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Here you’ll find our posts and podcasts on a wide range of subjects to help you on your IELTS journey! Join us at My IELTS Classroom today for our video courses, marking service, 1-2-1 lessons and so much more…

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  What makes IELTS Semi-Formal Letters so difficult?

  21 September 2021

  IELTS Semi-Formal Letters If you are a general training student, the most important elements of your score for Task Achievement in writing task one are addressing the bullets and having the right tone. However, while the tone of formal and informal letters is quite black and white, students often struggle with IELTS semi-formal letters as the tone may vary depending on the topic of the letter. Today, Nick and I look at 6 IELTS semi-formal letters that appeared in recent exams to show you how you should consider the topic of the letter when deciding on the tone. We will see that it is not who you are writing to that is most important, but what you are writing about.[…]

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  IELTS Letter Questions 2021 Archive

  19 September 2021

  IELTS Letter Questions 2021 Hey! This is an archive of all the reported IELTS letter questions 2021. If you are taking the General Training IELTS exam and are looking for questions from the most recent IELTS exams, then you should go to this page, which I update every month.   What you will find here are the reported questions from exam-takers all over the world. I have used my experience as an IELTS examiner and trained exam creator to edit the letter prompts so that they are as close to the original exam question as possible. However, if you have one of these questions in your exam, you MUST read the question carefully as it may be that it differs slightly. I also[…]

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  6 more IELTS Essay Questions from 2021 broken down!

  14 September 2021

  6 more IELTS Essay Questions from 2021 broken down! Yes! Nick and I are back with one of our most popular episodes – breaking down IELTS essay questions from recent exams! Today, we look at 6 that I think are interesting because they either introduce a new topic that we have never seen covered in the exam before OR are a common essay question format that students often find difficult

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  20 Recent IELTS General Training Task 1 Questions

  07 September 2021

  20 Recent IELTS General Training Task 1 Questions Hey! On this page you will find the 20 most recent  IELTS General Training Task 1 questions. I updated the page every month, so the questions here will change frequently, but you will be able to find older questions in our IELTS 2021 Letters Archive.

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  How to approach an IELTS 2-Part Essay

  07 September 2021

  How to approach an IELTS 2-Part Essay Over the last 12 months, I have noticed a definite trend in the type of questions that IELTS students are being asked to address in writing task two. It seems that the classic “problem / solution” questions are appearing less and less and, instead, test-takers are being asked to write an IELTS 2-Part essay. But, what is a 2-part essay? And how should you approach one to maximise your chance of a high score? That is what Nick and I are discussing in today’s podcast episode! Below, you can find a summary of the episode, which includes all of the links to useful materials and the times of each part of the discussion[…]

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  IELTS Exam Results: how you can apply for a breakdown of your speaking and writing exam scores

  31 August 2021

  IELTS Exam Results One of the main frustrations for IELTS test-takers is that IELTS does not provide a breakdown of the scores for writing or speaking. In other words, you know that you  got a 6.5 for writing, but you don’t know why. Was it a problem with lexis? Did you write off-topic? Or was it your Task One that let you down? Until now the answer has simply been, only the examiner knows. IELTS exam results were essentially a black box. However, this week, I received an email from a student that may change this. She was able to capitalise on the new European laws for data protection (called GDPR) to find out exactly what scores she was awarded[…]

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  IELTS Progress Check: A Review

  24 August 2021

  IELTS Progress Check: A Review A number of students have asked recently what we think about the new IELTS Progress Check. This is a relatively new service that offers students the chance to complete a full mock test in exam conditions that is marked by a trained examiner. The marketing for the service says that you will receive “an official feedback report, which includes an indicative overall test band score as well as a band score for each section of the test”, plus you will “receive personalised feedback chosen by the IELTS markers on all assessment criteria in your Speaking and Writing tests.” But, how does the service work and how detailed is the feedback that you will receive from[…]

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  A deep dive into IELTS Matching Headings Questions

  17 August 2021

  A deep dive into IELTS Matching Headings Hopefully, you have already completed our Introduction to IELTS Matching Headings questions and so know the basic techniques for approaching these questions well. If you haven’t, I strongly recommend that you click on this link to complete the lesson now. Too many students rely on skimming or scanning to find the answers, or just reading the first and last lines of a paragraph. Neither of those techniques work and will leave you feeling confused and frustrated  But, what do you do if you are already using good technique but still cannot find the correct answers? Well, you are definitely not alone. IELTS Matching Headings questions continue to be the most difficult for many students,[…]

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  IELTS essay skills – Writing about IELTS Social Trends

  10 August 2021

  IELTS essay skills – Writing about IELTS Social Trends In the world of IELTS we often discuss “types” of essay (Discuss Both Sides, Advantages and Disadvantages, etc) and common topics (environment, work, education, etc), but we rarely talk about common “themes”. Today I want to talk about one theme that often appears but is rarely discussed: essays that focus on social change. These are essay questions which present a current social trend (the increase in crime, the loss of community,  etc) and then ask you to examine it in some way. Today, Nick and I explain how to recognise IELTS social trend questions and how you should approach them to make sure that your writing is 100% on-topic. Below, you can[…]

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  Want to Improve your IELTS Paraphrasing?

  03 August 2021

  Want to Improve your IELTS Paraphrasing? In the writing exam you will be given a topic that you need to address in an essay. One important IELTS skill, therefore, is being able to talk about the topic without repeating the sentences from the task. This is called “paraphrasing” and is one area where many students struggle. Why? Well, it is because there is so much false information about IELTS paraphrasing online (and in classrooms). Many students have been told that you must NEVER repeat a word from the task. This is not true. Others think that they will be penalised if they repeat a word multiple times in the body of their essay. Again, this is not true. So, what[…]

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• All Posts, 
• Writing, 
• Speaking, 
• Listening, 
• Reading, 
• Grammar, 
• General Advice, 
• Podcast