IELTS Simon

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following passage and answer the two questions below it.

Physicist Richard Feynman returned over and over to an idea that drove his groundbreaking discoveries. His approach was documented by his Caltech colleague David Goodstein in the book Feynman’s Lost Lecture about physics classes Feynman taught in the 1960s:

Once, I said to him, “Dick, explain to me, so that I can understand it, why spin one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics.” Sizing up his audience perfectly, Feynman said, “I’ll prepare a freshman lecture on it.” But he came back a few days later to say, “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t reduce it to the freshman level. That means we don’t really understand it.”

Feynman didn’t mean all human knowledge must be distilled into an introductory college course. His point was that we need to build our grasp of science and technology from the ground up if we are to master it, not to mention reimagine how it works. Feynman was famous as a student for redoing many of physics’ early experiments himself to build a foundational understanding of the field. By mastering these first principles, Feynman often saw things that others did not in quantum mechanics, computing, and nuclear physics, earning him the Nobel Prize in 1965.

(Source: this article on qz.com)

1. When asked to explain a difficult concept, physicist Richard Feynman

A  immediately replied that he could not
B  replied that he had already prepared a lecture on it
C  said that he did not understand the concept either
D  promised to give his answer in an introductory lesson

2. Feynman believed that

A  scientists should master basic scientific principles first
B  early physics experiments need to be redone
C  most science students do not have a good foundation in physics
D  his knowledge of first principles earned him a Nobel Prize

Partner in China

I now have a partnership agreement with a language school in China, called "IELTSquan". So if you live in China, you can buy my video lessons through their website. The prices are the same as those on my video course website, but you might find it easier to make a payment to a local provider.

Click here to visit IELTSquan's website.

IELTS Advice: from a student who passed

Thanks to those of you who wished me a happy holiday! I'm feeling refreshed after a week off, and I thought it would be a good time to share a positive message that I received from a student, called Evan, who passed the IELTS test this month.

Here are the main parts of Evan's message:

Dear Simon,

I received my IELTS result this morning, and I am so happy to share with you that I've achieved my goal (7.0 for every part). I started taking IELTS in October 2016, and this is my 5th attempt. I would like to thank you very much for your useful lessons, tips and advice on your blog and your video course. I could not have got the results without it. I also want to share with you my experience, and hopefully this could once again prove that if one follows your method, he or she will succeed one day. 

My journey to achieving my IELTS goal has been very difficult and frustrating as I have been stuck with either writing or reading, especially writing. At some points I almost gave up and was thinking that IELTS may not be for me. But when I felt down, I read your posts and comments from successful takers, especially James Z, Chanaka and Kevin, which inspired me to continue. After my 4th attempt, I decided to take time off work so I could devote all my time to study. I studied from 9am to 6.30pm from Monday to Saturday for 5 weeks, and I wrote 34 essays and 11 letters following your method, and had 6 essays and 2 letters corrected. This helped identify my common mistakes, such as grammar error and word choice, and also to give me an idea of what a band 7.0 in writing would look like. I focused on learning topic vocabulary, and I practised the keyword technique for writing and listening. I strictly followed your advice for speaking part 1 (short and easy), part 2 (vocabulary theme) and part 3 (flow).

After all, I think that the key to IELTS band 7 includes the following:

1. Hard work always pays off.
2. Trust ielts-simon.com's lessons, you don't need any others, even books. In fact, I only used the 12 Cambridge books and Official Practice Materials from ielts.org.
3. Don't waste time and money to take the test repeatedly. Instead, concentrate on language learning, and take the test when you are ready.
4. Spend more time on studying and practising than testing (I found this advice from you the most useful).
5. Have someone to check your work to identify common mistakes.

Once again, thank you Simon very much and I really appreciate your work. Now,I can go back to work while preparing for the next chapter of my life with my IELTS result.

Regards,
Evan

Simon's on holiday

I'm taking a week off for my summer holiday from today until Sunday 30th July. I won't be able to write any blog lessons during this time, but my ebook and video lessons are available as normal.

See you next Sunday!

IELTS Advice: using the verb 'get'

A student pointed out that I often use the word 'get' in my sample answers for IELTS speaking. For example, I wrote "get cash out" in my answer to question 4 in yesterday's lesson.

So, is it acceptable to use the word 'get' or is it too informal? Here's my answer:

The word 'get' is used so often in spoken English that no native speaker (or examiner) will even notice that you've used it. In fact, it might even help to make your speech sound more fluent and natural if you use 'get' in your speaking test.

Note: 'get' is fine in the speaking test, but I would normally avoid using it in the writing test.

