ZM Institute, the Center of Academic and Intellectual

Excellence presents

TOP TEN
MISTAKES IN
IELTS
By Clarence Chan

IELTS Academic and

IELTS General
Training

Introduction
It is has been wisely said, A fool is not someone who makes a mistake; a fool is someone who
makes the same mistake twice.
In sitting for the IELTS exam, there is no better way to learn than to learn from the mistakes of
others who have gone before. That is the basis of this short but highly informative report.
Where others have made the ten crucial mistakes in the IELTS exam detailed in this report, let
us not repeat any of them, otherwise we would be no better than the fool, because in not
learning from the mistakes of others, we are prone to repeat them ourselves.
It is my sincere hope that these ten mistakes I have compiled and explained will enable you not
only to avoid them but to excel in your performance as you sit for the IELTS exam.

Legal Disclaimer:
This report is produced out of the authors personal knowledge and experience in teaching
the IELTS. It has no connection with the IELTS or its governing body in any way. Readers and
users of this manual are advised to take the information here and put it into practice in
preparation for the IELTS exam but no guarantees are made by the author or publisher in
terms of exam results that may be obtained by the readers or users of this report.
Copyright 2010 onwards by Clarence Chan
You are free to distribute this report to anyone as long as no changes are made to its contents
in any way. Thank you.

IELTS CANDIDATES TOP TEN MISTAKES

Note: These top ten mistakes in IELTS are addressed at length in my ebook Success In IELTS
available at http://ieltstips.org/ielts-online.html. By making a small investment in your IELTS
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Now let me take you through the top ten mistakes IELTS candidates make:

1. Not writing according the proper formats for Writing Test Task 1 and Task 2.

You will greatly increase your band score if your writing follows the formats I show you in my
ebook, Success In IELTS. So many IELTS candidates fail to obtain the required band score for
their IELTS and have to retake the exam because their writing was not arranged in a way that is
required by the examiner. But following my formats will make your writing logically arranged
and much easier to read and be understood by the examiner. Thats how to obtain a high band
score.

2. Pausing for too long between sentences in the Speaking Test.

Remember, the examiner expects you to give a full answer in your Speaking test. If you pause
for too long while thinking of how to elaborate your sentences, the examiner will think that you

have already finished your point and he or she will carry on and ask you the next question. If
this happens, it is definitely NOT a good sign.

3. Technical mistakes

At some exam centers, you are required to use certain technical equipment like headphones for
the Listening Test.

It is your responsibility to test all technical equipment and become

competent at using them before the test starts.

Another frequent mistake is not speaking loudly or clearly enough for the tape recorder to
record your voice during the Speaking Test. Did you know that at the Speaking Test each
candidate is assessed twice; once by the examiner and another time by some independent
listener in another center, usually the main regional IELTS center? This independent listener
only has the tape recording of your voice to assess you with so if your voice is not audibly
heard, you will not attain a high band score for your Speaking Test.

4. Not giving a full answer in the Speaking Test (and Writing Test)

As I mentioned in the chapters on the Speaking Test in my ebook, Success In IELTS, the most
common mistake candidates make is not giving a full answer to the questions posed by the
examiner. This is one of the little-known details of the IELTS that makes a difference in how
well you do in your exam. The trouble is during the Speaking test, the examiner will not
indicate to you if you are making a mistake in your speaking (he or she will just carry on with
the test and you wont know you have done badly until you get your results).

In fact giving a full answer is so important it is also required in the Writing test. In my ebook,
Success In IELTS, I go into detail to explain what a full answer is and how to give it during the
IELTS.

5. Over-committing your sentences in the Speaking Test

One typical problem faced by non-native English speaking candidates is a lack of fluency in
speaking. This is largely because you think in your own native language and translate your
sentences in your head before speaking them out in English.

And your fluency is further affected when you over-commit yourself in your sentences by using
conjunctions like and, but, if, although etc. When you inadvertently say these words at the
end of your sentence, you have over-committed yourself to continue to speak. In other words,
you have to continue speaking because you have not finished your sentence.

Then when your mind becomes blank, you would get stuck with nothing to say. This will affect
your fluency. Remember, one of the three things the examiner is looking for in the IELTS
Speaking test is fluency.

So, to avoid over-committing your sentences and disrupting your fluency, keep your sentences
short with one point per sentence. Try not to say conjunctive words like and, but, if etc at
the end of your sentences. It is better to end the first sentence having said one point then start
a second sentence with another point than to join the two points into one sentence with a
conjunction, unless you can think quickly enough while speaking.

