be casual and I working to get back to my academic mindset.

I plan to spend my last week to do some practice on reading and listening and I am confident with my speaking.

Speaking of speaking (as funny as it sounds), I am quite frustrated with the results I got the last two times (7.5 each time). As I am quite confident with my speaking, I don't know what I can change so I could get 8 and above. I know other people whose English might not as strong as mine, and they managed to get 8 or higher. I watched few videos that Ryan posted on Youtube and one person suggested that it's not what you say, but it's how you say it. I really don't know how to say it so I could score higher!

YES, LET'S MAKE 2014 A YEAR TO SAY GOODBYE TO IELTS FOREVER!!!!!

[Ryan]

Excellent work, guys. Those detailed routines will keep you focused and hopefully motivated throughout 2014.

Chi, your routine looks terrific. If you're unsure "how to say it", try having a look at this video and noting the grammar patterns and connective language:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0EhXD23nhA

Also, try Googling "ielts band 9 transcript" and you'll see several links to quality example responses.

[robdrake]

my goal is to get band 7 each module. seems easy for most people but not me - because i have an unusual anxiety in exams, and recently i have an unfortunate incident that made my ielts experience even worst where a candidate disturbed me in listening.

anyway,

great minds think alike! - i have more or less same method with Chi. : )

I force myself to watch TED, BBC Documentaries on Youtubes etc every night, just to drown myself into sleep! But if I am conscious I would try to pick words and phrases from those clips that I deem eloquent, and jot them down into a notepad. In fact, i am on my third notepad solely for this purpose!

i carry them with me all the time, when i am waiting for friends, or in the trams / trains, and even when i have my coffees! occasionally, i find interesting article or brochures in the coffee shop, i would force myself copy / rewrite interesting articles into my notepad.

some people may disagree with me with this method - copy/ rewrite, but i feel in order to produce a good writing, is to get familiar with how professional writers / journalist writes! it's not about blatant mindless plagiarism, the whole point is to get familiar and have an imprint of how a good writing is! in addition, i usually try to find alternative words to replace and rephrase as many as i can.


--------// may be irrelevant rant-----------

however, i personally find that ielts is a very calculated, formulaic language exams. i had a privilege to speak to a former Ielts examiner and she sort of explained how the scoring work - they assess student's writings / speaking as if they are dissecting a frog, each sentence and words, bits by bits, broken down!

as a person working in the creative industry, i find this disturbing and inane,

english as a worldly language has long decade assimilated foreign languages, so if one expressed somethings that are very odd, may not necessarily strange in other culture! for example: the phrase "brain-washing" is actually derived from chinese!

or just look at how "internet language" and memes has already integrated into our daily communication. [ which can be dangerous if used in ielts ]

in the end, broken language has it's charm too, you know?


-------------- end rant -----------------------


anyway, my journey to get familiar with ielts "strategy" continues!

[Ryan]

There's no such thing as "irrelevant rant" here. It's helpful to brainstorm study plans and share opinions about the exam and how it operates.

I want to highlight your point:

some people may disagree with me with this method - copy/ rewrite, but i feel in order to produce a good writing, is to get familiar with how professional writers / journalist writes! it's not about blatant mindless plagiarism, the whole point is to get familiar and have an imprint of how a good writing is! in addition, i usually try to find alternative words to replace and rephrase as many as i can.

Yes, I've grown as a teacher and now make this strategy central to my study plans for students. In training their writing, students should be copy quality essays over and over and try to reproduce essays from memory. (I'm in no way saying they produce a memorized response in their IELTS or at university. We're talking about independent study time here.) It's surprising how much language will stay with a student when they practice this method. When the student goes to engage a practice IELTS writing test, so much of what they've been repeating is recycled in their own writing. Before long, these writing patterns are completely assimilated into the student's own writing style.

Great advice, RobDrake. Thanks for sharing and good luck with your studies this year!

[Chi]

Thanks Ryan for posting the video, I will study and let you know how it goes.

Robdreak, what you suggested, in my opinion, is the only process of learning a language. You need to build up your own bank of language by reading and listening to others and reproduce it in your own way. That's how babies learn how to speak as well! They listen for the first year without speaking at all. And the next following years, they build up their vocabulary until their verbal communication ability is relatively developed. Keeping this in mind, if you want your outputs (as your language) to be good, you need to have quality inputs. That's why I love watching TED talks which most speakers are highly intelligent and well educated, their language is by far different from street language.

