IELTS Simon

IELTS Advice: model essays

Model essays can be extremely useful because they show you what you are aiming for, and they contain good vocabulary and correct grammar. However, the model essays in some IELTS books seem to confuse students because they are written in too many different ways (so the 'method' isn't clear).

Although there is no 'right way' to write an essay, I think that you should find one way and stick with it. If you read a model essay that is written in a different way, don't worry! Use the essay for ideas and vocabulary, but don't change your method. Maybe you could even rewrite the model essay using your method.

IELTS Speaking: pronunciation

In the IELTS speaking test, 25% of your score is for pronunciation. Many students confuse 'pronunciation' with 'accent'. These are not the same thing!

Nobody expects you to speak with a perfect British English accent. In fact, the examiner will not judge your accent at all.

Your pronunciation score is based on these things:

• clarity (speaking clearly)
• speed (not too fast, not too slow)
• word stress
• sentence stress
• intonation (the rise and fall of your voice)

It's not easy to improve these things quickly or through deliberate practice. Good pronunciation is usually the result of lots of listening and copying. My tip is: stop worrying about your accent, and focus on speaking clearly.

IELTS Writing Task 1: map introduction and overview

Here's the map task that I asked you to look at last Thursday. I've written the first two paragraphs of my answer below it.

The maps below show the centre of a small town called Islip as it is now, and plans for its development.

Introduction and overview:

The diagrams illustrate some proposed changes to the central area of the town of Islip.

It is clear that the principal change to the town will be the construction of a ring road around the centre. Various other developments with regard to shops and housing will accompany the building of this road.

IELTS Writing Task 2: from plan to paragraph

Here's part of my essay plan from last week's lesson:

First main body paragraph: I disagree because the idea is impractical

- Many adults are too busy with work and other commitments
- They may miss sessions, and would they therefore be punished?
- It would be impossible to force prospective parents to attend
- Different parenting styles, impossible to create a course that suits everyone

And here's my 5-sentence paragraph using the ideas above:

In my opinion, the idea that all future parents should take a parenthood preparation course is completely impractical. Many prospective parents have jobs and busy schedules, and they may not be willing or able to attend regular parenting classes. This raises the question of whether those who missed the classes, or perhaps refused to attend, would be punished. I believe that it would be wrong to do this, and it would therefore be impossible to enforce the idea of compulsory training for parents. Besides, even if parents could be forced to attend, I doubt that people would agree on what good parenting entails, and so it would be difficult to create a parenting course to suit everyone.

Try using the plan in last week's lesson to create paragraph 2 in the same way.

IELTS Listening: more tips!

Here's another list of tips for IELTS listening:

1. Do lots of practice tests, and as much listening as possible to improve your "ear".
2. In the test, use the breaks to read ahead. Never check what you’ve already done.
3. Underline keywords during the breaks.
4. Check your spelling in the 10 minutes at the end of the test.
5. Be ready for tricks e.g. they say one answer but then change it.
6. If you have to fill gaps on a picture or diagram, always follow the question numbers - they will show you where to look on the diagram.
7. The answers are always in order.
8. There are only 2 types of question: gap-fill and multiple choice.
9. Section 1 is easy, section 4 is the hardest.
10. But, you need a high score in section 1. Then you can lose points in later sections.
11. Become really good at sections 1, 2 and 3 before you worry about section 4.

IELTS Reading: the importance of underlining

Hopefully you do this already, but it’s worth pointing out why underlining is so important when you’re doing an IELTS reading test. I tell my students to underline the main words in the question, then underline any similar words that they find as they read the passage.

There are 3 reasons why underlining is useful:

1. It encourages you to use the 'keyword technique' to find the answers.
2. You don't lose your place in the passage when you're turning pages to check between the question and the text.
3. The same information may be relevant for a later question (e.g. when you do a 'paragraph headings' section last).

I can always tell when students have worked hard on a reading paper by the amount of underlining or highlighting they have done. If you don't usually underline things, start now!

IELTS Vocabulary: if you use an idiom...

Look at these two phrases from yesterday's lesson. Are they correct?

