IELTS preparation materials: trustworthy resources

A lot has been written and said about IELTS. As this is still one of the most popular exams to take, preparation tips and strategies are always in big demand. Being a teacher or a student, you can opt for various preparation modes. Some people prefer to get familiar with the exam format and work with tests only, expanding their vocabulary. Others like lessons based on coursebooks. Another option is to work with online resources which are widely available, especially due to the lockdown.

Whatever approach you choose, you will definitely need some trustworthy resources, either digital or paper-based. This article will provide you with some ideas.

Cambridge Official Guide to IELTS

This book is published by the Cambridge University to help IELTS students to prepare for the exam. It contains the materials for those who are aiming at band 7 – 8. The books deal with both General and Academic preparation.

You will get acquainted with the format and have a complete idea of each section of the exam. In the book there are four sections dealing with the four skills tested: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. A separate unit is dedicated to each skill, with all possible types of tasks, tips and tricks. Also, the guide includes practical exercises and 8 tests: 6 academic and 2 general ones. The answer key and the listening scripts are present too.

This one is great if:

• you are a teacher working with IELTS prep
• you are a teacher preparing for the exam yourself
• you know little or nothing at all about the exam format
• you are a student with some solid experience of learning English and a level of Intermediate and above
• you are good at self-studying and time-management

Cambridge English Authentic Examination Papers

These are the well-known IELTS test packs. For now, there are 14 books, the next one is about to be released in summer 2020. The older test packs combine general and academic tests in each book. Starting from book 11, they come in 2 parts: Book 11 General and Book 11 Academic, for instance. Older editions do not fully correspond to the current exam tasks, so it’s better to use them for listening and speaking extra practice and vocabulary extension only.

The books can come in handy to supplement a preparation course or to have an intensive practice before an exam. I personally wouldn’t recommend to address the writing answer samples much. The examiners’ comments look too brief and the model answers given as ‘an example of a very good answer’ might lack cohesion or contain some punctuation issues.

Vocabulary and Grammar for IELTS

This set of 3 books is one of my personal favourites. It includes Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS, Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS Advanced and Cambridge Grammar for IELTS.

The vocabulary guides consist of units built around some topics: Health, Technology, Environment, Relationships etc. Each unit provides you with a number of practical tasks in the exam format and the Test Practice section where you will find a full exam task or two. The Advanced book cover says that it is for candidates aiming at Band 6,5+ and it is probably true. Weaker students might struggle with the range of vocabulary and sophisticated texts.

The grammar book works really well with students who keep making occasional grammar mistakes or struggle to get the difference between Present Perfect Simple or Present Perfect Continuous. It is also good for those coming to class with ‘I’d like to brush up my grammar!’ kind of request.  Each unit is focused on a certain grammar topic: Present Tenses, Modals, Adjectives and Adverbs etc. After quite a detailed overview of the topic, supported by numerous examples, you will find practical exercises in the exam format. A unit will be followed by the Test Practice section where the tasks are selected so that students could practise target grammar structures one more time.

Mindset for IELTS

The Mindset for IELTS series is relatively new. It consists of 4 books, from Foundation to Book 3, and is supposed to cover levels from A2 to C1. Each unit of the books provides extra online practice in Speaking, Writing, Reading, Listening and Grammar and Vocabulary to work on weaker areas. The digital component includes online modules and testbank with authentic online practice tests. Topic-based units cover each of the four skills in turn. The Mindset focuses mainly on the Academic module. The Teacher’s Book seems very friendly to those who are just starting to teach for IELTS. From my personal experience, students opinions on this course are very different. Some didn’t like the combination of challenging analytical tasks and brightly coloured pictures and page design saying it was distractive. Also, there was a complaint about some lack of vocabulary.

In my opinion, this set will suit candidates who don’t have IELTS as their short-term goal. It’s good in terms of content, useful tips and up-to-date materials, but if the exam is, say, in half a year, you can’t do much with Mindset and have to develop another preparation strategy.

Websites

There are tons of websites and online resources available nowadays. My favourites are:

IELTS Liz is a gold mine for basically everyone. It’s a great starting point if you have never heard of IELTS. If you have been working with it or preparing for a while, it is still extremely useful. he website provides the information about the format, detailed analysis of various tasks, an overview of all 4 skills, practical exercises, speaking and essay questions and whatnot. The bad news is that you cannot select and copy the piece of information you’d like to save as the site is protected. But you can still download pdf versions of some exercises and materials.

IELTS Buddy is good for practising the Writing part. It will provide you with a variety of writing tasks both for general and academic modules, sometimes accompanied by question analysis. There are also sample answers and downloadable pdfs to print for the lesson.

ielts-simon might be difficult to use if you are a student as it implies that you already know something about the exam and preparation strategies. It can be useful for teachers, however, as it is run by an ex-IELTS examiner who shares some insider kind of information at times.

It is virtually impossible to list all IELTS materials in one text. However, this article marks the beginning. If you have any personal favourite IELTS resource or an anti-recommendation, please, share below.