Tips to prepare and take IELTS test to get 9.0 score
Le Phuong Thanh Uyen, born in 1993, graduated with honors in English Language from Dalat University in 2015, currently teaches English freelance in Dalat, achieved 9.0 IELTS by retaking the Reading test, on August 29. It is known that only about 1% of test takers in Vietnam achieve 8.5 IELTS or higher and only a dozen people achieve 9.0.
Talking to Dan Viet newspaper reporter, Le Phuong Thanh Uyen said this was her second IELTS test, the first time in July 2023 she got 8.5.
Le Phuong Thanh Uyen graduated with honors in English Language. Photo: NVCC
"I had no intention of taking the exam to get the maximum score. Although I have been teaching English for a long time, I personally delayed taking the IELTS exam because it was not necessary at that time. Only after starting my own teaching organization did I start to feel the need to take the exam.
This exam is to update the exam trends and exam organization, to have more experience to share with students. Besides, I also want to test my ability in skills and achieve higher goals, if possible. However, getting a score of 9.0 is not the top priority. Therefore, this exam has elements of improvisation and luck", Uyen shared.
Talking about her feelings when taking the exam with her students, Uyen expressed that this exam has no competitive element: "I am clearly aware that I am a teacher taking the exam and have a different mindset and experience than the children who are sometimes half my age. In the waiting room, I saw that most of the students were younger and everyone was worried, of course I was nervous too. But in general, I admire young people, including my current students because I see that when I was their age, my ability to use foreign languages was not as good as theirs now."
Revealing her secret to studying and taking the IELTS test, Uyen said: "I like to read and take notes of interesting information, both in English and Vietnamese. With IELTS, I have a file to store vocabulary and structures that I extract from my reading sources: books, newspapers, and online forum discussions. This is a list of new words or highly applicable phrases specifically for Writing and Speaking skills.
Regarding Listening and Reading skills, I maintain reading real documents, that is, not publications designed for teaching and learning English. These publications increase comprehension input, make me read for fun, and then learn English as a by-product. For the IELTS exam, specifically, I use the Cambridge book series to practice according to the type of exercises, highlight mistakes and practice better zoning information.
For Listening skills, I listen to podcasts, watch movies and videos on Youtube. This helps me not to face challenges when doing the Listening test in IELTS format. However, with specific types of questions, such as marking maps (Maps), I have to practice more to get used to the direction signs and the traps of describing directions in the questions."
16 years old is suitable for IELTS review
Having studied English and now an English teacher, Uyen believes that learning a foreign language from a young age — if you have the ability and have the guidance and communication from adults — is a very good thing. For most children who are good at English today, having parents who are good at English or being exposed to other cultures, such as traveling abroad, is an advantage. This is probably more common than when she learned and was exposed to English mainly through reading books and the biggest contribution was the Internet in the 2000s.
"Learning academic English, like IELTS, is a different story. In my opinion, it should not be prioritized over other subjects in the general curriculum, such as basic sciences and social sciences. Learning IELTS will be most optimal when you have a sufficient language foundation in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and social knowledge to express your opinions coherently and fluently in another language. Specifically, I think high school age and above, that is, from 16 years old, is the appropriate age to review IELTS.
IELTS is a standardized language test, which is a good thing because this standardization will prepare you for future academic programs at higher levels. Specifically, no matter what major you study, when registering to study in English or studying in English-speaking countries, you will also need to have enough language input to receive (understand the lecture content) and interpret (through group assignments, essay writing or final exams).
However, although IELTS is popular, it is still a fairly 'new' certificate in Vietnam. Students who need IELTS today may not have been exposed to learning academic English systematically and consistently. They focus on reviewing natural subjects at school for university entrance exams, and when they return to study IELTS, their English foundation is limited, causing them to face more challenges and take more time than those majoring in social sciences or languages," Uyen commented.
With a passion for being an English teacher, Uyen said that in the near future, she wants to focus on teaching and designing in-depth but concise learning programs that are close to the scoring criteria and have enough academic foundation so that in addition to taking the IELTS exam, students can study on their own and achieve higher goals in the future.
As a candidate, Uyen hopes to continue to improve to achieve a higher score in Writing, because she is currently still at 8.0 in this skill.
Source: https://danviet.vn/co-gai-thuoc-1-so-nguoi-co-diem-so-ielts-cao-nhat-em-thich-doc-va-ghi-chep-lai-nhung-thong-tin-thu-vi-20240923064245376.htm
Comment (0)