LIVING MY OWN DREAM (pt. 2) : IELTS preparation

“Why learning IELTS is so stressful even though I have learned English since I was a kid?”. That was my daily thought during the practice and indeed yes it is sooo difficult. But trust me, the stressful feelings we have right now caused by the difficulty when we study are much more enjoyable than the stressful feelings we encounter in the future when we waste the opportunity to study.

relatable yah shayyyy ;((

 

Now I'll tell you my own recipe to tackle my IELTS target band in 2 trials. First things first, maybe in general, the formula is balancing the spiritual and physical connection. Please remember “ora et labora”, pray and work.

But I would say that I am the one with the exception who have a 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲 by being accepted in the Bridging Course program as a fresh graduate (you can read more on the previous post). Other friends might not as lucky as me because they have to pay a very expensive price for the IELTS courses and tests which only be valid for 2 years with their own money (which I think I also can't afford it freely if I were them), or they have to prioritize their kids/jobs first before focusing on this English learning.

Regardless, I believe that there are some of my tips and tricks can be applied in your trial too, even a little. Oh and please remember that I study to prepare for a CBT / computer-based test.

So here are my notes :

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴

1. Write all your answers in CAPITAL LETTERS.
2. Write down every new vocab you hear everywhere in a book special for the IELTS course and search for the meaning as well as how to use them in a sentence.
3. TIME MANAGEMENT : identify keywords, baca perintahnya NO MORE THAN BERAPA WORDS/NUMBER, ramal perkiraan jawabannya (ex: adj/noun/number/code/name/place/plural/singular) ; selesaikan sebelum 1 minute terakhir karena countdown detiknya ngga terlihat di COMPUTER BASED.
4. Perhatikan urutan soal, computer based multiple choice audionya bisa berurutan HORIZONTAL bukan cuma VERTIKAL.
5. Misalkan perintahnya "no more than 2 words" jadi jawaban-jawaban dari pertanyaannya bisa 1 word or 2 words. Tapi kalau untuk pertanyaan yang jawabannya harus 2 words, for example "teleportation exhibition" kalau cuma dijawab "exhibition" nya aja maka dianggap salah (harus exactly ngikut kunci jawaban). Memungkinkan dianggap betul kalau misal di kunci jawabannya ada dikasih alternatif pilihan, for example: “(teleportation) exhibition” gitu, kayak di latihan soal-soal IELTS Cambridge. Intinya TERGANTUNG KUNJAW BUND! :D
6. Untuk part 1 kalo perkiraan jawabannya seputar spelling nama orang, TULIS DULU AJA SE-KEDENGERAN-NYA APA sekalian PRONUNCIATION (for ex: kedengerannya “eijworth” dan kalo ada diejain tulis dulu aja misal “i-di-ji-i-ouw-ar-ti-eij”) baru nanti kalo ada waktu CEK LAGI SAMBIL ANALISA TEBAK-TEBAKAN WKEEKKEKEKE.
7. Untuk tipe soal 'multiple choices' : ngga usah cek ulang part sebelomnya, baca baik-baik soalnya, highlight keywords dalam soal dan pilihan jawaban yang ada, jawaban biasanya berupa SYNONYM / PARAPHRASE.
8. Untuk tipe soal 'completion fill in the blank' : diliat bentuk soalnya apakah formulir / notes / table / diagram / kalimat / summary dan juga rulesnya “no more than berapa word/number”. Kalau dalam bentuk formulir/table : boleh kalo cuma diisi singkat, for ex: “hospital”. Kalau dalam bentuk kalimat/summary : harus grammatically correct, for ex: “at the hospital” / “the hospital”.
9. Write a note untuk tiap soal, jadi bisa ngebantu untuk cek ulang kalau ada sisa waktu (for ex: “university bookshop” dinotes dulu aja “uni bksp” dan nanti harus ditulis correctly di answer sheet) / untuk bagian spelling nama yang nulis sekedengerannya.
10. Waspada common trap : the true answer biasanya dalam bentuk PARAPHRASE / SYNONYM, kalau udah denger kata yang mirip-mirip bisa dipastikan itu jebakan, KEEP LISTENING & UNDERSTANDING THE WHOLE CONVO.
11. Write the exact word that you hear, NOT THE FORMULATED ONES / SYNONYMS, karena akan dianggap salah.
12. LISTENING MULTIPLE CHOICE : Kalau ada expressions “he was SURPRISED by…” / “he AGREED that …” / “he finds INTERESTING that …” -> mau menjabarkan INTI JAWABAN. Kalau ada expressions “however / but” -> choices yang sebelumnya udah dimention JANGAN DIPILIH, IT'S A TRAP.

