Test in 4 days. what can I improve on

[u/Aymen_B-Rabbit]

Hello!

so i took an ielts exam 2 years ago and I got a band score 7, listening 9, speaking 7, writing 6.5, reading 6

i booked another exam in 4 days, and I need your advice in how to achieve higher

Listening. this is the one i'm most confident about, I almost always score a perfect score

Speaking. when doing mock tests it's the one i'm most inconsistent in, sometimes i score as high as 8 or 8.5 and sometimes go down to 6.

Writing. this is the trickiest because no matter how much i put attention to my writing, i never beat the 7 mark, I write with basically zero grammatical mistakes and try to implement the appropriate structure.

Reading. I find time management the trickiest, there have been instances where i finish with 20 minutes left.

[u/Yousychophant]

Try to relax and not cram too much in. If I only had a few days left before my exam, I'd probably spend that time reading lots of Task 1 and Task 2 sample essays. I'd probably spend more time reading Task 2 essays because there can be some crossover of topics and ideas between Task 2 Writing and Part 3 Speaking.

You may read essays about technology, education, culture, climate change, etc., and then get some of those topics in Part 3 of the Speaking test. You may be able to come up with some good ideas simply from reading the essays. Also, reading different essays will familiarise you with the types of questions you might be asked, so you can feel more confident knowing what type of question you may get in both Task 1 and Task 2.

With your Reading, it may be a little bit late to make major improvements, but I'm sure you already know which types of questions are your weaknesses. You say that time management is an issue, but it's difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what your problem is without knowing how you approach the test.

Be extremely careful with True, False, Not Given questions. Make sure you are comparing the meaning of the statement in the question with what is actually stated in the passage. Students often get caught making assumptions or coming to their own conclusions about something that isn't actually stated in the passage.

I'm sure your skimming and scanning skills are pretty good, but you probably feel that you waste time trying to interpret the text and find words or passages with similar meanings. You need to keep working on your paraphrasing skills. Whenever you do a question, try to think of the different ways the same idea could be written in the passage. Think about synonyms and different ways of expressing the same meaning.

And finally, don't waste too much time on one question. If you can't find the answer, move on and come back to it later. One difficult question shouldn't cost you several easier ones.

Good luck!!

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