For example, suppose the examiner is asking you to speak about your hometown (which is a
very common topic in the Speaking test), and you want to say three things:

Its name

Its population size

Its geographical location

You could say something like, My hometown is the city of Kuala Lumpur, which has a
population of about 2.5 million people and is located in the center of West Malaysia in the state
of Selangor, all in one sentence. If you can do so fluently, congratulations to you.

However, if you cannot think so quickly, I suggest putting it this way, I come from the city of
Kuala Lumpur. It has about 2.5 million people living in it. Kuala Lumpur is located in the center
of West Malaysia in the state of Selangor. It may not sound as polished as the first sentence
but it does not contain any grammar mistakes.

It is better to say the three shorter sentences fluently than to try to say the one longer sentence
without fluency and make mistakes doing so.

Many of my non-native English speaking students have done very well in their Speaking test
when they did this one simple thing.

This is one of the tricks I teach inside my ebook, Success In IELTS.

6. Writing off topic and/or not covering every point in the question in the Writing Test.

Suppose a Writing Test question goes like this, How can we use energy in more
environmentally friendly ways? Can we use environmentally friendly methods of consuming
energy without jeopardizing our present lifestyle?

This is a very common way the IELTS phrases their questions in the Writing test. Many of my
students have come across questions written in this way. What is it about this way of phrasing
the question?

Read carefully and you will see that there are actually two answers required of you, not one. Of
course, they are both related but they are distinct nevertheless. So there are two ways you can
make a mistake in this type of question.

Firstly, if your essay is centered on the importance and benefits of using energy without
damaging the environment, you have written off topic. This is because the question does not
specifically ask you to state how important it is to use energy without destroying the
environment. You may write about this as a form of introduction but it should not be your
main point because that is not what the question asks. So this is the first mistake you may
make.

Secondly, you may write only about how to use energy without jeopardizing the environment
but omit writing about how we can do so without jeopardizing our lifestyles. By doing so, you
have not covered both points in the question. This is another mistake that may cost you dearly.

7. Reading too slowly and/or reading to understand the entire passage in the Reading
Test.

This is a huge mistake in the Reading Test. Your purpose in sitting for the Reading Test is not to
understand the entire passage; it is to answer all the questions correctly. So you should never
read every word or try to understand the entire passage in order to answer the questions. Use
my techniques in Success In IELTS to find the answers to the questions and you will be able to
finish the Reading Test within the time limit.

Remember there are 3 passages or sections in the IELTS Reading Test. But the degree of
difficulty increases as you go along i.e. the final passage is the hardest. Therefore, you should
allocate more time (more than 20 minutes) for the last passage and attempt to finish the first
passage in the shortest time (less than 20 minutes) as far as possible.

8. Assuming the answers in the Listening Test are given in the same order as the
questions.

This is another little-known detail in the IELTS. In most cases, the questions in the Listening test
are in the same order as the answers spoken in the recording, but I have seen IELTS questions
where the answers come out in a different order from the questions.

That is why it is vitally important to look through the questions and identify their key words
before the recording starts to play. Looking through the key words in each question is a simple
but very effective trick I teach my students in Success In IELTS.

9. Writing too few words in the Writing Test

The word limits for Task 1 and 2 of the Writing Test are minimum limits. If you do not write at
least 150 words for Task 1 and 250 words for Task 2 in the Writing Test, you will lose marks.

If you write too many words, there is no penalty, but you would lose valuable time. Writing
between 150 to 190 words for Task 1 and 250 to 290 words for Task 2 would be just right.

10. Reading the passage before reading the questions in the Reading Test.

Under normal circumstances you would read through a passage before attempting to answer
questions based on that passage. But if you do so in the IELTS exam, you are treading on
dangerous ground. Usually, you would not be able to finish the Reading test on time if you read
through the entire passage before answering the questions.

It is a mistake to read the entire passage before reading the questions because you generally
use more time doing this. This is another little-known detail about the IELTS. Therefore, you
must know when and how to read the passage and the questions. There is an important
technique I show my students in Success In IELTS that enables anyone to complete reading the
IELTS passages in the Reading test without much loss of comprehension and hence be able to
answer the questions and finish on time.

These are the top ten mistakes people make when taking the IELTS.

If you have benefited from this report, do write me a short email about what you have
learned. Please send it to ieltstips1@gmail.com. If you do, I will send you a surprise gift for
your efforts.

Finally, if you wish to invest

in my

http://ieltstips.org/ielts-online.html.

I wish you all the best in your IELTS and beyond.

Sincerely,

Clarence Chan

ebook, Success

In

IELTS, please

visit