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Hi Everyone,
I am Allen from Shenzhen China.
I am 40 years old and the reason I am trying IELTS is that I am just considering immigrate to Australia.

I took my first IELTS exam on September 7th, 2013 after two months study and I got blow scores:
Listening: 7.5
Reading: 8
writing:6
speaking: 6

it looks not bad, it is because I work for a Israel company and I write Emails in English everyday.

However, I need 7 for each of them! I have kept learn English everyday even if I am having a full-time job.

It is really hard to get 7 for each especially on writing and speaking for a Chinese.

allen_zhang wrote:Hi Everyone,
I am Allen from Shenzhen China.
I am 40 years old and the reason I am trying IELTS is that I am just considering immigrate to Australia.

I took my first IELTS exam on September 7th, 2013 after two months study and I got blow scores:
Listening: 7.5
Reading: 8
writing:6
speaking: 6

it looks not bad, it is because I work for a Israel company and I write Emails in English everyday.

However, I need 7 for each of them! I have kept learn English everyday even if I am having a full-time job.

It is really hard to get 7 for each especially on writing and speaking for a Chinese.

As you understand, "listening" and "reading" are quite strong - therefore you probably have reasonable English knowledge - to increase 1 grade is not very easy, but with guidance you can probably do it.

Hi Allen,

Nice to meet you. I've been to Shenzhen several times. It's a very exciting part of China.

Assuming this was your first attempt at the IELTS, those scores are quite impressive. Band 7 in all sections is a realistic goal for you.

A couple quick pieces of advice:

1. Do you have an IELTS speaking partner? If not, get one. Practicing sample IELTS questions daily is absolutely critical to your progression as a test taker. Record yourself regularly. Use listen and repeat exercises to hone your intonation.

2. If you haven't already, get your writing checked by someone for grammar. You mentioned you write lots of emails each and every day. Would it be possible to ask native English speaking colleagues to point out grammatical mistakes if you make them?

Good luck with your studies!
Ryan