 Hi everyone Chris here from IELTS Advantage and today we have another success story and we have Vikas who amazingly got a band 8.5 overall, which I was just saying to him is higher than a lot of native English speakers and even IELTS teachers. He got an amazing band 9 in reading and 9 in listening. He got 8 in speaking and 7.5 in writing. Is that all correct? So he's kindly decided to share his story with you guys so that you can learn from him, get some advice from him and then you can improve your scores. So Vikas can you just start off by introducing yourself to everyone? Sure yeah. Hi my name is Vikas and like currently I'm working, I was working as a product analyst in a company called Bloom Global. I was also in the US for the past four years and then I decided that I wanted to move to Canada. So I left my job in the US and then moved back to India and then started my preparation for IELTS and finally I took my IELTS exam on August 7th and I got a very good score of 8.5 overall. Excellent well done congratulations again. It's a lot of hard work to get to that stage so thank you. So can you tell us a little bit about your IELTS journey? So like how many times did you do the test? What scores were you getting? Those type of things. Sure actually the official test the final test I took it just once so this is but before that I took some of like a few mock tests like two or three of mock tests and in all of them I was getting the overall score of like 7.5 or 8 but I was not getting good scores in speaking and writing exams. The reason was like I was not doing good in task achievements or anything but my scores in listening and reading were always varying like I was always getting either 8 or 8.5 and it was always varying. The main reason I think was because I was having pseudo confidence in my listening and reading abilities so I was not practicing to the right or what do you say to my potential. So what I was doing initially was I was just going on YouTube and then looking for tests and then I was just practicing and like was following practice makes perfect kind of thing so I was just doing that and instead of correcting my mistakes I was just practicing again and again. So and after I watched your videos I learned about like what we should do instead of practicing a lot we should just take in a few exams and then work on our shortcomings or what all mistakes we are doing. I just started working on my weaknesses and then I got better at it. Yeah it's like you work in software development and product development it's just like debugging you know you create a product and it's going to have a bunch of bugs because that's normal and when you're learning a language you're going to make lots of mistakes and when you're doing the IELTS tests lots of mistakes but the key thing is just like any good developer is to focus on debugging and why did you make that mistake and really thinking about why that was and then addressing that. So when you were going through our method for improving your reading and your listening what were the bugs the mistakes that you think. So with the listening the issue that I had was instead of writing the same words that were spoken in the audio I was using like synonym software or writing some meaning software so I concentrated on like listening to the actual word and then writing down the same thing and other thing was like plurals like I was not like if the word was newspapers I was instead of writing it as newspapers I was writing as a newspaper and this was having a lot of grammatical issues like I was having such issues so I tried to concentrate on those things in like listening and one more thing was like different question types of different strategies like in your videos so I was not following them like whenever I used to watch the YouTube videos I just used to practice them and then I never used to understand like what where I was lacking in the listening section so my most like the most problematic section was for me in was the maps and also the section four of listening because it's a 10 question and they don't give any gaps between the questions so I tried to improve myself on on those sections and then I got better score in listening and in the reading I was like I was trying to read the entire passage before going into the questions so because of this the time like I was short on time and then I couldn't concentrate on everything so what are you like after watching your videos what I learned was like I just had two strategies for different types of questions so for any questions like matching the headings or matching information I first went to the passage and then note down my keywords and also like came up with my own headings and then I answered the question and for the rest of them I just went with the question and then noted down the keywords and then went to the passage yeah excellent so if we go back just go back to listening a little bit when you said that you spotted two key mistakes one was using synonyms instead of the actual word and one of them was a problem with plural nouns and things like that and I think that that's a really great thing to highlight because it shows that there was no problem with your listening skills there was no problem with your English there was no problem with with you your intelligence or anything like that it was just silly little mistakes that you were making and I think that that's why you know practice doesn't make perfect because if you just kept practicing and you kept making those mistakes and not spending the time to really analyze your mistakes and figure out what the bugs were and remove those then I knew that takes you know one day two days to figure that out even less whereas if you just tried to practice your way to a band nine it would take you know years and so I think you know hard work is important but working smart as well as also you know very important as you probably know from from your career as well and then you also mentioned the different question types and having different strategies for those question types again I think that that's again nothing to do with your listening skills or your English level or anything like that just being a little bit more strategic and aware of the different types of questions and then having strategies for them and it also reduces the stress a lot because you know what's coming and you know okay this is a maps question step one do this step two do this three do that is would you agree with that yes I do like that's the same thing that I did as well like after practicing all your strategies like it become really easy for me during the exam like I knew what is going to come next and then I was able to be prepared better and then answer it properly and then concentrate on the right answer like well I'm listening to the audio and then the last question section four is always the most difficult and anyone who's having problems with that the last section of both listening and reading are the most difficult and it gets the first questions are the easiest and then it gets more and more and more difficult and that's really the last part is to