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Best IELTS Preparation Materials - Practice Tests, Books and Apps 2021

I want to talk about the best resources for your IELTS preparation. Why is it important?

Because there is so much information available on IELTS but quite often I still get questions from students, saying

  • Well I can't understand this question
  •  I can't understand this essay topic; it's confusing.
  • When I look at the task, I can see straight away that it's not an official IELTS task; it's not built the same way or it's simply incorrect and confusing. 

So the quality of the information really matters and I'm going to share a number of resources for you, most of which are free. Let's get started!

The IELTS exam is co-owned by three companies which means we have four official websites and each of them has its own practice tasks or practice tests. All of them are free the only difficulty is to find them on those websites so I'm gonna give you direct links.

Next, if you're just starting your preparation and you want to learn about the format and types of tasks the best description of the test is on IELTS.org that's all you need.


Best IELTS Preparation Materials

Mobile Applications & Online Websites

Before we go to other online resources let me show you one mobile app. It's called IELTS prep app by British Council 

Let me tell you this app a little bit. You have three tests available for both IELTS academic and general training. You can practice all four sections of the exam.

  1. In the listening section you can't skip so you have to take all 40 minutes and wanna go and also you can't type answers on the screen. So you have to use a pen and paper but I think it's still great practice. In this IELTS app, you can listen to all the recordings and just get used to the exam format.
  2. In the reading section you can type answers on the screen I'm not sure why and your answers will be calculated and you get your score automatically which is great. The only thing is the screen of your smartphone is quite small. So you can't see the passage and the question at the same time. You can't compare them directly. It's not very convenient because in a computer-based exam you have large monitors and you see almost all the passage and several questions it's just so much easier to solve them this way.
  3. In the writing section, you type your answers on your phone which is again less convenient than a keyboard but then when you submit them, you get some model answers to compare yours. That's a good feature I like it.
  4. In the speaking exam, no one's gonna ask you questions but all three sections are still timed so during the exam you have a maximum of 5 minutes for part 1 and that's what you get in this app. You see questions. So first you see questions for the first topic in part one you answer them then you move to the second topic answer questions. And, the third topic and you record yourself. You can listen to your answers which is a great tool to improve your speaking skills and just develop an awareness of what you should work on.

IELTS Prep App by British Council:

Android: Click Here to Download

Apple: Click Here to Download


Let's read about Three IELTS Websites

IELTS.org

Let's talk about the online resources that are available the first website is IELTS org where you can get a full practice test academic and general training.

All the materials are available in the PDF format which means you can download them on your computer.

You can print them out. Downloaded PDFs look like the official paper-based booklets.

It means, in IELTS reading, for example, you have passage on one page and then you have questions on other pages and you need to turn pages.

So it's gonna be exactly this way during the exam. The only thing you need to get is the official answer sheets.

For IELTS writing because you need to write your practice essays on those official sheets in order to figure out how long your essays should be. Otherwise, you will have to count words during your exam. 

I find that the format of this test is slightly different to all the practice tasks but it's totally ok to start with.


British Council

The second website is British console and again you have enough materials for a full practice test. The test itself is great but the format is really inconvenient because as you see everything on the same page of their website.

Let's say you open IELTS reading and it's just everything on the same page and if you want to find questions, you have to scroll down and then scroll back up to get to the passage. So it's not a computer-based format and it's not a paper-based format. 

Either I suggest just coping all the materials into the word document, printing them out, and doing it on paper. It will be much better.


IDP

The next website is called IELTS essentials and it's by IDP. If you're wondering if there is any difference between British consul and IDP exams. The answer is no.

 All the practice tests are the same and all exam papers are written by Cambridge English not by IDP and not by the British Council. So you can practice on all the websites. The best thing here is that IDP gives you a whole practice test in the computer-based format. It looks exactly like the real exam.

In the Reading section, You can highlight things, you can switch between different exam questions at the bottom of the screen.

Basically, you can practice in any format but before your exam takes the full practice test in the same format just to get used to all the little things you need to do during the exam.

So we talked about the full practice tests. You can also find information on all types of tasks. You may find in IELTS listening and, it's reading. Those are really handy because you need to have a strategy for each type of task so that during the exam when you don't have time to figure out how to do something.

 

Best IELTS Preparation Materials

Necessary Books are here:

1. The official guide to IELTS be Cambridge

If you decide to purchase one or two. So the best guide on IELTS, I would say that's the most famous book ''the official guide to IELTS by Cambridge''

It's a big book. You can find explanations on what you need to do in each section of the test and you get exercises. So it's good because it gives you a number of tips. In general, it covers most of the things you need to learn.

At the end of the book, you get eight practice tests. If you feel that you need more tests, you must buy this book. The official guide to IELTS by Cambridge book is perfect for students who want to achieve the desired score.

This book offers everything, students need to prepare for IELTS general and academic training. You can understand all module tests and improve your band score with tips, clear explanations, and advice. This book contains listening audios and videos for speaking.

Buy: The official guide to IELTS be Cambridge, Click HERE

2. IELTS Practice Test Book 14 and 15

Other best books are IELTS practice book 14 and IELTS practice book 15. These books are for both academic and general students. I will put click below to buy.

All tests here our official tests. The best for practice and at the end of the book you also get some model answers so this one is a model answer by the examiner. It's perfect and you can see it. 

You also get answers from other students. You can read the answer and then you see the feedback from the examiner and you can also get this score. So, it's good for developing awareness of how good you need to write.

I think it's quite inspirational.

Buy Books:


3. Grammar Book: English grammar by Raymond Murphy

I also want to recommend a good grammar book. It is English grammar in use by Raymond Murphy and that's a book I always suggest to students.

It's not too advanced. It's for b1 b2 students and it gives you all the basics you need to know.
Perhaps, you already know many things but it's great to use as a reference. It means when you're not certain about something, you can go and check in this book.

For example, it gives you chapters on present simple and Present continuous tenses. You already know that once but do you know why you say, ''I always drive to work by car but I'm always losing my keys'' So tense is different. But the word ''always'' is in both of them. This book will give you answers like that and will help you improve your skills.


4. Vocabulary Book:  Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS by Pauline Cullen

To a large extent, your IELTS score depends on your vocabulary. Basically, how many words you know and how accurately you can use them. 

Perhaps if you can't get the score then you need to work on your vocabulary, of course, it takes more time but then there is a good book that contains this vocabulary that helps you to achieve b2, c1 levels

It's called ''Cambridge vocabulary for IELTS by Pauline Cullen''
  • It gives you words.
  • It gives you exercises to help you memorize them. 

Purchase: Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS by Pauline Cullen


All the links to practice tasks are given now. Check and Buy, if you are really want to achieve your desired IELTS Score. 

Appearing in the exam again and again without practice is a wastage of your time and money. I will advise you to prepare yourself for the IELTS test, after that fill exam date.

Thank you for reading this article. If you find it useful, just let me know. If you have any suggestions, please comment below. 

Good luck with your preparation for your exam.

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