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Earlier this year, one of my students decided to take a break from studying for the IELTS exam. When I met her a few weeks later, she seemed more relaxed and confident, and her scores soon improved.
Sometimes you need to take a break to give your brain a chance to process all the information that you've been feeding it. if you're feeling stressed or frustrated about the IELTS test, consider taking some time off!
1) When writing an 'agree or disagree' essay, is it better to have a strong view and ignore the other side of the argument, or should we try to address both sides?
Both ways are equally acceptable. A few students have commented that I seem to prefer addressing both sides of the argument (click here for an example). However, I've also written some one-sided essays like this one. It really depends on the ideas that you have, so your planning time is extremely important for this type of question.
2) What's the best way to approach the following question?: "Financial education should be a mandatory component of the school program. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?"
This question doesn't allow you to partly agree: either financial education should be mandatory, or it shouldn't. Think about which view would be easier to support, then make some notes. Click here to see my ideas for a similar topic.
PS. Thanks to those of you who wished me a happy Christmas!
I'm going to take a few days off to catch up with friends and family over the Christmas period. I'll continue with my blog lessons as normal from next Saturday 29th December. The ebook is still on sale this week.
Happy Christmas!
1. Are clothes and clothing fashions important to you? (Why/Why not?)
No, clothes and fashions are not really important to me. I tend to wear clothes that are comfortable and practical rather than fashionable.
2. What different clothes do you wear for different situations?
Well, I have to dress quite formally for work, so I wear a shirt and trousers. At home I prefer to wear jeans and a T-shirt, and on special occasions I might wear a suit.
3. Do you wear different styles of clothes now compared to 10 years ago?
No, not really, because I don't follow fashion. I think I have dressed in a similar way for the last 10 years.
4. Do you think the clothes we wear say something about who we are?
Yes, they probably do. Some people are really careful about what they wear because they want to be seen as stylish. Other people wear clothes that show wealth or status, such as clothes by famous designers.
The following question comes from Cambridge IELTS book 8.
Increasing the price of petrol is the best way to solve growing traffic and pollution problems.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
What other measures do you think might be effective?
My students wrote the introduction below. Notice that it addresses all parts of the question so that the examiner knows exactly what our position is.
Traffic and pollution are growing problems in today’s society. Personally, I disagree with the idea that higher petrol prices could solve these problems, and I believe that various other measures would be more constructive.
PS. Don't waste time writing a longer introduction than this. The main body paragraphs are much more important!
Watch the following interesting video and answer the questions below.
Try to correct / improve the following sentences by writing them in a simpler way.
Note: I'm using the term 'phrase' to refer to 'a group of words' (not an expression or idiom).
When I studied foreign languages at school, we were mainly taught vocabulary as a list of individual words with a translation of their meanings. The problem with learning a list of individual words is that you don't learn how to use them in a natural way, and you find yourself translating word by word from your own language.
The alternative is to study phrases that native speakers have produced. I was happy to see that the first comment (by 'boburShox') below this lesson was a list of good phrases that I used in my essay. The individual words are easy to understand, but you can learn a lot by analysing the way I put them together.
Several people shared their descriptions of an ideal home in the comments below last week's lesson. If you do some research online, you'll find lots of websites with pictures and descriptions of interesting homes. Click here to see my favourite.
"Perched on the edges of daunting precipices, these cliff and mountain homes are some of the scariest places you could possibly think to live. Some have survived for centuries while others are (quite literally) on the brink of destruction."
After the introduction, I tell my students to write an overview of the information shown on the chart. When the chart shows numbers, we look for the highest, lowest, biggest change, overall trend etc.
But how do you write an overview of a diagram that doesn't show numbers?
Here are some things you could put in a process diagram overview:
And this is what you could write about for a comparing diagram:
Some people regard video games as harmless fun, or even as a useful educational tool. Others, however, believe that video games are having an adverse effect on the people who play them. In your opinion, do the drawbacks of video games outweigh the benefits?
