'Taking the IELTS test is not as quick and easy as getting a driver's license, it requires perseverance'

TPO - Having achieved 9.0 IELTS after 4 attempts, Anh Khoa believes that we should not expect that preparing for this exam will be as quick and easy as getting a driver's license. However, if we have a good method, even if our starting point is behind others, we can still quickly become good at English.

TPO - Having achieved 9.0 IELTS after 4 attempts, Anh Khoa believes that we should not expect that preparing for this exam will be as quick and easy as getting a driver's license. However, if we have a good method, even if our starting point is behind others, we can still quickly become good at English.

Tran Anh Khoa just achieved 9.0 IELTS. (Photo: NVCC)

Tran Anh Khoa, a teacher at an English center in Ho Chi Minh City, just achieved 9.0 IELTS at the end of December, with Listening and Reading skills reaching 9.0, Speaking and Writing reaching 8.5. Khoa said he was exposed to learning English early when he was lucky enough to pass the entrance exam to the school's English enhancement class.

“The process of achieving 9.0 was difficult for me even though I have a background in English. The main difficulty lies in Writing & Speaking skills as the criteria for high scores in these two skills are quite strict” - Khoa shared.

Khoa's experience in achieving high scores is a combination of perseverance and proper practice. I think if only one of the two is used, it will be difficult to achieve this high score.

I was lucky to be exposed to English early and maybe I had a talent for it so I passed the English enhancement class, the English specialized class, and was admitted directly to the English language major thanks to the National Award.

However, according to Khoa, not everyone needs to be gifted or learn early to be good at English. If you have a smart enough method, even if your starting point is later than others, you can still become good at English quickly.

In grade 12, Khoa studied in the English class at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted (HCMC) and won the third prize in the national excellent student competition. Thanks to this achievement, he was admitted directly to the English Language Department of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (HCMC National University).

“The method I want to share here is the Linearthinking method, which includes different ways of thinking that help with different skills,” Khoa said.

Before taking the IELTS test, Khoa had taken other international standardized tests such as Flyers, TOEIC Bridge, TOEFL iBT and achieved good results. When he became a tutor in college, Khoa decided to take the IELTS test to self-evaluate his English learning process and know what level he was at.

Up to now, Khoa has taken the IELTS test 4 times, in which the most recent test score was 9.0.

Khoa shared that for Reading skills, instead of reading each word in the text, which will make reading difficult and time-consuming, we can apply Simplification thinking in the Linearthinking method, which helps simplify long and difficult sentences, turning them into easier-to-understand sentences.

“I think this method is even more helpful for those who don't have a good vocabulary base, because when you simplify a sentence, you can understand the main idea of ​​the sentence even if you don't know all the vocabulary,” Khoa said.

Regarding Writing & Speaking skills, Khoa believes that Specify thinking is a good weapon to face the fear of thinking and developing ideas. Instead of thinking about the problem in a general way, we should make the problem more specific, from there we will have more ideas to talk about.

Khoa also gave an example, in a recent exam the examiner asked "Do you think science can help solve the world's problems?" Instead of firmly affirming yes or no, a more subtle answer would be: depending on the specific problem, health or nutrition problems can be solved by science, but problems like war may not be enough to solve, and even make the problem worse when science is abused to create nuclear weapons to increase destructive power, etc.

As for the Listening skill, Khoa said, in addition to strategic factors such as taking the time to read the questions and options before listening, this skill requires persistent practice to be able to listen more sensitively. If this process is not persistent, results will not be seen.

“So since high school, I have created a habit of listening more through sources like podcasts or videos on Youtube. When I was in college, I took the bus for about 4 hours every day to go to and from school, and on the bus I listened to podcasts that I had downloaded in advance (because at that time I didn’t use 3G or 4G, so I had to download them in advance)” - Khoa shared.

Later, I found that the more popular podcasts are, the more choices you have for yourself. If you choose a podcast that you personally like, you will want to listen to it more.

Although he was immersed in English from a young age, Khoa believes that candidates should not expect that preparing for the IELTS exam will be as quick and easy as taking the driving test.

“You need to practice enough and with the right method to see clear progress. On the other hand, try to research to find a good learning method like the Linearthinking method I introduced, choose a good source to learn English, and be persistent with it to see results,” Khoa said.

Currently, Khoa is an IELTS teacher as well as an academic manager with colleagues who develop teaching programs. Teacher Khoa's future plan is to continue to strive in teaching and designing programs so that other students can also achieve their desired IELTS scores.

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Source: https://tienphong.vn/thay-giao-dat-90-ielts-thi-ielts-khong-nhanh-va-de-nhu-lay-bang-lai-can-ca-kien-tri-post1707461.tpo