This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1534.
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Welcome to the ielts energy podcast from all ears english downloaded more than 35 million times, with examiner trained ielts whiz, aubrey carter and lindsey mcmahon, the english adventurer.
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How should you structure your study plan if you have 30 to 60 days before your test?
What about if you have six months to a year?
It's a totally different plan.
Find out more today.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you doing today?
Good, Aubrey.
How's everything on your end?
Excellent.
I am great.
I have a question.
What are you a newbie at?
Yeah, I am definitely a newbie at dancing tango.
So I was getting into that.
Over the winter I was going to a little kind of like not a milonga, but it's kind of like an old dance hall where they were giving lessons.
And I'm hoping to get back into it in the winter.
It's fun.
It strengthens my legs for skiing.
And it's fun to learn a dance.
You know, I would definitely be a newbie at the tango as well.
If I ever tried.
I've never done it at all.
So It's really hard.
I'm not even a newbie at that yet.
It's really hard.
But what are we getting into today on the show?
Yeah, this is kind of a fun slang phrase to refer to someone who's new at something, to call them a newbie.
And some of you out there listening might be an IELTS newbie and not know where to start.
So today we are going to give you three easy steps to get started, depending on how much time you have to study.
I love that idea.
I know IELTS can be overwhelming if maybe you've just found our podcast.
And there are a lot of, you know, there's some do's and don'ts, right?
When it comes to your timeline, it all depends on how much time you have, doesn't it, Aubrey?
Exactly what you do will be different if you have only 30 days to prepare or if you have six months or more.
And even if you are not an IELTS newbie, today's tips are going to be really helpful for you if, depending on how much time, you have to study so that you can know what you should be doing, what you should be focusing on.
Yeah, because you can know if you've missed a crucial step, right?
If there's some part of your development that hasn't been implemented, right that you've completely missed.
So this is for everyone today, Aubrey.
So let's start off with if you have one to two months, what should we do?
What are our three steps?
Yeah.
Step one.
If you haven't yet, you need to look at the Cambridge practice tests.
That will give you a sense of how hard this test will be for you.
And it's going to help you really see the whole IELTS exam, right?
This will show you the whole test, give you lots of details about how many questions it is, how long it's going to take.
You need to be familiar with the test.
And if you're just seeing chunks of answers here and there and don't really have an idea of the entire exam, you might not have any idea how difficult it's going to be.
Well, it's kind of like you need to have the big picture before you start to zoom in.
And this is true for anything.
Any new project, we always outline the broad timeline, the new course, the broad modules we want to teach right.
This is what we would do.
So, Aubrey, a question.
Are we saying we should take a practice test and get a full score?
Or just look at the test.
Just look at the test, right?
You can get at the library or a bookstore those Cambridge practice test books and look at the exam, especially if you're taking the paper-based exam.
This is really going to give you a good idea.
They have full practice exams.
Don't take one yet, but just look at the exam.
Look through it so you see about how many questions it is, what level of difficulty the questions are.
This is going to give you a really good idea of how difficult the test is going to be and what you need to do to get started.
Because a lot of students do ask us.
When they come to us and they're looking at our course Three Keys IELTS, they ask us should I take a test first or should I take a practice test first?
And usually we say, don't take the full test.
It's a waste of time, but just look at it.
Right, Aubrey?
Exactly.
The only thing that would do for you really is show you how much more difficult it is before you have strategies.
But we can tell you that.
We can save you the time of taking that exam and tell you you would do much worse before you learn the strategies.
So it makes a lot more sense. to learn the strategies and then start taking those practice exams.
It really does.
Because for our listeners, we're busy adults, right?
We're busy adults.
We have school, we have work.
So there's not extra time to waste or money to waste.
It might cost you money to go and take the exam.
It would if you actually took like a Like a starter test that would cost hundreds of dollars, right?
Absolutely.
And even if you just spend the time to take one of those practice exams out of a book, that's still time that you don't have.
Take our word for it.
Your score will be lower before you have learned strategies and practiced.
Guaranteed.
What's step two?
So step two is to find someone to help you.
Don't go it alone, right?
Don't choose a general English conversation teacher.
You want to work with someone who specializes in IELTS.
So not even just an ESL teacher or an IELTS teacher, not every ESL exam.
IELTS is very specific and you need to make sure you're working with someone who can teach you those strategies, systems that work.
And we recommend that you ask to talk with some of their former students to find out what scores they were able to get, what they liked about this teacher or this course, so that you know you're working with someone who really can help you.
Great idea, because IELTS is such a specific skill set.
It is not the same thing as being an ESL teacher.
Sometimes I take Spanish lessons and I go into these tutoring marketplaces right online, like italkicom, and I look around at ESL teachers and a lot of them say they can teach IELTS, but I have a feeling very few of them can actually teach IELTS well.
Sorry to say it, but you kind of need to be a specialist in IELTS.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Right.
There's a lot of information that's specific to the exam.
And we teach you a lot here on the podcast, but it's really not enough if you only have a month or two to study for IELTS.
There are so many strategies and so much that you need to know in a very short amount of time.
So you really need to find someone that can help you through that process.
Yes.
And, of course, you always have the option to join our course Three Keys IELTS, where you have support of being able to answer.
Get your questions answered in our community.
You can be in personal coach, which lets you submit your work over to Aubrey and she'll be able to correct it for you.
So there are options for support.
Absolutely.
And it's vital, especially when you're limited on time.
The worst thing you could do would be to try to go it alone.
Take the exam.
You're out of time.
You don't get the scores you need.
Start over.
Get into a system of strategies now so that you can get the scores you need in 30 days or 60 days, when you don't have a lot of time.
Yeah, exactly.
We're playing.
This is, again, high stakes, right?
High stakes game we're playing here.