IELTS Speaking Part 1: 'numbers' topic

In last week's speaking lesson I gave you 5 simple rules for your part 1 answers. Here are some more example answers in which I follow those rules:

1) Do you have a favourite number or a number that is special to you?

Yes, my favourite number is... because it's the day I was born on, and it's my lucky number.

2) Do any numbers have special importance in your country?

Yes. The number 7, for example, is supposed to be a special number in my country. It appears in so many places, like the seven days of the week, the seven main notes in music, and the seven ages of man that Shakespeare described.

3) Are you good at remembering numbers? Why / why not?

No, I'm not very good at remembering numbers. I don't think it's necessary to learn them by heart; I just save them on my phone.

4) What numbers do people often have to memorise?

The most important number to remember on a daily basis is the pin number for your bank card. Without this you can't pay for anything or get cash out.

IELTS Writing Task 1: answer analysis

On Saturday I suggested that you analyse the task 1 answer that I shared in this lesson. Here's my quick analysis:

Task achievement
The answer fulfils the requirements of the task by giving a clear overview of the main trends shown in the table, and by presenting key details. Good comparisons are made between the two schools and the two years.

Coherence and cohesion
Paragraphing is clear, information is presented in a logical order, and cohesion (e.g. linking and comparing) does its job without attracting too much attention.

Lexical resource
A wide range of vocabulary is used in a natural and sophisticated way, with no mistakes. Some less common items of vocabulary are used.

Grammatical range and accuracy
Most importantly, there are no mistakes in the answer. A range of sentence structures is used with full flexibility and accuracy.

Note:
Can you find some examples of good cohesion (linking / comparing) and less common vocabulary in my answer?

IELTS Writing Task 2: two-part question

Here's an example of a two-part question that a student shared recently:

Some parents buy their children whatever they ask for, and allow their children to do whatever they want. Is this a good way to raise children? What consequences could this style of parenting have for children as they get older?

Notice the two separate questions: Is this...? and What consequences...?

It's very easy to plan your 4-paragraph essay structure for this kind of question: introduction, answer the first question, answer the second question, conclusion. Now you just need to plan some ideas.

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's a table that reviews keywords from the last three reading lessons here on the blog. Check that you understand the matched phrases.

Students' questions

Here are my answers to a few questions that students have asked recently:

1) Is it true that "would" and "could" must not be used, as it means that an argument is not sure if we use those words?

No, this is not true. Also, it isn't really correct to say that "would" and "could" make an argument uncertain. Have a look through my writing task 2 lessons, and you'll find examples of "would" and "could" used in sentences that express clear and certain opinions.

2) How many times can we repeat a word in an essay or in a paragraph?

It really depends on the essay task. Sometimes the question contains a key word that we need to repeat throughout the essay. Look at this essay, for example, and you'll see that the word "homework" is repeated many times. My computer's dictionary has no synonyms for "homework", and I think it would be pointless to use phrases like "study done outside school" to avoid repetition. The important thing is the variety of vocabulary that I use when discussing the positives and negatives of homework, not the repetition of one key word.

3) Is it plagiarism if I copy your vocabulary ideas?

No, of course not. I didn't invent the vocabulary that I use in my essays, and the opinions that I express are never strange or unique. Even if you managed to remember a whole sentence or paragraph from one of my lessons, it would still be fine (as long as it were relevant to the question). Unless you are caught copying another candidate, looking at a "cheat sheet" or using an electronic device in the test, nobody will accuse you of cheating.

IELTS Writing Advice: analyse my answers

There are lots of sample answers for writing task 1 and 2 in the lessons on this blog. If you analyse them carefully, you'll learn about planning or selecting ideas, paragraph building and sentence structure; you'll also find some good vocabulary ideas that you can 'steal' from me.

Another thing you'll notice is that my answers are not perfect (although they are good enough for a band 9). There is always something that could be added, or an idea that could be better developed. But this is normal when you have a time limit, and when you're only expected to write 150 or 250 words.

Next Thursday, I'll write a short analysis of the writing task 1 answer that I shared earlier this week (here). Maybe you could analyse that answer too: what can we learn from it, and were there any imperfections?

IELTS Speaking Part 1: five simple rules

Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking test is supposed to be easy. You don't need to give 'difficult' answers, and you should try to avoid making mistakes.

Here are five simple rules for Speaking Part 1:

1. Keep your answers short, then stop with confidence.
2. Answer the questions using full sentences.
3. Use words from the examiner's question in your answer.
4. If possible, give a reason for your answer.
5. Don't forget to say "yes" or "no" when necessary.

Here's an example to illustrate these points:

Do you like parks?

