Is zero-based IELTS fantastic?

"Zero foundation, want to take IELTS, prepare for self-examination". My personal experience of killing ducks completely fits your description. I got 49 points in the college entrance examination English, out of 1.50, but I got less than 1/3. Even these 49 points were taken by me. I see. I see. When I decided to take the IELTS immigration test in the tenth year after graduating from college, I finally got the required grades in the third roast duck after 1 year of self-study, specifically listening 6.5, reading 6.5, speaking 7 and writing 6. I know this score is average even for people with above-average English scores, but as a person with poor English, I still failed the CET-4. Because my English abroad has been laughed at, I am deeply proud of this achievement, so I want to write down my experience and experience at that time, I dare not say how much it helped you, but I hope it can inspire you. I'll write it in flashback, that is, first write the IELTS test and preparation related content, then write where to start learning if you want to have the ability to review (after all, you can't pick up this textbook and have the ability to review and study thoroughly), and finally explain the reasons.

Basic introduction of IELTS

Don't worry about saying that my article is watered down. What is IELTS? Although it seems simple, it is these simple things. Before the first exam in those years, I really spent a lot of energy and time figuring out the most basic things now. Because I am a scum, I can't understand the domestic exam, and the foreign exam is even more confused. Because of my personal experience at that time, I think it is necessary to make a basic summary of you who are also English scum (what do you mean by picking up the pot? . . Hit someone! ! Does anyone care! ! )。

The following basic content has made me rummage through the internet, and you can despise me as much as you like.

IELTS is different from our school exams. First of all, it consists of four parts: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Specifically, the exam is divided into two stages. The first stage is the first three items except the morning oral test. The order of the exam is the order I wrote before. After each exam, I will issue the corresponding questions. After the exam, the invigilator will take back the exam questions and send you the next one immediately, so that you will receive three sets of exam questions in the morning exam. However, there are not three sets of answer sheets, but two sets. Use the same answer sheet for listening and reading. The listening answer sheet is on the A side and the reading answer sheet is on the B side. Theoretically, you are not allowed to look back at the listening answer sheet when answering questions and reading, and the invigilator has the right to count you as violating the rules. The questions of listening and reading are from simple to difficult. Before sending out the writing questions, the reading questions will be taken back together with the listening and reading answer sheets, and then the writing questions will be sent out. The answer sheet for writing is on the same piece of paper as the topic. A piece of A3 paper, the first half is the topic, and the first half plus the second half is for you to write the composition. If it is not enough, you can ask the invigilator for more, but you are a complete student. Can you write that much? There are two writing questions, a small composition and a big composition.

After the first exam in the morning, there is only the second stage-oral exam. Some people take an oral exam on the afternoon of writing, while others take an exam the next day. They were randomly assigned. From entering the examination area to leaving the examination area, you are not allowed to talk to other students, otherwise the staff can count you as violating the rules. Anyway, I took the exam three times and didn't speak. The first time I was too nervous to say anything, the second time I didn't have time to say it, and the third time I didn't want to say it confidently. In short, it's not illegal not to talk. The oral examiner speaks English all the time, including asking if you have any telephone and other things that should not be brought in, and checking your admission ticket. At the beginning of the answer, the examiner will start to record your answer with a voice recorder, so that you can complain about your oral performance in the future. The oral English test is divided into three parts. The first part is a relatively simple question. Is the student dog working? What job? How many acres of land are there at home? How many cows are there in the field? Of course, there are many important points here. I will talk about them later. The second part will give you a question card with some requirements on it, and then give you 1 minute to prepare, and then start your personal statement. The examiner won't interrupt you during this answer unless it's time. For example, please describe a comedian you like best, why you like him, what his experience is, and those qualities in him are enlightening and helpful to you. In the third part, the examiner will ask deeper questions, which are generally related to your answer sheet in the second part. For example, how do people in your country view the role of comedy in life? Do you think movies are very effective entertainment? What do you think of the future development of the film industry? Obviously, the depth of the problem has gone from shallow to deep. After all the exams, the examiner will say goodbye to you, and you can leave the examination room (again remind you not to talk halfway) and go home to your mother.

