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My IELTS Blog!

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…

Our posts & podcasts

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

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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!

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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.

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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.”

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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 

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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.

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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).

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  How to teach IELTS

  27 July 2021

  Nothing is more rewarding as a teacher than working with an exam class that is motivated to learn and improve. In fact, as a former hockey player, I often compare the feeling to that of coaching a sports team – with the students being my athletes who are working together to defeat the “enemy” of IELTS (actually, that makes it sound more like war than a sports game, but you get the idea!) However, when are you ready as a teacher to start teaching exam classes? And, more importantly, once you are ready how do you start planning your classes? There is no one way how to teach IELTS, but in today’s podcast, Nick and I go through the basics[…]

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  IELTS General Training Reading Multiple Matching

  20 July 2021

  IELTS General Training Reading Multiple Matching You know how some people like to relax by doing a crossword puzzle of a sudoko? Well, my ideal way to unwind would be doing dozens and dozens of IELTS General Training Reading Multiple Matching questions! You may think that I am joking, but I am 100% serious! Of all the IELTS reading questions, they are by far my favourite as they are quick and easy to complete and it is always clear when you have found the correct answer. So, join Nick and I today as we look at the three types of multiple matching questions to show you how you can master them.

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  Improve your IELTS Coherence and Cohesion score

  13 July 2021

  One of the great things about working at My IELTS Classroom is that it gives me the chance to collaborate with a range of great highly-qualified teachers. Juliet has been working with us for over 3 years now and, as a teacher who specialises in Cambridge exams that are not IELTS, she always brings a fresh approach to her teaching. One particular point that Juliet has been focussing on recently in marking is encouraging students to move away from using “people” repeatedly in their essays. This is not something that I had considered before, but once she had pointed it out, I realised that doing this can make a massive difference to a student’s IELTS coherence and cohesion score.

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  How to score an IELTS Band 8.0

  06 July 2021

  Almost every student we work with is aiming for a 7.0 or higher in the IELTS exam. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes students require an every higher score than this (or what I call a “very very high score”),  Take for example our doctors who need who need an overall 7.5, to register with the GMC or those applying to the NHS Foundation Programme who need a 7.5 in each module. In fact, occasionally, we are approached by students who need to score an IELTS Band 8.0. These are usually teachers who need to register in certain states in Australia, or people who need CLB10 or higher to migrate to Canada.

Posts navigation

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