If you are looking for IELTS Practice Test Books to help you in preparing for the IELTS, below are the best books for IELTS preparation.
How to use practice IELTS tests to improve your test score
Taking IELTS practice tests is an important part of the Preparation for the IELTS Test. However, don’t just do one practice test after the other. You need to use each practice test to help you improve your test-taking skills.
When you decide to do a practice test, you need to decide if you are going to do a ‘timed’ or ‘untimed practice.’
- In a ‘timed’ practice test, you limit the amount of time you have to answer questions.
- For an ‘untimed’ practice test, you don’t limit the amount of time you have to answer questions. You can take as much time as you need.
Untimed practice tests
Untimed practice tests are useful if you are beginning to learn about the IELTS and need to develop techniques for answering questions. Not setting time limits for answering questions gives your brain time to analyze questions, search for answers, and double-check your choices. Doing this is very useful because it gives you time to figure out what you are or are not doing correctly.
Timed practice tests
Timed practice tests are useful if test day is coming soon. These kinds of practice tests are also good if you have been improving your test strategies and want to experience using them with the added stress of limited time. Doing this forces you to answer questions more quickly (which you will need to do on test day!). As a result, it can improve your confidence with test strategies and techniques.
Tip: When you first start doing timed practice tests, give yourself a little more time than the actual test. Instead of setting a 60-minute time limit for a Reading Section (the normal time you are given), set a 70-minute time limit. As you gain more confidence with your testing skills, decrease the time to 60-minutes.
Evaluate every wrong answer you make
The most important thing you should at the end of every IELTS practice test you do is. Try to determine what clues or information you missed that made you choose the wrong answer.
Evaluating your mistakes will help you build a ‘database’ of common mistakes you have made and give you a chance of avoiding them in later practice tests.
For example, for Fill-in-the-blank (Cloze) questions you might discover you are forgetting to double-check whether an answer needs to be plural or singular.
So before you do another practice test, review the mistakes you made in previous practice tests. Remind yourself of the kinds of clues you missed or where you didn’t follow good test-taking techniques.
The best IELTS practice test books
You want to be very careful about using practice Listening and Reading tests that are not published by Cambridge. This is because Cambridge is the company which makes the official IELTS tests. Other IELTS Practice Test books that teach you writing and speaking skills can often be helpful. This is because they are often written by former IELTS Examiners.
However, many IELTS practice test books which have Listening and Reading practice tests are either too easy or too difficult. This is because most of those books are written by Examiners who are often only experts on Writing and Speaking questions. Usually, they are experts in IELTS Listening and Reading questions.
The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS
The best and first book I would recommend for anyone starting their IELTS study would be The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS. However, you need to have an intermediate-level of English ability to understand the directions in the book.
Positive: Many activities and practice tests
The first half of the book has sections that help you understand all four parts of the IELTS test. There are many activities to help you build your listening, reading, writing, and speaking ability here.
The second half of the book includes 8 complete Academic IELTS tests, as well as Reading and Writing questions for 2 General IELTS tests. This is more than any other official book you can buy.
Positive: Speaking videos for activities
One thing that is great about this book is that in the chapters helping you understand the IELTS Speaking test there are videos of students giving responses to questions. These videos are part of some of the activities, so they can help you with giving better interview responses on test day.
Negative: The practice tests are not official
An important thing to know is that the tests in this book were not official tests. Therefore, some of the questions are formatted just a little differently than in an official test. Also, the difficulty level for some of the Listening and Reading tests seems to be a little bit lower than an official test.
Positive & Negative: The writing samples
In the back of the book, you will find writing samples for every practice test in the book. However, an evaluation of those writing samples is not provided. Thus, you do not know what is good or bad about any of those writing samples.
In fact, these writing samples have perfect grammar and vocabulary. However, their organization and ideas are not always the best. So, when you look at these writing samples, notice how they use grammatical structures and what vocabulary they use, and remember that there probably better ways of organizing those essays or better ideas which could be given in the essay.
Cambridge IELTS Series (IELTS 1 through IELTS 15)
Each book in the Cambridge IELTS series includes 4 tests in each book. The tests in these books used to be official tests but are no longer being used as official tests. These are great books because they are just as difficult as the current IELTS tests.
Use newer books first
If you use these books, start with “IELTS 15 Academic” or “IELTS 15 General“. This is because the tests in IELTS 15 are from more recent tests than other books in this series. The older books (IELTS 1, IELTS 2, IELTS 3, IELTS 4, IELTS 5) about 15 to 20 years old, so they may not be as difficult as more recent tests. So, work through these books backwards, starting with IELTS 15, then IELTS 14, etc.
Newer books are divided in Academic & General tests
The latest books in this series (IELTS 15, IELTS 14, IELTS 13, IELTS 12, IELTS 11) are divided between Academic & General tests. So, you need to know whether you want to take the IELTS Academic or General test before you buy your books!
Negatives: Writing & Speaking samples
In each of these books there are a few sample writing responses for IELTS Task 1 & Task 2 Writing questions. However, only half of the samples in each book have been evaluated by an IELTS Examiner. The other, unevaluated sample responses often would not receive a high band score—most would only receive a band score between 4.0 to 6.0.
Unfortunately, while these books to provide questions for the IELTS Speaking test, they do not provide any sample speaking responses.
IELTS Trainer 1 & IELTS Trainer 2
Both of these books provide skill-building activities and 6 complete IELTS tests.
- IELTS Trainer 1 has 6 Academic IELTS tests.
- There are two different kinds of IELTS Trainer 2 books. One book has 6 Academic IELTS tests and the other book has 6 General IELTS tests.
Positive: Useful test strategies
The first section of these books provide some strategies and skill-building activities for answering questions found in all parts of the IELTS test (listening, reading, writing, and speaking). However, you need to have an intermediate-level of English ability to understand the directions in the book.
Negative: The practice tests are not official
An important thing to know is that the tests in this book were not official tests. Therefore, some of the questions are formatted just a little differently than in an official test. Also, the difficulty level for some of the tests seems to be a little bit higher than an official test.
Summary
So, use these IELTS practice test books to prepare for the IELTS test. The Official Cambridge Guide to the IELTS will teach you basic skills for every part of the IELTS. The IELTS Trainer books can provide you with more strategies and advice. Use the Cambridge IELTS series to practice your skills with official IELTS tests. The more you prepare for the IELTS Test, the more you will see your IELTS score improve!
More IELTS exam tips!
Want to know how to start IELTS preparation at home? Learn the best way to prepare IELTS Reading questions with the Portland English Language Academy. You can learn many IELTS tips for how to improve your IELTS score with PELA Online’s Academic IELTS Preparation course, with Modules to help you with listening, reading, writing, and speaking test questions.
Be sure to subscribe to PELA on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram!
Join PELA’s English classes online today!
