10 Best Grammar Books for IELTS

International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a stepping stone to an array of opportunities at the home and abroad. It’s official proof of your English proficiency. But to grab golden opportunities, you need to attain a good score—at least 7.

As non-native speakers of English, we often struggle with grammar especially when we are asked to write on multiple topics. Although there is no particular grammar syllabus for IELTS, you have to be grammatically accurate, especially in IELTS Speaking and Writing.

So, gaining sound knowledge of grammar will certainly promote your writing and speaking accuracy. I will discuss the 10 best grammar books for IELTS.

1. Cambridge Grammar for IELTS

This book serves as a bible for IELTS candidates. It is published by Cambridge University Press and written by Diana Hopkins and Pauline Cullen. The book consists of 25 units. Unlike most conventional grammar books, this book teaches grammar through different listening, writing, and reading activities.

Why is it beneficial for IELTS preparation?

This book includes Academic and General Training Writing exercises, answer keys, tapescripts for listening, model writing answers, a CD, and helpful grammar explanations. However, beginner-level students might not find it most suitable.

2. Oxford Practice Grammar Intermediate

This book consists of 153 units and 25 tests. As a result, students can practice as much as they want from the chapters included in the book.

Why is it beneficial for IELTS preparation?

Undeniably, IELTS is not about grammar but grammar matters when it comes to non-native speakers of English. Particularly in the Asian subcontinent, we are used to learning English through grammar.

There is nothing wrong with learning grammar but the way we perceive grammar is perhaps not the ideal way to grasp a good command of English. And this book perfectly serves that purpose.

This book encourages you to sharpen your skills through exercises, examples, and explanations. As IELTS Writing band descriptors suggest students write a variety of sentence structures, grammar lessons on a series of topics appear to be fruitful.

3. Essential English Grammar in Use

This grammar book is full of examples and exercises. This book includes a study guide and additional exercises. It consists of 115 units where plenty of grammar lessons are covered.

For a student willing to brush up on his/her grammar skills, this book can be a trusted companion.

Why is this book beneficial for IELTS preparation?

The majority of the mistakes in the IELTS Writing paper revolve around the subject-verb agreement, tense, fragments, right forms of verbs, prepositions, articles, complex sentence making, conditionals, etc.

And all of these have been addressed in detail in the book. As a consequence, as long as someone practices from here spontaneously and precisely, he or she is highly unlikely to make silly mistakes. This eventually can lead to better performance in IELTS.

4. Collins Grammar for IELTS

This book is essentially very fruitful to elementary-level learners. This book is written with very easy language, thereby, a splendid resource to study on your own.

Why is it beneficial for IELTS preparation?

Admittedly, many candidates are stuck at 5.5 even after attending the test a number of times. If they are determined to maximize their score, all they need is to work from the root level—working on grammar to avoid grammatical skips. The book is designed in such a way that is helpful for students of B1 to C1 levels.

5. Achieve IELTS Grammar and Vocabulary

This is one of the few IELTS-based grammar books. It not only deals with grammar but also deals with vocabulary. In fact, all of the activities center around IELTS exam preparation.

Why is it beneficial for IELTS preparation?

Clear, contextualized, and rigorous practice activities can be found in this book. What sets this book apart is the inclusion of trends for task 1 and the discursive essay writing technique. The vocabulary part offers an ideal tool to expand your lexical range.

6. CLIFFS TOEFL

CLIFFS TOEFL is one of the best-selling books throughout the world. Even if the name of the book suggests that this book is only for TOEFL candidates, this book is very conducive to the intermediate-level learners who aspire to get a handsome IELTS score.

Why will this book be beneficial for IELTS preparation?

This book is thorough, compact, and comprehensive. You’ll get an intensive grammar review, mini-tests, and six full-length practice tests along with exercises. The way this book is designed is pretty similar to the IELTS test pattern.

7. A2 Skill Builder by British American Resource Center

This book is custom-designed for the IELTS beginner-level learners. CEFR being its backbone, the book covers essential grammar topics crucial for every test taker.

The most unique feature of this book is that it contains a substantial amount of grammar practice that would keep a learner busy both in and out of the classroom.

A major feature of this book is building sentence-level skills – a vital part of IELTS writing. Used in a progressive manner, this activity-based book would enhance your skills considerably and satisfactorily. A practical English grammar.

8. A Practical English grammar

This grammar book consists of 39 grammar lessons, each containing a series of examples which are detailed explanations of all the contents.

Why will this book be conducive to IELTS preparation?

Once you practice yourself exercises from the book, your development will be conspicuous within a month. The fundamental reason is that every exercise is demonstrated elaborately in this book.

9. Grammar for IELTS Writing

Although some students often score band 5.5 and 6 these days, IELTS Writing has been one of the nightmares for many of them. One of the biggest reasons is that they are not taught with IELTS-based English grammar books. It is anticipated that this book will boost your grammar together with your IELTS Writing skills.

10. Oxford Practice Grammar

Some people are seeking to gain some advanced knowledge of any grammar book. For advanced-level candidates, this book is highly recommended.

Why will this book be beneficial for IELTS preparation?

Presenting an errorless essay keeps you ahead of others. Having said that, you need to bring something more to gain an extraordinary score. For that, you need to learn advanced grammar.

This book provides exactly what you want as an upper intermediate learner. Remember, it’s not for the students for beginner-level students.

To sum up, as non-natives, we always learn grammar to produce error-free sentences. However, memorizing rules is not of any use. The best way to develop your skills through the books discussed above is to solve as many tests as you can and then match your solutions with the answer keys. Learning proper explanation of what you’ve done wrong stimulates your grammatical skills. So be mindful of utilizing the resources to your best.