Yes, I like parks because they are great places to relax. If you live in a city, a park is often the only place where you can escape from the noise and the traffic.

IELTS Writing Task 1: 'educational problems' full answer

Here's my full answer for the table task shown in this lesson:

The table compares two primary schools in terms of the proportions of their pupils who experienced seven different educational problems in the years 2005 and 2015.

It is noticeable that school A had higher proportions of children with all seven educational difficulties in both years. However, while school A managed to reduce the incidence of most of the problems between 2005 and 2015, school B saw an overall rise in the percentage of children who were struggling.

In 2005, 42% of school A’s pupils found it difficult to follow instructions, whereas only 6% of pupils in school B experienced this problem. Similarly, between 30 and 40 per cent of children attending school A had problems in the areas of spelling, listening, verbal expression and concentration in lessons, while the equivalent figures for school B stood at between 5 and 15 per cent.

In 2015, the difference between the two schools was less pronounced. Notably, the proportion of children who struggled to follow instructions fell by 24% in school A, and this school also saw falls of 22%, 15%, 14% and 5% in the figures for children who had problems with concentration, listening, verbal expression and spelling. In school B, however, the proportion of children who struggled with spelling and following instructions doubled, to 10% and 12% respectively, and there was almost no change in the incidence of listening, verbal or concentration problems.

IELTS Writing Task 2: from band 6.5 to band 7

Many people who need band 7 seem to get stuck at band 6.5, especially in the writing test. I've written about this here and here, but a student asked me to give a bit more advice about how to move from 6.5 to 7.

As I said in the lessons linked above, band 6.5 in writing is very close to band 7, so you only need to make a small improvement in the quality of your essays.

But where will this small improvement come from? Here are some tips:

• First, if you want to make this small improvement quickly, I don't recommend that you focus on grammar. Improving your grammatical accuracy is probably going to be a slow and gradual process.
• So that leaves us with 3 possible areas for improvement: task response, coherence and cohesion, and vocabulary.
• In my experience, the secret to improving in all three areas is planning. A good plan will ensure that you answer the question, and that your answer is coherent and well structured. Hopefully it will also contain some good ideas (i.e. vocabulary).

Look at the essay plan in this lesson and the resulting essay that I wrote here. Without a good plan, I find it very difficult to "improvise" a coherent essay, so I'm sure that you do too. Give yourself more planning time (around 10 minutes), and you'll write better essays.

A couple of notes about the advice above:

• Maybe you have read my lessons about 10-minute plans and 13-sentence essays, but are you really following this advice? I've taught many students who used my methods well in lessons and homework tasks, but "crumbled" under the pressure of a real exam and went back to their "old ways". Is this happening to you?
• If you are following all of my advice about planning and writing 13-sentence essays, maybe your problem is writing task 1, not task 2.

IELTS Listening: more from TED

Are you putting too much pressure on yourself to be successful in your career? If you're feeling anxious about the future, you might find the TED talk below useful.

Here are a few questions to help you follow some of the speaker's main points:

1. How does the speaker define 'snobbery'?
2. What problem does he link to the spirit of equality in many societies?
3. What are the two types of self-help book?
4. What is the negative side of the idea of 'meritocracy'?

IELTS Reading: multiple choice practice

Let's have a look at some multiple choice questions from Cambridge IELTS 5, test 1, passage 3.

Excerpt from the passage, which is about the environment:

Secondly, environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to keep the money rolling in. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes overstate their arguments. In 1997, for example, the Worldwide Fund for Nature issued a press release entitled: 'Two thirds of the world's forests lost forever'. The truth turns out to be nearer 20%.

Though these groups are run overwhelmingly by selfless folk, they nevertheless share many of the characteristics of other lobby groups. That would matter less if people applied the same degree of scepticism to environmental lobbying as they do to lobby groups in other fields. A trade organisation arguing for, say, weaker pollution controls is instantly seen as self-interested. Yet a green organisation opposing such a weakening is seen as altruistic, even if an impartial view of the controls in question might suggest they are doing more harm than good.

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1) The writer quotes from the Worldwide Fund for Nature to illustrate how

A  influential the mass media can be.
B  effective environmental groups can be.
C  the mass media can help groups raise funds.
D  environmental groups can exaggerate their claims.

2) What is the writer's main point about lobby groups?

A  Some are more active than others.
B  Some are better organised than others.
C  Some receive more criticism than others.
D  Some support more important issues than others.

Feel free to share your answers in the "comments" area below this lesson. Maybe you could also tell us which 'keywords' gave you the answers.

IELTS Advice: if they can do it, so can you!

