IELTS Simon

IELTS Reading is a vocabulary test

You can't get a high score in the IELTS reading test without learning a lot of vocabulary.

For example, here are some words and phrases that my students needed to know for a reading test that we did:

• remained = stayed
• took a long time = slow
• of varying (size, price etc) = of different (size, price)
• virtually any = almost any
• non-stop = continuous
• unblemished = perfect, without a mark or scratch
• molten (glass or metal) = in liquid form due to heat
• instant commercial success = made a profit straight away
• flaws = faults, mistakes, weaknesses
• detecting = locating, finding, discovering

Write the new words and phrases that you read or hear in a notebook - that's the best way to improve your vocabulary knowledge.

New video lesson: multiple choice

I've just published a video lesson about multiple choice questions in the reading test. You can find the lesson at the bottom of this webpage.

IELTS Advice: technique and language

Exam technique is obviously important. Good preparation means knowing how to approach each part of the test.

However, exam technique won't help someone with intermediate language skills to get an 'advanced' score (band 7 or higher). Exam technique just helps you to get the score that your current language level deserves.

So keep doing the exam practice, but don't stop working on your English language skills!

IELTS Vocabulary: more good phrases

There were several good words and phrases in this week's lessons here on the blog. Here are some of them, and I've left gaps to encourage you to look a bit harder!

1. universities became accessible to the ______
2. talented ______ film-makers
3. given the opportunity to ______ themselves
4. a ______ of other costs
5. partly ______ by government subsidies
6. foreign productions ______ the market
7. percentage of ______ inhabitants
8. each five-year age ______
9. each five-year ______
10. No significant ______ differences can be seen

IELTS Speaking Part 2: 'film' topic

As Wednesday's lesson was about films, now is a good time to look at a similar speaking question:

Tip:
Try using some of the good vocabulary from the essay I shared on Wednesday. You could even choose the next James Bond film as your answer.

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'foreign films' essay

Here's my full essay for the question that we've been working on recently.

Many people prefer to watch foreign films rather than locally produced films. Why could this be?
Should governments give more financial support to local film industries?

It is true that foreign films are more popular in many countries than domestically produced films. There could be several reasons why this is the case, and I believe that governments should promote local film-making by subsidising the industry.

There are various reasons why many people find foreign films more enjoyable than the films produced in their own countries. Firstly, the established film industries in certain countries have huge budgets for action, special effects and to shoot scenes in spectacular locations. Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Avatar’ or the James Bond films are examples of such productions, and their global appeal is undeniable. Another reason why these big-budget films are so successful is that they often star the most famous actors and actresses, and they are made by the most accomplished producers and directors. The poor quality, low-budget filmmaking in many countries suffers in comparison.

In my view, governments should support local film industries financially. In every country, there may be talented amateur film-makers who just need to be given the opportunity to prove themselves. To compete with big-budget productions from overseas, these people need money to pay for film crews, actors and a host of other costs related to producing high-quality films. If governments did help with these costs, they would see an increase in employment in the film industry, income from film sales, and perhaps even a rise in tourist numbers. New Zealand, for example, has seen an increase in tourism related to the 'Lord of the Rings' films, which were partly funded by government subsidies.

In conclusion, I believe that increased financial support could help to raise the quality of locally made films and allow them to compete with the foreign productions that currently dominate the market.

(294 words, band 9)

Note:
I'm not really sure whether the New Zealand example is true, but it's fine to invent this kind of thing in the test!

IELTS Listening: 'work' topic

Did you have a look through the videos on the School of Life channel that I mentioned last week? Here's another interesting video that I found on there:

If you can't see the video, listen to this audio recording:

Click here to listen

Tasks:
- What were the six ideas that the speaker mentioned?
- Did you hear any useful vocabulary?

IELTS Advice: misinformation!

This week someone asked me a question which included the following statement:

Some examiners do not agree with the use of "I" in the writing test.

My question is: who are these examiners? I can't believe that examiners would ignore their training and penalise the use of "I". How are candidates expected to answer the question "Do you agree or disagree?" without using "I" or "my" (e.g. I completely disagree)? Also, if the personal pronoun "you" is used in the question, why would personal pronouns be prohibited in your answer?

My guess is that this misinformation about the use of "I" is coming from teachers, not examiners. In my experience here in the UK, examiners are all well trained and they all work in the same way. They expect you to use phrases like "I believe" or "I agree" when the question asks for your opinion!

