IELTS Simon

IELTS Speaking Part 2: at home and in the test

Is there a difference between the way you practise at home and what you do in the test? Take this question for example:

Describe a subject that you think should be removed from school education programmes. You should say

- what the subject is
- why you think it is unnecessary for children to study it
- and explain what you would replace it with.

How would you plan and answer this question in the exam? What would you do to prepare and practise your answer at home?

I'll give you my suggestions in tomorrow's lesson.

IELTS Writing Task 2: firstly, secondly, finally

In last week's lesson I showed you a band 9 paragraph using a "firstly, secondly, finally" structure. I also asked you to think of some alternative words or phrases that we could use instead of "firstly, secondly, finally".

Click here to see some other ways to link 3 ideas in the same paragraph.

IELTS Listening: gap-fill summary

Listen to the recording, then fill the gaps in the summary below.

Click here to listen

Community service is the practice of ______ or ______ unpaid work. Examples of projects include cleaning a park, collecting items for ______ or cleaning ______ verges. Other examples include ______ children with learning disabilities or ______ money for the local area. Some students must do community service in order to receive their ______ ______ ______. 'Service learning' means that students have to show how their work has ______ to their education.

Some news from Simon

On the 1st of January I wrote two New Year's resolutions for my IELTS lessons this year. Here's a quick update:

1. The first resolution is going quite well. I'm still doing one video lesson every week (on YouTube and Vimeo), and people seem to be finding those lessons useful.
2. Unfortunately, it hasn't been so easy to find a way of doing good quality "live" video lessons. I'm afraid I'll have to postpone this idea while I experiment with different systems. It's not always easy to keep to a New Year's resolution!

IELTS Advice: create positive habits

I'm a great believer in the power of habits: if you do something often enough, it becomes easier and more natural to you.

An example could be the "why, alternative, example" technique from yesterday's speaking lesson. Imagine practising this technique once a day for a month. You might start to find it easy to give longer answers that include a conditional sentence (the 'alternative' part). This one simple habit could make a real difference in your test.

IELTS Speaking Part 3: add more detail

In this lesson I mentioned 3 techniques to help you give longer answers: ask yourself why, explain the alternatives, give an example.

Most students have no problem with the first step (explaining why), but they aren't so good at giving alternatives or examples. Take the following question from last week's lesson for example.

Question:
In your opinion, are newspapers important?

Example student answer:
Yes, in my opinion newspapers are very important (why?) because they give us information about what is happening around the world. (why?) They are a vital source of knowledge about education, technology, medicine and many other fields.

This is a good start, but let's try to raise the answer to band 9 level.

Example answer with 'alternative' and 'example':
Yes, in my opinion newspapers are very important (why?) because they give us information about what is happening around the world. (why?) They are a vital source of knowledge about education, technology, medicine and many other fields. (alternative?) If newspapers didn’t exist, I think the quality of news coverage would suffer because there would be fewer professional journalists. (example?) We would have to rely, for example, on unpaid bloggers who do not have the budgets to carry out detailed research before they write an article.

IELTS Writing Task 1: correct the mistakes

The following sentences were written about the table in this lesson. Try to correct or improve them.

1. In 2006, make calls was 100% of mobile phone users.
2. Text messaging was in second place and taking photos was third.
3. Playing games and music were less popular, they had less than 20% each.
4. In 2010, the use of mobiles to play games was increased significantly.

IELTS Writing Task 2: band 9 paragraph

Here's this week's video lesson:

One thing to think about:
It's best not to use "Firstly, Secondly, Finally" twice in one essay. If we wanted to write a second main paragraph with three ideas, what could we used instead of "Firstly, Secondly, Finally" to organise them?

IELTS Listening: 3D printing lecture

Listen to the recording and answer the questions below.

Click here to listen

1. Which 3D printed product can already be bought?

A) computers
B) glasses
C) mobile phones

2. Which THREE materials can be used in 3D printers?

A) paper
B) metal
C) wood
D) glass
E) concrete

3. Fill the gaps below with no more than TWO words.

Advantages of 3D printing:
As the technology develops, it will allow many products to be ______. Items will be delivered digitally, therefore reducing ______ and permitting more local manufacturing. The process will also lead to a reduction in ______ and a rise in ______.