So let's do it right the first time.
Step three.
What is it, Aubrey?
All right, step three, you need to be following a study plan.
This is vital when you have a limited amount of time.
It's amazing how you will end up spending a lot of time on one test or one activity.
Suddenly five, six hours have passed and you realize I was not as effective with that time as I should have been.
If you're following a very clear study plan, that won't happen, right?
You need to make the most of every minute that you have.
So good.
So it's, yeah, if you have 30, if you have...
30 days, 60 days.
You need to know which days should you be spending on IELTS.
How much time each day should you be spending?
And then most importantly, exactly what should you be doing?
Right?
Exactly.
I mean, we recommend that you go one section at a time.
Start with listening, then reading, then writing, then speaking, and don't move on to the next exam until you have really mastered the strategies, mastered that exam.
And it's not enough just to dive into those practice exams.
You need to be learning the strategies for specific question sets, question types and master each question type as you go.
And study plans are also kind of curation tools because you know an average ESL teacher would probably tell you to go to the back of a grammar book and learn all the grammar forms.
That is the wrong thing to do.
Right, Aubrey?
No, yes.
You don't have time for that.
Grammar should not be your focus if you only have a month.
Exactly.
So a big part.
So make sure that you trust the person that's creating this study.
I mean you can make it yourself, but we recommend again it's an extension of having help preferably the person who's helping you or the course is helping you actually is providing the study plan right.
Yes, exactly.
Right.
Before you sign up for a course, make sure that a study plan is provided, because this takes a lot of time just to create that.
And you're sort of reinventing the wheel if you're trying to figure out what you should spend time on each day.
So make sure that the plan you sign up for, the course you sign up for, provides a study plan for you.
Yes, it's the 80-20 principle, which we love, right?
What is that, Aubrey?
I have a hard time articulating this.
Right?
80% of what you spend time on or the opposite.
20% of the work should give you 80% of the rewards.
That's it.
There you go.
Or 20% of your time should deliver 80% of the results.
Anyway, it's a smart strategy.
So let's be smart about how we spend our time.
Exactly.
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Okay, so it's a different game though, if we have six months to a year.
So how would we adjust our plan if we have more time?
So first of all, this first step is to not start practicing the test right away.
You should be focusing more on your general English fluency, on your skills, right?
You should take three to four months to improve your overall English.
You can listen to the All Ears English podcast.
Definitely listen to IELTS Energy here.
There's a lot that you should be doing to build your fluency in English before you start worrying about test practice.
Exactly.
And then, you know, step two is an extension of that, finding good materials, find a good course.
At All Ears English, we have a series of fluency courses, B1, B2, C1.
That would be a smart thing to be working on.
Absolutely.
That ladder, step up the ladder, right?
Exactly.
We have a lot of students who will take the B1 course, for example, build fluency and And then, once they're closer to the IELTS exam, that's when you start learning strategies, taking your test practice serious.
If you start from day one and you have six months or a year to practice, you are going to get really burned out.
If you're already taking test practice, you'll end up probably taking a long break.
And then all of a sudden, oh, I need to get back into IELTS.
It's not the best way to do it.
And also avoiding burnout.
So I like his suggestion here finding a book, a TV show and kind of make that's kind of what we do on All Ears English.
And here too, learning becomes entertainment.
So make learning a little bit of entertainment for yourself, right?
And you should look forward to it.
If you're listening to an audio book or a podcast, or reading a book, watching a TV show, you should look forward to it just as much as you do those books and TV shows in your first language.
And then you will be motivated to spend time on it.
One hundred percent.
That's the way to do it.
And then what, Aubrey?
What's step three?
Step three, you also need a daily study plan.
So of course that will be a lot of fluency activities at first and then schedule calendar when you are going to start learning strategies practicing.
You do need to get into a course.
Right.
So, of course, you can sign up for three keys IELTS.
But this is.
It's tricky how you're going to want to think ahead more, depending on how much time you have.
Plan on 60 days before your test date to get really serious about taking practice exams, writing practice essays and getting into an IELTS course.
Okay.
So 60 days out is when we're going to make the flip then.
That's ideal.
So making sure.
So then the other piece of that is making sure your test is scheduled well in advance.
So you know when that 60 day mark is, right?
We should have that test scheduled ahead of time.
That's a really good point because a lot of test centers do fill up.
You want to schedule your test date well in advance so that you can schedule this out.
I love that.
Any other final tips?
Yeah, just be smart about how you use your time.
Don't attempt to prepare for IELTS without a plan.
Going it alone and just guessing at what you should spend time at.
Work for a few hours a day on IELTS and you will be fine.
You are going to have the time you need.
Whether you only have a month or a year, you can.
If you spend your time wisely, you can be prepared to get the scores you need.
Exactly.
And I think IELTS, like a lot of things in life can be overwhelming.
It's a huge exam.
It's something that's brand new when we first come into it.
But if you do this in this systematic way, by thinking about your time, we can stay calm and we can learn what we need to learn.
And we've seen student after student get through it and move on, because they were smart and calm and systematized.
Absolutely.
If you have a plan and are really systematic about it, you won't waste time just being anxious and worrying that you're not spending time on the right thing, right?
So yes, get a plan, get organized so that you can be confident about your study process.
Exactly.
And if you want our course to be part of your process, go over to allearsenglishcom, slash K-E-Y-S and check out what we've got in that course.
We have an exciting, robust community, a place for you to ask questions all the time.
We have live speaking events, open conversation club.
There's so much in there.
Yes, such great opportunities to practice speaking before those IELTS questions, that IELTS speaking exam.
You got it.
All right, Aubrey.
Thanks for being on the podcast today.
We'll talk to you soon.
See you next time.
Bye.
All right.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now, and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglishcom.
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