IELTS With Flashcards: a Guide for the Most Effective Exam Preparation

«Do you need to pass IELTS?»: most future students hear from their friends with pity when they mention that they are going to apply. But it is not as hard as it seems if you have the right tools and preparation system. One of these life-saving tools is using digital flashcards.

Is It Possible to Prepare for IELTS In a Month?

It depends on the score you need to get and your level at the moment. The IELTS band scores range from 1 (non-user) to 9 (expert user). Not every native speaker will get 9, most of the universities accept results starting from 7. 

If you already have a rather good level of English and need to get 7 to enter your dream master’s program, you may need 1-3 months to improve weak areas and get yourself familiar with the exam structure.

 Of course, it depends on how to study for IELTS. You can do it much faster if you hire a professional teacher or join an intensive preparation course (or if you have a very good level of English and are lucky enough). 

Do Flashcards Help in Every Aspect of the IELTS Exam? 

The IELTS exam consists of four parts — Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking. In each of these sections, you must show that you know enough vocabulary to communicate effectively, know grammar rules, and can understand texts and audio recordings. 

Flashcards will help you to create a foundation of your knowledge: learn words and phrases, structures for the essays, and speaking answers. But for this exam memorization is not enough and you will have to do the work of practicing and understanding how to write a proper essay and formulate an answer in a speaking task. 

IELTS essay prompts often cover abstract, social, or controversial issues. To answer them you need to show your critical thinking and ability to write long texts in a logical way proving your point of view. It is hard to master this part of how to study for IELTS exam in a week. 

 Of course, no one asks you here to write on a level of master’s in philosophy, but still writing and speaking are very complicated tasks and require a lot of separate preparations. 

Listening and reading, as well, require a lot of practice: learn the structure of the task, understand possible tricks where you can make a mistake, 

We will not tell you how to prepare for IELTS in every part of the exam, just mention that to master them you might want to attend special classes and do a lot of readings and analyses of essay examples. 

To practice speaking (among practice and learning additional vocabulary) would be useful to watch videos on YouTube. There are a lot of videos with recordings of real (or modeled) answers to IELTS Speaking with marks and explanations of why the person got this grade, what was good, and what might be improved. 

But here we want to give some advice on how to prepare for IELTS using flashcards. 

IELTS Flashcards for Vocabulary 

Learning vocabulary is one of the hardest parts of preparation for IELTS, but it is the place where flashcards are the most helpful.

Create Topic-Specific Vocabulary Flashcards 

Most tasks in IELTS are designed to check your vocabulary range on specific topics. Create decks of words on the most common topics: Environment, education, technology, health, culture, society, work, etc 

On Each Card Add a Definition, Synonym and Antonym 

First side:

✎ Example: Pollution (noun) – the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment. 

The other side: 

✎ Example: The city has been trying to reduce air pollution by encouraging the use of public transport.

Synonyms: “contamination” 

Antonyms: “purification.“

Make IELTS Flashcards With Grammar Rules 

Create cards for different tenses (e.g., present perfect, past continuous) or sentence structures (e.g. conditional sentences, relative clauses)

✎ First side: “Present Perfect” 

✎ Other other side: “Subject + has/have + past participle”

Example sentence: “I have visited Paris three times”. 

Use Pre-made IELTS Flashcards Decks on Anki Pro

For example, there is a deck IELTS vocabulary 01 helping you how to prepare for IELTS with includes more than one hundred words with examples and definitions. Use it for your preparation to widen your vocabulary and add to it some new words. 

Explore the deck: IELTS Vocabulary 01

IELTS Exam Writing With Flashcards 

Maybe it is not that obvious, but flashcards can help with improving your writing part. How? Just follow these steps.

Create Decks With Common Phrases You May Use

Writing task 1 requires writing a description of some visual data like a diagram or graph. Make flashcards with vocabulary you may need for such descriptions like “The number fluctuated,” “There was a sharp rise in…,” or “The figures remained stable.” 

Also you can make cards with linking words such “as in addition”, “moreover”, “to begin with”

Make Decks With Essay Structure 

Writing task 2 is an essay question. There are several types of topics for essay writing you may get: opinion essay, discussion, advantages and disadvantages, and direct question essay. 

