my ielts experience.. Notes from my IELTS journey! | by Bharath V | Oct, 2025
Notes from my IELTS journey!
I’ve always been fairly confident in my English skills — you’d know that if you’ve read some of my earlier posts. But even then, when there’s a target score in front of you (for most universities, that’s a band 6.5), it suddenly feels a bit more serious. So, I booked my IELTS test and gave myself about a month to prepare properly. My aim was to score a 7 or 7.5 — something solid and respectable.
The first step was understanding the test format. IELTS is split into four sections: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking.
Listening was the one I felt most confident about going in. You listen to a few conversations in different accents and answer questions based on what you hear. This part was almost second nature to me — I consume a lot of English content across accents, so understanding what’s being said isn’t really a challenge.
Reading is quite similar to the comprehension passages we did back in school, except it’s a bit more layered. It’s not just about understanding the passage — sometimes you need to draw conclusions from what’s implied rather than what’s directly stated. This section was also fine for me, though I knew I’d need to stay focused and manage my time well.
The sections I was most nervous about were Writing and Speaking. Writing might sound ironic, given how much I write, but IELTS writing is different. You have two tasks to complete in a limited time. And writing under time pressure? That’s always tricky. Task 1 usually involves describing a graph, table, or chart — identifying trends, patterns, and key data points. Task 2 is more like a short essay, where you give your opinion on a topic or discuss a particular issue.
Speaking was another challenge. It’s basically a one-on-one Zoom-style conversation where you answer questions, talk about a topic, and have a short discussion. Even though I watch and listen to English content regularly, I rarely speak English in my day-to-day life — so I was worried about whether I could answer confidently and fluently.
So how did I prepare?
For Listening and Reading, I mostly stuck to official IELTS mock tests. They helped me get used to the question styles, time limits, and pacing. When I checked my answers, I was only getting a few wrong, so I felt pretty confident about those sections.
Writing and Speaking, though, needed more practice. And here’s where I used something we all use anyway — ChatGPT. I asked it for Task 1 and Task 2 writing prompts every day for about two weeks. I’d type out my responses, and it would give me feedback: what I did well, what I could improve, and even a rough band estimate. It helped me understand how my writing might be evaluated and what to aim for.
I used a similar approach for Speaking. ChatGPT would ask me sample IELTS-style questions, and I’d record myself answering them out loud. Obviously, it couldn’t judge my pronunciation or fluency perfectly, but it could still point out areas to improve and give me an idea of my performance. The practice made me more comfortable speaking in English — and honestly, that alone was a big win.
And… then came test day.
My Speaking test came first. I think I did alright, especially considering how little I speak English in daily life. It wasn’t perfect, but I knew I’d done enough to get a decent score.
The Listening and Reading sections followed, and those went smoothly — pretty much how I expected. Writing was last, and I’ll be honest: right after the exam, I wasn’t sure how I’d done. I felt like I could’ve done better if I had a bit more time. Still, I knew I hadn’t done badly either — just not as well as I’d hoped.
A few days later, the results came in: Band 8 overall. I was buzzing. I genuinely didn’t expect it — especially after how I felt about the writing section. Turns out, maybe I was a bit too harsh on myself. That ended up being one of my highest scores. The lowest was Speaking (no surprises there), but even that was a good score. And overall? I was more than happy with the result.