Many people, and children in particular, enjoy playing computer games. While I accept that these games can sometimes have a positive effect on the user, I believe that they are more likely to have a harmful impact.
On the one hand, video games can be both entertaining and educational. Users, or gamers, are transported into virtual worlds which are often more exciting and engaging than real-life pastimes. From an educational perspective, these games encourage imagination and creativity, as well as concentration, logical thinking and problem solving, all of which are useful skills outside the gaming context. Furthermore, it has been shown that computer simulation games can improve users’ motor skills and help to prepare them for real-world tasks, such as flying a plane.
However, I would argue that these benefits are outweighed by the drawbacks. Gaming can be highly addictive because users are constantly given scores, new targets and frequent rewards to keep them playing. Many children now spend hours each day trying to progress through the levels of a game or to get a higher score than their friends. This type of addiction can have effects ranging from lack of sleep to problems at school, when homework is sacrificed for a few more hours on the computer or console. The rise in obesity in recent years has also been linked in part to the sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise that often accompany gaming addiction.
In conclusion, it seems to me that the potential dangers of video games are more significant than the possible benefits.
(258 words, band 9)
1) Is it a good idea to use headings to organise my essays?
No, you should never use headings in any of your IELTS essays. Don't include lists or bullet points either. All of these things are considered incorrect format.
2) Is it ok to write "I think" or "I like to say" in my task 2 essay?
Those phrases are a bit informal. I prefer to write "I believe" or "I would argue".
3) If I write that I completely agree, can I still write a paragraph explaining the other side of the argument?
Imagine the examiner's confusion if you say that you agree, but then give good reasons for the opposite opinion. If you want to include the other side of the argument, either write a paragraph explaining why you think it is wrong, or change to a 'partly agree' introduction.
4) Do I have to give my opinion in the main paragraphs as well as in the introduction and conclusion?
If you have stated your opinion clearly in the introduction, it will be obvious to the examiner that your main paragraphs are supporting that opinion. Your opinion should be clear throughout the essay (if you want to get a good score), but that doesn't mean that you need to write "in my opinion" before every idea. Have a look at some of my essays here on the site to see how I do it.
5) Which is correct: "A and B showed an increase" or "A and B showed increases"?
Both are fine. Try Googling "they showed an increase" and "they showed increases". You'll find examples of both.
Describe the ideal home that you would like to live in. You should say
My advice for this topic is similar to the advice I gave for the vehicle topic:
The following paragraph describes the process of making cement.
At the first stage in the cement production process, limestone and clay are crushed to form a powder. This powder is then mixed and passed through a rotating heater. The resulting mixture is ground, and finally the end product, cement, is packed into large bags.
There are 2 things that make process descriptions special:
(See Cambridge IELTS book 8 for the full question)
Here's a question about the 'video games' topic we looked at last week:
Some people regard video games as harmless fun, or even as a useful educational tool. Others, however, believe that videos games are having an adverse effect on the people who play them. In your opinion, do the drawbacks of video games outweigh the benefits?
Personally, I'd answer this question in the same way as I'd answer a 'discuss both views and give your opinion' question. I'd write 4 paragraphs:
Students shared some good ideas in the comments area here (especially some of the comments near the bottom). You could also adapt the ideas in my ebook chapter about the positives and negatives of television. I'll share my full essay next week.
My students and I did test 2, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 8 ('The Little Ice Age'). This is quite a tricky test because one or two of the questions are not in order in the passage. Here are some of the keywords that helped us to get the correct answers:
Note: 'far from' can be used to mean 'the opposite of' e.g. "I am far from happy" means "I am not happy at all".
Yesterday I forgot to mention my key piece of advice for writing task 1 in the General Training test. If I had to choose one key piece of advice for GT task 1, I'd say that you need to get the 'tone' right.
The tone of your letter is its character or attitude, either formal or informal. For a summary of the differences between formal and informal letters, read this lesson.