IELTS Simon

IELTS Writing Task 1: line graph ideas

The graph below shows US consumers' average annual expenditures on cell phone and residential phone services between 2001 and 2010.

Some paraphrasing that you could use in your introduction:
- annual expenditures = yearly spending
- cell phone services = mobile phones
- residential services = landline phones

Two possible main points for your overview / summary:
- compare the two trends over the whole period
- say what happened in 2006

Select key details:
- compare the figures for 2001
- describe the changes in expenditure over the following 5 years
- give the figures for 2006 (where the two lines meet)
- finish with a comparison of spending in 2010

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'money' topic

Following on from yesterday's video, let's look at a writing task 2 question:

After leaving school or university, young people should choose a job or career that they love, rather than one that pays the best salary. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Don't attempt this question without spending some time planning first:

• Decide on your overall point of view: agree or disagree (or maybe 'partly agree').
• Plan your 4-paragraph essay structure: what will each paragraph be about?
• Note some ideas for each main paragraph: think about how you will explain your ideas in detail, and what real-life examples you could use.

IELTS Listening: 'money' topic

I'd like to use the following video to get you thinking about the 'money' topic for writing task 2. We'll look at a task 2 question for this topic tomorrow.

If you can't see the video, listen to the recording below.

Click here to listen

Questions:
Can you summarise the speaker's views? To what extent do you agree with him?

IELTS Advice: phrases and collocations

To get a good IELTS score, you need to use the kind of language that native speakers might use. This doesn't mean 'difficult words', it means good groups of words (phrases and collocations).

When reading, try to look for phrases that English speakers use. Here's an example paragraph from the Economist Magazine with a few useful words and phrases underlined.

It is always a little disconcerting to realise a generation has grown up never knowing what it was like to manage without something that is taken for granted today. A case in point: the World Wide Web (WWW), which celebrated the 20th anniversary of its introduction last Saturday. It is no exaggeration to say that not since the invention of the printing press has a new media technology altered the way people think, work and play quite so extensively. With the web having been so thoroughly embraced socially, politically and economically, the world has become an entirely different place from what it was just two decades ago.

IELTS Grammar: correct the mistakes

Try to correct the mistakes in the sentences below:

1. Most of advertising aim to persuade people that buying things will make them happier.
2. Advertisers use every efforts to make their products more attractive.
3. Governments should control advertising or even banned.

I'll give you my answers in the "comments" area tomorrow.

IELTS Writing Task 1: make your own questions

Yesterday I suggested making your own questions for writing task 2. To make a task 1 question, just do a Google image search for graphs, charts etc. Choose something simple, and try describing it.

For example, here's a line graph that I found:

IELTS Writing Task 2: make your own questions

A useful way to practise is to write your own questions. By doing this, you can cover a range of topics without needing to search for questions in books or on the Internet. You can also keep the questions clear and simple.

Let's write 3 questions about 'population growth' (yesterday's listening topic):

Discussion question
The populations of many countries are increasing rapidly. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this trend.

Opinion question
Many people believe that it is time to limit population growth. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Problem and solution
The populations of many countries are increasing rapidly. Explain what problems this trend may cause, and suggest some possible solutions.

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's my keyword table for test 1, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS 6:

Note:
Did you study this table carefully? Did you know the words credibility, hardships, sustenance, struggle, harsh, abandon?

IELTS Speaking: if you don't know the answer

How do you answer a question when you don't know anything about the topic?
There are 2 things you can do:

1. Be honest and explain why you don't know
2. Guess, and tell the examiner that you are guessing

Example question:

How has technology affected the kinds of music that young people listen to?

My answer, using both tips above:

(1) To be honest I don't really know the answer to that because I'm completely out of touch with what young people are listening to, and I'm not a fan of pop music.
(2) However, I suppose that technology must have affected music. Maybe young people are listening to music that has been made using computer software instead of real musical instruments like the piano or guitar.

IELTS Writing Task 2: two common mistakes

Here are two mistakes that students often make:

• Using "although" wrongly
• Always putting a comma after "that"

Look at these incorrect sentences:

1. Although, tourism has many benefits, but it also has some drawbacks.
2. Many people believe that, parents should be strict.