separate out the band 9's and 8.5's and 8's and 8's and 7.5 and 7 so if you're struggling with the last part it's probably because you're not at that level that you need to be and you need to focus on your listening skills your grammar your vocabulary and things like that yes even at the same issue like I was always having trouble concentrating on the last part like when it came to the last one like I was like oh yeah this is the end of the exam so I was becoming more relaxed so what I kept in my mind is like till the order the speaker tells this is the end of the speaking test or the sorry the listening test was not going to stop concentrating so that helped me a lot in the last part yeah and it's your think of your brain as a muscle and if you were let's say you are very unfit like at the moment I'm I can only run I'm going for a run after this and I can only run like 5k at the minute so think of that as like focusing on your listening for five minutes well how does a runner get from 5k to 6k well they they push themselves out of their comfort zone and do a little bit more and then you're 7k then 8k then 9k then 10k so exactly the same principle with listening try and focus completely for one minute and then two and then three and build build it up because it is just like your brain isn't a muscle I know I'm aware of that I'm not that stupid but it does feel like that sometimes when you're trying to even things like meditation can help as well and you know or reading can help as well just doing things that like one thing that's quite surprising when you do this with with other I've did this with a lot of students is say just read in English for one minute and don't think about anything else just read and a lot of people can't do it and the same way that a lot of people can't run 5k or 10k it's not because they're bad people or there's anything wrong with them they just have never done it before and you need to keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone would you would you agree with that yeah like you said like the reading part right so I was I mean I did not like I did not come out of the blue like I did not become an expert in reading or listening just overnight so I was like reading novels since I wasn't my 10th standard and then it has become a habit for me so I keep reading books and then I like note down the words and then learn new words through it so do and also listening but like I used to watch a lot of movies so this has helped me like without subtitles so that's that helps a lot so that you like try to listen and then there you understand the what do you say the accents of people and then also the way they speak so it's it really helps yeah it's a gradual process yeah yeah right people watching this video might think oh Vikas got a band nine and I'm currently at a band six so I'll just follow what Vikas told me and I'll get a band nine the stuff in this video is going to help you improve but a lot of the hard work Vikas did years ago by reading regularly in English listening to English regularly and most people watching this don't need a band nine they need a band seven or maybe a band eight for listening and you need to put the hard work in now and it doesn't need to be hard work if you make it a habit so get in the habit of you know even reading the news or a comic book or a newspaper article or a novel whatever you're interested in read that for five minutes ten minutes each day or listen to a podcast for five minutes ten minutes each day about something you love or you're interested in and because if you don't do that if you just listen to boring IELTS stuff then you're never going to do it regularly because you'll hate it and did you do you listen to podcasts and read stuff that you're interested in just for pleasure uh so I not listen to podcasts but I used to watch a lot of movies as I said like movies and tv series for my uh like what I was interested in so just just to watch them uh podcast yeah I was never interested in but reading part was always there like I always read a book so whenever I finish I just buy a new book and then keep reading it's a constant thing so that has helped me a lot with reading yeah excellent I've never met a band nine student who who didn't have a very healthy habit of consuming English every day by reading and listening and also producing English every day through writing and speaking even if it's just five minutes ten minutes um so that could be in your job interacting with your colleagues or it could be you know I've I've met band nine speaking students who I was like how did you get so good at speaking um I know one guy from Mexico and he has um like a like the most amazing accent like not a hint of of of Mexican you'd think he's from like Ireland or the UK and he does it through computer games he's been playing computer games online is his whole life and has been chatting to people in English and he's like oh really am I good at English like you're amazing and he because he loves computer games he doesn't see that as hard worker or anything like that so you find something you enjoy doing in English and do that but every day and and you you'll you'll and even if it's just watching movies you know that that's good too yeah I agree with the speaking part because like before I moved to the US I had very difficulty in like speaking because even though I knew English but I was not confident enough to speak in English so when I went there when I started speaking with people it helped me a lot so practice makes perfect but it's not just it's practicing the exam it's practicing English for your life so yeah you know and and I think that's what a lot of people don't get about the IELTS test is it's an English test so your English needs to be at the level you know there's no magic way of getting getting there but you it's also a specific test so if you combine a high level of English with test-taking strategies and all of these things that you're you're learning then that's where you get the band 9s and the band 8.5s that that someone like you can get you know so yeah congratulations and so we've talked a lot about listening and reading and do you want to give some advice to people about speaking or writing because you've got a really high score in speaking and writing as well if you were giving advice to you know yourself 12 months ago what advice would you give up for speaking and writing okay sure so for both both the parts the one thing that I would say is start practicing early on like what I did the mistake like I started practicing from May like I started like I decided to take the exam in May so from the month of May I was just practicing listening and reading every day like for one hour and then I never concentrated on listening sorry speaking or writing so at the end like in the month of July or something I got I got serious about doing the writing and the speaking part so that's when I joined your course as well so yeah that's one thing so start practicing early on and the second thing is know your weakness in both the parts because when I started writing I mean I never wrote anything like I'd never