Name: IELTS Speaking Reading Writing Listening Strategy
Uploaded: 2026-01-17T17:47:03.000Z
Duration: 27 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

There are thousands of videos and websites to help millions of IELTS candidates pass their exams each year and get those high band 7, 8, 9 scores.

These tips, strategies and tricks that you see online are not always helpful.

Adverbs of manner

Some of them might be true, but in fact they actually hurt your scores.

Others are blatantly false and given just to get clicks.

In this video, I will explain how to assess the value of the information that you're given and some of the most common misleading advice that you see online.

I graduated from the University of Victoria in Canada with a degree in psychology and and with distinction, meaning I was at the top of my class.

I have been teaching IELTS for nearly 20 years and I specialize in psychometrics, the measurement of human thought processes which falls directly in line with the IELTS exam or assessing language proficiency.

So should you believe all of the information the strategies that I give you for the IELTS exam?

Just because I'm an authority in the IELTS does not mean that I might always have the correct advice.

Humans generally source information from four factors or from four one, through empirical evidence or scientific method.

That because I have experienced it to be true, I tested it to be true.

If you find a strategy that works for you and you consistently get good scores, then use it.

But if you don't, it's time for a different strategy.

The next place of information is authority.

As I just mentioned, I'm a British Council agent and an IELTS test creator and trainer for nearly two decades.

That means I do have a lot of knowledge in relation to the test.

Just because I'm an authority doesn't mean I always have the right answer.

What you should do is test the advice that I give you.

Our third source of knowledge is majority opinion.

This means everybody says it's true, so it must be true.

Everybody says that skim reading is an effective strategy for the reading section, so it must be true.

Just because everybody says that the aliens are attacking Earth, does that actually mean they're attacking Earth or is it just mass hysteria?

Majority opinion is less reliable than the scientific method or the authority opinion, so be cautious.

Just because some videos tell you that there's a popular strategy which works for the ielts, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's true.

Finally, our fourth source of Knowledge is our intuition.

I feel that it's true, so it probably is.

I feel that this strategy might work for me, so I'm going to use it.

You should always be very cautious to base your strategies on your feelings.

If the strategy yields 30 and higher marks in your listening out of a total of 40, or on the reading you're getting consistently 30 out of 40 or more, then it works.

Again, remember scientific evidence, the empirical pursuit.

You experience it to be true, so it's true.

That's the most reliable authority opinion.

The IELTS expert said it, so it's probably true.

Everybody's saying it, but I'm not sure until I test it.

I better test it before I use it in the real exam.

Keep these in mind and always rely on logic.

In the description you will find a list of links which give you documentation for linguistics, English literature, essay writing, strategies that are the facts behind much of the IELTS exam and the way that examiners measure and assess your English proficiency.

On our website@aehelp.com for academic IELTS and G ieltshelp.com for general IELTS, we strive to implement the scientific method and give you strategies and tips that are based on empirical evidence.

We have had thousands of students use our strategies and consistently show that they are improving their English and getting higher scores.

To join our Premium package, simply click the red button on the website aehelp.com or galshelp.com let's continue with some of the most commonly found advice for the listening section that might be true, but

Underlining and circling keywords when getting ready to listen to the audio.

This may work for some candidates, however for many others this will be a distraction and can actually lead to a lower performance.

The reason being is that much of the audio, especially in part three and four, are paraphrased, so you will not hear the exact words that you see in the questions.

Rather, you will hear different forms of paraphrasing at times not even the synonyms, but instead a description.

So instead of looking at specific vocabulary, it is often better to look at the entire phrase and visualize the information.

Use your energy and time for comprehensive understanding of each question and the topic and to picture yourself within that topic.

Don't be distracted by circles and lines.

Another misconception in the listening and this is Also true for the reading is that answers have to follow some sort of pattern, meaning that in the multiple choice, if the answer for one question was A, then likely for the next question it could be B, C or D.

You could have an IELTS listening section where you have three or four multiple choice questions where each of the correct answers are A or B.

There is no set pattern to the answers, so keep an open mind and focus on comprehension.

A lot of videos and common practice for for every section of the ielts, including the listening, is the attempt to predict the information on the test.

Yes, you might hit one or two ideas if you're very lucky.

But chances are the topics in your next IELTS exam will surprise you, meaning that you will not be able to predict them.

So don't waste your time trying to find predictions for your upcoming exams.

In our courses on our websites, we always emphasize strategy while presenting you with a variety of topics on environment, technology, and

Yes, familiarize yourself with general topics that are common to people around the world, but

do not expect that you will know exactly which topic will come up on your next listening test.

Now let's talk a little bit about reading the most common Misconception and false advice for the reading section.

There's not enough time to read the passage and the questions, so you should use skim reading, look at keywords and and scan the passage to identify the information.

Any person who has a band level 6 in reading ability for the IELTS exam should be able to read the passage.

If you are not able to read the passage in 10 to 12 minutes while understanding at least 60 to 70% of the information, it is not yet time for you to sit the exam.

If you do, there's a very good chance that you will be guessing and wasting your money.

The correct strategy to get those higher band scores, especially 8 and 9, is to read the passage at least once.

Yes, you can skim and scan for answers, but only after you have read the passage.

There are 11 different types of questions questions that you might see in the reading section.

These questions are designed in such a way to negate skimming and scanning.

For instance, in true false not given questions, it's virtually impossible to figure out if the information is given or not given.

If you haven't read the entire passage, in order to find the correct list of headings, you have to read the whole paragraph.

While it's true that the topic sentence may contain the information for the correct list of headings.

This is definitely not the case for the Introduction and the conclusion.

Skimming and scanning again are only effective once you have read the entire passage.

Another common misunderstanding is that answers in the reading come in the order of the passage.

While this is true at times, it is not a guarantee.

This means that if you get a matching information question, which is which paragraph contains the following information, the very first question might be contained in the last paragraph.