English Language Discussion Forums

Bernadetta · #1 07-Jul-2006, 07:06

Hi!
I'm taking IELTS on August 24. Some anxiety can be felt...
Nervous mainly about speaking and writing (academic module).

I have had university courses in Business English (graph descriptions) and Academic Writing (different types of essays and how to approach all of them).

I have also taken TOEFL, where I got 607 (253 for CBT) with 5.0 in the essay.

I need at least 7.0...aaaa

practice, practice, practice...

I don't know - maybe any suggestions, any advice or just anything to comment on?

thestudentproofreader · #2 07-Jul-2006, 14:39

Hi Bernadetta

I would suggest you read, not just what you are doing in education, but OUTSIDE this institution- and it must be in english!!

Read books, magazines, newspapers

And, perhaps more crucially: online projects and acedemic works which give an insight on how to present and construct information]

Make sure you keep your learning at a constant, whether this is through hard or passive reading

Hope this helps

http://www.studentproofreader.com

Bernadetta · #3 07-Jul-2006, 14:59

Thans a lot - I do read a lot, different kind of material.;)

**Tdol** · #4 08-Jul-2006, 07:48

Are you doing past papers?

Bernadetta · #5 08-Jul-2006, 10:45

yes.
you know - this is very strange. Using Cambridge and Longman editions and different books, my results are rather good - just a few mistakes. And the reason for them 9s mainly - carelessness...

BUT - using Oxford book, there are more mistakes? why so?

Ny the way, doing specimen materials given by teh British Council after the registration, also showed quite a good result...

**Tdol** · #6 09-Jul-2006, 07:53

I'm not sure, maybe they're not as closely targeted as the Cambridge books, but I wouldn't worry about that as Cambridge sets the exam. Which areas do you feel you get the lowest marks in?

Bernadetta · #7 09-Jul-2006, 11:15

I'm not sure about the writing as I cannot really assess myself. Listening and Reading - I will do them fine, especially Listening - that seems the easiest.

Speaking - I have helped the British Council to train the new examiners, and have been sort of pseudo-candidate. They needed someone to speak as it was he real test, so I did it. Twice. The first time was not so good, as I did not know what to say really...:) But the second time was very good - I was speaking about movies and cinemas and tehy told me - Thank you! ;) So, I had spoken for those 2 minutes...:)

So, maybe all depends on the topic...

**Tdol** · #8 10-Jul-2006, 07:53

Bernadetta, feel free to post up a sample of your writing and we'll happily comment on it.