We have spoken in depth on the podcast about IELTS maps, and IELTS line graphs before, but today it is the turn of IELTS bar charts. I would say of all the possible charts that you could be given on your exam day, IELTS bar charts are the most versatile. Why? Well, not only can they be used to represent change or to show comparisons individually, but they can also be used to show changes without time! Intrigued? You should be!
Hey! Every 6 months Nick and I like to generate ideas for essay questions that have been reported in recent IELTS exams. Today, we look at questions that our students have faced in January, February, and March this year. What do we think of the IELTS Essay Questions 2023? Well, you will need to listen to find out, but there are definitely some completely new topics and some old ones that have been given a facelift!
Hey! I have always loved teaching IELTS Academic Task 1. Many students are afraid of charts, but I have always found that if you teach test-takers some basic principles, then it is always possible to find the key features and organise the report well. However, this week, I was looking at the new IELTS Cambridge 17 Academic Report Questions and I have to say that two of the prompts in the current book are VERY difficult. Seriously, I am talking climbing Everest bare-foot with an elephant strapped to your back difficult.
Hey! Yes, Nick and I have finally got out hands on a copy of the new Cambridge IELTS 17 General Training book, so today we look at the four essay questions to discuss how difficult they are, how they should be approached, and what ideas we would use as the basis of our arguments in the body paragraphs.
Unless you have been living under a rock (or not spending every moment on social media) for the last few weeks, you have probably heard about ChatGPT – the new artificial intelligence search engine that can write advertising campaigns, poems, or hundreds of pages of code in milliseconds. Oh, and did I mention that it will deliver these to you as if they had been written by a human? Seriously, the future is now! However, while the launch of ChatGPT is causing people to fear for their jobs (and teachers to fear that homework assignments may now be useless!), what Nick and I want to find out today whether students can use ChatGPT for IELTS.
One component of your score for Lexical Resource in the IELTS writing exam is spelling. I am often asked how many IELTS spelling mistakes a student can make and still receive a 7.0. The answer is “it depends”. There is no fixed number of errors that automatically results in you getting a 5, 6, 7, or 8 for lexical resource. This is simply because not every spelling error is the same.
Hey! Today, Nick and I take a look at what we think are new Cambridge IELTS 17 letters. In other words, although the book was published in July, we were unable to get our hands on a copy, so we are hoping that these are the real questions as we got them from a third source!)
Hey! I have noticed over the last few years that IELTS test-takers really struggle to write letters that are genuinely informal. Even good students who follow all of the language rules for an IELTS informal letter send me one to mark that feel “cold” and “stiff” and simply still “too formal”. Why is that? Well, that is what I sat down this week to ponder, and the result is this podcast! Today, Nick and I will show you how you can turn your good IELTS informal letters into great ones by making PERSONAL COMMENTS.
Hey! Every week, Nick and I mark at least a dozen first assessment essays from our students. This is the first essay that students send as part of their writing package, and gives us an opportunity to see what their current score is and what areas we will need to work on to help them reach their target score. Obviously, all students are unique and have their own problem areas, but time and time again we see students making the same mistakes. Today, Nick and I want to show you what the top 5 IELTS writing errors are, and explain how you can avoid them.
Hey! Maps have long been a possible question-type in Academic Writing Task 1. However, until recently, 99% of maps focused on changes that happened in a town. In recent exams, however, there have been more maps that focus on changes to specific buildings or road systems. The problem is that many students still try to use the same key features and organisation for these maps as traditional town maps. The result? A very poor report! Today, Nick and I discuss how you can find better key features for building and road maps, and how you may want to organise these in an entirely different way if there are few changes to the original structure. In other words, you will learn everything[…]