My name’s Pete Jones,
and if you’re planning to take IELTS this year,
I’m going to show you three steps you need to take
to give yourself the best chance of passing IELTS
and reaching your goal,
whether that’s to study,
to immigrate to an English-speaking country,
to get a better job
or do your job better,
or to register as a professional,
for example a nurse or a doctor.
If you're new to IELTS,
I recommend watching all three steps
so you don't miss an important part of the process.
If you've taken IELTS before,
or have been preparing for a while,
you can use the video chapters
to skip to the most relevant step or steps,
but I recommend watching Step 1
because I'm going to share with you
some new and important information about the IELTS test
that you might not know.
So Step 1 is to choose the right test for you.
And the right test is going to be the one that gives you
the best chance of success.
Up until this year,
you had to choose between IELTS Academic
or IELTS General Training
and whether to take the test on paper
or take the computer-delivered test at an IELTS test centre.
From this year, you have one more choice,
or you may have one more choice,
and I'm gonna tell you a bit more about that in a minute
so keep watching even if you’ve taken an IELTS test before.
If you're new to IELTS,
the first step you need to take
is to find out whether you need IELTS Academic
or General Training
and what band score or band scores you need,
and the answers to these questions
will depend on the reason you're taking IELTS.
If you’re taking IELTS
to study a Master's degree at university, for example,
you’ll need to take IELTS Academic
and you'll probably need an overall band score of 6.5 or higher,
but it will depend on the university you're applying to
and the course you want to take.
If you’re taking IELTS to register as a professional,
a nurse for example,
you’ll also need to take IELTS Academic
and you'll probably need to get a band score 7 or higher
in each of the skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking –
but it will depend on your profession
and the organisation you're applying to to register.
If you’re taking IELTS
to immigrate to an English-speaking country,
you’ll probably need to take IELTS General Training,
but the band score you need
will depend on the country
and the type of visa you're applying for.
So, if you don’t know what test you need to take,
or what band score you need,
your first task is to check
with the organisation that you're applying to,
whether that’s a university, a government organisation,
an employer
or a professional organisation like a medical council.
You can do this directly with the organisation
or on the official IELTS website.
Once you know whether you need IELTS Academic
or IELTS General Training,
you need to decide whether you’re going to take
the paper-based version of the test
or computer-delivered IELTS,
if it’s available at your local test centre that is.
The format of the test is the same
whether you take it in paper or the computer
so the choice is really about
which you feel most comfortable with.
If, for example, you’re much quicker typing on the computer
than you are writing by hand,
or are more comfortable reading a text on screen
than you are reading on paper,
then taking computer-delivered IELTS
is going to give you an advantage.
And you can see what computer-delivered IELTS looks like
at the links in the video description below.
Another reason you might choose to take
IELTS on the computer
is if you need your results quickly.
The results come through much more quickly
for computer-delivered IELTS
than they do for the paper-based test.
Now from this year, as I said before,
you may also have another option.
You may be able to take IELTS Online in your own home.
IELTS Online is a new way to take the test,
and is available for IELTS Academic,
not IELTS General Training,
but may not be recognised by every organisation,
so you'll need to check with the organisation
that you're applying to
before booking a test.
It also won't be available in every country,
at least not initially.
You can check the most up-to-date information
at the link in the video description below.
Step 2 is to commit to getting the help you need
whether that’s a course, a book, a tutor
or subscribing to my YouTube channel.
IELTS, like most things in life,
is easier with the right help and guidance,
and getting the right help
is gonna save you time and money in the long run.
If you need help becoming familiar with the test format,
I recommend taking an IELTS preparation course
or using a book of authentic practice tests
from Cambridge University Press
as these tests are most similar
to the ones used in real IELTS tests.
If you need help with a particular skill needed for IELTS,
you know listening, reading, writing or speaking,
you may need more individual help
or to find resources specifically for this skill.
If you need to improve your speaking for IELTS, for example,
check out my IELTS Speaking band score videos
at the link in the video description below.
In each video,
I show you an example of a candidate’s speaking
and then explain why they got the band score they did
and how they, and you, can improve.
Any investment you make in getting the right help
is going to help you achieve your goal faster.
Step 3 is to set a realistic goal.
And by realistic I mean one that is achievable for you
based on the IELTS band score or band scores you need
and the level that you’re at now.
I don’t mean a goal based on some external deadline
like a university semester start date
as this may or may not be a realistic goal for you.
Setting a realistic goal
involves knowing what level you are at now,
what IELTS band score or band scores you need,
how much time you have on a daily or weekly basis to prepare,
what resources you have available to help you,
and how motivated you are to put in the effort required.
It also involves knowing how long it has taken other people
to get the band score you need.
And this shouldn’t necessarily be your friend
or someone you’ve read about online;
it should be people who share
very similar characteristics to you.
And by similar characteristics,
I mean people who have the same first language,
who are of a similar age,
people who started their preparation
at a similar level of English as you are at now,
people who had a similar amount of time to prepare each day,
and people who had access
to the same kind of help and resources as you do.
If you set your goal
based on the experience of someone very different to you,
someone who started their preparation
at a much higher level of English
than you're at now, for example,
your goal won't be realistic,
or it may not realistic,
and you’re more likely to feel anxious about your test
and frustrated about how quickly you’re improving
or how much time you have to prepare.
I’ve put a link in the video description below
to a lesson that will help you get a better idea
of how long it may take you to get the band score you need.
So, there are the three steps:
choosing the right test for you,
committing to get the help you need,
and setting a realistic goal.
I’d love to help you pass IELTS this year
so, if you’ve found this video useful,
subscribe below
and make sure you hit that notification bell,
and leave a comment telling me what kind of help you need.
If you invest time and effort in your IELTS preparation,
you’re more likely to be rewarded
with the kind of progress you want to see.