I believe that language learning, including your mother tongue, is a never ending process.

I don't think "brain wash" is Chinese original. This expression is used quite often in English and also in my own language (Vietnamese) though I am actually not sure when and where this expression started.

And please do me a favor! Please capitalize the first letter when you start a new sentence! english and chinese should be written with capital E and C as well! )))) Sorry for being fussy!

Let's work hard together!

Chi

[robdrake]

Hello Chi,

You can find a list of foreign words that are being assimilated into English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_En ... ese_origin

Brainwashing
A calque of Chinese 洗腦 xǐ nǎo (where 洗 literally means "wash", while 腦 means "brain", hence brainwash), a term and psychological concept first used by the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War. It may refer to a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas; or persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship. The term "brainwashing" came into the mainstream English language after Western media sources first utilized the term to describe the attitudes of POWs returning from the Korean War.[1]

As for method of learning language, I believe there are no "one size fits all" approach, different people have different learning capability. It's just about identifying what is the best, fun and effective for that person. I personally believe that my approach is very forced, of course, so I won't be surprised that some people may struggle with my method.

I do know one friend of mine who learn foreign languages through musics - seems unconventional but it worked for her for various reasons

[Chi]

Hi RobDreak,

What I said was the principle of learning a language, you probably meant slightly different when you had to force myself to learn. If music is a good resource for your friend, then it would be more effective for her to study that way. Be aware that sometimes English they use in the lyrics are not "normal English". There're words that you won't find in the dictionary. For example, you can only find the phrase "Unbreak my heart" in Toni Braxton song but not anywhere else.

Cheers,
Chi

[robdrake]

Hello Chi,

I think the whole basis of the argument is we need to find motivation first before a learning can occur, which is very personal. If one is forced to learn something from a fixed concept, the process might be even longer and ineffective to a few. This is just my humble 2 cents.

As for odd phrases "Unbreak my heart", in the adacemic context it might be illogical. However as a day to day communication, or normal people usage, I personally think it's alluring and more humane. Because most people would understand that expression better than reconciliation.

[ PS: my sentiment above is echoed how language assessment should not be confined by the books. Language is evolving like a living soul, and so should the system.]

[yazen]

i want any one to practice with me in speaking so i need to get at least 6 in IELTS speaking test

thank you so much

[lisa]

my goal is a band 7 for writing and speaking. I got 8 for reading and 7.5 for listening. but I got 6.5 only for writing and speaking

[Ryan]

my goal is a band 7 for writing and speaking. I got 8 for reading and 7.5 for listening. but I got 6.5 only for writing and speaking

Hi Lisa,

Growing your mark from 6.5 to 7 in those areas should be fairly straightforward. For many candidates, overcoming the band 7 threshold is largely a matter of polishing grammar, so consider posting a speaking or writing example here for other to comment on.

[Ryan]

i want any one to practice with me in speaking so i need to get at least 6 in IELTS speaking test

thank you so much

Hi Yazen,

Nice to meet you. Consider posting a few details about your IELTS endeavours in the "Find IELTS study partners" section of this site: viewforum.php?f=11

Good luck,
Ryan

[swetam]

Hi All,

I am Sweta & i will giving IELTS 3rd time as i need to have 7 band in each. My scores are as follows:

1st Attempt: L: 7.5; W: 7.5; R: 6.5; S: 6.5
2nd Attempt: L: 6.5; W: 6.5; R: 6.5; S: 7
3rd Attempt: 5th April, 2014 (27 days remaining from today)

As i am working HR professional. I dont get enough time to put in my studies. I have planned to study as per below details:
I am currently following this study plan from past 2 weeks:
1) 1.5 - 2 hours daily for Reading & writing - i do passages & writing for Task 1 & 2 which i can download from my office.
2) On saturdays i meet my friends who take my speaking by giving me topics to prepare & speak. Incase of any mistakes they rectify & also i show them my writing which i have done earlier in the week. they have given their IELTS & have scored already hence they come to help me around in my weak modules.
3) On sundays i devote 2 hours for reading & writing & do 1 mock test.
4) I have an habit to read online news on daily basis for nearly half an hour to 2 hours or so about current affairs, about business leaders & like to read about the success stories of people & these days tips on cracking IELTS etc.
5) I also have been jotting down new words along with their meaning.
6) have downloaded an word flashcard to refer as & when i have time but that's much not helping. Also i go through some of the IELTS speaking videos on youtube.