If you're frustrated with the IELTS test at the moment, it might help you to know that people do pass the test every week, sometimes with very high scores.

For example, take a moment to read the comments by Elizabeth, Gary, Hung and Sunggie below this lesson. If they can get such high scores (7.5 and higher), so can you!

IELTS Vocabulary: useful phrases

Even if you're not doing the General IELTS test, there were some useful phrases in the letter that I wrote last Sunday. Note them down, and see if you can use them in your own sentences:

• to have a document translated
  (to have something done = to get someone else to do it for you)
• I've been given the opportunity to...
• provide a copy along with the original
• to submit a document
• to secure a place on a course
• I'm running out of time
• do someone a favour
  (e.g. Do you think you could do me a big favour?)
• give me an hour of your time
• whenever suits you best
• to pop round (informal) = to visit someone

IELTS Speaking Part 3: finish strongly!

By the end of speaking part 2, many IELTS candidates are exhausted and just want the exam to end. Consequently, they don't do as well as they could in part 3.

Ever since I noticed this problem as an examiner, I've told my students to make sure that they master the 3-step (or sometimes 4-step) method that I showed you last Friday.

Practise answering as many questions as you can using the "answer, explain, example (alternative)" method. If you can get into the habit of following these steps, you'll finish the speaking test strongly and make a good final impression on the examiner.

IELTS Writing Task 1: main paragraph decisions

When the graph, chart or table shows a lot of information, it's difficult to decide what to put in your main 'details' paragraphs.

Here's a method that I often use to help me with this decision: expand on the two points that you made in your 'overview' paragraph.

For example, look at this lesson. We can use the two points in the overview paragraph to guide our decisions about what to put in paragraphs 3 and 4:

Paragraph 3
Expand on the sentence about school A having higher proportions of children with educational problems. In other words, we can make some easy comparisons between school A and B. Don't worry about changes in the figures or comparing the two years.

Paragraph 4
Now expand on the sentence about changes i.e. falling percentages in school A and rising figures in school B.

I'll use this technique to write my full answer next week.

IELTS Writing Task 2: proverbs and idioms

A student sent me the following question:

Hi Simon. Can I use proverbs and idioms in IELTS writing task 2?

My quick answer would be no. Proverbs are certainly not appropriate for an academic-style essay, and the kind of idioms that many students learn (e.g. "In a nutshell") should also be avoided. Click here to read a lesson about proverbs and clichés, and make sure you don't use them.

On the other hand, some idioms are acceptable, and you probably use good idiomatic phrases without realising it (e.g. the key to solving a problem). To read a longer explanation about using idioms, click here. Read that lesson carefully, and be very careful with the type of idioms that you use.

A quick mention for a trusted colleague

If you read the comments below my lessons, you may have seen some very helpful replies by an IELTS teacher called 'sjm'. Although we don't work together (I'm based in the UK and sjm is in Australia), sjm and I share the same ideas about how to tackle the IELTS test, so it's great to have his help!

Sjm has a language school in Sydney, Australia, called Doctor IELTS. They are also starting to work with students in China through Weibo and WeChat:

- Weibo address: http://Weibo.cn/wonderIELTS9
- WeChat: wonderIELTS9

So, if you're in Australia or China, maybe you'll find these resources useful. And look out for any comments by sjm here on my blog - you can definitely trust his advice!

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

The following passage is about some recent photos of Mars.

Nasa has released stunning photos of something like "Niagara falls" on Mars – except even more stunning than the one on Earth. The flows are made of flowing molten lava that once moved over the Red Planet's surface, and have been pictured in stunning new 3D images. The photos were sent back by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which was launched in 2005 and has been sending images back of the planet's surface since soon after that.

Nasa notes that a lot of time is spent wondering about and searching for proof of liquid water on Mars, which would be a signal of life. But the new pictures show that the planet itself was once far more alive than it is today – made up of flowing molten lava that spread across its surface.

(Source: independent.co.uk)

Do the statements below agree with the views of the author of the article? Answer yes, no or not given.

1. Lava flows on Mars are more beautiful than one of Earth’s most famous waterfalls.
2. Nasa has just released the first ever 3D images of Mars.
3. The new photographs prove that liquid may be present on Mars.
4. The photos show that the surface of Mars is more active than ever.

IELTS General Writing Task 1: 'translation' answer

Here's my answer for the general writing task in this lesson:

IELTS Advice: just keep going!

The most important thing that writing this blog has taught me is to keep going. Some days I have great lesson ideas and other days I don't, but I write something anyway.

And I believe that you can study for IELTS in the same way - just do something (even something very small or quick) every day, and you'll reach your goal in the end.