In addition, IELTS is divided into G (immigration, that's what I took the exam) and A (academic). G is emigrating or working, and A is studying abroad, but as far as I know, A can emigrate, but G can't study abroad. The listening and speaking of the two exams are exactly the same, but the reading questions are different. Personally, I feel that Class A is more difficult. The nature of the big composition is the same (note, I mean the nature or question type is the same, not the test questions are the same), but the small composition is different. Class G is letters (letters of apology, cover letters, letters of complaint, invitations, etc. ), and class A is aimed at flowcharts, chart analysis problems, etc. Personally, I think it should be difficult.

You will say that you are all meaningless nonsense, but you know, for real scum, these things were what I wanted to know at that time (because I didn't know anything at that time). I didn't even know what reference books to read, where to read the registration information, and how to check the examination process, but IELTS had to be 1400 yuan every time (I didn't know if the price of the exam was expensive now). And most importantly, young students are surrounded by students who have passed IELTS, and there is a lot of information around them. If you want to know anything, ask the people around you or the teachers. Your information channel is smooth, but for me, a 32-year-old who left school for ten years, it is very informative to talk with him about drinking and office politics. . . . You can get a gross message of J8. Therefore, for the scum who left school for many years (that is, me), the above basic contents are by no means meaningless.

I know what the IELTS test is, so let me talk about my review experience item by item.

Lexical part

There is no vocabulary test for vocabulary MLGBD. What are you scribbling in J8?

Don't worry. All the above tests are actually based on vocabulary. Without enough vocabulary, you can't understand what others say. Without enough vocabulary, you can't understand what others write. Without enough vocabulary, you can't write what you want to express. Without enough vocabulary, you can speak English with your mouth open and be speechless.

So let me talk about how I reviewed my vocabulary at that time.

Yes, I bought these two books as the basis of my basic vocabulary training. The "training class" in the picture is actually the immigration class I mentioned before, but the name is different. There are many vocabulary materials for IELTS academic classes, but few for immigrants. These two books, one is a word and the other is a phrase, which are the most targeted books I could find at that time. I actually feel very good when I use it myself. There are explanations, detailed usage and examples, which are very helpful for mastering vocabulary.

Of course, just staring at these two books can't improve your vocabulary. There is only one specific way: reciting!

Yes, there is no trick, so cruel.

After I got the books, I looked at how many pages each book had, and then worked out how many days I had to review according to my examination time. According to two rounds of review, I calculated the average number of pages I have to read every day. I remember that one book had to read 14 pages a day, and another book had to read 14 pages a day. I don't seem to remember clearly. Then there is the back, that is, writing. When I memorize vocabulary, I first review the vocabulary of the day before. If there are unmarked words, I will write a page for each word or phrase. After reviewing the day before, I will recite the tasks to be completed today, then review what I have recited today the next day, and then finish the tasks to be completed the next day. It's like this from Monday to Friday. On weekends, I won't recite new contents, but review all the contents of the previous five days in a unified way, and I won't punish myself for plagiarism. In this way, review on Saturday, and then review on Sunday (generally speaking, after reviewing on Saturday, I forget less on Sunday, which is relatively easy and gives me a wry smile), and so on, so on and so on, so as to really "start" again.

People's memory has its own characteristics. They remember it best on the first day, but most people won't remember it after a week. Therefore, it is necessary to remind the brain repeatedly and recite it repeatedly to make the memory last longer and forget as little as possible. This method correspondingly prolongs the effective memory time, at least I personally think so. I also write here to recommend the subject to try.

Listening part

When reviewing, I only listen to the listening questions of IELTS in Cambridge (this is not illustrated by examples), and listen to them repeatedly in the lecture room, because only the material in the listening questions can be consistent with the real questions in terms of questions, speech speed, test sites and so on. That's when I started listening to Jian 5, because the previous questions were different. As for the current exam, I don't know if Jian 5 also needs to be eliminated. I tried listening to other materials, but soon gave up, because no kidding, IELTS listening actually has a slight stress at the test center, so light that you don't realize it at all, but after listening to it many times, you will gradually find this stress or find this feeling, which is very important when you take the exam. There is no such feeling for materials other than IELTS in Cambridge (it is not excluded that such good materials are not found because of poor information channels), so they are doing it every day. Listen repeatedly and spend as much time as possible listening to the questions. I drive to work, rest at noon and listen with headphones. I drive after work at night, listen when I go to the toilet, and go out for a walk. I'm deaf and I'll always listen anyway.

