Home»IELTS preparation»How to score band 8 in IELTS
In this tutorial, you will learn how to score a band 8 IELTS score by:
- knowing exactly what skills you need to achieve a band 8
- discovering successful ways to improve your English
- perfecting yourIELTS examtaking techniques to achieve a higher band score
- seeking expert advice to help you achieve your target band scores
Is band 8 a good score in IELTS?
We often hear candidates asking, ‘Is 8 agood IELTS score’?
Oh Yes. Very few IELTS candidates score an overall 8.0 in the IELTS test. It means that in bothIELTS listeningandIELTS readingyou score at least36 correct answers out of 40 and in speaking and writing your English is practically error-free.
How can I get 8 in IELTS?
We also hear candidates asking, ‘Is it easy to score 8 in IELTS?’ – No, not at all. But you can improve your chances of achieving a great score.
Improve your score by working on:
- Language skills:to significantly improve your spoken and written English as well as listening and reading comprehension. This means working onaccuracyandfluency, on your use of grammar in writing and speech, and the range and depth of your vocabulary.
- Exam skills: IELTS test strategies to deal with the most challenging parts of the exam in all 4 areas.
Steps to take
- You need to be very aware of your strengths and weaknesses.
- Get detailed feedback from an ex-IELTS examiner here.
- Get feedback and a band score estimation from an online service here (it’s free).
- Know your current level by taking apractice IELTS test.
- Get feedback from experts.
- Follow their plan. Take a look at the feedback from our online course.
Let’s take the four skills tested in the exam to see how that plan might work.
Listening in the context of the IELTS exam is the part that most involves multitasking. You read the questions, then listen and write your answers. The questions in the IELTS Exam test your ability to grasp the general meaning, understand factual detail and speakers’ attitudes and opinions.
Think about your current IELTS scores. Let’s say that your current level gives you a 6.0 or 7.0 in listening. To reach that 8.0, first have a daily listening activity, such as the following:
- At least 15 or 20 minutes.
- Listen to things that interest you. Sources from radio to podcasts.
- Listen with purpose, for example, to get the general idea and write a short summary.
- Paraphrase what you hear. Start off with short 2 or 3 minutes segments. Write down or record your version of what you heard. Listen again to check.
- Note down new words and expressions you hear. Review them later by looking up their meanings and working on synonyms, antonyms, collocations, and pronunciation.
The student who works at listening purposefully and at the same time is working onvocabularyand grammar, gains so much more than those that just listen to answer test questions. We need to practice tests but don’t let that dominate your studies.
In the IELTS test itself,
- The harder questions are at the end of the test and any lapse of concentration means you could miss one or more questions. To get an 8.0 you cannot afford that.
- Many questions are based on synonyms. That’s why working onparaphrasingis so important. Take this simple example. It’s from the 3rd listening activity, the one where 2 or more people are talking about some topic related to studies. In this case, 2 students are discussing a presentation they are preparing with their tutor. The set of questions 21 to 25 is multiple choice. Question 21 asks:
Carla and Rob were surprised to learn that coastal cities
- A contain nearly half the world’s population
- B include most of the world’s largest cities
- C are growing twice as fast as other cities
You hear:
….Yeah. And cities are growing so quickly – I mean, we know that more than half the world’s population lives in cities now
…..Yeah, though that’s all cities, not just the ones on the coast. But most of the biggest cities are actually built by the sea. I’d not realized that before.
…..Nor me. …..
Notice how it’s basically a matter of synonyms:most of the biggest cities are …I’d not realized that before
…..surprised to learn ….the world’s largest cities
(taken from Cambridge IELTS academic 14, test 1)
IELTS Reading
Any advice about the importance of reading as much and as widely as possible is nothing new. All IELTS students will be doing the same, to try to improve their IELTS scores and do better in theIELTS reading test. The morenew vocabularyyou can learn, the more you improve your chances of a better overall band score.
Identify the types of IELTS reading questions you find most difficult. The test is more demanding as you go from the first through to the third reading passage.
Questions that many find difficult are theYes/No/Not Giventype, especially when it’s a“not given”. The instruction is clear ….if there’s no mention of something, it’s “not given.” Take this example, again from Cambridge IELTS academic 14 test 1.
Q 35. Staff should be allowed to choose when they take breaks during the working day
The text states that working conditions would improve if“certain actions were adopted……allowing adequate breaks during the working day..”