• save something for the rainy day
• save something for rainy days

The answer is no. Both phrases contain a mistake.
The correct form is this: save (something) for a rainy day

If you use an idiom, you need to get it exactly right. Even a small mistake in an idiomatic expression makes it sound strange and completely wrong.

IELTS Grammar: correct the mistakes

Here are some sentences that people wrote below yesterday's lesson. Can you correct the mistakes or change the sentences to improve them?

1. By giving some pocket money to a kid for a fixed period of time can help with planning and being responsible for the choices.
2. Personally, Everyone should set money aside just because it will help them to achieve their long-term goals.
3. I have always reminded by my parents to save something for the rainy day.
4. One should manage financial well so as to get the things they want.
5. It is also said that save something for rainy days.

IELTS Speaking Part 3: money topic

Here are some part 3 questions that could follow on from the part 2 topic that we saw in a lesson two weeks ago:

1. Why is it important for people to save some of their money?
2. In your view, should children be taught how to manage money?
3. Do you think that girls are better at saving money than boys?

Try to answer with a minimum of three sentences: answer, explain, example.

IELTS Writing Task 1: 'before and after' map

Here's an interesting task from Cambridge IELTS book 12. How many changes can you find on the 'planned development' diagram?

The maps below show the centre of a small town called Islip as it is now, and plans for its development.
mm

IELTS Writing Task 2: a paragraph from an adjective

Look again at the question below.

Caring for children is probably the most important job in any society. Because of this, all mothers and fathers should be required to take a course that prepares them to be good parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this view?

When I write my answer I'm going to completely disagree with the idea that all parents should take a parenting course. And I'll build each main body paragraph around a single idea, which can be expressed using an adjective. I'll show you what I mean below.

First main body paragraph: I disagree because the idea is impractical

- Many adults are too busy with work and other commitments
- They may miss sessions, and would they therefore be punished?
- It would be impossible to force prospective parents to attend
- Different parenting styles, impossible to create a course that suits everyone

Second main body paragraph: I disagree because it is unnecessary

- Parents have been raising children without help for thousands of years
- Parents learn from family members, their own upbringing, friends...
- They learn by instinct, trial and error, getting to know their children
- Example: correcting bad behaviour, trying different strategies

IELTS Listening: transcription and vocabulary

Here's my transcription of the recording from last week's listening lesson:

Critical thinking is all about asking questions, the right questions, questions that help you assess both the meaning and the significance of claims and arguments. Building these skills and applying them in your life makes it easier for you to assess evidence, evaluate arguments and adapt your thinking so you stay switched on and engaged in different situations.

Critical thinking involves stepping back from a situation to enable you to see all the angles before making judgements or taking decisions. It means identifying the key points, analysing the sources of information, weighing up different types of evidence - just as a judge and jury would do in a court of law - and putting it all together into your own independent thought-through point of view.

Tip: note down the following useful vocabulary:

• the meaning and significance of something
• assess / evaluate claims, arguments, evidence
• build skills, apply skills in your life
• adapt your thinking
• stay switched on
• stay engaged
• step back from a situation
• see all the angles
• make judgements
• make / take decisions
• identify key points
• weigh up the evidence
• an independent point of view
• a thought-through point of view*

*thought-through is an adjective here. It means that the person has thought carefully about his/her point of view. He/she has thought it through.

IELTS Reading: fill the gaps

Read the following excerpt from a newspaper article about the effects of humans on wild animals.

Humans are driving mammals including deer, tigers and bears to hide under the cover of darkness, jeopardising the health of the creatures that are only supposed to be active by day, new research his found. The presence of people can instil strong feelings of fear in animals and as human activities now cover 75 per cent of the land, we are becoming increasingly harder to avoid. Unable to escape during the day, mammals are forced to emerge during the night.

A team led by Kaitlyn Gaynor at the University of California, Berkeley arrived at this conclusion after analysing nearly 80 studies from six continents that monitored the activity of various mammals using GPS trackers and motion-activated cameras. The scientists used this data to assess the night time antics of the animals during periods of low and high human disturbance.