Now look at the correct sentences:

1. Although tourism has many benefits, it also has some drawbacks.
2. Many people believe that parents should be strict.

IELTS Reading: easy keywords

Here are some easy 'keywords' that helped my students to get the answers for the General reading test on page 116 of Cambridge IELTS 6:

IELTS General Writing: environment letter

Here's my full letter for last week's question:

IELTS Advice: don't overthink your answers

Question 4 in Monday's reading lesson caused some problems because many people fell into the trap of 'overthinking' the answer. They were worried about the precise meaning of the word "infants", and whether it meant the same thing as "pre-school age children".

In the reading test, you shouldn't worry about such precise distinctions. It's enough to recognise that both "infants" and "pre-school age children" are very young children. The answer would be 'false' if the question mentioned "teenagers" or "adolescents" - these are definitely not pre-school ages.

Remember that the people who write these questions rely on paraphrasing and synonyms; it wouldn't really test your English if every question contained the exact words from the passage. If the words have basically the same meaning, don't analyse them any further.

IELTS Speaking Part 3: questions about the future

When the examiner asks a question like the one below, you know that you are being tested on your ability to express ideas in the future tense.

How do you think the design of homes will change in the future?

Example answer:
I don't think there will be much change in terms of what houses look like from the outside. In this country, people still like traditional brick or stone houses. Having said that, the design of apartment blocks will probably continue to develop, with more and more experimental or futuristic buildings made of glass and metal. I imagine that it will be the insides of homes that change the most; houses will no doubt be full of technological devices to make our lives easier. Maybe we'll have things like voice-controlled doors, lights and appliances.

IELTS Writing Task 2: ways to prepare

Many students only do one thing to prepare for writing task 2: they write lots of full essays. Although it's obviously important to practise writing full essays, there are other things that I think you should be doing.

Here are some study ideas for writing task 2:

1) Break the task into parts
Instead of writing a full essay today, why not try writing 5 different introductions using my 2-sentence technique? Or challenge yourself to write 3 different main-body paragraphs about "advantages" (e.g. advantages of mobile phones, homeschooling and immigration) - use this lesson to help you. Or write 5 different conclusions - just one sentence each, summarising your response to 5 different questions.

2) Do some research
Instead of worrying about one particular question, try to find 10 recent exam questions (maybe using this page). Write the questions on a piece of paper, decide what the general topic is for each one (e.g. advertising, prisons, life expectancy) and do some research about those topics. Don't worry about the exact question, just try to "collect" good ideas and vocabulary for the overall topic. A quick search on Google or Wikipedia should give you what you need.

3) What do you believe?
A big problem for some students is that they don't have well-formed opinions. They're not sure what to write about topics like homeschooling, immigration or gun control. The good news is that there is no 'correct' opinion - the examiner is only looking at how well you express your opinions in English. So, after doing some research (see point 2 above), make sure you have an opinion of your own.

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about a method for music teaching.

The Suzuki method is a method of teaching music conceived and executed by Japanese violinist Shin'ichi Suzuki (born 1898, died 1998), dating from the mid-20th century. The central belief of Suzuki is that all people are capable of learning from their environment. The essential components of his method spring from the desire to create the "right environment" for learning music. He also believed that this positive environment would also help to foster character in students.

As a skilled violinist but a beginner at the German language who struggled to learn it, Suzuki noticed that children pick up their native language quickly, and even dialects adults consider "difficult" to learn are spoken with ease by 5-year-olds. He reasoned that if children have the skill to acquire their mother tongue, then they have the necessary ability to become proficient on a musical instrument. He pioneered the idea that pre-school age children could learn to play the violin if learning steps were small enough and if the instrument was scaled down to fit their body.

Decide whether the following statements are true, false or not given.

1. Suzuki believed that environment is crucial for anyone learning a musical instrument.
2. His method helped him to learn German.
3. Suzuki compared language learning with learning to play an instrument.
4. He introduced new ideas about teaching music to infants.

IELTS General Writing: environment problem

Here's a recent question from General IELTS writing task 1:

My advice is to choose an easy topic like "litter". Write a quick plan with ideas for each bullet point. If you need some help, have a look at this website.

IELTS Speaking: a preparation technique

A good way to prepare for IELTS speaking is to take one topic area and practise possible questions for all 3 parts. Here are some examples:

'Home' topic

Part 1 - give short answers
1. Do you live in a house or a flat?
2. What's your favourite room in your home? Why?
3. What would you like to change about your home? Why?
4. Would you like to move house in the future?

Part 2 - speak for 2 minutes
Describe an interesting home that you have visited.

Part 3 - give longer answers
1. What factors do you think are important when choosing where to live?
2. Compare life in a city with life in the countryside.
3. How do you think the design of homes will change in the future?