IELTS Vocabulary: weekly review

This week's lessons contained some good vocabulary. Here are some of the words and phrases that you could put in your notebook:

• cartography
• symptoms manifested
• fundamental things
• balance, symmetry and repetition
• soul-destroying
• rigid, bleak, relentless, harsh
• established film industries
• huge budgets, big-budget films
• shoot scenes in spectacular locations
• Hollywood blockbusters
• global appeal
• they star the most famous actors
• made by the most accomplished producers
• suffers in comparison
• in theory, in practice
• made a mess of (informal)
• the core of
• the point at which

IELTS Writing Task 1: six 'details' sentences

After writing an introduction and overview (summary), we need to describe some specific details that are shown on the graph, chart or diagram.

I usually write two 'details' paragraphs, with three sentences in each. That means we only need six 'details' sentences in total.

So, which details would you choose for your description of the two population pyramids in last week's lesson? Try writing just six sentences.

IELTS Writing Task 2: from plan to paragraph

If you have a 5-idea plan, it should be relatively easy to write a paragraph. Just make each point in your plan into a sentence. For example:

5-idea plan for "why people prefer foreign films"

1. Topic sentence - several reasons
2. First reason - budgets for action, special effects, spectacular locations
3. Example - Hollywood blockbusters like Avatar or James Bond films
4. Second reason - the most famous actors, actresses and directors
5. Final reason - poor quality local filmmaking in many countries

Full paragraph with 5-sentences (one for each idea)

There are several reasons why many people find foreign films more enjoyable than the films produced in their own countries. Firstly, the established film industries in certain countries have huge budgets for action, special effects and to shoot scenes in spectacular locations. Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Avatar’ or the James Bond films are examples of such productions, and their global appeal is undeniable. Another reason why these big-budget films are so successful is that they often star the most famous actors and actresses, and they are made by the most accomplished producers and directors. The poor quality, low-budget filmmaking in many countries suffers in comparison.

(106 words)

IELTS Listening: useful channel on YouTube

Today I found a great channel on YouTube called 'The School of Life'. Click here to visit it, and look through their videos to see what interests you.

Here's an example that might be useful for IELTS preparation:

If you can't see the video, here's an audio recording:

Click here to listen

Try completing this summary of the first 2 minutes of the video:

There are six fundamental things that a city needs to get ______. The first is order. Order means balance, ______ and repetition. But too much regularity can be soul-destroying; too much order feels rigid and ______. It can be bleak, relentless and ______. The ideal we're ______ is variey and order.

IELTS Reading: recent keywords

Here's a keyword table for the two most recent exercises that I put here on the blog. Click here to see one of them, and here to check the other.

Note: Don't just have a quick look at this table. Look carefully at the vocabulary, and make a note of anything useful.

Cambridge IELTS book 10

This week I bought the latest collection of past exam papers from Cambridge IELTS. It's always a good idea to practise with the most recent past papers that you can find, so I definitely recommend getting a copy of this book if you can.

Click on the image above to see the book on Amazon.co.uk.

IELTS Grammar: correct the mistakes

Can you correct the small mistake(s) in each of the following sentences, or change the sentences to make them more natural?

1. Global filmmaking companies have more budget for action, special effects and spectacular locations.
2. Governments should support local film industries by financially support the film makers.
3. If governments help local movie industry, it would create employment opportunities.
4. There are several reasons why locally made films lose popularity to foreign films.
5. The following essay will discuss in details about the issue.

IELTS Writing Task 1: introduction and overview

The charts below compare the age structure of the populations of France and India in 1984.
mm

mm
Introduction: paraphrase the question statement
The two charts compare the populations of France and India in terms of age distribution by gender in the year 1984.

Overview: two main points
It is clear that the population of India was younger than that of France in 1984, with a noticeably larger proportion of people aged under 20. France, on the other hand, had a significantly larger percentage of elderly inhabitants.

IELTS Writing Task 2: plan for 5-sentence paragraphs

Over the last few weeks I've been using this question:

Many people prefer to watch foreign films rather than locally produced films. Why could this be?
Should governments give more financial support to local film industries?

Here's my plan for the two main body paragraphs, each with 5 sentences:

First main paragraph: Why could this be?