Such disturbances ranged from relatively harmless activities like hiking to overtly destructive ones like hunting, as well as larger scale problems like farming and road construction. Overall, the researchers concluded that from beavers to lions, there was an increase in nocturnal behaviour when humans were in the vicinity.

(Source: independent.co.uk)

Fill the gaps in the summary using words from the list below it.

A recent study has shown that many mammals are being forced to become ______ due to the presence of humans. Scientists reached these findings by ______ and analysing the movements of mammals in areas with different levels of ______. They showed that human activities, ranging from hiking to ______ to road building, made it more likely that mammals would ______ at night.

1. hunt
2. tracking
3. emerge
4. construction
5. nocturnal
6. agriculture
7. monitor
8. disturbance
9. active

IELTS Grammar: passives with 'will be' and 'being'

Here are some more examples of the construction in yesterday's lesson:

There is a danger that this will be misunderstood. =
There is a danger of this being misunderstood.

Employers should assess the risk that staff will be affected by stress. =
Employers should assess the risk of staff being affected by stress.

What is the likelihood that the project will be completed by Friday? =
What is the likelihood of the project being completed by Friday?

IELTS Grammar: passive with 'being'

A student asked me about the use of 'being' in the following sentence.

"There is a danger of nuclear weapons being obtained by terrorists."

Here's my (updated) explanation:

• First, imagine that the simplest version of this sentence is this: "There is a danger of x" (in which x is a noun).
• Now we can consider "nuclear weapons being obtained by terrorists" as a big noun phrase.
• The "being obtained" part of this phrase can be called a passive gerund. It is not a verb or verb phrase, so the word "are" (are being) is not missing and cannot be added.

Note: When we use the phrase "there is a danger of...", there is a future implication. So, "there is a danger of x" means "there is a danger that x will happen".

Therefore, our sentence really means this:
- There is a danger that nuclear weapons will be obtained by terrorists" OR
- There is a danger that terrorists will obtain nuclear weapons.

Thanks to Morteza and Oleg for pushing me towards a better explanation!

IELTS Speaking Part 2: ideas for last week's topic

Last Friday I asked you to think about the topic below.

Describe a time when you saved up some money to buy something special.

Here are some ideas from one of my video lessons (speaking lesson 5 on this webpage). In the lesson I describe a 'smartwatch' and suggest the following vocabulary 'themes':

Electronic watch 'features' theme

• smartwatch
• synchronise with phone / computer
• contacts, photos, emails
• store music
• receive notifications
• search the web
• it responds to voice commands
• make ‘contactless’ purchases
• track exercise goals
• fashion accessory

Electronic watch 'useful' theme

• various features and functions
• organise my life
• work, appointments, social life
• check calendar at a glance
• set reminders and notifications
• practical, functional, convenient
• the ultimate in portable devices
• instant access to…
• couldn’t live without it

I'm sure you could use some of this vocabulary to describe "something special that you saved money to buy".

IELTS Writing Task 1: how to use the 20 minutes

You have 20 minutes for task 1, so try spending 5 minutes on each paragraph. This might help you to organise your time better.

First 5 minutes
Read the question, make sure you understand the chart, highlight key information, then write your introduction by paraphrasing the question.

Second 5 minutes
Look at the chart and try to find 2 general points. Don't look at specific details; look for "the big picture". Write 2 sentences summarising the information.

Final 10 minutes
Describe specific details. Try to break this part into 2 paragraphs because it looks better. You could spend 5 minutes on each paragraph. Aim to write 3 sentences for each paragraph.

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'parenting' topic

Let's start work on a new writing topic. Here's a recent exam question that a student sent me:

Caring for children is probably the most important job in any society. Because of this, all mothers and fathers should be required to take a course that prepares them to be good parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this view?

Feel free to share your ideas in the 'comments' area below this lesson, and I'll continue with this topic next Wednesday.

IELTS Listening: one-minute transcription

Last September I wrote a lesson in which I suggested doing quick transcriptions as a way to improve your listening skill. Let's try this today.

The recording below lasts 55 seconds. Can you transcribe (write) what you hear?

Click here to listen

Critical thinking is all about asking questions...

