Read this post to learn how to make every word counts in IELTS Writing.
IELTS Reading: Six handy tips
Are you having an IELTS test soon and looking for some quick tips and insights? Read on for six handy tips that I have come up with through the years as an IELTS trainer.
IELTS Listening: How do I know how good I am?
Like most IELTS candidates, you probably know which band score you are aiming for. Is it 5.5, 6.0 — perhaps even 7.5? But if you are going to plan your preparation properly, you also need to know how good you are now. How can you find that out?
IELTS Speaking: The psychological aspects
Have you ever thought that the IELTS Speaking test is about more than just speaking? In this post we will look at the psychological aspects of the test, and think about how you can exploit them to improve your score.
IELTS Preparation: Understanding your weak areas
You need to spend a lot of time preparing for IELTS on your own. But studies show that even when independent learners know which of their language skills are strong and which are weak, they still tend to spend more time on their strong areas. In a 2015 study at the University of Hong Kong, Professor David Gardner found that students ‘ultimately preferred to remain in their comfort zone.’
IELTS Writing: How important is spelling?
In this post I will focus on two areas where it is easy to lose marks in both General Training and Academic Writing. The first is the word count, and the second is spelling and punctuation.
IELTS Reading: How important is culture?
Will your culture affect your performance in IELTS Reading?
Back in 1978, researchers at the University of Illinois conducted an experiment in which they asked subjects from India and the US to read two passages: one about an Indian wedding and the other about an American wedding. They then tested their reading comprehension. They found that ‘Subjects read the native passage more rapidly, recalled a larger amount of information from the native passage, produced more culturally appropriate elaborations of the native passage, and produced more culturally based distortions of the foreign passage.’
In other words, they found that your culture does affect reading performance and the way you interpret a text.
IELTS Listening: All the basics, from the British Council
It’s easy to do badly in IELTS Listening if you don’t have a thorough understanding of what to expect. See if you are confident you can answer these questions about the Listening test.
IELTS Speaking: What is the examiner looking for?
In IELTS Speaking Part II, you have to talk for two minutes on a topic given to you by the examiner. Do you understand how you will be graded?
IELTS preparation: Science shows how to boost your band score
You perform well in class. You understand the IELTS question types. You’ve worked through the IELTS prep books. But studies show that this doesn’t mean you will do well in the IELTS test itself. Why is this?