Thoughts on 'Vocabulary'

Many students ask me if their cause is helped by using ‘difficult’ words and knowing a lot of them. To them I say that it doesn’t really matter if you know 500, 1500 or even 15000 words. It is a matter of how you use them. And by the way, what is the aim of communication, whether written or oral? You must agree that it is to make your readers/listeners understand your exact message, right? In IELTS you will not be writing for an academic audience. You are not expected to write like that wonderful writer, James Joyce? Have you even attempted to read Ulysses? Read it. And then go through Ernest Hemingway, or Paulo Coelho, or maybe Richard Bach. You will understand what I mean.

Can we even hope to use language the way these great men did or regularly do? Of course not. So what’s the way out? The following may help you. At least, my students regularly benefit from practicing them in their writing tasks:

1. Be simple. The simpler-sounding you are, the higher you’ll score. But it is very difficult. Simplicity begets elegance and grace. Have you ever ‘opined’ in your ‘epistle’? Christ! Don’t even think of dreaming to do this.
2. Be relevant. Answer the question/s or opinion asked. Be to the point. You have never been interested in someone else’s long-winded responses, have you? Then why should you be surprised if they return the favour?
3. Avoid repetitions, use loose synonyms. I know you love your job, but the job here is not as good as the job you will be able to get if you apply for a job abroad, isn’t it? And do you know, yesterday I saw a saw that couldn’t saw….What do you think of it? :)

These, among a few others, are the most important features of any high-scoring writing. Try it and let me know.

Hidden significance of IELTS

The primary importance of IELTS - as it is perceived these days - has been mentioned by many on various forums. So I won’t refer to them in my post. However, a significance usually ignored by the general public is the fact that it is a wonderful way to develop your own English proficiency for purposes other than going abroad, either for higher studies or to settle down.

A majority of my students learn IELTS to take the test. Still, the number of those who pursue it to simply develop their overall English skills is on the rise. Most of us know English and can understand what is being said. But suffer from ‘hesitation’, especially when faced by people who converse in the language fluently. Spoken English is woefully inadequate to address this deficiency which, in turn, engenders a deep-seated lack of confidence. In the long term, this can become a debilitating handicap, preventing you from achieving your fullest potential.

Learning IELTS - practicing on all 4 aspects of a language - make for a person’s holistic development. If you listen well, it contributes to your speaking and vice versa. When we attempt Reading, new sentence structures and words/phrases become familiar and then flow from our pen. Finally, when you write well - always relevant and comprehensive, avoiding repetitions, and aiming for precision and clarity - your study projects, office reports and presentations are bound to stand out from the crowd. Confidence develops; personality flowers; you come into your own.

And then, who knows what wonderful things may happen? So yes, it is good to learn IELTS for 2 reasons - the obvious and the less apparent

"Why did I get a 6.5 only in the IELTS Writing module?"

First, understand it is not necessary that you should get a 7 in writing just because you did so well in the other three modules. Writing is a different kettle of fish and you have to follow the basic principles of good writing to secure your required band in this module.

1. Did you identify and complete all the required tasks? In both the Writing Tasks?

2. Did you elaborate the points sufficiently? Did every paragraph lovingly dwell on each point mentioned therein before proceeding to the next one?

3. Were you always relevant? Or did you write something which may safely be removed without making any difference to your answer?

4. Did you repeat anywhere? Repetition of words, phrases, points, sentence structures, even sounds maybe?

5. Were basic grammar rules followed? Did you writing exhibit a fairly wide range of sentence structures - mix of complex, compound and simple sentences?

6. Were the paragraphs balanced? - all of them roughly of the same length?

7. Was your response well-presented? Did you give your answer in the introduction with reasons; then elaborate those reasons in the body; and finally restate your answer in the conclusion as given in the introduction?

8. Was handwriting so bad as to be illegible? If not, it’s not a factor.

If you did all these things, then you should have got a 7. And you should give it for revaluation. Makes no difference - never did - if it is IDP or British Council. If not, time to go back to the drawing board.

How to prepare for IELTS during the Coronavirus pandemic

You prepare for IELTS during this time the way you would have gone about doing so if nothing had happened. The only thing you cannot do right now is approach an institute and get offline coaching for IELTS preparation. Well, sometimes it helps not to learn from there. Here's what I think you should do instead. If this helps you somewhat, do drop me a line and let me know here. Will make me feel good :)

1. Familiarize yourself - God lies in the details. Quickly go through the IDP/British Council websites for the necessary information regarding the test format: number of modules, the various parts into which they are divided, and the time provided to complete them. The more you engage with this exam at every level, the better prepared you will be.

2. Collect good IELTS materials - especially the Cambridge IELTS series of books (5–14 is ideal). For Academic IELTS, it should provide 40 test. For General Training, you will get 28 tests. These books, along with the Cambridge Official Guide, should be more than enough for the next 5 weeks of preparation.

3. Take a non-timed Reading/Listening test - use up only one of those 40 tests. Now sit with it and analyze your response, trying to find out why you gave that answer and why it is wrong. I tell this to my students all the time: analysis of your response/s will help you improve your score dramatically. It is imperative you know why you messed up.

4. Draw up a schedule - 13/14 questions of Reading & 20 questions of Listening. Everyday. This is to be followed from the day after you have taken the initial non-timed test mentioned in 3. The homework is to be renewed every week or so. Download sample Answer Sheets from the internet. Work on them. Familiarity will relax you and provide you that slight - but invaluable - advantage in the exam hall.

5. Speaking is to be done daily - 20 minutes/day should be more than enough. At the back of every test, you will have a page of Speaking. 40 tests = 40 pages of Speaking questions; Cambridge Official Guide provides 8 more pages of Speaking questions. Apart from this, go to IELTS Preparation: Free Tips, Lessons & English and look up the Speaking section and find the practice questions arranged by section. Avoid ‘learning’ how to speak. Speak like the way we do: concise yet comprehensive; relevant though not abrupt; entertaining while not rambling and going off-track.

6. Start writing after the first week - this is the most difficult module and preparation time will depend on your current level of proficiency with the language. Go through the sample writings at the back of the Cambridge papers to understand how you should approach them. Write a task 1 piece - take the topic from the writing part of the test you have done - and compare it with the model response provided. Analyze and improve. Also, try to get your writing attempts checked by people who are good in written English (it is slightly different from fluent speakers of the language). Browse the internet for IELTS Writing groups. Joining a couple may help you somewhat.

7. 12-day schedule - this is to be followed only for the last few days before the exam. These will be the timed LRW tests on a daily basis: 40 minutes for Listening (including 10-min. for transferring the answers to your answer sheet), 1 hour for Reading, and 1 hour for Writing (both the tasks).

I hope this is detailed enough. This much you can - and should - do on your own. Practice every day. Remember, a little a day goes a long, long way. Excellence is after all a Habit. Live it.