How I Scored IELTS Band 8

Learn how Dr Jabril scored an overall band 8 in IELTS. His tips and experiences are very insightful.
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IELTS Results

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Overall Band 8
  • Listening 9
  • Reading 8.5
  • Writing 7
  • Speaking 7.5
 

My IELTS Tips for Band 8

Good day, I wrote UKVI academic IELTS and got band score 8 overall.

First of all, I want to appreciate your efforts in making the whole exam process easy for me and others around the world, your lessons really helped a lot.

IELTS Writing 

I’ll start off with my weaknesses. My weakest section was writing, I “hated” it with passion. I don’t enjoy any exam that requires me to write an essay, either short or long, and since this is unavoidable, I always try to find out alternatives/shortcut to the essay writing. Also, I had a very busy work schedule and would get home in the evenings, very tired to read or practice. This is where your tutorials came in, I found it easy to follow, and the way you presented your examples and explained how the essays were marked gave me some confidence in approaching it.

I’ll also say this was one section where I followed your instructions totally, especially in task 2, which I believe helped me to crawl to that 7.0 I got there. I downloaded the sample answer booklet and practiced with the little time I had as you suggested, which made me know the number of lines I needed to get to the required number of words.

The task 1 on the other hand was another issue. The only type of question I did not practice was what we were asked to describe, the maps/diagram description and comparison. I didn’t have enough time to go through all the types and had to select the ones I felt were high yield. This I believed translated to a poor task response and organization which dragged my score in writing down.

 IELTS Speaking

The other section I dreaded was the speaking section, I have this phobia for oral examinations and tend to get nervous about it. Though I went through most of your tips on speaking, I didn’t practice by recording and evaluating my answers, and this affected me in the exam. I don’t think I started well because I was using “sir” for the examiner in the first few minutes and jumbling up my answers, but when I eventually settled in, things began to go smoothly. I believe that early period of nervousness caused me to lose some points, hence the 7.5 for speaking.

 IELTS Listening and Reading

Now to my strong sections, the reading and listening. I love reading a lot and I’ve found IELTS reading passages a lot of fun to read. It provides lots of new information and interesting facts, and I even sometimes just read the passages without answering follow up questions. Despite this though, I didn’t want to take the exam a second time so I still went ahead and watched your video tutorials and followed all your instructions. I wrote my answers in capital letters for both sections, I also practised more of both sections than the writing and speaking, and I found it more convenient to read passages before answering questions.

I need to say here though that it was not all sweet for me during practice as I remembered a listening practice test I did where I scored 26. I just blacked out and lost focus while listening to the tape and missed a lot of answers, this jolted me up and made me realize that the exam was not going to be as simple as I thought.

 Overall

To cap it all up, I’ll advice anyone preparing for the test to first if all identify a pattern that suits them, work well on perfecting it and do lots of practice questions. It also helps to simulate exam conditions as this goes a long way in calming the nerves on the day of exam. The most important advice though is to listen to Liz 100%. I listened to get 85% and got an overall score of 8, I wonder what would have happened if I had listened to her 100%.

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PS: you might be wondering how someone who hates writing was able to write all the above, well, it’s because I want to show appreciation to a wonderful teacher.

Message to Jubril: Thank you so much for sharing your tips and experience of the IELTS test. Very well done with your results 🙂 From Liz
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Comments

  1. Devashish says

    Thank you for your wonderful teaching style. I was able to score band 8 in 10 days by incorporating exam related methodologies and suggestions you share here.

  2. Thank you very much for your Video lessons and tips Liz! I got a band 9 score in my speaking test and an overall IELTS test score of 8. I found your lessons very helpful during my preparations.

  3. Akshata Parate says

    I got my online test result today. My overall score is 8. Thanks to your website, I did very well in the writing and reading part. In both I scored an 8.5

    Keep doing the good work and boosting everyone’s confidence 🙂

  4. Chellaram Aravind says

    Hi Liz,
    I got an overall score of 8. I listened to your reading tips for TFNG/ YNNG and they were extremely useful. They boosted my confidence and made me get a score of 8.5 in reading. I read some of your essays and they helped a lot too. I wanted to thank you for your contribution. THANKS!!

    • I’m so very pleased to hear your score – very well done to you 🙂 I’m so glad my lessons were useful for you 🙂

  5. i just wanna ask why i can’t copy and paste the writing? sometimes we need to copy it to know the meaning in the dictionary 🙂

    • My website is protected against material theft which is not aimed at people who study for IELTS, but against others who would copy major parts of my work for their own ends. Just type a word into any dictionary if you want to know the meaning – it’s the best way to learn spelling rather than just copying and pasting.

  6. ali rasool says

    Congratulations

    I am also practising for my general Ielts test ,but i need some one to speeak ,can u plz guide me is there any website or source where i can practise my speaking .

  7. sanjay kumar says

    can i write kite(s) in listening answers ? i mean is it right to use the brackets in listening section..because sometime i miss the proper pronouncation of particular word in listening…i’m bit confused about it…

    • Brackets are used in books, not for students to use in their test. This is normal way for English books to show multiple answers – you can’t do it in your test!!

  8. Sadhana Verma says

    Congratulations Jubrail on your overall success!!!

  9. Congratulations Jubrail!! Great job!. And I would like to say very big thanks to you, Liz. Honestly, I really love the way you teaching, with useful tips and also your soothing smile :). I wish you are always happy and healthy. Thank you for your kindness to sharing all these amazing lessons and knowledges. You are one of my best teacher ever!!

  10. Thanks Liz for the helpful tips. I am sure IELTS difficulties will be dilute with these tips.

  11. patriziale16 says

    congratulations! i think we are the same, i’ve been follow Liz for a long time but i’ve just started to learn IELTS

  12. phaneendra says

    congratulations.now i just joined on her sites and I am going to practising her sites

  13. RAJU SEHGAL says

    Congrats

  14. Sunnatillo says

    Congratulations !!! Thanks your valuable tips Jubril!
    I’m grateful to you for all of them dear Liz!!

  15. Fatemeh says

    congtadulation , Your writing is great that you.could descripe your success.

  16. Kamal says

    Hlo Liz
    Dear I have a problem in speaking. I do not speak clearly due to stammerer. Can I apply medical for ielts speaking. Please tell me.

    • Please call your local test center and ask them directly about submitting a medical certificate.

      • Maria Joseph says

        Hello Liz I jst wonder how to write on the comments.I don’t hav that option. Maria

  17. Mohammed Zubair says

    Great job Jubril, thanks so much Liz.

  18. Ahlam Yousef says

    Congratulations. and Thanks a lot Liz you are such a great teacher 🙂

  19. Tizazu says

    Thanks for sharing us your experience and result.

  20. Congrats Jubrail!!! Can i give a question to you?
    How much time did it take to achieve 8?

  21. Rawia Obida says

    Thank you Liz to let us know such successful experience , definitely i benefit from it quite a lot .
    Thank you Jubril for sharing your tips and experience .

  22. Salam says

    Congratulations. I am also practising on her sites.She is a wonderful teacher.

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