How to Prepare for the English Tests for Studying Abroad

English! English! English!

English is absolutely the most important step in applying to study abroad! It's also something I believe will only bring benefits, with almost no downside, as long as you learn it well. Whether for future study, work or life, good English will open up more opportunities for you.

While you're waiting to hear back from schools, or still deciding whether to go abroad at all, there's one thing that's never a waste of time: improving your English. If you use this time well, it will bring you closer to your study-abroad goal and also make life overseas go more smoothly later on.

Getting to the point: how do we reach our target score efficiently?

Take the admission requirements for most nursing programs in Australia as an example. They usually require

IELTS scores of 7 in each of listening, speaking, reading and writing

(Source: QUT/UQ official websites)

But as I was writing this, I suddenly noticed that QUT has quietly lowered its writing requirement to 6.5, which is great news for a lot of students preparing for IELTS! (Because IELTS writing is really hard!)

Preparing for English tests can be crushing

Honestly, preparing for an English test is often a crushing experience.

While others are on vacation, traveling or hanging out, you may still be in the library drilling questions, memorizing vocabulary and practicing writing.

What makes it even more stressful is that sometimes you have no idea when you'll finally get the score you want.

That uncertainty can easily leave you feeling lost, or even wanting to give up.

But I believe most people preparing to study abroad have been through this, or are going through it now.

Remember one thing:

Opportunity always goes to those who are prepared.

As long as you keep working at it, one day you'll reach your goal.

Trust the reason you wanted to go abroad in the first place, and believe that you can do it.

How to prepare for each IELTS section

Listening and Reading

On the IELTS, for most students, listening and reading usually aren't the biggest problem.

With lots of practice questions, getting familiar with the question types and building the skill of picking out key words, scores usually improve steadily.

Some suggestions:

• Do one listening or reading section every day

• Practice picking out keywords

• Review your mistakes and understand why you got them wrong

Over time, the progress really adds up!

Writing

IELTS writing is the section that gives many students the biggest headache.

That's because it doesn't just test your English; it also tests:

• Logical thinking

• Paragraph structure

• Vocabulary range

• Grammatical accuracy

Many people who get stuck on writing aren't actually bad at English; they don't know how to express their ideas logically.

Ways to improve your writing usually include:

• Reading lots of high-scoring sample essays

• Learning common sentence patterns and structures

• Practicing regularly and asking a teacher or friend to correct your work

• Trying to write in Chinese first to practice structuring an essay

Writing is a skill that takes time to build, but as long as you keep practicing, you will definitely see progress!

Speaking

Speaking is a section that really takes practice.

The best way, of course, is to:

Find someone to practice conversations with

If there's no one around to practice with, don't worry too much. You can try:

• Practicing in front of a mirror

• Recording yourself to check your pronunciation

• Describing your daily life in English

The point is to get used to expressing your ideas in English, instead of translating in your head.

Final thoughts

On the road to IELTS, you'll often feel lonely and wonder whether you can really do it.

But looking back, almost everyone who has made it abroad went through the same process.

Your English won't get better overnight, but a little progress every day adds up to a big change.

If you're preparing for English tests, for IELTS or to study abroad right now, please don't give up easily.

Because the effort you're putting in now may well be the start of something that changes your life!