IELTS Advice: from 6.5 to 7

One of the most common questions that people ask me is: "How can I improve my score from 6.5 to 7?"

Here's some advice if your current score is 6.5:

• The good news is that you are not doing anything wrong in terms of exam technique. The fact that you are getting 6.5 means that you are doing the exam in the right way.
• You are very close to getting a 7. In the writing and speaking tests, a score of 6.5 means that you are already achieving band 7 in half of the requirements.
• You don't need a special technique or piece of advice. You only need to make small improvements. For example, in the speaking and writing tests, try to express your ideas in a bit more detail, and try to reduce the number of small mistakes that you make.

Students' questions

1. Is it ok to use quotations by famous people in my task 2 essay?

I wouldn't recommend using quotations. Unless you have thousands of them in your head, it's unlikely that you'll remember a relevant one. The examiner is likely to judge a quotation as 'memorised language'.

2. How do examiners know whether I'm using 'memorised language'?

All of the language in your brain is memorised, so I should explain this properly. The examiner would be impressed by a memorised phrase like "greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming", if the question asked you to explain an environmental problem. However, examiners are not impressed by the kind of phrase that students think they can use for any question e.g. "This is a controversial issue that has led to heated debate among people on both sides". Can you see the difference?

3. Can you help me with apostrophes (e.g. student's or students')?

You really need a grammar website for help with that. Try this one.

4. Should we use different language in the speaking and writing tests?

You can use some less formal language in the speaking test. Here's an example.

IELTS Speaking Part 3: long answers

Try using the advice in this lesson to give long answers (3 to 5 sentences) to the following questions.

1) In your opinion, are newspapers important?
2) Do you think that newspapers will disappear as a result of the Internet?
3) What negative consequences might there be if newspapers did disappear?

IELTS Writing Task 2: short, clear introduction

My colleague, Peter, wrote an essay about last week's credit card question - to read the full essay, look for the comment by Peter Walton below the lesson.

For today, I want to focus on the introduction that Peter wrote:

It is all too easy to obtain a credit card and then to run up debts which are difficult to repay. In my opinion, the disadvantages of credit cards far outweigh the advantages.

It might seem easy, but for me this is the perfect introduction: it's short, clear, and it answers the question directly.

IELTS Listening: multiple-choice video lesson

Here's this week's video lesson:

IELTS General Writing: 'lost photo' letter

Here's my full answer to the question in this lesson:

IELTS Writing Advice: a useful question

A student asked me the following useful question:

I am confused about the question "Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?". Is this an opinion question or discussion + opinion question?

Here's my answer:

Strictly speaking, "Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?" is asking for your opinion (do you think there are more advantages or disadvantages?). Technically, you could give a one-sided "opinion" answer e.g. you could argue that there are many advantages and almost no disadvantages.

However, I think the examiner would expect and prefer to see a balanced discussion of both sides as well as your opinion. Therefore, I think it's best (and easiest) to write a discussion + opinion essay.

IELTS Writing Task 1: my method

Here's a video lesson that I made 3 years ago. Sorry if you've seen it before - I just want to put it in the series of videos that I'm sharing every week at the moment.

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'credit cards' question

Several people have asked me for help with the question below.

Nowadays it is easy to apply for and be given a credit card. However, some people experience problems when they are not be able to pay their debts back. In your opinion, do the advantages of credit cards outweigh the disadvantages?

You might be surprised to see a question about credit cards, but I don't think it's as bad as it seems. Let's summarise the advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:
A credit card gives you access to money and the facility to pay it back later, like a loan. This could be useful for emergencies or something expensive, like a holiday. Credit cards are a safe way to pay. Easy access to money means that people spend, and this benefits the economy.

Disadvantages:
Credit cards encourage people to spend money they do not have. Debts can build up and leave people in real financial difficulties. When people cannot pay their debts back, everyone suffers: those in debt may lose their homes, the banks lose money, and the whole economy suffers.

Task: Try using these ideas to write full paragraphs.

IELTS Writing Advice: short, fast introductions

Here's my latest video lesson about writing introductions for tasks 1 and 2.