Students' questions

1. If an IELTS candidate writes an essay that they remembered from a book, will it be considered plagiarism?

It is unlikely that you will be able to use an exact essay from a book because IELTS questions are always a bit different from questions that have been used before. I don't recommend memorising full essays; it's much better to learn a few key ideas, and to make sure you have an opinion about the most common IELTS topics.

2. Which is correct: "years old" or "year-olds"?

Both are correct, but they are used differently. We can say: "the children in the class are all 8 years old" or "the children in the class are all 8-year-olds". It's important to note that "8-year-olds" is a noun and can be used at the start of a sentence (e.g. "8-year-olds like playing games"), but you can't do this with "8 years old" (you would need to write "children who are 8 years old like playing games").

3. How will I know if I'm using correct phrases and collocations?

The only way to be sure is to check in a dictionary or to use a search engine like Google. For example, if you want to know whether we say "8 years old" or "8-year-olds" try googling them (with the speech marks); you will find good examples of each phrase.

PS. Yes, "google" has become a verb!

Comments

[Martin]

Even if students use different sentences from other essays, they need to make sure that they are suitable for the topic and that they cohere with the rest of the essay.

I personally think that it is a waste of time to memorize other people's work, and I agree with Simon to focus on key ideas and learn how to use them with your own words and ways of expression.

[Dung]

Dear Simon,
I was wondering that whethere we shoul use idiom in Task 2 ( things like: I'm feeling under the weather or give someone a cold shoulder and things like that...) as we usually consider them as informal???
Thanks a million!!!