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  Why overgeneralising is damaging your IELTS essay score!

  27 October 2020

  I sometimes think that the world that I live in is very different to the one that IELTS test-takers live in. For example, when I was a child, my sister and I played a lot of computer games. The result? A lot of happy memories and good hand-eye coordination. However, if you ask IELTS test-takers about the result of playing computer games, the answer is always the same: blindness, lack of social skills, and maybe, a life of crime! Do you see the problem? These results are just TOO BIG! In IELTS overgeneralising is specifically mentioned in the band descriptors as a mistake that stops students getting an 8.0 for Task Response.

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  IELTS Line Graphs Made Easy

  06 October 2020

  Last week, we focussed on General Training Writing Task One and the importance of having the tone in your letters. Today, we move to Academic Writing Task One, to look at how you can tackle the tasks to make sure that you have clear key features and make comparisons. How are we going to do that? We are going to focus on ONE type of chart – IELTS line graphs. I think that this is the chart that students struggle with most, but is actually the easiest one to answer once you know a few simple strategies. And, guess what? Those are what we are going to show you in today’s episode!

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  The most damaging error you can make in an IELTS Discuss Both Sides Essays

  04 October 2020

  IELTS Discuss Both Sides Essays – are you making this mistake? Hey! There is a lot of discussion in IELTS forums about IELTS discuss both sides organisation. However, what many people fail to consider is what information each paragraph should actually contain. So, today, I want to address the most common (and dangerous) error that students can make in a Discuss Both Sides essay – discussing the topic instead of the views.

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  Taking your IELTS Letters to the next level!

  29 September 2020

  Hey. Do you know the difference between a good IELTS letter and a great one? The tone! Writers who are able to engage with the question and write IELTS letters that feels AUTHENTIC are those who walk away with a 7.5 or an 8.0 for General Training Writing Task One instead of a 6.5 or 6.0.

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  Five More IELTS essay topics 2020 explained

  15 September 2020

  Hey! Today Nick and I look at five MORE reported IELTS essay topics from 2020. Yes, after the success of our first episode doing this, which is by far our most downloaded lesson (you can listen to it here if you haven’t already), we decided to once again breakdown five questions to show you how we would approach them.

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  7 free ways to prepare for IELTS

  04 August 2020

  How are you doing? I am personally finding life very strange and stressful at the moment thanks to the impact of COVID19. However, I also know that I cannot control what is happening outside my apartment walls, so all I can do is stay inside and try to make the best of this difficult situation (which means finally starting to make some new teaching videos!!!!!!). So, if like me you would like to make the most of this extra time at home, here are seven great free ways to prepare for IELTS!

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  Are you ready for an IELTS Essay Correction Service?

  04 August 2020

  One common aspect of many students’ preparation for writing is signing up for an IELTS essay correction service. However, is this always necessary? At what stage of your preparation should you consider signing up for one? And what makes a marking service good or bad? Guess what – that’s what we’ll be discussing today!

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  Five IELTS 2020 essay questions explained

  16 June 2020

  Hey! In today’s episode Nick and I look at five recently reported essay questions from the 2020 Academic and General Training IELTS tests. Obviously, we cannot be 100% sure that the wording of these questions is totally accurate, but they are based on the information provided to me by my students (who I trust with my life). Even though it is very unlikely that you will have exactly the same questions in your test, hopefully by the end of today’s lesson you will have a much better understanding of how to analyse questions and decide how to approach them. After all, IELTS 2020 essay questions can be on almost ANY topic!

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  IELTS Essay Questions 2020

  15 May 2020

  This is an archive of all the reported IELTS essay questions 2020. If you are looking for the most recent questions, then you should look at this page (which I update every month). Just to be clear, I have used my experience as a trained exam creator to edit these questions so that they are as close to the original exam question as possible.

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  Why are so many students stuck at a 6.5 for IELTS writing?

  12 May 2020

  Welcome to My IELTS Classroom podcast. Today, Nick and I discuss one of the most important IELTS questions – why are so many students stuck at a 6.5 for IELTS writing? Is it because there is a conspiracy to trick test-takers, or are there other less sinister reasons? 

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