IELTS can seem like a very complicated or even scary endeavor. Students often believe random things they hear or may even follow false social media accounts giving bad advice. And then of course, there is the added factor of “telephone” -you know the game where you sit in a circle, and by the time the phrase gets back to the starting person, the conversation has completely changed. Yep, that happens with IELTS advice as well.
So, let’s bust five common myths and give you some real advice to help you achieve success on the IELTS!
1- Vocabulary Lists
Myth: memorizing vocabulary lists will help me get a higher score.
This is false. You will not increase your score by memorizing a list of vocabulary words. Toss out the “list of band X” words now. Instead, you need to make a relationship with words. You may think, why would I make a relationship with words? Because when you do, you can recall them more easily in your writing and speaking.
You do this by getting a notebook and writing down words you do not know as you encounter them. You can do this when reading, listening to a podcast, watching television, or in your English class. But don’t stop at simply writing the word down -go a bit further. Make sure your spelling is correct, look up the definition, and add a synonym and maybe even an antonym. Try thinking of collocations of the word. Write a sentence with it. You can even reference where you learned the word and categorize it to help your recall later, as well.
For more detailed information, check out this blog post.
2- Grammatical Tenses
Myth: I must use as many grammatical tenses as possible in my writing and speaking to boost my score.
Eek! Like the lists this is awful advice. You must know when and how to use grammatical tenses in your writing and speaking. Using too many will make you sound very unimpressive to the examiners. Why? Because it shows you do not have a command of written or spoken English. We use grammatical tenses to communicate. If you throw as many tenses as possible, you will sound unnatural. Use only the necessary tenses to get your points across clearly. When you do, you will sound natural in your writing and speaking.
3- Native-like Accents
Myth: If I have a native-sounding accent, I will score higher.
Nope, not at all. Your accent does not matter. Accents are never scored, and you will not be penalized for any accent. Even native English speakers have accents, and we are all different. You will hear many accents across the United States, the UK, and even Australia. You are who you are. You speak the way you speak. Nothing can be done about that.
What you can work on are these four assessment criteria:
Pronunciation: the accurate and sustained use of a range of phonological features to convey meaningful messages.
Grammar: the accurate and appropriate use of syntactic forms to meet Speaking test requirements, and to the test taker’s range of grammatical resources, a feature which will help to determine the complexity of propositions that can be expressed.
Vocabulary (or lexical resource): the range of vocabulary at the test taker’s disposal, which will influence the range of topics which they can discuss, and the precision with which meanings are expressed and attitudes conveyed.
Coherence & Fluency: the ability to talk with normal levels of continuity, rate and effort, and to link ideas and language together to form coherent, connected speech.
All of these ARE marked on the IELTS. Your accent is NOT.
*Assessment criteria taken from IELTS.org
4- Overuse of Idioms
Myth: speaking in loads of idioms will make me sound like a native speaker.
Gasp, no! While it may be true that a native speaker of any language will have command of idioms related to their language, no one ever speaks solely in idioms. Think about this for a moment in your language.
Therefore, a better way to consider idioms would be to think of them as the cherry on top or sprinkles added at the end of decorating a cake. You want to use them when appropriate and with a good understanding of their meaning. You should weave them into your speaking and writing as naturally as possible.
You do NOT want to sound like this: The hay is in the barn so I should hit the hay to have my feet under me tomorrow and be off on the right foot. Now, this is obviously an exaggeration of how someone might string together way too many idioms -but I bet you catch my point now.
Take a breather. Find some idioms you like and think you could easily recall then, when appropriate you can weave them into your next conversation to practice. If you are looking for inspiration, the Your English Compass Instagram page offers at least one a week with examples and definitions.
5- Where you take IELTS matters
Myth: IELTS is easier in some countries than in others.
Flat wrong. The IELTS is a standardized exam recognized globally by thousands of organizations. The content in the exam is exactly the same in every location and online. The examiners go through standardization and training to mark test takers without prejudice. IELTS as an organization does these things to ensure that the exam is fair no matter what location you take the exam in and to maintain its global recognition as the world’s leading English proficiency exam.
Hopefully, this myth-busting will help you move forward with your IELTS preparation. You can do this! Stay focused on your goals and you will achieve success on the IELTS.