IELTS preparation strategies our students keep thanking us for.

I've been an IELTS examiner since 2017 and a Skyforma mentor since 2020. Together I've sat in front of more than three thousand IELTS speaking interviews and read several thousand more writing scripts. From that vantage point, the path from a band 6.5 to a band 7 has very little to do with vocabulary or grammar — it almost always rests on four habits that nobody talks about in popular IELTS content.

1. Stop trying to impress the examiner.

This is the most common request I make to a new student. Band 7 doesn't reward unusual vocabulary; it rewards precise vocabulary used appropriately. When a Malaysian student tries to use a word from a "high-band vocab list" they read online, they often use it slightly off — in a context where a simpler word would have been more accurate. The examiner sees the gap immediately, and the band drops.

The fix is uncomfortable: practise saying things plainly. "I think prices have risen too quickly" is a band 7 sentence. "An incremental hike has been observed" is not. The first sentence shows control. The second shows that you read a vocabulary list and want to deploy it.

2. Build a Task 2 template you can trust.

Writing Task 2 is where most of my Malaysian students lose their lift to band 7. The problem isn't the language. It's the structure. They run out of time, the conclusion is rushed, or the second body paragraph wanders.

A trustworthy Task 2 template is short: a sentence-shape for each paragraph, a recipe for what each sentence should do. Once you have it — once you've drilled it for three weeks with a mentor — you no longer think about structure on exam day. You think about ideas. That's the lift.

I don't share my own template publicly because it gets distorted within a week. We co-author one with each student during the IELTS block at Skyforma's preparation course.

3. Slow down on the speaking paper.

Counter-intuitive but consistent. Most candidates who score 6 or 6.5 on speaking are speaking too fast, not too slowly. They've been told their whole lives that fluency means quick speech. In IELTS terms, fluency means controlled speech without breakdown. A small pause to choose the right word, then a clean sentence, scores higher than a rushed sentence with a repair.

I ask students to record a one-minute speech at their normal speed, then again at 85% of that speed. They almost always sound more competent at 85%. The exam will give you credit for that.

4. Map-question strategy on Listening section 2.

Section 2 of the listening paper often has a map or plan question. Students lose three or four marks because they don't realise the speaker takes a fixed route through the map and that route is signalled by directional language: "if you follow the path north, then turn east...". Once you teach the directional vocabulary explicitly and practise three or four maps, the mark goes up reliably.

This is the only "trick" in my list. The other three are about long-term habit, not technique.

What I don't recommend.

• Buying a stack of practice books. One Cambridge practice book is more than enough. Four become a procrastination device.
• Memorising essay templates from YouTube. Examiners can spot them. They sometimes lower the band for what they call "manufactured" writing.
• Endless vocabulary lists. You'll never use 80% of them. Build a list of fifty phrases you actually use, instead, and own them.

The shape of a sixteen-week block at Skyforma.

If you join a sixteen-week IELTS block with us, the first four weeks are an audit (where exactly the marks are leaking from). The next eight are habit-building — the four above plus the writing template work. The final four are full mock papers under exam timing.

It is dull work, more like physiotherapy than a course. But it is also the work that moves students reliably. If you'd like to start with a free trial — including a two-minute speaking sample I'll grade on the IELTS band scale — book one here.