Each type of essay for IELTS exam will require you to use some linking words and a special structure. And it is what you can write down on flashcards. 

Write a type of essay on one side of the card and structures, such as “Introduction + Main Body 1 + Main Body 2 + Conclusion” for a discussion essay. 

Then provide an example essay question for this type 

Make flashcards with phrases for introducing arguments, presenting opinions, and concluding like “It is often argued that…” or “In conclusion, it can be said that…”

Use a Pre-made Deck From Anki Pro

IELTS-Writing Part 2 is an alternative for cases when you don’t have time or don’t want to make decks yourself. It has important phrases that will help to make your IELTS writing reacher what is needed for the best score 

Explore the deck: IELTS-Writing Part 2

IELTS Flashcards for Speaking

Here is the trickiest one. Speaking is the part that is hard to pass because you need to structure your speech right, use reach vocabulary and keywords, and do it all right in a moment of conversation with the examinator. These tips will help you prepare for IELTS.

Create Mock Cue Cards 

Write down potential Part 2 speaking prompts on one side (e.g., “Describe a time when you helped someone”). 

On the other side, list key points you would cover, like the setting, what you did, how you felt, and why it was important.

Use IELTS Flashcards to Learn Linking Phrases

Use flashcards to practice fillers, linking phrases, and cohesive devices to sound natural in the speaking exam (e.g., “Well, let me think…” or “On the other hand…”). Using them will make your speaking smoother and will allow you to catch a breath and think about what to answer. 

Learn Speaking Phrases With a Premade Deck

As one of the means of learning use one of the existing decks. For example, Ielts speaking deck has a lot of questions that you might get during the exam and short summary of an answer. But of course, you can use answers as an example and share your own opinion. 

Explore the deck: Ielts speaking 

Learn Phrasal Verbs and Idioms 

Both idioms and phrasal verbs are useful for the speaking and writing sections, as they help to make your language more varied and natural and will give you additional points for the exam. And what is our goal during how to study for IELTS exam preparation. You don’t need to learn all the possible idioms, just memorize some of them that can be used in different situations. 

There is a deck Common IELTS Idioms on Anki Pro you can use during your preparations. It has more than 200 idioms such as «was on the fiddle», «led someone up the garden path», «keep it under your hat» and many others. Knowing these idioms is a great bonus to everyone who wants to improve their level of speaking skills. 

Explore the deck: Common IELTS Idioms

Use Flashcards Smartly

It is clear that flashcards are helpful, but how to use them in full efficiency?

Active Recall

 When reviewing IELTS flashcards, actively try to recall the information on the back before flipping the card over. This strengthens memory and helps you recall vocabulary or grammar rules you need even in stressful exam situations. 

Mix Working With Flashcards and Practice Tests

 Combine your flashcard review with regular IELTS exam practice tests to see how your knowledge applies to actual exam scenarios. Set an alarm and practice answering different parts of the exam. 

Work in a Group or With a Friend 

For the IETLS exam teamwork is very useful (even if you don’t usually like it). You need someone to check your writing and speaking skills and give honest feedback. Even if you attend preparation courses or have a private teacher, additional practice would be only a plus. 

Quiz each other for training an oral part, write essays and check your friend’s answers. 

Spaced Repetition 

Spend 20-30 minutes per day on IELTS flashcards review. This keeps your study sessions manageable and consistent, don’t study all day and then forget about it for a week. Spaced repetition requires consistency and studying regularly, but with intervals that get longer and longer. In this way, information will be stored in your memory for a longer period. Read more about it here. 

What Else Can Help? 

1. Focus on weak areas — don’t study everything, if you are already good with reading and not so confident with speaking, spend more time practicing speaking.

2. Stop negative thinking — IELTS exam is a big step and it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking «I will never pass it and won’t get to university and my career is ruined» every time you make a mistake. But it is not, you preparing and improving every day. 

3. Talk to people who already passed IELTS exam — if they did it, you can do it. Ask for tips, pieces of advice, and personal experience. How did they feel during the exam? What helped them that you can use as well? This conversation will help you to feel calmer and more confident. 

Now you are ready for your IELTS test and know everything about how to study for IELTS exam, get the score you need and best of luck!