In the last couple of decades, English language exams of various types (Cambridge, IELTS, etc.) have become increasingly popular for their importance in the academic field and for employment opportunities. This has also created a need for courses that prepare those interested in taking the exam. These courses include an overview of the exam, tips and tricks and of course lots of practice. Clearly, people can skip this step and go through an exam prep book by themselves and take their chances – it might even work, for some.

The vast majority of us need both the structure of a well-executed course as well as the adaptive and informed guidance of a trainer with expertise in the topic. The course organization and pacing is usually standard but the details of how each topic is addressed and how many details are included are usually adapted to suit the needs of the learner(s). This is why it is especially important to at least consider participating in an organized course, with enough time to spare before your exam – on average around 6 months in advance.

The timing includes the most important aspect of exam prep – practice. No matter how well you will know the ins and outs of the exam, how confident you are in your vocabulary and grammar, how many times you were reminded of the usual mistakes and how to avoid them, nothing will compare to having made those mistakes yourself. And then correcting them because you know where they could occur, correcting any accuracy mistakes or quickly dealing with pacing issues. The solution to having the speed and accuracy required to deal effectively with an exam is to have made all the mistakes in a safe environment where these can be associated to techniques to correct them easily.

The timing includes the most important aspect of exam prep – practice. No matter how well you will know the ins and outs of the exam, how confident you are in your vocabulary and grammar, how many times you were reminded of the usual mistakes and how to avoid them, nothing will compare to having made those mistakes yourself. And then correcting them because you know where they could occur, correcting any accuracy mistakes or quickly dealing with pacing issues. The solution to having the speed and accuracy required to deal effectively with an exam is to have made all the mistakes in a safe environment where these can be associated to techniques to correct them easily.

An example of the above adaptations, timing your “response… time” to the writing part of the IELTS could mean more than just how quickly you can get them done. You can tell, based on how long it takes you to get the first writing task done, how much time you will actually have to plan out the second. This matters as the scoring also takes into account how well structure the response is. So, by practicing the first writing task until you can get it done quickly and to standard, you are increasing the chances that the next one benefits from both your good practices and enough time to get it done effectively.

More such tips and tricks are readily available through thorough practice books and, preferably, though the guidance of someone with insight into the topic. The timeline for self-practice should be increased depending on how much actual time each person has to spare each day for practice, how adaptive the person is and by keeping a clear schedule of practice of all the sections that make up the exam. For exams that have speaking parts, such as the IELTS, the recommendation is both practice and reviews of materials that contain video examples of how other candidates have managed that part of the test – both for the purpose of self-evaluation and to check the pacing.

So, make good use of your time to prepare and trust that the effort will be well worth it!

Autor: Miruna Pință, Senior Language Trainer, A_BEST

Miruna Pinţă este absolventă a Facultăţii de Limbi şi Literaturi Străine, specializarea Limba şi Literatura Engleză – Limba şi Literatura Spaniolă, din cadrul Universităţii Ovidius, Constanţa.

Totodată, Miruna a absolvit un masterat specializat în Traducerea Textului Literar Contemporan, în cadrul Facultăţii de Limbi Străine, Universitatea Bucureşti.
Miruna este pasionată de predare şi crede că cea mai bună metodă de a te dezvolta în acest domeniu este învâţându-i pe ceilalţi. Miruna are o experienţă de predare de peste 8 ani, iar de-a lungul carierei sale a susţinut numeroase cursuri de limba engleză, în special pentru angajaţii companiilor multinaţionale din Bucureşti. Miruna este în permanenţă preocupată de progresul cursanţilor ei, pe care îl măsoară atât prin personalizarea materialelor didactice, cât şi prin feedback şi interacţiune constantă obţinute din partea participanţilor la cursuri.

Miruna se remarcă prin competenţe pedagogice excelente, pe parcursul şedinţelor de curs ea reuşind să menţină un echilibru între cele 4 competenţe lingvistice: ascultare, vorbire, citire şi scriere. Se adaptează uşor în diferite medii de lucru, datorită faptului că este o persoană energică, prietenoasă, cu o atitudine pozitivă. Miruna este o persoană flexibilă, creativă, iar versatilitatea didactică o ajută să stabilească o conexiune foarte bună cu toţi participanţii la cursuri.

În cadrul Centrului de Limbi Străine A_BEST, Miruna predă cursuri de limba engleză, limbaj general/ business/ mixt, reuşind să adapteze cu succes cunoştinţele transmise la mediul de lucru al cursanţilor.