IELTS Simon

IELTS Advice: boring hard work

I often advise students to try to enjoy studying English and preparing for the IELTS test.

However, sometimes the boring things are the most useful: rewriting an essay to improve it, looking up words in a dictionary, learning correct spellings by heart. If you're not doing any boring work, maybe you're not working hard enough!

IELTS Speaking: new video lesson (free)

I've just finished my final video lesson for IELTS speaking part 2. In this lesson I talk about questions that don't seem to fit into the six main topic areas.

To watch the video lesson click here.

IELTS Writing Task 1: pie charts about water use

Water usage seems to be a common topic in writing task 1. Have a look at the following pie chart question:

The pie charts below compare water usage in San Diego, California and the rest of the world.
mm

Source: www.wrsc.org

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'one idea' paragraph

Today's lesson is a little longer than usual, so I'm attaching it as a PDF.

Click here to see the lesson

IELTS Reading: more keywords from book 10

Here's a keyword table for test 1, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 10. If you have book 10, try this test and underline the phrases below.

IELTS Vocabulary: collocations

Did you notice the following phrase in my conclusion in Wednesday's lesson?

"companies should place as much importance on their social responsibilities"

Notice the "verb + noun" collocation that I used: place importance on

Did you know that we can say "place importance on something"? Have you ever used this collocation / phrase yourself?

You might think that you know the word "importance", but I would be surprised if you knew all of the common collocations on this webpage. Remember: it's easy to learn the meaning of a word, but this doesn't mean that you know all of the word's uses.

Online speaking practice

People sometimes ask whether I know anyone who offers online speaking practice through Skype.

One of my colleagues has set up a service that works in a similar way to Skype lessons. If you would like to try an online speaking lesson with a one-to-one teacher, email me (ieltssimon@gmail.com) and I will forward your message to my colleague.

IELTS Speaking Part 2: adapting your prepared ideas

If you've prepared the six main topics well, you should be able to adapt and use your prepared ideas for most questions. Take the following question, for example:

Describe a beautiful sky that you watched

I would adapt my description of London (main topic: describe a place). I already have some good ideas: the spectacular views, the skyline, the iconic buildings, the landmarks etc. I could simply add that I watched the sunset from a 'vantage point' overlooking the city centre. This question now seems a lot easier!

Have another look through the topics that people shared in the comments below last week's lesson, and think about whether you could adapt your ideas from one of the six main topics.

Note:
Not every question can be answered by adapting the main topics. I'll cover some possible solutions to this problem in my next video lesson.

IELTS Writing Task 1: charts showing countries

A few things to remember when the graph or chart shows countries:

1. If the question doesn't name the countries (e.g. "in three countries"), you could name them in your introduction (e.g. "in Britain, France and Germany"). You could even write "in three countries, namely Britain, France and Germany".
2. Don't forget the word "the" when writing about "the USA" and "the UK".
3. Always compare the countries; never describe the figures for each country in separate paragraphs.

Finally, try to vary the way you write about countries. For example:

• The number of elderly people in the USA rose.
• The USA saw a rise in the number of elderly people.
• The figure for the USA rose.

IELTS Writing Task 2: short, fast conclusions

It's nice to finish your essay with a conclusion, but I'd say that the conclusion is the least important part of your essay. Don't worry too much if you don't have time to write one; your main body paragraphs are much more important.

I advise people to write short, fast conclusions. Just paraphrase the overall answer that you gave in your introduction. For example:

My introduction from last week's lesson:
Businesses have always sought to make a profit, but it is becoming increasingly common to hear people talk about the social obligations that companies have. I completely agree with the idea that businesses should do more for society than simply make money.

My short, fast conclusion:
In conclusion, I believe that companies should place as much importance on their social responsibilities as they do on their financial objectives.

Note:
Can you find examples of paraphrasing in the introduction and conclusion above?

IELTS Advice: why many teachers get it wrong

In yesterday's lesson I asked why teachers often give students the wrong advice about IELTS writing. This can happen even with teachers who are generally very good at teaching English.

In my experience, the reason is simple:

Many teachers have been trained to teach academic writing for university, but they haven't had any specific IELTS training. IELTS writing follows a few different rules compared to university writing, and teachers aren't always aware of the differences. Maybe we need a list of these differences; can you think of any?

