ielts-blog

if the articles are not required grammatically, then don't use them

Hi Habali, I'm glad you asked - you can buy the full version of the e-book here: Target Band 7 - Academic IELTS Self Study Book Click on any "Buy now" button, you will get the discounted price, pay with credit card and download the book right after the payment.

Hi Habali, The trial version is good for limited time - this is why it's asking for password. You can also read "IELTS Target Band 7" via Google books, here is the link: Target Band 7 - How to Maximize Your ... - Google Book Search Oh, and there is no tape, all the tests are online.

Hi Salmanucit, Wow that's a lot of questions! I've got the answers to some of them, so here goes: In the Listening test there can be several versions of accepted answers, so "6am-10pm" or "6am to 10pm" will be equally correct (just keep the am/pm). The same goes for Y/N or Yes/No and T/F or True/False. If you need to list 3 words in your answer, separate them with commas. Articles "a" and "the" - if you're completing a sentence (filling in the gaps or the like) it needs to be grammatically correct and if that requires an article - yes, use it otherwise you'll loose marks. Not too sure about the capital letters - if you can copy the way it's in the text - do it.

Hi Habali, Ok, here are some tips you can use: first, download this free book here - it has a lot of Listening tips. Do as it says and you will avoid making mistakes most people make in IELTS, it will make you more efficient and you won't miss as many answers in the Listening test as you used to. Here is the link: Download Free Test Tips For Academic Or General IELTS Exam Next, if you need practice materials, here you can find some links to pdf files you can download: Speaking exercises with answers Free Speaking samples, with answers! | IELTS-Blog Reading exercises Academic module Free reading samples (Academic Module) | IELTS-Blog Reading exercises General module Free Reading samples (General Training) | IELTS-Blog I hope that helps, good luck!

Hi Habali, What is your weakest skill? What are you most afraid of, which section: Listening, Reading, Writing or Speaking?

Hi Devang UAE, To get Band 5 in Listening you need to get 20-22 correct answers, and in Listening 25 - 29 correct answers. To give you an idea what Band 5 essay looks like, have a look here IELTS Essays - Band 5 | IELTS-Blog - there are samples of Band 5 essays with comments and everything.

You don't have to include quotation, but if you do - make sure it's the correct one. I mean don't write something like "never judge a book for its cover" when the correct version is "never judge a book by its cover". Another mistake many people make is translating a saying from their own language into English, when in fact the native speakers won't have a clue what you're talking about.

Hi guys, Here is some REAL help - you can find great collection of free samples here: Academic Reading Sample Academic Writing Sample General Training Reading Sample General Training Writing Sample Speaking Sample And here are some tips ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In general, when you practice in Reading or Listening and check your answers versus the correct ones, pay special attention to those you did WRONG. There always will be a chance to congratulate yourself later for those you’ve got right. When you are going over the wrong questions one by one, try to understand why your answer is wrong, why the answer from the answer key is correct, and most importantly - why you made that mistake. Remember it and make sure you never make it again. In the Reading section the many people think that True/False/Not Given questions are the hardest. Here's some tips how to solve this kind of questions Tips for True/False/Not Given questions: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ # If the statement clearly appears in text - it is True # If the text clearly says the opposite of statement - it is False # If you didn’t find the statement to be True or False - it is Not Given For example: “Smoking is dangerous and can lead to cancer” - T, F, NG 1) If the text clearly says that “smoking is dangerous and leads to cancer” than the answer is T. 2) If the text says that “No research showed evidence that smoking is dangerous and leads to cancer” than the answer is F. 3) If the text says “The research included smoking people of both genders of ages 30 to 45″ and nothing else about smoking - your answer is NG.

Hi there hhhsss, You should probably start by getting some test papers and practicing, do just one full test. Then, in Reading and Listening sections, count your correct answers and see what are your weakest skill, Reading or Listening - so that you could concentrate on it. You can download some free Listening tips here: Download Free Test Tips For Academic Or General IELTS Exam For Writing you need to write as much as you can, essays and letters (or reports, if you're sitting for Academic Module. Speaking - get familiar with the structure of Speaking section and start practicing first on the Interview (it should be relatively easy), and then on Card monologue. Good luck!