1. Topic sentence - several reasons
2. First reason - budgets for action, special effects, spectacular locations
3. Example - Hollywood blockbusters like Avatar or James Bond films
4. Second reason - the most famous actors, actresses and directors
5. Final reason - poor quality local filmmaking in many countries

Second main paragraph: Should governments give financial support?

1. Topic sentence - governments should support local film industries
2. Explain why - talented local film-makers need opportunities
3. Explain more - they need money to pay film crews, actors etc.
4. Explain consequences - would lead to employment, income, tourism
5. Example - invent an example about your country!

IELTS Reading: confusing choices

This week I'm making a video lesson about multiple choice questions in the reading test. To give you an idea of how confusing these questions can be, let's look at an example from the Official IELTS Practice Materials book.

I've underlined keywords in the question, choices and passage. Notice that words from all four choices are mentioned in the passage. But which choice is correct?

Question:

The Library of Congress offers and opportunity to

A) borrow from their collection of Dutch maps
B) learn how to restore ancient and fragile maps
C) enjoy the atmosphere of the reading room
D) create individual computer maps to order

Excerpt from passage:

The world’s largest collection of maps resides in the basement of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The collection, consisting of up to 4.6 million map sheets and 63,000 atlases, includes magnificent bound collections of elaborate maps - the pride of the golden age of Dutch cartography. In the reading room scholars, wearing thin cotton gloves to protect the fragile sheets, examine ancient maps with magnifying glasses. Across the room people sit at their computer screens, studying the latest maps. With their prodigious memories, computers are able to store data about people, places and environments - the stuff of maps - and almost instantly information is displayed on the screen in the desired geographic context, and at the click of a button, a print-out of the map appears.

Mock IELTS test (Manchester)

People often ask me if it's possible to take a realistic mock test, so I've decided to try offering one here in Manchester next month (11th July).

My mock test won't give people an official IELTS score; it's just an opportunity to practise doing a full day of testing. However, it will be much cheaper than a real test, I'll send results the next day, and I'll also provide feedback - a brief explanation of each score and what the candidate could do to improve. If you can travel to Manchester, you are welcome to attend the test. Click here for more information.

I'll let you all know whether people find the mock test useful. Maybe it's something that other teachers around the world could offer too.

IELTS Vocabulary: lists of 3

For my first answer in yesterday's lesson I wrote: "I like reading, learning from others, and trying to understand difficult concepts." As you can see, I gave a list of 3 things that I like about studying.

Here are some more "lists of 3" that I could have used in my answers:

• I prefer to study alone so that I can concentrate, think deeply, and stay focused on the task.
• I like studying in the library because of its peaceful, studious and contemplative atmosphere.
• When someone disturbs me I feel frustrated, annoyed and impatient.

Making "lists of 3" is a good way to practise adding variety to the language that you use. Try it yourself!

IELTS Speaking Part 1: 'study' answers

Here are my sample answers to the questions in last week's lesson.

1. Do you like studying? Why / why not?

Yes, I like studying because it's the best way to gain a deeper insight into any subject. I like reading, learning from others, and trying to understand difficult concepts.

2. Do you prefer to study alone or with others? Why?

I prefer to study alone because I need to be able to concentrate fully. Other people are a distraction.

3. Where do you prefer to go when you need to study? Why?

I like to find a quiet corner in my local library; being in an old building and surrounded by books seems to help me to focus on my work.

4. How do you feel if someone disturbs you when you are studying?

It frustrates me because it breaks my concentration. I prefer to avoid distractions by going somewhere where nobody will interrupt me.

IELTS Writing Task 1: population pyramids

Have you ever tried describing this type of chart?

The charts below compare the age structure of the populations of France and India in 1984.
...

(Source: biology-pages.info)

IELTS Writing Task 2: two-part conclusion

Here's the introduction that I wrote for last week's lesson:

It is true that foreign films are more popular in many countries than domestically produced films. There could be several reasons why this is the case, and I believe that governments should promote local film-making by subsidising the industry.

Now, here's my conclusion:

In conclusion, I believe that increased financial support could help to raise the quality of locally made films and allow them to compete with the foreign productions that currently dominate the market.

Note:
- I wrote my conclusion by paraphrasing the introduction.
- In my conclusion, I changed the order of the two parts, mentioning the financial support first and the popularity of foreign films second.