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Hi friends,
I created freeieltsbooks.net.
This page is mine personally — it isn't part of that site, and it isn't affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to IELTS, the British Council, IDP, or Cambridge Assessment English.
I started at band 5.5.
The first thing that changed wasn't my English. I told myself you can do it — and on the days that didn't feel true, I told myself again. Motivation looks like the least practical thing on this list. It's the reason the rest of it lasted nineteen months instead of two weeks.
Then I stopped writing in general words. I'd write a bad thing where I meant an economic disaster. That vagueness was most of what was holding my score down — the ideas were there, and the language flattened them. I started a notebook of collocations, the words that live next to each other, and kept adding to it until the phrases came out without being fetched.
For speaking, I recorded my own voice and listened back. It's uncomfortable, and it's the fastest way to hear what an examiner hears. Then I listened to the news and to podcasts for the rhythm rather than the vocabulary — where a fluent speaker slows down, runs words together, stops — and imitated it.
Nineteen months of daily practice took me from 5.5 to 8.
Afterwards I decided to share what I'd worked out, as free English exam preparation books. They're free to download, with no sign-up and no account, at freeieltsbooks.net.
You can leave a voluntary tip here. It covers hosting, domain, translation costs — nothing is sold, and it isn't required to use any of the books.
Any amount, one time. It opens on their site, not mine.