Thanh Uyen,31 years old, says she got 8.5 and 9.0 IELTS because she loves reading and taking notes, not because she studied a lot. Uyen now teaches English in Da Lat. She got 9.0 IELTS after retaking the Reading test on August 29. In 2022, only about 1% of people in Vietnam got 8.5 or higher, and only about 10 people got 9.0.
Before, on August 20, Uyen got 8.5 overall. She got 9 in Listening and Speaking, 8.5 in Reading, and 8 in Writing. She was surprised because some scores were not as high as she expected. "I asked them to check my Writing test again, but the score didn't change. So I decided to take the Reading test again because I felt confident about it," Uyen said.
She thinks the Reading test often has "traps" in True/False/Not Given questions and in questions where you have to choose the right answer. These can make people lose points easily. Many test-takers only read one sentence and decide it's True, but they don't know that the next sentence might be False or have new information (Not Given). On the test day, Uyen was not careful enough and lost points on 1-2 questions.
Uyen finished studying English at Da Lat University in 2015. After working in Ho Chi Minh City for a while, she went back home to teach at an English center. Then she started teaching small groups online. The first time she took IELTS last year to check her ability and see how hard the test was, she got 8.5.
The 31-year-old woman thinks she got high scores mostly because she loves reading. Uyen doesn't study English just for tests, but to be able to read in English. So, she has kept the habit of reading for many years. She doesn't only read academic things, but also newspaper headlines, posts on Quora or Reddit, and comics. Uyen especially likes literature, non-fiction books, or books about philosophy and politics. When she likes a book, she looks for readers' reviews about it. After reading, Uyen writes down interesting details, her thoughts, or new words and phrases.
"For over 10 years, my treasure has been books full of underlines, notebooks, notes, or saved pages online to learn both English and Vietnamese," Uyen says.
Uyen thinks reading well helps her learn vocabulary, write well, and use English naturally. She has also translated books, like "Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World" by Miles J Unger, about the life of the famous Spanish painter.
Uyen also often listens to podcasts about history, culture, media, and social issues on Big Think. She watches many YouTube videos on different topics. She creates a speaking environment by listening and then thinking of topics to talk about by herself. So, when taking IELTS, Uyen didn't practice much. She just learned about the test structure and scoring criteria.
"Because I made IELTS normal for me, I felt relaxed and took the test easily," Uyen said.
For people who want to take the test, she suggests finding out their current level and setting realistic goals. "There's no fixed time for everyone, like three months or six months to improve scores. It depends on many things, like your commitment, effort, and the right way of learning," Uyen says.
Also, learners shouldn't depend on practice materials or predicted tests online. They should use practice tests to learn vocabulary and sentence structures. When doing each type of question, test-takers should see which ones they often get wrong to improve.
For her future plans, Uyen says she will work on her Writing skill to try to get 8.5 or 9. "I'm taking the test again to have experiences to share with my students," she said.
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