Slowly, from speaking ten sentences, I can't hear a word at all, until I can hear three or four sentences completely before the third exam (that is, I can hear every word in a sentence)+I can understand two or three sentences (although I can't hear every word, I can understand most of them, and the words that I often can't hear will not affect my understanding of the sentence)+I can understand half 1~2 sentences (. By the time I took the second exam, I could definitely figure out how many questions I would get correctly, because I really heard clearly.

Listening is a slow job. At that time, one day, you will really hear it without looking at the topic, and you will know which word you need to use to answer this question by the tone and speed of the speaker. Like bragging about b? In fact, to be honest, half of it is boasting. If you want to say that all the questions can be answered without looking at the questions, you just have to listen and reread them. Hehe, I don't have this level anyway, but I really did some problems. Although it is not much, for me, I am very proud of the progress and achievements here to answer such a question.

You can't understand the world of scum

Of course, everyone's situation is different. You can also try other listening materials, such as BBC listening. I recommend this because the exams are basically in English (I know there are also questions with accents other than English, such as Indian accent, but after all, it is a minority. Is it difficult for Bollywood to be naive all day because there is a small possibility of having an Indian accent? ), this is the closest. I have heard it before. I heard that Cambridge IELTS can recite it quickly, and I also listened to the BBC (grinding my ears for a while before the exam to get back to simple and elegant listening), so I recommend you to try it.

Reading part

Reading is a headache when I review, because there are less review materials available. Please note that I took the immigration exam, but Liu Hongbo's IELTS reading classics should be enough for you in academic subjects. The reading problem of IELTS in Cambridge is necessary. I will do it several times, so I won't talk nonsense. The key is that it is not enough to do these questions all the time, so I have been searching online and bought a lot of books on immigration exams, mainly for reading (of course, I will read other parts when I have the ability).

I feel very good:

These two books are helpful for my own use, because there are not many books about immigration, and many of them are written simply to cheat money, so at least these two books are not random, but they are still very targeted. I have done both books many times. Combining the reading part of Cambridge IELTS, I feel good. After you finish, compare the answers carefully and study each question carefully until you really understand the reasons. No matter whether your answer is right or not, you should understand the reason, because even if you do it right, some of it is deceived. It depends on why you are right. Don't laugh, you are scum.

However, you will find that even if you have done all these many times, the number of questions is still too small to use compared with academic courses. At that time, I used two methods to make up for it: first, I bought IELTS reading classics directly, which was large in number and targeted, but the reason why I didn't recommend them was academic. Some academic questions needed to be filled in by changing parts of speech, and what part of speech did you look at in the immigration exam? You don't need to do it any more, so I only do IELTS reading as an aid, because I'm afraid I'll get into the habit of doing too much, and I'll answer questions in accordance with academic habits when I take the real exam, and I'll learn Sparta. The second method I use is to read The Economist and the original English novels. You should know that many IELTS articles are from National Geographic, The Economist and other publications. Therefore, this kind of magazine is better targeted, not boring and more readable. You can also choose one according to your interest. But the disadvantage of doing so is also obvious: there are no exercises! This is really helpless. As for reading English novels, I also choose fire and ice and Brothers Band, which I am interested in. I usually read novels before going to bed. I add novels to reduce the boredom of learning and form the habit of reading English every day.

Finally, no matter how many times you have done the IELTS reading section in Cambridge before, you must do it again before the exam! Nothing else (because you may have memorized the answer by then), mainly to find the feeling before the exam.

Writing part

At the end of my writing, my score was not high (just 6 points) because I did less and took some detours.

I didn't practice any IELTS composition before the first exam (yes, it was a naked exam, so what? ). Two compositions, one large and one small, were written in the examination room for the first time. Hehe, I finished writing my composition within the specified time, and I was quite satisfied when I handed in my paper: "Shit, I can write two articles without practicing, no matter whether it is good or not. Anyway, it is much better than I expected. " That was the stupid idea at that time.

I carefully prepared for the second exam, and wrote nearly 65,438+05 compositions by myself (I knew the amount was too small, but I didn't know it at that time). During the review, I carefully read several IELTS composition books (which was unlucky). As a result, the composition is still 5 points, which means that the result of my careful preparation for the exam in the second stage is the same as that of my first naked exam, which means the result of the second exam. The second preparation period is about 5 months; The preparation period of the third exam is about 3 months, and it took nearly 1 year.

So, why is this happening? Let's talk about reviewing materials first. Many immigrants' review materials are shoddy. I don't mean the quality of paper and printing here, but their teaching content, that is, talking nonsense, doodling and learning with this material. Of course, all your articles are bad, but all the textbooks I read at that time were such bad textbooks.