Students' questions, and the wrong advice

Here are two questions that a student (Javier) asked in a 'comment' this week:

1. Is it correct to use personal examples to support my ideas? Some teachers told me I shouldn't, because these examples are not objective or universal.
2. I used your "firstly, secondly, finally" structure in one of my body paragraphs, but I was told that I gave too many ideas, which were not well-supported.

Javier was given the wrong advice by his teachers. Here are my answers:

1. Below every IELTS writing question it says: "Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience". The question tells us to use our own experiences, and there is nothing in the examiners' marking system that mentions the need for 'objective' or 'universal' examples.
2. If the question asks for 'advantages', 'problems', 'reasons' etc., you need to give more than one. So it's fine to give three and use a "firstly, secondly, finally" structure! People often forget that the topic sentence gives the main idea of the paragraph, and the three points in a "firstly, secondly, finally" structure are supporting ideas.

Why do so many teachers give the wrong advice about IELTS writing?
I'll try to answer this tomorrow.

IELTS Speaking Part 2: outside the main topics

Recently I've made video lessons about the 6 main topic areas for IELTS speaking part 2:

1. Describe a person
2. Describe a place
3. Describe an object
4. Describe an event
5. Describe an activity
6. Describe your favourites

But what do you do if the task in your speaking test isn't related to one of these main topic areas?

This will be the subject of my next video lesson. Before I publish the lesson, can you remember seeing any questions that didn't seem to fit into one of the 6 main areas? Please share your examples in the 'comments' below this lesson.

Note: Please only share questions from a real test that you had, or from one of the official IELTS books. Don't use questions that you've found on the Internet, or that a teacher or another student has invented. Let's stick to real, reliable questions only.

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'completely agree' introduction

Many IELTS candidates waste time writing long introductions, because they believe that the introduction is the key to a high score.

This approach is wrong. The main body paragraphs are the key to a high score, so it's best to keep your introduction short. Just introduce the topic and give an overall answer to the question. For example:

Question:
As well as making money, businesses also have social responsibilities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

2-sentence introduction:
Businesses have always sought to make a profit, but it is becoming increasingly common to hear people talk about the social obligations that companies have. I completely agree with the idea that businesses should do more for society than simply make money.

Tip:
Try searching online for "corporate social responsibility" to see what people are saying about this issue.

IELTS Reading: keyword demonstration

The following question demonstrates the 'keyword technique'.

Question (true, false or not given?)
New trainees who want work experience should check out vacancies before they depart.

Passage
What's more important to you - travel or work experience? You can be flexible with travel plans but you must research job opportunities in advance.

Task
The correct answer is 'true', but can you complete the keyword table below to show how we found this answer?

IELTS Advice: do something every day

For various reasons, I haven't been able to write today's blog post until now (6pm in the UK). Some days I have plenty of time to make a good lesson or even write a full essay, while other days I might only have time to write a quick tip. The important thing, I think, is to stick to my daily blogging habit and keep going.

I give the same advice to my students: If you want to improve your English and your IELTS score, just do something every day that helps you to move forward.

IELTS Vocabulary: learn from examples

Instead of looking for a grammatical explanation for the use of a word or phrase, it's often better to search for real examples of usage.

Take the following question, for example. A student asked me:

Is there a difference between "in terms of" and "with regard to"? When and how should we use these phrases?

Task:
Can you find 3 examples of each of the two phrases in the student's question above? Use a search engine, such as Google, and choose examples that come from reliable sources (e.g. newspaper articles). Does this help you to see how and when the two phrases are used? Do you think there is a difference between them?

IELTS Speaking Part 2: preparing vocabulary

My main tip for speaking part 2 is to prepare good vocabulary for common topics. This is what I've done in each of my video lessons for this part of the test.

On the task card, the last bullet point always asks you to explain why. This is the best part of the question in terms of vocabulary preparation. Let's take the "describe a family" question as an example:

Describe a family (not your own family) that you like. You should say

- how you know this family
- who the people in the family are
- what the members of the family are like
- and explain WHY you like this family.

Here are some ideas for the "why" part of this task:

• friendly, kind, caring, big-hearted
• supportive, always there when you need them
• good role models, they set a good example
• welcoming, great hosts, their door is always open

Can you think of any more words or phrases to add to this list?

