How to prepare for IELTS at Home – Tips

In the year 2020, when the entire world was suffering from Coronavirus a.k.a. the COVID-19 pandemic, we at Voxcel taught students how to prepare for IELTS at home and got a tremendous response afterwards when our inbox got bombarded with gratitude from students from different regions thanking us to save their time and money.

Though the COVID-19 era is gone, thankfully, we have decided to educate the students who are often looking for IELTS Online Tests – and email us to give them tips on “How can I Prepare for IELTS at home”. Unlike other institutes, we have been actively advising and guiding students without asking for money.

“Success comes to those who will and dare”

IELTS exam aspirants can use the time to prepare for the test at home in very easy steps. If they need a teacher, we offer IELTS online Classes or we have an IELTS Institute in Ludhiana, Punjab, in case students want to join traditional classes.

Let’s see how they can do it. 

Since almost all IELTS students have a smartphone with an active fast internet connection, they can use the internet data smartly to prepare for a good IELTS band score.

LISTENING –

It’s an easy module. Most academic IELTS students need 6.5 overall to secure their Canada Study Visa or visa to their dream country for higher education.

They can prepare it by following the IELTS listening Tests. Although the difficulty level can differ according to the real IELTS test, still a lot of IELTS test takers score on an average 8 band in the Listening module, when they prepare from Cambridge IELTS Material.

Even loads of students of Voxcel academy scored 9 bands by repeatedly doing practice from the channel.

We have Cambridge IELTS books (all 19 volumes) uploaded on our website, so you should be doing them before doing the IELTS exam registration. The tests will give you the real-time experience of the IELTS listening test.How to Improve the IELTS Listening Score?

Assess your mistakes. Listen to the audio again after writing the right and wrong answers. Now JUST LISTEN. Your ears will get training to become familiar with the accent. It helps…miles.

READING –

Most students keep doing the IELTS reading module and still find it very hard to improve. During the Coronavirus/COVID-19 lockdown, you can invest your time in reading books (novels, magazines, IELTS writing sample answers). Whatever you read, do it actively. Most students do the passive reading. It only harms their overall preparation.

“Kill the two birds with one arrow”

Students who read actively, not only develop their vocabulary (lexical resource) but, also, without them knowing, they improve their writing skills and some students even develop their speaking.

READ ARTICLES OF YOUR INTEREST – ACTIVELY

Or simply, read band 9 samples essays, graphs, or letters {in case you are attempting IELTS GT (General Training)}. Read them and look for the grammar being used. Connect the dots.

Google IELTS reading modules and you will find plenty, to begin with. Again, if you have Cambridge IELTS books (all 14 volumes), it’s the best thing, as those can train you better in preparing for the test. But if you are unable to find them on Google and amid the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak, you can’t step outside of your home due to lockdown or curfew (or martial law); you need to use what’s available to you.

WRITING –

This is the toughest part for most students and the average IELTS writing band score is 5.5 for the entire world. This means most of the IELTS students struggle in the writing module. We often counsel many students who come for the best IELTS classes in Ludhiana to get help in their IELTS writing section.

Some struggle with Task – 1, while some struggle with Task – 2. Most fail in writing because they don’t have a good command of English grammar. Many usually struggle with Simple Present (Indefinite) Tense and Simple Past (Indefinite) tense.

Tenses to work when doing IELTS preparation at home: 'Simple Present' and 'Simple Past'. These tenses are important for IELTS preparation as they are often used a lot in writing and speaking modules.


Work on these two tenses. It doesn’t mean all other tenses are not important. However, working on these two is more than enough and in IELTS preparation, never is enough.

No! No. Read on. One more grammar rule is needed to score band 6, especially if you are an IELTS academic student.

Passive Voice.

Learn the rules of passive voice for both Simple Present (Indefinite) Tense and Simple Past (Indefinite) tense.

MOREOVER!!!!

Work on all 4 IELTS Marking Parameters for both tasks. They will help you to understand to prepare the mindset for the right kind of writing IELTS wants.

SPEAKING –

The second easiest part is that many students have glossophobia and they struggle with good band scores in IELTS speaking. Again, most students consider that merely speaking during the exam is enough. NO!!!! They couldn’t be more wrong.

Apart from grammar, Pronunciation is a very crucial factor that many students ignore. Many IELTS classes in Ludhiana don’t focus on pronunciation and intonation. Many students mispronounce past verbs and they sound like using present verbs. This lowers their marks in the GRA (Grammar Range and Accuracy) part and it becomes an uphill battle to score even a Band 6 from there.

Focus on speaking. There’s no rush during the exam. The examiner is a certified trainer by the University of Cambridge and he/she understands the limitations of human fluency. Don’t sound like a robot and be natural. Some are naturally fast speakers and some are slow, yet they both can score 9 band in IELTS speaking if they are fulfilling all the four parameters of IELTS.

Again work on Simple Present (Indefinite) Tense and Simple Past (Indefinite) tense and their passive Voice. Most cue cards (section -2) are in the past tense; hence, be well prepared with the three basic forms of verbs, so you can use them correctly during the IELT speaking interview.

Take maximum benefits of your free time and don’t waste time by watching useless stuff or by doing nothing the entire. If you are reading this, it means you have an internet connection. And, in the last, students who doubt they cannot do it without their classes. Here are 2 cents for them

“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.” Henry Ford

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