It's time to get on the wall, please see the shame list (bad books don't have pictures):

ILETS 9 Writing Second Edition-New Oriental (Shame List)

Detailed explanation of the source of the latest real questions of IELTS in Cambridge-Writing (Immigration)-Liu Min (shame list)

Compared with the very good writing materials I used in the third exam, these two books are so dark that they are unreasonable. Now MB typing is still angry, wasting my energy and time! !

Get down to business. So what did I use for the third time?

These are two books, or two sets of books. In fact, I knew this book in the second exam. After all, it has always been recommended on the IELTS forum, but I didn't read it at that time because of the name. Ten days to break through! !

"No injections, no medicine, three days to cure arthritis"

"Say goodbye to soup and tonic and give you a healthy kidney in ten days."

"Just once, say goodbye to onychomycosis completely"

. . . . .

Do you have the feeling of this stupid advertisement? At that time, I thought the name was deceptive at first glance, and it took 10 days to break through, so I didn't read this book. Of course, I later learned that the name was deliberately added by the publishing house to sell well, but I really didn't want to buy it at that time.

In the third exam, I bought these two sets of books with the attitude of giving it a try (feeling it was still an Amway advertisement), and I regretted it after reading it-I wish I had read it earlier. Ten-day breakthrough is actually ten key points or big knowledge points, which allows you to baptize your writing from the beginning, practice with methods, skills and pertinence. It tries to improve your writing ability from a big framework, and then cooperate with a large number of model essays (try to read high-scoring model essays), which is to save your writing from the root. Bottom line: whoever uses it knows (through advertising).

I also included a writing vocabulary booklet, which was a blow to the head. I usually flip through it because it's convenient. Today, I still use many writing words in my work.

In short, just follow this tutorial when reviewing.

It should be noted that, for the convenience of corrupt people, ah no, lazy people, there are some writing templates in the book, so that you can recite a big framework, and then change a few places according to different topics to complete a composition. I sincerely hope that this thing will not be recited, and it will be easily regarded as a set of questions, which will not improve your English ability, so this section is really not recommended.

You can't write anything decent just by reading. Just saying that we don't practice fake movements requires us to do a lot of writing exercises. Before the third exam, I wrote about 40 big compositions and 25 small compositions. Although the number of people is still small, I did my best (I go to work every day and always work overtime. We working dogs have to support our families, so we can't spend so much time studying like you student dogs. Besides, I asked my teacher to help me correct my composition about 10. This is really important. You just write, write a lot, but you don't know where to write well, so you will be deducted where to write. Damn it, you ended up writing for nothing So find a reliable person to help you correct the inspection criticism. I bought a composition correction service from a teaching institution on Taobao. How can I put it? The price of the teacher I was looking for was ok, which really pointed out many of my low-level problems (grammar, tense, singular and plural, etc. ) is the biggest reason why my writing score is lower than 6, which must not be ignored), which also improves my overall writing in other aspects. However, some of his views and opinions are different from the Ten-Day Breakthrough I mentioned earlier. Even some views are completely opposite, and my whole style and thinking have been greatly influenced by the ten-day breakthrough. After all, changing the composition is done 20 days before the exam (students with conditions should change it early, after all, approve it early). I can't change my style and thinking according to the requirements of the correcting teacher within 20 days, so I always feel overwhelmed on the way to higher grades. "Everybody IELTS Brother" comments on this family, which is suitable for students with a target score of more than 6 and less than 7. I think this evaluation is very pertinent.

Regarding writing, there is another one that needs to be recommended, that is, "everyone's IELTS brother" mentioned above. He is very famous in the IELTS test circle. He will help you predict the questions, sort out the machine classics and summarize the oral test questions. It seems that there are some formal online training and oral mock exams. My real road to IELTS learning started from the website of IELTS brother, so I really recommend the subject to visit IELTS brother. He also has an APP called IELTS Brother, I can't remember it clearly. But I think his listening skills depend on his personal situation. I really think I can memorize those ABCD. If you practice listening carefully, your listening ability will come in the morning. I personally don't recommend it, but it's the same sentence, which varies from person to person, hehe. However, the composition exercises listed by brother IELTS are still worth doing, and there are often overwhelming situations (he made a big composition in my second exam! But the black review materials of the composition are too pit.