(To see the full video recording, visit this page)

IELTS Reading: more T, F, NG

Here's another quick true, false, not given exercise:

Trait Theory

In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behaviour, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are aspects of personality that are relatively stable over time, differ across individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing whereas others are not), are relatively consistent over situations, and influence behaviour. Traits are in contrast to states, which are more transitory dispositions.

In some theories and systems, traits are something a person either has or does not have, but in many others traits are dimensions such as extraversion vs. introversion, with each person rating somewhere along this spectrum.

There are two approaches to defining traits: as internal causal properties or as purely descriptive summaries. The internal causal definition states that traits influence our behaviours, leading us to do things in line with that trait. On the other hand, traits as descriptive summaries are descriptions of our actions that don't try to infer causality.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. A personality trait is similar to a feeling that may change from one moment to the next.
2. Some systems define traits on a scale from one descriptor to another.
3. Most psychologists believe that our traits cause us to act in certain ways.

IELTS Grammar: I'm agree or I agree?

In the comments below a recent lesson, I noticed that several people had written "I'm agree with you". This is incorrect.

You can't say "I'm agree" in English. You must say "I agree".

I think this mistake is caused by people translating from their own languages. For example, I know that in French and Spanish, the verb 'be' is used when people want to say that they agree, so it looks something like "I am agree" or "I am agreed". It's not the same in English.

In English, we simply use 'agree' as a normal verb: I agree, I prefer, I like...

IELTS Vocabulary: when do we use 'soar' and 'plummet'?

In Thursday's lesson I told you not to use words like soar, rocket, shoot up, creep up, dive and plummet in IELTS writing task 1.

But what's wrong with those words?

The problem with those words is that they are too figurative for writing task 1. Think about the normal use of these verbs (e.g. the bird soared into the air, the climber plummeted to his death). If you use these words to describe figures on a graph, it seems too sensational or exaggerated. This is why I prefer to stick with increase, decrease, rise and fall.

So can we ever use these words to describe figures?

If you're writing for a newspaper, yes you can! You'll often see phrases like this in newspapers: house prices soared, share prices plummeted, the price of petrol crept up. Newspapers and magazines love idiomatic and descriptive language, but this style does not suit academic graph descriptions.

IELTS Speaking Part 2: 'saving money' topic

Here's a recent exam topic that a few people told me about:

Describe a time when you saved up some money to buy something special.
You should say

- what you wanted to buy
- why you wanted it
- how you saved your money
- and explain how you felt when you finally bought the item.

I've written several lessons about the 'describe an object' topic, here, here and here for example. Maybe you could take some of my ideas and adapt them to the task above.

IELTS Writing Task 1: use adverbs!

The advice that I gave yesterday, about considering alternatives to adverbs, doesn't apply to IELTS writing task 1. For example, look at these verb-adverb phrases:

• increase dramatically
• rise steadily
• decrease significantly
• fall gradually

These phrases are fine, and I use them all the time.

If you avoid adverbs in task 1, you'll end up using words like this: soar, rocket, shoot up, creep up, dive, plummet. These words are not appropriate for an academic-style report, so I recommend that you avoid them.

Remember that you can also use adjective-noun phrases:

• a dramatic increase
• a steady rise
• a significant decrease
• a gradual fall

IELTS Writing Task 2: adverbs and writing style

Note: I don't normally give the following advice to IELTS students. However, I think it's an interesting idea to consider.

Did you know that some professional English writers try to avoid using adverbs? Let's look at some examples to understand why they might do this.

1) Sometimes the adverb is unnecessary. Compare these two phrases:

- It is true that
- It is certainly true that

I often use the second phrase in my essays, but you could argue that the word "certainly" is redundant. If something is true, it's true! Do we really need to emphasise it?

2) Sometimes a single word is more descriptive:

- This is very important = This is essential, vital, crucial
- This is really difficult = This is complicated, complex, problematic, challenging

For our purposes, I think the second point above is more useful, because it encourages you to use a wider range of vocabulary to express ideas.

Remember: There's nothing wrong with using adverbs in the IELTS writing test. I just think it's interesting to consider the alternatives.