Best books for IELTS Preparation

The IELTS or the International English Language Testing System is such a famous and reputed test worldwide that it does not require any introduction. Each year approximately 2.7 million candidates appear for the test, to get certified on their proficiency of all forms of the English knowledge. Though candidates accumulate tons of free to download study materials and sample test papers from the internet which are of great use and most of them take expert coaching as well, still, a large chunk of candidates quest after best books for IELTS preparation. Some highly valuable and important books according to their popularity are:

• 1) The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS
• 2) Cambridge IELTS Series 1 – 12
• 3) English Collocations in Use
• 4) English Vocabulary in Use Series
• 5) New Insight into IELTS with Answers
• 6) Official IELTS Practice Materials
• 7) “Improve your IELTS skills” Series

Let’s discuss why they are so valuable why students or candidates quest after these books. It is impossible to single out a book from the list and recommend as the best one, so we are providing a list of them with a short discussion of the contents.

No.1: The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS

The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS is the unequivocal guide for the candidates, also noticeable that this book is published by the organization that produces the IELTS test, that is the ‘Cambridge’. This book covers all the four sections of the IELTS. If you follow this book, you will get fantastic ‘Step-by-Step’ instructions, tips, and directions focused on the IELTS tests. It’s great for skills building also. This book’s guide on test-taking strategy would help you immensely for maximizing your band score. And it must be mentioned that there are ‘Ten Practice Tests’ for both Academic module and General Training module. The thorough and authoritative guidance on IELTS preparation, It is a great guide for you to your success in the IELTS. At the same time if you purchase this book you would get:

No.2: Cambridge IELTS 10 – 11 – 12

Cambridge IELTS 10-11-12 is a version of ‘Cambridge IELTS Series’ which familiarizes candidates with IELTS tests and provides practicing ‘Actual Examination Techniques’. This book was published by the ‘Cambridge Press’ and written by the IELTS test makers to provide the invaluable, clear and deep perception of the IELTS tests. The book covers Four tests for the ‘Academic Version’. And in addition, ‘Reading & Writing’ test materials for the General Training Candidates’. The ‘Cambridge IELTS 11’ was published in April 2016. Apart from containing ‘4 Complete Test Materials’ for the IELTS (for both the Academic & the General Training modules), this book contains a comprehensive section of question answers and also sample question answers for ‘Writing Tasks’. In my opinion for each and every candidate, this book is a must have. **Cambridge IELTS 12: This is the latest edition of Cambridge focused on Practice Tests for IELTS series, published in May 2017. This book also contains total four complete and authentic tests for both General Training and Academic module.

No.3: English Collocations in Use: Collocation means the grouping of words in a sentence. To polish and improve your English pronunciation and accent and thereby improve your style of both written and spoken English, this is a great book. Though improving your accent doesn’t mean that you should ‘imitate’ the accent of native speakers. Instead, you should focus on getting rid of your ‘Mother Tongue Bias’. This book contains 60 lessons about a wide variety of different topics with an aim to improve your style of spoken and written English. Each lesson is followed by theory and practice exercises and contains 1500 (approx.) collocations. Whoever wants to score band 7 or more, this book is an ideal possession for him.

No.4: English Vocabulary in Use

The candidates aiming for a high score in the IELTS must have a wide range of vocabulary and it’s for the information for the ‘Vocabulary Hunter’, that, this book has the reputation of ‘Bestseller’ for a number of times. It is extremely useful for candidates of all levels, including the native English speakers. This book is known to be one of the best-selling books on vocabulary building skills. Some notable features of

this book are:

• Vocabulary is explained and presented with a wealth of innovative follow-up activities.
• Consisting of 100 units, covering almost 3,000+ new vocabulary items.
• Offers learners the opportunity to strengthen and expand their vocabulary.

Candidates with a burning desire to score as high as possible in IELTS test may go for having this book for ensuring their vocabulary, needless to mention, ‘Vocabulary’ matters 25% of your total marks in the exam.

No.5: New Insight Into IELTS

This is another noteworthy book for the IELTS candidates, which offers a guide to comprehensive preparation and solid practice for IELTS Test. For achieving success in the IELTS, candidates/students need to build up the perfect skill set (for all four sections) along with accurate test techniques to proceed to the IELTS with a high level of confidence, for that purpose this book is a perfect choice. The course comprises of a detailed introduction required for the test. The material is suitable for both Academic and General Training candidates and if you wish for Band 6 or more it’s for you.

No.6: Official IELTS Practice Materials Volume 1 & 2

This book is written by the ‘Cambridge ESOL’ examiners and material writers with huge experience on their crown. It has got a comprehensive pack of the resource with a view to helping the candidates to prepare themselves for the test. A specialty of the book is that it teaches the candidates, how each of the IELTS tests is assessed and marks are given. These Official IELTS Practice Materials (Vol.1 and Vol.2) incorporate huge samples for all the four tests, i.e. Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing with realistic sample answers and the comments of the examiners.

No.7: Improve your IELTS Skills Series:

Improve Your IELTS Skills – Reading:

As the name suggests, this book helps candidates to improve their skills of ‘Academic Reading’. The courses help candidates to develop language, skills with test techniques to achieve a higher IELTS band score. One point is to be mentioned that it is especially aimed at candidates/students aiming between 4.5 and 7.5, means it is helpful for week students as well. There are 3 preparation courses in 3 books, first one is reading.

Improve Your IELTS Skills – Writing: This is a definitive guide and it is one of the best books to improve your proficiency in English writing for the IELTS. It emphasizes on the formation and structuring of sentences and strengthening of vocabulary. This book might be prescribed for all categories of students/candidates for the IELTS test and anyone can improve his writing skills a lot without any external help.

Improve Your IELTS Skills – Listening & Speaking:

This is an excellent book for completing your preparation for the IELTS ‘Listening and Speaking’ tests. It would guide a candidate with chosen and targeted practice to develop listening and speaking skills leading one to achieve a higher IELTS score in either of the two modules.

There are three more highly rated and admired books from Cambridge publications, they are as follows and the name of each book suggests the subject of each book. All three are as good as it gets.

1) Cambridge Vocabulary for IELT

2) Cambridge Grammar for IELTS

3) Cambridge IELTS Trainer with Answers

Cambridge IELTS Trainer with Answers is enormously popular and useful book. For your ‘Extra Rich Vocabulary’ and ‘Excellent Grammatical Knowledge’ the other two books are fantastic resources. Though almost all the top most famous and precious books are discussed, there are some more very useful and praiseworthy books from different famous publications. With the increasing popularity of the IELTS Test, almost each year reputed publishers across the world publish extremely useful books. Though with the easy access of the Internet and availability of good books free to download from the Internet has affected the ‘Book Market’ to some extent, still, there are plenty of book lovers and a segment of students worldwide who prefer reading books to quench their thirst of knowledge to anything else.

Originally posted 2017-05-28 08:17:07.