This is a fairly complex language. The use of the passive construction both in the text and the question help us to see that it’s “management” that will adopt actions to allow staff adequate breaks, not the staff themselves.
IELTS Writing
This is the part of the test where we need the most help. Candidates who ask if it is easy to get 8 in IELTS overall are often most concerned about the writing test.
BothIELTS writing taskshave very clearly defined rules. You need to:
- Know exactly what each task involves and be aware of the IELTS score requirements
- Plan your writing from sentence level up
- Get feedback on what IELTS band scores you are currently capable of
It’s a step-by-step process where you need to be very aware of grammatical accuracy, your use of words and phrases as links (for example, linking words for IELTS writing task 1 might includein contrast to, while,and linking words for task 2 may be words and phrases such asthat being said,although, because) and your choice of appropriate vocabulary (your extensive reading and listening will help here). All these elements will impact yourIELTS writingscore.
While it’s important that the candidate can understand fairly complex language, what often distinguishes the 8.0 band score candidate from the 6.0.-7.0 one is the way in which the structure of the essay is closely connected to the candidate’s interpretation or point of view. Intask 1 academicfor example, many essays are just descriptions of the information shown but do not include an “overview”, a comment on what the data presented really signifies without of course, mentioning information not provided in the graph, table or plan. Always include, probably at the end, a sentence which begins with something like:The graphs clearly show that between 2000 and 2010, internet use in the European Union ….”
Accuracy
When we write something any errors will be clearly seen. Know where your mistakes or weaknesses are and work on them with help as part of the step-by-step essay writing guide.
And, always remember to have time to spare at the end of the test to read through your essays for any errors. These happen in exams. Mistakes we would not usually make. Errors when the subject and verb don’t match (Nobody like exams), word order, prepositions, and verb tenses.
IELTS Speaking
As with all the skills, the aim is to significantly improve speaking, not just speaking for theIELTS exam.
The best IELTS Speaking test candidates make hardly any noticeable errors, with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies and have a wide-ranging vocabulary showing a good command of the language. You’re being tested on your accuracy and fluency.
Accuracy
- Cut out simple errors you may be making with expert help. You may be saying something you think is fine until your error has been pointed out. Fewer errors mean a better band score.
- Work on the more complex structures in the language. This will be especially useful in Part 3 of the test where you have to use more speculative language.
- One example would be the use of conditionals. Using them correctly and appropriately can impress the examiner. Answering the question:Should all students pay for their university education?With:
No, I don’t think so. It’s not fair because many students don’t have the money.
will get you a 6.0 or maybe a 7.0 band score, but for the higher IELTS bands:
Definitely not. If they all had to pay, then many families would not be able to send their kids to university. Friends of mine wouldn’t have gone if they had had to pay for their studies…
will give you an 8.0 band score.
Fluency
Try to learn a set of phrases which you can use for different purposes during the three parts of the ielts speaking test. Using these phrases will make you sound much morefluentand will push your score up:
- Express an opinion:Well, in my opinion,/As far as I can see …/If you ask me, I would …/I’m convinced that
- Talk in general terms:Generally speaking/ On the whole/ To a large extent
- Give examples:A case in point is…/Take for instance/If you look at xxx, for example
- Tell a story:I remember one time ../I’ll never forget the time I …./Listen to what happened to me once
- Rephrase:Well what I’m trying to say is ../ What I mean is ../ Well, in other words, what I’m saying is …
- Go back to the topic:Right, to get back to what I was saying/Now, where was I …?
- Structure or signpost:To begin with/ I’d like to start off …
Also, we all make mistakes. But you can correct them.
- Correct an error: Realizing you made a mistake and correcting yourself is very positive. Do not be afraid to do it either by simple correction or with a very brief apology (Sorry …). A simple example could be:I didn’t enjoy mathematics classes at schools. Maybe if we would have had better …sorry ..if we had had better teachers, I would have ….
Practice
- There are manyspeaking part 1andspeaking part 2topics to go through for practice. Do as many as you can. Remember how important it is to read the instructions to part 2 topics very carefully.
- With each, prepare useful vocabulary to use, including word combinations to achieve higher band scores.
Take a look at some of my recent tutorials to help you prepare for your IELTS exam and improve yourIELTS band score:
- IELTS Writing
- IELTS Speaking
- IELTS Reading
- IELTS Listening
Audio tutorial
You can download or listen to the audio version here:
|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |
