Official IELTS Practice Materials Volume 1 WORK
Cambridge English also offers official practice exams. I recommend the IELTS book The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, which includes six full-length Academic IELTS practice exams and two full-length General Training practice exams. This IELTS book also contains useful chapters with exercises and tips to help you prepare. If you plan to purchase only one book, this is most likely the one to choose out of all the IELTS preparation books. There is one flaw, though. While this is the best book for IELTS Academic practice, it may not be the very best book for IELTS General Training practice.
Official IELTS Practice Materials Volume 1
It is very important to take several full-length practice exams before your test day. Practicing with official IELTS material will benefit you the most. Official IELTS Practice Materials vol. 1 and Official IELTS Practice Materials vol. 2 are definitely worth your investment. Each volume includes both an Academic test and a GT 1, as well as model answers at various band score levels for the Writing tasks. Volume 2 includes a DVD with very useful videos of people taking the Speaking exam. Make sure to use all of the official materials provided by IELTS. You should spend time studying the free sample questions on the IELTS website in addition to these full-length exams.
IELTS 15 may be the very best IELTS practice book. (Or practice books.) All too often, IELTS prep resources fail to cover IELTS General Training and IELTS Academic equally well. This is not the case with IELTS 15, a pair of official IELTS prep books from Cambridge. Both the Academic and General Training versions of IELTS 15 are equally useful; each book presents four practice tests, along with a set of audio transcripts and an answer guide that includes model essays with scorer commentary.
With a very generous selection of full-length practice tests and training modules, The Road to IELTS is also a great official resource. While the Road to IELTS is not technically a book, this is its greatest strength. As an online official practice course form the makers of the exam, The Road to IELTS contains more material than could easily fit into a print resource.
While many standardized tests have one official website, the IELTS has numerous official sites. The main four sites feature quite a few free practice tests and question sets, and a variety of free or cheap webinars, video lessons, eBooks, and so on. Magoosh offers a guide for the four official IELTS websites and how to use them.
Cambridge English also offers official mock exams. I recommend the IELTS book The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, which includes six comprehensive Academic IELTS practice exams and two comprehensive General Training practice exams. This IELTS book also contains helpful chapters with exercises and tips to help you prepare. If you plan to buy just one book, this is probably the one to choose from all the IELTS preparation books. However, there is a flaw. Although this is the best book for academic IELTS practice, it may not be the best book for general IELTS training practice.
It is very important to take several comprehensive practice exams before your exam day. Practicing with official IELTS materials will benefit you the most. Official IELTS practice materials vol. 1 and Official IELTS Practice Materials vol. 2 are definitely worth your investment. Each volume includes an academic test and a GT 1, as well as sample responses at different band score levels for writing tasks. Volume 2 includes a DVD with very helpful videos of people taking the oral exam. Make sure to use all official documents provided by IELTS. You should spend some time studying the free sample questions on the IELTS website in addition to these comprehensive exams.
IELTS 15 is perhaps the best IELTS practice book. (Or practice books.) Too often, IELTS preparation resources don't cover IELTS General Training as well as IELTS Academic. This is not the case with IELTS 15, a pair of official IELTS preparation books from Cambridge. The Academic and General Training versions of IELTS 15 are equally useful; each book features four practice tests, along with a set of audio transcripts and an answer guide that includes model essays with marker commentary.
For even more comprehensive official IELTS practice tests, IELTS Trainer is a great resource. This book brings together six practical tests, but it does much more than that. The first two tests, in the "Training and Exam Practice" section of the book, include extensive notes and advice on how best to answer the questions. And the test questions themselves are carefully prepared during the first tests, to help you focus on different essential skills. Once you have this support and preparation, the remaining four tests in the books are authentic and comprehensive practice tests.
IELTS Vocabulary Up to Band 6 is another official book from Cambridge's impressive IELTS library. Unlike the others, however, Vocabulary for IELTS does not contain practice exams. What it offers are a lot of hands-on activities to help you improve your vocabulary skills for the exam. The words are very well selected, and all of them could probably show up on the real test. And the activities help you build vocabulary in a fun, interesting, and rigorous way. This book tends to focus on the IELTS reading, as this is the most vocabulary-intensive part of the exam. As a result, it is one of the best IELTS reading books.
Like its companion vocabulary book, IELTS Grammar for Bands 6.5 and above focuses on skill building rather than practice test questions. However, Grammar for IELTS also includes official IELTS passages, question sets and tasks, although it does not include a comprehensive test. Learn how to use and apply good grammar to every part of the exam!
With a very generous selection of comprehensive practice tests and training modules, The Road to IELTS is also an excellent official resource. Although the Road to IELTS is not technically a book, it is its greatest strength. As an official online practice course from the creators of the exam, The Road to IELTS contains more material than could easily fit in a printed resource.
While many standardized tests have an official website, IELTS has many official sites. All four major sites offer a number of free practice tests and question sets, as well as a variety of free or inexpensive webinars, video lessons, e-books, and more. Meridean Overseas Education Consultants offers a guide to the four official IELTS websites and how to use them.