IELTS Simon

Message from Simon

I'm going to take a one-week break from work to spend some time with family and friends over Christmas. I'll be back to normal on Wednesday 1st January, hopefully with some interesting news about my lessons in 2014.

IELTS Reading: practice test with 'paragraph' questions

Today I'm attaching part of a real IELTS reading test. You'll see that the first section asks "Which paragraph contains the following information?" Try doing these "paragraph" questions last; hopefully you'll find them easier when you've done the other questions and become familiar with the passage.

Click here to download the reading test

Feel free to share your answers in the "comments" area.

IELTS Advice: Cambridge past papers

Have you done all of the practice tests (including the general training reading tests) in all nine of the Cambridge books?

If you have, my advice is to do them again! This time, don't use the books for testing. Study and analyse the questions and answers carefully, use a dictionary to look up new vocabulary, try writing essays without a time limit, and record yourself answering the speaking questions. There is so much that you can learn from past exam papers.

IELTS Writing Task 1: nouns and verbs

Charts and tables usually show nouns rather than verbs. However, you need to find the right verb in order to write a good sentence. Example:

Don't write:
- Walking was 255 miles per person in 1985.
- Car was the highest form of transport.

Do write:
- The average person walked 255 miles in 1985.
- People travelled more miles by car than by any other form of transport.

(Table taken from Cambridge IELTS 6, page 52)

IELTS Advice: test your vocabulary range

Candidates who get higher IELTS scores tend to use a wider range of vocabulary. A quick way to test your 'vocabulary range' is to challenge yourself to explain something in as many different ways as possible.

Example: I asked my students to explain the word 'recreation'

Short answer:
doing things that you enjoy

Longer answer showing a wider vocabulary range:
doing things that you enjoy; activities for fun or pleasure; leisure activities; what you do in your free time outside work; maybe pastimes or hobbies; it could include sports, games, or just relaxing and unwinding when you have time to yourself...

IELTS Advice: how closely did you look?

How closely did you look at the essay in Wednesday's lesson? Did you read it quickly, and think to yourself: "ok, I understand it"?

Or did you look closely at the words, phrases, grammar, paragraph structure, and development of ideas? Did you make any notes? Did you use those notes to rewrite the essay, and then compare your essay with mine?

IELTS Speaking: full test

Here's what a full test looks like. All of the questions below come from recent tests and have been shared by students here or on my Facebook page.

PART 1

What is your full name? Can I see your ID? (this is not part of the test)

1. Where are you from?
2. Do you like the place where you live?
3. Do you work or are you a student?
4. What job do you do?
5. Do you like walking?
6. Do you think walking is important?
7. Do you think walking in the countryside is better than walking in the city?
8. What could be done to improve the experience of walking in cities?

PART 2

PART 3

1. In your country, how do people treat visitors?
2. Do you think hospitality is less important than it was in the past?
3. What are the benefits of staying with a friend when visiting a new place?
4. What are the advantages of staying in a hotel instead?

IELTS Writing Task 1: paraphrasing

If you've read my advice about how to write an introduction for writing task 1, you'll know that we simply paraphrase the question statement (we rewrite it using different words). A good idea would be to go through all of my sample task 1 reports, and make a list of paraphrased items.

Working back from my most recent lesson, here's some paraphrasing that I used in my introductions:

• graph = line graph
• trends in = changes in
• US consumption = consumption in the United States
• chart = flow chart (also: bar chart, pie chart, table)
• the process of paper recycling = how paper is recycled
• the diagram = the figure
• shows = illustrates
• to produce forecasts = to forecast
• shows = compares
• the total number = the overall number
• various mobile phone features = different functions of mobile phones
• maps show = diagrams illustrate
• an island before and after = some changes to an island

See if you can continue this list. I'm sure you'll find it useful to have a large paraphrasing repertoire.

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'foreign tourists' essay

Foreign visitors should pay more than local visitors for cultural and historical attractions. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

It is sometimes argued that tourists from overseas should be charged more than local residents to visit important sites and monuments. I completely disagree with this idea.

The argument in favour of higher prices for foreign tourists would be that cultural or historical attractions often depend on state subsidies to keep them going, which means that the resident population already pays money to these sites through the tax system. However, I believe this to be a very shortsighted view. Foreign tourists contribute to the economy of the host country with the money they spend on a wide range of goods and services, including food, souvenirs, accommodation and travel. The governments and inhabitants of every country should be happy to subsidise important tourist sites and encourage people from the rest of the world to visit them.

If travellers realised that they would have to pay more to visit historical and cultural attractions in a particular nation, they would perhaps decide not to go to that country on holiday. To take the UK as an example, the tourism industry and many related jobs rely on visitors coming to the country to see places like Windsor Castle or Saint Paul’s Cathedral. These two sites charge the same price regardless of nationality, and this helps to promote the nation’s cultural heritage. If overseas tourists stopped coming due to higher prices, there would be a risk of insufficient funding for the maintenance of these important buildings.

In conclusion, I believe that every effort should be made to attract tourists from overseas, and it would be counterproductive to make them pay more than local residents.

(269 words, band 9)

IELTS Vocabulary: good phrases

Looking back at yesterday's lesson, I'm surprised to see how many good phrases I used. Try making your own sentences with the phrases below. Check to see how I used them before you write anything.

- caught my eye
- out of curiosity
- I ended up (+ing)
- dedicated to
- I hadn't intended to.....
- approached me
- I wondered what..... were
- the various..... on show
- I found..... fascinating
- he had a passion for.....
- he didn't mind (+ing)
- I had made it clear that.....

IELTS Writing Task 2: strong opinion answer

Foreign visitors should pay more than local visitors for cultural and historical attractions. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Last week I said that we needed a 'strong opinion' answer to the question above. Here's my suggested outline for a 4-paragraph essay:

1. Introduction: make your opinion clear (e.g. I completely disagree)
2. First reason why you disagree
3. Second reason why you disagree
4. Conclusion: repeat / summarise your opinion

Note: It is possible to mention the opposite view in one of the main paragraphs, but you should make it very clear that you disagree with it. Here's an example:

IELTS Listening: improve your 'ear'

Improve your 'ear' was point 7 in the list of advice that I gave last week. Here's some more practice to help you with that.

I noted down some useful vocabulary while watching the video. Click here to download my notes.

IELTS Grammar: two important points

Here are two grammar points to note from the mistakes in Friday's lesson:

1. Commas don't connect sentences
You can't write "They asked me to do an interview, I felt so shy" with a comma connecting the two ideas. You would need a full stop or a linking word like "and" or "but" (e.g. They asked me to do an interview, but I felt so shy).

2. Don't put "which" and "it" together
You can't write "a conversation which I found it interesting". Delete the "it".

Click here to see all of the answers to Friday's exercise.