But since test i round the corner i dont want to take risk & i am thinking to take one more mock test so i can do with 2 mock test for a week.

Please let me know in case if i need to alter my plan as i would love to do to increase my score & hopefully this would be my last attempt to get desired score.

Thanks & regards,

Sweta

[sidneyhua]

1. Never done it before
2. 7+ band for all criteria
3. 10 hours per week of listening
4. 5 hours per week
5. 3 hours per week
6. 8 hours per week
7. My plan are study atleast 3 hours per day for ielts.

[Ryan]

Hi All,

I am Sweta & i will giving IELTS 3rd time as i need to have 7 band in each. My scores are as follows:

1st Attempt: L: 7.5; W: 7.5; R: 6.5; S: 6.5
2nd Attempt: L: 6.5; W: 6.5; R: 6.5; S: 7
3rd Attempt: 5th April, 2014 (27 days remaining from today)

As i am working HR professional. I dont get enough time to put in my studies. I have planned to study as per below details:
I am currently following this study plan from past 2 weeks:
1) 1.5 - 2 hours daily for Reading & writing - i do passages & writing for Task 1 & 2 which i can download from my office.
2) On saturdays i meet my friends who take my speaking by giving me topics to prepare & speak. Incase of any mistakes they rectify & also i show them my writing which i have done earlier in the week. they have given their IELTS & have scored already hence they come to help me around in my weak modules.
3) On sundays i devote 2 hours for reading & writing & do 1 mock test.
4) I have an habit to read online news on daily basis for nearly half an hour to 2 hours or so about current affairs, about business leaders & like to read about the success stories of people & these days tips on cracking IELTS etc.
5) I also have been jotting down new words along with their meaning.
6) have downloaded an word flashcard to refer as & when i have time but that's much not helping. Also i go through some of the IELTS speaking videos on youtube.

But since test i round the corner i dont want to take risk & i am thinking to take one more mock test so i can do with 2 mock test for a week.

Please let me know in case if i need to alter my plan as i would love to do to increase my score & hopefully this would be my last attempt to get desired score.

Thanks & regards,

Sweta

Hi Sweta,

Your detailed study plan looks great. I am encouraged to see that you have already achieved the needed band in 3 of the 4 sections. Yes, I agree that including as many mock tests as you can is key to solidifying the reading and listening marks.

As far as you flashcard exercise is concerned, you should ensure that you are capable of reciting at least one variation of how the word would be used, not simply a definition for the word. So when looking at the word "precursor", you would recite a phrase like "The precursor to _____ is _____." I think you'll get better results out of this version of the exercise.

Good luck,
Ryan

[Ryan]

1. Never done it before
2. 7+ band for all criteria
3. 10 hours per week of listening
4. 5 hours per week
5. 3 hours per week
6. 8 hours per week
7. My plan are study atleast 3 hours per day for ielts.

This is a very heavy workload, and I hope you're able to stick with it. I'm expecting to see some big results from you in the not-too-distant future.

[OnlineEnglishTeacher]

1. Never done it before
2. 7+ band for all criteria
3. 10 hours per week of listening
4. 5 hours per week
5. 3 hours per week
6. 8 hours per week
7. My plan are study atleast 3 hours per day for ielts.

This is a very heavy workload, and I hope you're able to stick with it. I'm expecting to see some big results from you in the not-too-distant future.

I agree with Ryan - one Skype student said that his motto is "work smart not hard" - so working smart and reasonably hard, might be even better.

[CindyBang]

Hello Ryan and everyone,

I hope you will all success in your IELTS road. Same as every body else, I do have a certain goal in IELTS that I would like to achieve. At first, I wanted to retain (just picked it up from Ryan’s 9 More Academic Words on Youtube) as a silence member, since I’m not good in socialise and I’m quite self-conscious in my writing. But this will be an opportunity for me to improve my writing.

1/ The recent result that I have gotten was L 7.5 R 6.5 W 6.0 S 7.0 (Academic)

2/ I am aiming for band 8 in each component which would be a similar goal to every member on this site. But band 7 would be acceptable. However, I don’t think I would stop learning and testing until I get my desired scores.

Thank to Ryan’s Youtube Videos once again, I’m following one of the succeeded candidate who has gotten his band 9 in IELTS. I’m planning to spend minimum of 5 hours daily in studying. Which are:
1hr AM in Grammar
1hr AM in Vocabulary
1hr PM in Active Listening
1hr PM in Active Speaking
1hr PM in Active Reading
Coached Writing

A bit about myself:

I am Vietnamese and has been living in Australia for 5 years. Some of you may think that living in an English speaking country may advance your English skills. However, there are pros and cons in that thought.

Inevitably, I embraced the opportunity to study aboard. It has certainly improved my speaking and listening skills in the most efficient way. Comparing to studying outside the English speaking nations, it empowers me to interact in English under variety circumstances. It has shaped my accent in a more natural way. Even if you can get a high score in speaking with an accent, in my opinion, accent can be considered as a hinder in speaking test.

However, as you may have already picked up some of my grammatical errors and my simple language in this post. Studying in Australia has its disadvantages as well. Foremost, English classes in Vietnam has been concentrating on grammar structures and writing. For example, English teachers in Vietnam force their students to establish a wide range of vocabulary every class. As I recall, I learned 10 to 15 new words daily and had a grammar test weekly when i was studying in Year 8 and 9. Since I have been to Australia my writing abilities unfortunately plateaued. We tend to use simpler way to socialise here; our aim is mainly understanding and understandable in normal conversations, therefore, it is unnecessary to use complicated or academic words. Few of my Australian friends use simple words and tenses in their essay and they got high marks for their results. Once, a friend of mine mentioned only 5 per cent Australians speak proper English. It scares me off when considering native English speakers may not get an 8 in IELTS test, so how is it possible for me.

My IELTS plans:

As I outlined my weakest point is in writing, therefore, I have to revise all the grammar structures and build a wider range of vocabulary. Every morning, I take one hour each in revising Grammar from “Cambridge - Grammar for IELTS” and study IELTS related topics' vocabulary from “Vocabulary for IELTS (Collins) - Anneli Williams”

3/ It takes 45 minutes to commute to University, therefore, I deleted all musics from my phone and put all the practice listening tests from “Cambridge Practice Test for IELTS 1 - 9”, so I can listen to it whenever I have free time during travelling. Similarly to Chi and others, I listen to TED shows, BBC documentaries and news daily. I noted down phrases that I found interesting and useful. Besides that, I am watching few US TV series for leisure, which means I don’t need to too concentrate into their conversation but it trains my ear to be more flexible.

4/ Newspapers, magazine articles or IELTS reading practice tests are some of the good sources for reading. I’m starting to concentrate on the writer's writing styles and languages. Moreover, continuously reading would help to increase the reading speed as well.

5/ It takes up to 2 hours for me to do an active writing. I found it is harder to gather ideas to write comparing in an actual test. I do this three times a week, and I will gradually increase the time when it’s closer to the test date.

6/ One hour every night, I practice speaking with my cousin. I gave her a list of speaking topics that I have found on the Internet and she may ask me randomly. We haven’t done the timing yet, because at this stage, I’m more concentrating in the coherence and ideas for the randomness that examiners may ask.

Thank you and good luck everyone .

Cindy

[OnlineEnglishTeacher]

Hello Cindy - one of my my Chinese IELTS Skype students in Australia said that they spend a lot of time speaking to non-native speakers and their English was at a lower level perhaps as a result of that issue - I would suggest trying to make an appropriate balance so that you can develop your skill in using correct English automatically - living in Australia you have a great opportunity. Also, is your handwriting clear, if you got only 6 for writing?

[Mayuri patel]

My exam was on 7 th june 2014, and I want to score band 7 in each module of ielts.

[Helpme]

Thank you Ryan for creating this blog for the welfare of all IELTS candidates. I want to take IELTS in December and score 7 in each module. I came to know that it is very hard to score 7 in each band but I believe by doing hard work it will possible. I`m planning my schedule as Ryan`s advice. All the IELTS test takers `God Luck` and `labour hard`. We will all success in our goal!!.

[sirusq]

Well, I am new here I have taken the TOEFL iBT too many times, and unfortunately I didn't get the required score which is total of 92 and speaking of 24, this is required by the college of physicians of Canada.. I have always scored between 100 and 103, with speaking of 23!! and yet they refused my application for a single point!

I changed my mind and started to prepare for IELTS, I took the test scored band 7.0 but this wasn't good enough though, as they ask for 7.0 in each section and not 8.5 in reading while 6.5 in speaking. I joined this forum in an attempt to end this misery, that I've been living with for a year now!

So, any ideas on how to improve the speaking and the writing?

Goal R 8.5 L 8.5 S 8.0 W 8.0

Thanks in Advance.