The basic paragraph structure of Task 1 writing is quite simple: Introduction: Explain in your own words what the graph(s), table(s), or diagram(s) is showing Overview: In general terms, tell what main/interesting features are. Body 1/2: Explain these features in detail. If you have numbers, this is a good place to include them. Use two body paragraphs […]
IELTS Listening: Preparing with Podcasts
Podcasts can be a great place to get IELTS listening practice. They are a great way to study while riding a bus or driving to work. Here are some of my favorites. I recommend you choose one or two that you enjoy and can understand: IELTS Podcasts (these are directly related to IELTS): IELTS Podcast IELTS Test Prepcast IELTS Energy […]
IELTS Reading: Looking for Keywords
I often teach the “keyword technique” as the best strategy for IELTS reading (IELTS Simon also uses this). To do this, first find the keywords in the questions and then either find their match or opposite in the reading passage. For example, I’ve highlighted the keywords in this question… “Tourism has a social impact because it promotes recreation.” (Cambridge […]
IELTS Listening: Capital Letters and Proper Nouns
Student Question: Should I write in all capital letters for the IELTS listening so I don’t lose points for proper nouns? For listening, it doesn’t matter if you use capital letters, lower case letters, or a combination of both. So you can write an answer as “China”, “china”, “CHINA”, “ChInA”, or whatever else you’d like. […]
IELTS Speaking: Practicing Pronunciation
What are you doing to practice your pronunciation? Are you focusing on speaking clearly? Have you been practicing correct sentence stress? How about connected speech? Can you pronounce all of the English phonemes correctly and consistently? If you’re hoping to get a high score on speaking, you should be practicing all of these. Remember…pronunciation is worth 25% of […]
IELTS Test Day Advice: Test-time Stress
You and I both know that the IELTS is difficult. Not just a little bit difficult. More like ‘I-want-to-smash-my-head-into-a-table‘ difficult. The IELTS questions are hard even for native speakers, there is almost no break time, and sometimes the rest of your life, your family, or your career depends on your score. So it’s not strange at all that some people catch […]