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴

1. Write all your answers in CAPITAL LETTERS.
2. Write down every new vocab you read everywhere in a book special for the IELTS course and search for the meaning as well as how to use them in a sentence.
3. Untuk COMPUTER-BASED : copas dari passage untuk avoid misspelling.
4. Approach reading in a more active way! Try to identify the main idea of each paragraph to maintain the focus. Keep asking what this paragraph talks about.
5. Untuk PAPER-BASED : tipe soal Yes/No/Not Given harus ditulis lengkap jangan cuma Y/N/NG, hati-hati jangan ketuker dengan True/False/Not Given.
6. TIME MANAGEMENT : passage 3 paling susah, sisain waktu lebih dari 20 mins kalo bisa. Selesaikan passage 1 secepat mungkin, kalau passage 1 or 2 ada soal yang susah untuk kejawab isi asal dulu aja tapi ditandain dan move on ke soal berikutnya, nanti kalau ada sisa waktu setelah semua udah kejawab baru cek ulang soal-soal yang ditandain yang belum yakin. Selesaikan sebelum 1 minute terakhir karena countdown detiknya ngga terlihat di COMPUTER BASED.
7. BACA SOAL DULU JANGAN PASSAGE LANGSUNG, identify keywords di soal (garis bawahi/highlight), cari synonyms / the similar meaning phrases di passage (scanning passage sambil kerjain soal untuk saving time, keywords di passage digaris bawahi/highlight untuk bantu nemuinnya).
8. Untuk tipe soal T/F/NG (factual info) & Y/N/NG (writer’s opinion) : pahami kalau maksud dari False/No = OPPOSITE bukan mismatch, jadi harus caritau di passage apakah ada bagian yang contrary atau ngga (for ex: COMPARISON seperti more-less, LAWAN KATA seperti before-after, all/some/majority), kalau ngga ada yang contrary di passage kemungkinan besar NOT GIVEN, jangan terlalu lama nyari NOT GIVEN supaya soal lain masih keburu dibaca.
9. Tipe soal MATCHING HEADING & T/F/NG & Y/N/NG : penting untuk PAHAM THE WHOLE SENTENCE / WHOLE PARAGRAF jangan cuma KEYWORDS aja karena sangat mungkin bisa terkecoh dari satu/dua kata yang dianggap “bukan keywords”.
10. Tipe soal MATCHING HEADING : DIKERJAIN DULUAN daripada tipe soal lainnya, untuk memudahkan memahami whole passage secara efisien dalam manage waktu.
11. Tipe soal MATCHING INFO DENGAN PARAGRAF TERTENTU : kalau muncul di awal-awal dalam 1 passage lebih baik KERJAIN TERAKHIRAN AJA baru nanti balik lagi, tujuannya supaya lebih mudah memahami whole passage saat
12. Kerjain tipe soal lainnya dan jadinya lebih familiar dengan lokasi keywords di soal.
13. Pahami bener-bener WHOLE MEANING dari statement di pertanyaan karena reading section bukan MATCHING KEYWORDS.

𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴

• TASK 1

1. Hapalin template intro yang udah terparafrase, for ex: “The provided ... gives information on ... All in all, ... ”
2. Buat kalimat sesimple mungkin untuk memudahkan examiner baca & memahami tulisan kita (pake linking words seperti “overall / however / by contrast”, pisahkan jadi beberapa paragraf, pake statistics words seperti “a quarter / 75% / higher than”).
3. Kalau ada 2 atau lebih graph/chart : hubungkan dengan frasa “in line with …” / “it reflected on …”.
4. Kalau ada 1 chart tapi complex (ada beberapa variabel sekaligus ex: gender, years, countries) : bikin kalimat yang mention 2 variabel sekaligus for ex: “both genders are increased in a period of time”.
5. Penulisan “million / thousand / hundred” kalau udah ada angka jangan pake “s” for ex: “2 million”, tapi kalau belum ada angka harus pake “s” for ex: “the units are accounted in thousands”.
6. Penulisan currency harus pake “s” for ex: “dollars, rupiahs, pounds”.
7. Kalau satuan datanya dalam thousands (ribuan) tapi datanya campur ada yang jutaan juga (misal: 536,000 ; 5,674,000 ; 6,901,000) bisa pake PEMBULATAN dan dicampur ada yang “million” ada yang “thousand”, jadi ditulis : 536 thousand ; 5,6 million ; almost 7 million.
8. Task 1 kalau udah ada overview (overall) gausah pakai conclusion.
9. Kalau ada “by 2005” berarti tensesnya past perfect HAD + V3, kalau ada “in 1995” berarti tensesnya past continuous HAD + V-ING.
10. Kalau ada persentase tulis aja “3 percent” daripada “3%” karena lebih boros perhitungan wordingnya.
11. Deskripsikan trend dalam line/bar graph yang dinyatakan dalam tahun-tahun tertentu, harus PERHATIKAN GRAMMARNYA. Kalau tahunnya udah lampau pake past tense/past perfect, kalau ada yang membandingkan dengan tahun saat ini pake present tense, kalau ada yang planned/perkiraan pake future tense.
    