IELTS Writing Task 1: simplified introduction

Last week I asked you to look for problems in this introduction:

The bar graphs give information and compare between the kinds of jobs opted by UK's undergraduate and postgraduate students who did not go for a full time job after completing their degrees in 2008.

Here are some things that you might have noticed:

• give information and compare between: We don't need two verbs at the beginning of the introduction, and "between" doesn't work with either of them. Either write "give information about" or "compare" (without the word "between").
• kinds of jobs: The charts show activities like "further study", so we can't write about "jobs" here.
• opted by: We say "opt for" in English, so we would need to write "opted for by" in this case, which seems awkward to me. It would be easier to use "chosen by". However, as one of the categories on the chart is "unemployment", maybe it isn't accurate to write about this as a choice.
• UK's: using a possessive with the country seems strange in this situation. Instead, we can use "UK" as an adjective (e.g. UK graduates), or simply write "in the UK".
• go for a job seems a bit informal in this situation.

Here's a simplified and corrected version of the introduction:

The bar charts give information about the career paths of UK undergraduate and postgraduate students who were not in full-time employment after completing their degrees in 2008.

IELTS Writing Task 2: the easiest way

In last week's lesson I asked you to think about the easiest way to answer this question:

As well as making money, businesses also have social responsibilities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

For me, the easiest way would be to completely agree. Here's a quick plan for a 4-paragraph answer:

1. Introduction: introduce the topic and completely agree
2. Main paragraph: explain why you agree that businesses need to make money, and what would happen if they didn't (perhaps mention that many social responsibilities depend on money)
3. Main paragraph: explain why you agree that businesses also have social responsibilities (give examples)
4. Conclusion: repeat / summarise your answer

A few people shared more detailed plans in the comments below last week's lesson. Have a look at their ideas regarding the 'social responsibilities' of businesses.

IELTS Reading: improve your vocabulary

Whenever you practise doing an IELTS reading test, you should treat it as an opportunity to improve your vocabulary knowledge. Look carefully at the phrases used, and the way ideas are expressed.

For example, did you notice this vocabulary in last week's lesson?

• change (verb) over time
• make use of
• gather knowledge about
• apply a method
• make inferences about
• trace something back to
• is derived from

Try making your own sentences to practise using some of these phrases.

IELTS Advice: notice your mistakes

Students often don't notice when a teacher corrects their mistakes.

Look at this example of a conversation between a student and a teacher:

Student: I gave the IELTS test five times.
Teacher: Oh, you've taken the test five times?
Student: Yes, the last time I gave it was two weeks ago.

The student doesn't notice that the teacher is correcting a mistake. In English we don't say "give a test" (unless you are the examiner giving the test to the students), we say "take a test".

When a teacher repeats something that you said in a different way, it's possible that you made a mistake. Listen carefully, and try to notice mistakes and corrections. If you're not sure, ask the teacher whether you made a mistake.

Students' questions

1. Is it ok to use the words "I", "my" and "we" in writing task 2?

Yes, it's perfectly ok to use those words. You might be told to avoid them in university assignments, but the advice for IELTS is different. If the question asks for your opinion, you will probably need to write "I agree", "I believe" or "in my opinion".

2. Can we invent facts or figures in writing task 2?

I don't recommend inventing statistics or news stories. I always think that doing this makes writing seem 'false'. Just explain your own ideas and opinions, and give reasons and examples.

3. Can we use "you" to talk about people in general?

In the speaking test, it's fine to say something like "when you go on holiday, you have the chance to relax". But in a written essay, I would prefer to change this e.g. "when people go on holiday...".

4. Is it ok to use "firstly" and "secondly" without a "finally" idea?

Yes, that's fine.

5. Will I lose marks if I don't give both views in writing task 2?

It depends on the question. If the question asks you to discuss both views, you must do this. However, if the question asks whether you agree or disagree, you definitely don't need to mention both sides of the argument.

IELTS Speaking Part 2: recent question

Here's a recent part 2 task that a student sent me:

Describe a family (not your own family) that you like. You should say

how you know this family
who the people in the family are
what the members of the family are like
and explain why you like this family.

For this task, you could choose your neighbours, a friend's family, or even a famous family. If you have already prepared a description of a person, try to adapt and use some of the same ideas.