Lindsay McMahon
"The English Adventurer"
Jessica Beck
"Director of IELTS Training"

IELTS is hard.

Preparing for IELTS can be hard.

But don’t become an IELTS victim!

Today we’ll show you why it’s important not to become a victim and why you have no time to make excuses.

You’ll get six key phrases that you might be using if you’re a victim and find out how to change your mentality if you’re on the wrong track.

Here is the key thing to remember: You always have the choice about how you’re going to look at something.

Are you going to look at the negatives or are you going to look at the positives?

When you are looking at the negatives, it’s just laziness.

We say that because it’s easier to look at negatives than it is to just stop talking, put your head down, and do the work.

It’s also weakness.

You need to make the stronger choice and the stronger decision to focus and spend your time preparing for your exam.

Here are the thoughts and actions that you are having/doing if you are an IELTS victim:

  • You trust the wrong people when it comes to IELTS instead of getting the facts: We received a message where the person had been told by a friend that there would be headphones provided at the exam. It would only take a few minutes to do the research yourself to see if this is true. Instead, the student relied on bad information from his friend and it probably affected his score. This is laziness. If he had taken the time to verify that information he would have realized that that is a myth and he would have prepared accordingly.
  • You are blaming other people: If you don’t get the results you need, it’s your fault! This sounds harsh but it’s true. It’s your responsibility to make sure you get on the right track to your target score.
  • You waste time saying that you don’t have time: This is not a valid excuse if your dreams are strong enough. Sleep one hour less every day to prepare. You had the time to come up with a dream of moving abroad. So now make the time to get the dream. Anything worth having is not easy. Don’t waste time thinking about your lack of time. To save time, invest your money into a course that will tell you exactly what to do every day, like our course, the 3 Keys IELTS Success System.
  • After the exam you say, “Oh the examiner was so mean!”: Sometimes examiners are grumpy.  Maybe they had a difficult candidate just before you. They are people too. They are still grading you on the same things as the “nice” examiners. Look at this as a challenge. If you think the examiner is grumpy, smile even more. See if you can change their mood. Don’t look outside yourself. Don’t blame other people for your difficulties.
  • You say, “the acoustics of the room were bad”: Sometimes this can be true. Research the test center beforehand. If you find this out, book your test at a different test center. This may be the only time when you want to listen to any information about which test center is “easier.” The other thing you can do is make sure your practice under test conditions does not always happen in situations where the acoustics are perfect.  Acoustics are never perfect in real life when you are speaking English! Why should they be perfect in the exam center? You could practice your listening in a large gym where there would be a lot of echo. This would get you ready for a possible bad acoustic situation on test day.
  • You complain about timing: You say, “oh they didn’t start the test on time” or “Oh my speaking test was so late and I fell asleep beforehand.” The best thing that you can do with timing is show up at least 45 minutes early. Get there early enough and let them take care of it. As far as the Speaking test time, yes, it can be late. In our course we have an entire bonus module which gives you information about how to deal with that long gap before the Speaking test. You need to have a plan for this time.
  • You say that the Reading topic was unfamiliar to you: Yes, you may get a random topic on the Reading test that you have never heard of. That is ok. Its about preparation. Read as widely as you can before the test. But you can’t know everything and IELTS doesn’t expect you to. All you have to do is get the right Reading strategies and practice them enough before the exam.

Taking the IELTS is like running a marathon.

We have to reach deep within ourselves.

Why? Because the dream life that is on the other side is worth working for, isn’t it?

The most successful people in life do not let the difficulty of this sidetrack them.

It is not going to be easy and it shouldn’t be easy. Don’t be a victim!

Go get your target score.

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