Hi everybody, IELTS-blog now offers another free service - every registered user can send one essay (IELTS Writing Task 2) get it graded by experienced IELTS teacher, including remarks and suggestions. So don't be shy - help us help you!

Now every registered user of IELTS-Blog can get his/her essay checked and graded by experienced IELTS teacher for free. So visit IELTS-Blog, register and send your essay to contact email - take advantage of this offer while you can! Good luck to everyone!

Hi, Ester! I am an IELTS teacher, if you've got any questions - ask me, email to info@IELTS-blog.com and there are good tips for IELTS Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking on my site. Best luck!

Hi, people! Just wanted to let you know that there is a free trial download of "Ace The IELTS" book available on my site. Look for the download link on my homepage. Can't post the link here because of respect to this forum's rules.

Hi, I have a lot of IELTS Writing tips on my site. It explains the structure of essay, what to do, what NOT to do, how to write a letter of any kind (business, personal, complaint, application) and I also have links to free IELTS Writing exercises. See you there!

IELTS: 10 Mistakes You Must Avoid The process of studying for IELTS can be overwhelming. It always is of great importance to one’s future and the stakes are usually high. Among countless rules of IELTS it is easy to loose focus and begin drifting in the wrong direction, especially when you have nobody to guide you. This is the reason why people don’t receive the score they really deserve. Here are the top 10 mistakes IELTS candidates make. Give more answers than necessary As I have already mentioned in one of the previous articles, instructions are there for a reason. If they say “give one answer” or “answer in 3 words”, this is exactlywhat the examiners will be looking for, and if they find two answers or four words – points are lost forever. Write answers in the booklet, not on the Answer Sheet Of course, writing answers on the booklet margins looks more natural then having to copy them to some special Answer Sheet. Well, surprise – the only answers IELTS examiners count are those copied to the Answer Sheet. Every answer written on booklet margins only scores zero. Lose track of time During Reading and Writing sections it is candidates’ responsibility to manage their own time. No one will tell you to stop working on the current task and to move forward to the next one. So, in worst case scenario, you could spend all the time working on just one passage, when there are 3 more to go. Waste a lot of time on one hard question All IELTS questions are of different difficulty. It is wrong to assume that every next question will be harder than the previous one. This is why getting stuck on one hard question is a bad idea. By moving forward to some easier questions you could win points, which otherwise would be lost. Read the whole passage first in Reading section Those passages are not meant to be read. It is enough to scan through the text, noticing what the text is about and what the purpose of each paragraph is. After getting familiar with the passage, it is the time to read questions and look for answers. Assume they know the answer There is an old saying “Assumptions are the mother of all mess-ups”. Many people walk right into this trap, by reading the question and assuming that they already know the answer from their experience or general knowledge. What a mistake! The answer is what is written in the passage and not what comes first to your mind. If, for example, the question is “Does smoking cause cancer” and your mind says ”Yes” but the passage says “No”, then “No” is the correct answer. Copy the task in Writing section Let me list reasons why this would be a mistake. First, instructions forbid this. Second, you don’t get any points for it. Third, it wastes precious time you could use writing something meaningful. Not checking the answers It is only human to make mistakes and there is nothing wrong in admitting it. This is a good enough reason to check and double-check your answers if there is time left. Trying to impress the examiner What usually happens when a person starts trying to impress the examiner is usually the opposite. Be the best you can at your level, don’t try to claim a higher level you are not at. Don’t start trying to use super complex sentences or big smart words (without being sure what they mean). Answering with “Yes” or “No” When examiner is asking you a question, it is not the answer he is after. His goal is to make you speak. As for you, every chance to speak is an opportunity to show how fluent your English is. Answering with “Yes” or “No” ruins every chance of good grade. About The Author Simone Braverman is the author of "ACE The IELTS" e-Book. She once had to take the IELTS test to open a door to a dream. Her curiosity pushed her towards researching into different aspects of IELTS test.