• TASK 2

1. Hapalin template intro & closing yang udah terparafrase, for ex: “Nowadays, there have been a lot of discussions about ..” / “There is an argumentative debate on ..” / “To sum up, I would reiterate my ... that …”
2. Don’t make a complex sentence, potong-potong pake koma/titik supaya lebih mudah dipahami oleh pembaca.
3. Tiap paragraf harus punya main idea. Tiap paragraf harus punya keterhubungan untuk menjadi poin penilaian cohesion (ada transisi : main subject paragraf kedua udah dimention / diforeshadow di akhir paragraf sebelumya).
4. TIME MANAGEMENT : identify keywords, analisis tipe soal, bikin outline + parafrase, bikin details sentences, check spelling + grammar.
5. Pake collocation yang tepat (misal “put on / wear the uniform” bukan “use uniform”).
6. Pake preposition yang tepat (in, to, into, of, about, on).

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴

1. Saat greeting awal ngga usah address examiner pakai Mam/Miss/Mister tapi LANGSUNG NAMANYA AJA, for ex: “good afternoon, Maria”.
2. Saat introduce ourselves jangan cuma “my name is Felina Lucu Sekali” tapi better disambung aja “my name’s Felina Lucu Sekali” supaya terlihat lebih casual dan flexing high-level pronunciation.
3. Untuk part 1 & 3 : jawab singkat jangan too much info, harus SHORT & CONCISE, for ex: “you can call me Felina” / “I have settled down in Wakanda city for about 50 years. It’s a small city in the West Java province, Indonesia”.
4. Untuk part 2 : FOKUS CERITAIN MAIN TOPIC, GAUSAH TERLALU TERPAKU SAMA BULLET POINTS karena bisa mempengaruhi kelancaran/membatasi cara kita bercerita dengan harus mengingat cari jawaban yang sesuai bullets, padahal itu cuma guidance jadi ngga harus kejawab semua, bahkan bisa tambahin bullet points sendiri, KEEP TALKING sampe examiner nyetop sendiri.
5. Untuk part 3, kalo ada pertanyaan yang general seperti “do people in your country …?” : breakdown PEOPLE nya pilih jadi satu kategori supaya lebih mudah mendeskripsikan karena PEOPLE ada beberapa macam -> adults, parents, women, older people, children.
6. Untuk part 3 kalo ada pertanyaan tentang perbandingan peristiwa masa lalu dan sekarang rumusnya : jawab dulu kondisi masa lampau + “THINGS HAVE BEEN CHANGING RECENT YEARS” + kondisi sekarang.
7. Kalau ada pertanyaan yang kurang dimengerti bisa minta repeat / minta penjelasan maksud dari pertanyaan / strange vocabnya : “I’m sorry could you repeat it slowly please?” / “what does … means?”
8. Kalau sialnya ngga dapet ide atas pertanyaannya, tetep berusaha jawab misal dengan giving an example sejauh yang kita tau.
9. Jangan terlalu formal/kaku karena keliatan unnatural, santai aja anggap ngobrol dengan teman, tapi tetep sopan, NO SLANG WORDS, pake IDIOMS untuk terlihat lebih natural dan seperti native speaker.
10. NGARANG NGGA PAPA, GAHARUS JUJUR karena yang dinilai kelancarannya bro sist.
11. Jangan terlalu banyak ngulang kalimat/vocab yang sama, tunjukin lexical resources pake synonyms advanced words / paraphrase pertanyaannya.
12. Perhatikan grammatical accuracy terutama untuk complex sentences.
13. Perhatikan tenses di soal (kalau diminta menceritakan masa lalu berarti past tenses, kalau perkiraan/prediksi berarti future tenses).
14. Show high score pronunciation : suara harus TEGAS + KENCENG + JELAS , mainkan INTONASI (word stress) yang natural tapi kalau belum expert gausa prioritasin dulu gapapa.
15. Kalo mau nyebutin CONTOH : JANGAN KEBANYAKAN (no more than 3) cukup 1 aja terus elaborate deeper.
16. Show high score fluency : AVOID COMPLEX IDEAS/VOCAB/GRAMMAR supaya ngga kelamaan mikir.
17. Liat video Youtube real test IELTS speaking orang yang dapet band 8.0 - 9.0 terus coba jawabin sendiri, record voice pakai HP terus compare jawaban kita dengan cara mereka jawab.
    
