Common mistakes made by students in IELTS examination
The IELTS test is hard and irritating for most of the candidates, however the main part of the problem is number of misconceptions are floating around. People don’t know what they need to be done and what should not in this test, and therefore they make a lot of errors.
When the grader sees these, they give low score to the candidates.
In this article, I am going to tell the main common mistakes made by students in IELTS exam. Read these carefully and apply them to your IELTS preparation for the best chance of great scores.
1. Try to learn ‘MAGIC’ words.
One of the biggest problems with IELTS Academic and General training is the unqualified advice by many that use of exotic words ensures higher band score.
But could really work?
No !
Imagine someone speaking your native language. Now imagine that they don’t have grammar accuracy but use strange words….. It wouldn’t make any sense!! Yet somehow people think that they can crack the IELTS test by just memorizing a few random words. This is perhaps the biggest problem with IELTS and it is something that you need to avoid right now. If anyone tells you to learn a certain group of words in order to acquire decent marks, they may do not have in-depth knowledge of the IELTS.
2. Taking shortcuts
Related to the above mistake, people often try to learn too quickly. They speak a little English, so they believe “I will learn few tips and tricks to assist me ace my exam!” Then they go into the IELTS test totally unprepared. The main reason why IELTS gain popularity around the globe is that you cannot fool the graders. You simply can’t show that you can speak English very well when you really don’t.
NO “magic words” or “amazing tricks “will aid you from a band 5 to an 8 overnight. Learning a language consumes a lot of time and efforts. If you are willing to invest these things, you will surely succeed in the longer term. However, it takes patience too. When you try to take shortcuts and avoid the hard work, you will just waste your money by sitting the exam when you are not ready.
3. Taking the test over and over
All around the world, people book their IELTS test when they are not ready for it. They sit the exam hoping to get 7 bands, then score just band 6. Their quick reaction is to book another test date and try again.
This is too crazy!! It is a really bad idea.
Why?
This is because; it is true for language as well. If you got a band 6, it could take a long time to boost your score to a band 7 or 8, hence don’t just book another test and try again. It is purely waste of money, time, energy and could not possible result in success.
4. Obsessing over accents.
In many different parts of the world, people fixate upon learning English with a British or American accent.
They struggle for several years to adopt this accent, yet they simply waste their time. It will not help them and they will probably never succeed. You just need to consider two things:
– You do not need a certain accent in order to do well in the IELTS speaking exam. In fact, accent is not really considered at all. The only imperative thing is that examiner can easily understand what you are saying.
– You probably will never learn to adopt a new accent. Our accent is the result of speaking a language over many years. Children learn the accent of their region and then carry it throughout adulthood.
As such, you should not worry about learning an accent and instead concentrate on speaking clearly and precisely.
5. Writing too much or too little.
When it comes to the IELTS writing test, there are many challenges to overcome with. There’s spelling, sentence formation, structure, punctuation and grammar. It can be overwhelming!!
People who are very confident in their English skills tend to write essays filled with lots of detail. However, this is actually not true for IELTS. You ensure that your mistakes add up and thus writing more will result in a larger number of mistakes which will cause your score to reduce.
On the other hand, few people take the opposite approach. They assert that in long essay they will have too many errors, so they write a very short one. This can backfire since their ideas will not have enough development to attain high scores for Task Achievement.
So what is the best practice?
You should aim to write about 260_290 words for IELTS writing task 2. This allows you to develop your sufficient ideas without going completely overboard. It will let you some time at the end of the essay for checking, which should help you to find and change some mistakes as well.
Conclusion
The IELTS examination is difficult but you can give yourself a better opportunity to get success by avoiding the 5 common mistakes that I have listed above. Please ignore terrible advice that you find online about shortcuts and impressive vocabulary. Instead, focus on a common sense approach that requires extended periods of effort to systematically ameliorate your language abilities over time. There are no such things as quick fixes when it comes to learning a language.
Common mistakes made by students
Common mistakes made by students