practiced it I just used to watch videos on YouTube and then see what all mistakes they make and how I can write something very similar but instead of that take a mock exam or take your correction like service and then get the feedback on get feedback on what your what you have written so this helps you to like find out the weakness and then you can improve on that one yeah that's the same thing for writing and speaking as well there's a huge difference between learning on YouTube and getting your individual weaknesses assessed by a real expert you know YouTube don't get me wrong there's some great YouTube channels right there that will familiarize yourself with familiarize you with what you need to do but you know it's like you're a you work in software development you can't really go on to YouTube and watch lots of YouTube videos on how to become a better coder and then just go and do it you know you you need someone looking at your code and telling you what's wrong with it and in the same way with your writing and your speaking there's a difference between reading and listening and writing and speaking is you're producing language when you are speaking and writing so you need someone to look at that production that product and say this is great keep doing this that's wrong change this and it's a simple process but not a lot of people follow it and again I think it's because a lot of people think that you just go on to YouTube and watch lots of videos and then you're going to get the score that you need which is not true I don't think sure I mean like you can learn a lot of strategies by watching such videos but unless you get the feedback you won't be able to improve on yourself yeah oh and it's a shortcut as well and we don't teach shortcuts or hacks or things like that but it is a massive shortcut in terms of time and if you get your weaknesses assessed because then you know what to focus on you know we we teach IELTS in the same way that a doctor would treat a patient or a mechanic would fix a car or a dentist would fix your teeth okay what's the problem that's what's the root cause of the problem and identify that and fix that not as that is the most efficient way it's not easy but it's very efficient yeah that's the one thing that I liked about your course like the main point that you say is clarity is king right so like whenever I was watching youtube videos they give a lot of strategies but they never tell us like the purpose for which I'm writing or the purpose for which I'm speaking during the exam so that is one thing that I learned from your course and then that made it like it made it really easy yeah for anyone watching I'll share that with with you from the course what is the purpose of writing what is the purpose of speaking it is not to show off how amazing your vocabulary is how many grammar and tenses and structures you know how many words you've memorized it is to clearly communicate with someone why do you send a text message why do you send an email why do you write a book it is to take the things in your head and clearly communicate them so if you you could forget about 95 percent of all the strategies and tips and tricks and just focus on that just focus on clear communication and it won't only help you in the IELTS it'll help you in your jobs as well like I run a company with you know nearly 40 people working for me now and once 40 people all start talking together if one of them has poor communication skills then it's really bad so you know what we preach that to our our team as well it'll just be super clear and simple with communication and that's much better than you know memorizing a bunch of nonsense and putting out a paper I mean that would be one of the like one advice that I would give to anyone like if you're learning for IELTS don't learn for the exam like don't prepare for the exam prepare for like learning English for your life like for the betterment of your life exactly same with like the the vocabulary improvement plan that we put together a lot of people look at that and they're like oh this is going to take a long time it's like but if you want to move to Canada or Australia or the UK you're going to need a wide-ranging vocabulary because you want to live there you know you don't you don't want to move there and just sit in your bedroom and be like oh I don't you know you want to go and you and your family can have a much richer life and being able to clearly communicate and understand people what's going on that really really helps and I think that's also a really good point for motivation because a lot of people are like I don't want to do this IELTS nonsense you know it's it's boring it's it's tough don't think about that think about how much better your life is going to be for you and your family and and how you know if you're materialistic how much more money you're going to earn well you know all those different things and that really helps you with motivation yeah I mean that was the main difference for me like I was preparing for my TOEFL like four years back and I was like I mean I went to the US to study so I was preparing for my TOEFL and then I just prepared for the exam so it was not that good like I did not do good at my speaking section or the writing section but in when preparing for IELTS I prepared you know to get better at my English so it helped me a lot yeah no it's it not only helps a motivation helps your score but just just makes everything much easier if you think one step ahead and improving your general English and your boss and your team leaders and your the people working under you and with you they will thank you for it as well because you'll be a much better colleague to work with if you can clearly communicate so thank you so much Vikas I really appreciate you helping everybody you gave some great advice and I wish you the best of luck in the future if you need any help in the future myself and my team are more than happy to to help you in any any way we can so stay in touch if you need anything because yeah thank you very much Chris thanks bye bye hey Chris here again hopefully you enjoyed that success story video that student was part of our IELTS VIP course and on that course we show students exactly where they're going wrong and exactly what to do to get the score that they need and we give them all the help and support that they need in order to get a seven, eight or even nine in their IELTS test now we only work with a really really small number of students because of the level of help and feedback and support that we give students we can only work with a very very small number of them but we also have more success stories than any other online or offline course in the world which has created a huge amount of demand for our course so we're the only course in the world I believe that has a very very very long waiting list if you want to join that waiting list all you have to do is just click here and you'll be able to add your name add your email address and then when one of our students becomes successful and leaves the course the next position can be for you hopefully see you in there bye bye