I just sat for my IELTS a few months back. The result was..... satisfactory; 7.5. It was as if me and my friend went to a war without any armour or fighting equipment. HAha. The ILETS exam was just a few days after our final semester exam for our degree. So we don't have enuf time for any preparations whatsoever. Hmm... well, it's not necessary for you to be a native english speaker to score well in IELTS. As long you have a solid foundation you'll pull through it. If you usually scores A or A- in your school exam, you'll definitely get 7.0 or above. I kinda enjoy the examination though because it was quite relaxing. The environment wasn't too stiff or make you nervous. HOWEVER, please take extra cautious for your reading paper. I ran out of time for that paper since we're required to read as fast as possible but at the same time extracting the important points out. Don't spend your own sweet time for that paper or you might regret!!

I have not done anything for the IELTS preparations so I cannot recommend you on any tips to study for it. However, it'll be very useful to get the sample papers. You can purchase it when you register for you exam. I got mine from British council KL (near KLCC). At least you'll get a rough idea on wat to expect from the exam.

Finally, good luck to you and don't worry too much

This post has been edited by Blumarooz: Oct 28 2007, 12:05 PM

If I'm not mistaken, it's RM80 for the preparatory book. BTW, I'm a gal. Haha.
The book also comes along with a CD for the listening and speaking part. There will be samples of conversation by a few IELTS candidates that got different bands. You can roughly estimate where you stand in this exam.