18. Untuk mengurangi hmm-uhm (jeda) bisa pakai fillers di part III : gunakan frase : “well ..” / “I guess ..” / “let me see” / “that's an interesting question” / “it’s quite hard for me to explain/to decide, but I think that....” / “generally speaking ..” / “it’s a hard question for me because I never think about it before, but in my opinion ..”
19. Pakai rumus I-P-D-O-F :

Intro : “I’d like to tell you about ..” / “I’m going to talk about ..”
Past : ceritain dari pengalaman pribadi “I’d used to ..” / “Based on my experience on that situation, ..”
Desc : “By this I mean ..” / “For instance, ..” / “To be more precise, ..” / “I’m talking specifically about ..”
Opinion : “In my perspective” / “I strongly believe that” / “As far as I’m concerned”
Future : “With regards to the future, I will ..”

 

Besides all of materials strategies above, there is a spiritual preparation you have to pay attention too: pray hard and ask for God the guidance and simplicity in finishing the test well. You also can do charity and other kindness activities as a healing method to reduce your stress after studying the materials in a more humane way. I believe by helping others we also will get help because generosity is like a domino, continuously collide each others.

After all of these mundane preparation like a cocoon, Jesus enabled me to experience my own breakthrough like a butterfly, with the 6.0 band (L 6.0 - R 6.5 - W 6.5 - S 5.5) in my first test and the 7.0 band (L 8.0 - R 7.0 - W 6.5 - S 6.5) in the second, with a total duration of 5 months intensive study. Yet I repeat all of them is only because of Jesus' will on me, I couldn't earn that score without His mercy. Praise the Lord! I think I may not get the same score as well (it can be lower or higher) if I try the test again at this moment since learning a language is accumulative and dynamic. But I am really thankful I have passed my own standard band (6.5) to apply to my targeted universities and scholarships.

I always remember these encouraging messages from my IELTS mentors :

• Nikmati aja waktu berproses dalam persiapan IELTS atau persiapan S2 yang lain. Embrace the difficulties, you will be a master on what you do with CONSISTENCY. Semua butuh proses ngga ada yang instant, practice makes p̶e̶r̶f̶e̶c̶t progress.
• Ngga usah terlalu ambisius harus dapet score tertinggi (band 9.0) tapi cukup dapet minimum requirement yang ditargetkan, karena nanti juga akan berkembang dengan sendirinya kalau udah keterima kuliah terutama di luar negeri.

Additionally, I'll put here the resources of my study :

1. Listening : BBC, English podcast in Spotify, ted.com, western movies, documentary movies/series, TEDtalk/TEDed in Youtube (accustom your ears to listen English convo without subtitles).
2. Reading : international journals/newspapers/magazines, BBC, NatGeo, BigThink, The Guardian, AEON mag.
3. Writing : ieltsliz.com, ielts-simon.com, biasakan DAILY JOURNALING IN ENGLISH in your phone, compare dengan writing band 9.0 punya orang lain.
4. Speaking : recent Makkar pdf (search for it on Telegram), biasakan THINK IN ENGLISH, record your voices dan evaluasi progressnya.
5. Paket all sections : Cambridge 1-17, ieltstrainingonline.com, ieltscuecard.trendinggyan.com, ieltsmaterial (Telegram), Youtube (IELTS crack with Rob, IELTS Fast Track Asiya).
6. Additional info : cari referensi soal IELTS official terupdate di comment section ieltsliz.com / ielts-simon.com, pake paperrater.com / ieltscdt.com untuk bantu evaluasi essay, pake Grammarly kalau mau cek writing aja tapi kalau lagi mockup dimatikan dulu biar ngga nyontek.

OK that's all for the preparation strategies. I will continue with my execution experience on the D-day test in the next post. See ya!

xx