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Hey! We all know that every IELTS essay needs at least ONE clear example to satisfy the band descriptors. But, where are you putting that example in your essay? Did you know that examples have to support the sentence DIRECTLY before them? If not, read on to save your Coherence and Cohesion score in your next essay!
A lot of IELTS teachers tell students that their “ideas don’t matter”, but this is simply NOT true. Yes, you are free to agree or disagree with any question (so there is no “right” opinion) but if you need a high IELTS score, then it is extremely important that your ideas are both relevant and convincing. In this week’s blog, I want to show you how to drastically improve the quality of the arguments in your essay by giving ideas that are less dramatic, which can be a real problem in IELTS Cause Effect essays in particular!
Hey! Believe it or not, your IELTS speaking examiner is hoping that you will do well in the exam. Seriously, nothing is easier for an examiner in any field to assess a candidate who performs well in a test. Unfortunately, not every student performs as well as they can on test day (often because they have been given some “IELTS Speaking Tips” that are just plain wrong!). In fact, there are some words that every examiner dreads hearing. What are they? Let’s find out!
Hey! My name is Shelly, and I’m a podcast-aholic. I’m not joking. I spend around 2 – 3 hours EVERY DAY listening to podcasts and, if you ever meet me in person, I bet it will take me less than five minutes to tell you something interesting that I have heard in one. In fact, I strongly believe podcasts are one of the best free resources that IELTS students can use to improve both their listening skills AND their ideas for the speaking and writing tests. If you are not using podcasts for IELTS now, you are really missing out!
Hey! Today I want to complete my series of “common IELTS mistakes” by looking at IELTS Lexical Resource. If you haven’t already read my previous posts on Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, or Grammar, I recommend that you have a look at those lessons too. You will find that the four blog posts together, offer you a powerful insight into the main problem areas that most examiners see as they mark.
Hey! When students prepare for IELTS writing, they often learn “chunks” of language – these are groups of words or certain sentence structures that can be used in any essay. I encourage this. For example, I tell my students to always use an “although” sentence in the conclusion of an Advantages / Disadvantages essay as this is the best way to summarise both sides. In the same way, it can be great to use a cleft sentence when you are writing topic sentences for an IELTS To What Extent Essay, or to use a “while” sentence in the introduction of a Discuss Both Sides essay. Using these “chunks” will help you to write more quickly and be sure that the[…]
Hey! Did you know that there are two totally different groups of students studying for IELTS? Two groups who have totally different needs and, therefore, face completely different challenges. If you are just starting your IELTS journey, then your first job should be to understand which group you belong to and how it will affect your IELTS preparation. Trust me, not every IELTS student faces the same challenge!
Hey! Almost every student uses Cambridge IELTS books 1 – 14 to prepare for the exam as these books offer students the chance to prepare with genuine past exam papers. However, while all of the questions in these books are from past tests, I don’t think that all the questions are equally difficult. In fact, it has become clear to me over the years that some questions are definitely trickier than others!
Hey! A lot of students tell me that they have problems with time management in the IELTS writing test. If you don’t finish both Task 1 and Task 2 in 60 minutes, you are going to find it very hard to achieve a high score (even if your writing is great!). So, in this week’s blog, I want to show you two steps that will help you to analyse your writing to find out where exactly your IELTS time management problems lie.
Hey! My philosophy as a teacher is that the only way to increase your IELTS score is to work hard on improving your language skills and academic techniques. But, I would be lying if I said that I haven’t learned a few shortcuts over the last 17 years that can help students to quickly move from 6 to 7 in IELTS writing! So, in today’s blog post, I want to share my top 5 IELTS Grammar Tricks.