How to Avoid Common Mistakes In IELTS Exam?

IELTS is an International English language Testing System. Being an IELTS tutor, students always ask about the reason for their inappropriate results. Well, students, this blog will focus on some of the common mistakes a student commits in exams. 


1. IELTS Writing Exam:

➡️Over Limit & Under Limit of Words

When it’s about writing an exam, the most common mistake a student commits is writing unnecessarily or somewhere getting out of ideas.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

It is very much required to practice your Task one and task 2 enough times so that you can get an idea that how much that requires the limit looks like.

➡️Irrelevant Ideas

While getting nervous, whenever a student feels getting out of ideas, he or she writes irrelevant are out of the topic. Well, students, it is not the correct way. Just know this, that more ideas are not demanded but the relevant ones only.

➡️Including Personal Comments

Remember that the IELTS writing exam Is focused on cheque your general writing skills. Any kind of personal examples or comments is not demanded.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

It is better if you talk generally. For that, it is suggested to read as the books are journals or newspapers.

Learn more about writing: IELTS Letter Writing Tips & Strategies- How To Attempt It In IELTS General Task 1?

➡️Time Management

Very common but Majorly responsible for fewer bands. Task two Fetch more time as compared to task one. So, students, it is required to manage your time in such a way that you will be able to give more time to your task two.

2. IELTS Listening Exam

➡️Ignoring Instructions

The listening booklet has a number of questions followed by instructions to solve them. The common mistake that a student commits is to ignore that particular instruction As a student gets busy solving the questions by listening to the particular audio. But dear students, Utilise your time properly in reading the instructions as The answers are written ignoring the instructions will be marked wrong.

➡️Leaving Blank Spaces

Sometimes, the audio gets fast and the students complain about the same. Due to this, many answers are missed Resulting in blank spaces.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

The suggestion does not leave blank space or write something relevant by predicting the demand of the question as a wrong answer is not responsible for the deduction of marks.

➡️Writing Directly On the Answer Sheet

Yes, the most common mistake a student commits is to write the answers Directly on an answer sheet to Quickly solve the module. Students tend to forget that extra time to copy the answers is given so it is very much required not to write the answers directly.

Why? 

Because there is much hotchpotch in the audio which will result in writing the wrong ones and will make your answer sheet looks bad.

➡️Spelling & Grammar Mistakes

It can be a common mistake in every module and the only way to avoid this error is by rereading your answers.

Read more about listening: 10 Best IELTS Listening Tips To Get Desired Score

3. IELTS Speaking Exam

Speaking demands practice only. The more you practice, the more fluent you become. Speaking Exam is conducted to test your general conversation skills. Try speaking in English before the exam so that the following common mistakes can be removed.

➡️Getting Nervous

Yes, everyone knows that one-to-one conversation is simple if it is not noticed for judging you. But, Exam also speaking is conducted to judge your speaking skills and it is obvious that student gets nervous commonly.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

Practice is suggested Which will boost your confidence and gaps while speaking is avoided.

➡️Repetition

Another major but avoidable mistake is the repetition of ideas and words. It is very important to talk more about the Topic.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

Explanation of your Story or cooking up a false Story is suggested so that content will expand and the examiner will get to listen to you more.

➡️Not Listening to the Question Properly

It is very much important for students to listen to what the examiner has asked. It will be beneficial for the students as they can get the idea of what to speak and they can speak relevantly to the topic.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

It is not the hard and fast rule that you can not ask for repeating the question. The same can be asked for, by having a little apology.

➡️Memorized Answers

Speaking exam is there to check your general communication skills and the answers for it cannot be prepared before. Speaking topic is always fresh and new in exams and the only way to get a win over it is practice.

➡️Pitch of Your Tone

While speaking, the student does not focus on his/her pitch or tone. Changing your pitch variably according to the situation described will help to remove redundancy along with monotony. 

4. IELTS Reading Exam: 

➡️Wrong Word Formatting

Sometimes while writing the answers quickly, students do a major common mistake of writing the answers in improper formatting. If you have chosen to write the answers in the upper case, then the same pattern should be followed for all the answers. Well, it is suggested to write the answers in the upper case only for proper visibility.

➡️Time Management

Always remember that the reading module is conducted for an hour only and that hour should be allocated to each and every passage equally. The students do not allocate their time properly and at last, they are left with no time for the last passage which tends to get difficult for them.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

Set your timings as per your allocation and try to spare some time for re-reading the final answer sheet.

➡️Not Reading the Instructions

A student is very much required to read all the instructions for all the types of questions and ignoring the instructions will lead to writing the wrong answers in the final answer sheet which will tend to mark the answers wrong.

➡️Focusing On Advanced Vocabulary

Another common error done by students is that they focus too much on advanced and difficult words.

HOW TO AVOID IT?

It is suggested to ignore that words and if you have estimated and found the correct location, just fit the correct answer in your blank. To err is human, but these silly and responsible band deduction errors can be removed if dealt with proper strategy and carefully. Students are advised to appear for the exam with proper practice while keeping in mind not to commit such errors.

IELTS Reading Tips: IELTS Reading Tips: Score Desirable Bands.

Dr. Roma

Content Writer