My advice - "Ace The IELTS". You can decide for yourself: contact the webmaster of www.IELTS-blog.com, ask for one chapter for evaluation and try it before you buy it.

Hi Bernadetta, There is a list of IELTS topics, use this link IELTS Speaking – what to expect (Interview) and the list is in this article. Or you could just go to www.IELTS-blog.com and look in IELTS Preparation tips -> Speaking category. All the info is free, lots of great tips. Let me know if you need anyhing else - I can help.

IELTS: Facts Not Many People Know By Simone Braverman There are many aspects in IELTS that people find surprising, usually when it hits them hard. It is quite a paradox – the information is right there, available to everyone, yet people are still in the dark. Allow me to draw your attention to several facts you don’t want to be surprised about. Usually extensive answer is considered a very good one, but not in IELTS. When instructions say “give one answer” or “answer in 3 words”, it means “give us two answers or 4 words and we’ll fail you”. The reason for this limit is quite simple and obvious – there is not enough room for more than 3 words on Answer Sheet. By the way, articles “a” and “the” count as one word, while common assumption is that they don’t. People tend to forget that they are graded by Answer Sheet and not by what they wrote in IELTS booklet. Any correct answer not copied to Answer Sheet will result in exactly 0 points. There is an option of submitting appeal and requesting to read your answers from the booklet, but it takes time and costs money. Not many people think about what they are going to write with, pen or pencil. Yet there are rules: the Listening and Reading answers are to be written in pencil and Writing - in pen. This is another example of how small details can be very significant in IELTS. Writing and Speaking are graded differently from Listening and Reading. There is no half band grade, which means it is impossible to get 6.5 in either Writing or Speaking. The reason is the way examiners are currently trained, but hopefully it will change in the future (according to official IELTS site maybe even in 2007). In Reading and Listening tests the spelling is important, meaning one can loose points for misspelled words. The best way to overcome the spelling problem is to copy words. In case of Reading, copying words from text is a very easy and natural thing to do. In Listening test, as simple as it may sound, it is best to write what you hear and not to rephrase. It is acceptable to skip words – after all there is 3 words limit, as long as the important words are not substituted by their synonyms. And at last some good news: starting from May 2006 candidates don’t need to wait 90 days to retake the test. The 90-day waiting period has been canceled to the joy of those who have no time to waste.

IELTS: Facts Not Many People Know By Simone Braverman There are many aspects in IELTS that people find surprising, usually when it hits them hard. It is quite a paradox – the information is right there, available to everyone, yet people are still in the dark. Allow me to draw your attention to several facts you don’t want to be surprised about. Usually extensive answer is considered a very good one, but not in IELTS. When instructions say “give one answer” or “answer in 3 words”, it means “give us two answers or 4 words and we’ll fail you”. The reason for this limit is quite simple and obvious – there is not enough room for more than 3 words on Answer Sheet. By the way, articles “a” and “the” count as one word, while common assumption is that they don’t. People tend to forget that they are graded by Answer Sheet and not by what they wrote in IELTS booklet. Any correct answer not copied to Answer Sheet will result in exactly 0 points. There is an option of submitting appeal and requesting to read your answers from the booklet, but it takes time and costs money. Not many people think about what they are going to write with, pen or pencil. Yet there are rules: the Listening and Reading answers are to be written in pencil and Writing - in pen. This is another example of how small details can be very significant in IELTS. Writing and Speaking are graded differently from Listening and Reading. There is no half band grade, which means it is impossible to get 6.5 in either Writing or Speaking. The reason is the way examiners are currently trained, but hopefully it will change in the future (according to official IELTS site maybe even in 2007). In Reading and Listening tests the spelling is important, meaning one can loose points for misspelled words. The best way to overcome the spelling problem is to copy words. In case of Reading, copying words from text is a very easy and natural thing to do. In Listening test, as simple as it may sound, it is best to write what you hear and not to rephrase. It is acceptable to skip words – after all there is 3 words limit, as long as the important words are not substituted by their synonyms. And at last some good news: starting from May 2006 candidates don’t need to wait 90 days to retake the test. The 90-day waiting period has been canceled to the joy of those who have no time to waste.