Paul E

Dear all Does anybody exam IELTS? Can you tell me how much you get paid? I would really like to compare. Thanks a lot

Active IELTS has new tips for the exam - you can see them at IELTS tips

The Economist's Daily Chart is a good source of statistics and examples of how to write about this kind of information.

Try one of the Australian newspaper sites - recommendations are at Active IELTS Cheers Paul

It’s not easy to get listening practice but Wikipedia has an archive of spoken articles – useful for this and pronunciation practice. See it at Wikipedia:Spoken articles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. There are lots more good links at Active IELTS. Cheers to all Paul

We've added new tips for the exam on the Active IELTS tips page - why not take a look?

Active IELTS has lots of free speaking topics - take a look at Active IELTS help free speaking worksheets I hope they're useful.

Holmesglen - International Services & Programs has some good practice materials and advice for the IELTS exam. There are new links for more practice of all four papers at Active IELTS help useful links Hope they help!

The BBC’s Skillswise site focuses on a lot of the reading skills you need for the IELTS exam, including skimming and scanning. Have a look: BBC - Skillswise - Words - Listening

Dear all There are new links for IELTS practice on the Active IELTS links page Hope they are of use. Paul

The Guardian newspaper's Special Report page is a good resource to help you prepare for some of the topics in the IELTS writing Task 2 - it's at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/specialreports/index/0,,181169,00.html

Haud You can try http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_index.php for ideas on issues for part 3. It's easy to use and will get you thinking. If you really dry up then try explaining to the examiner that you have no clear ideas on a question. If you do this clearly, then the examiner will accept it and move on to another question. Remember their job is to helpp you do your best. As an examiner myself, I prefer people to say when they have no ideas than to produce a poor answer. Hope this helps

Dear Rim Can you please stop criticising my suggestions? Like all free advice, you can take it or leave it, and this kind of content will be useful for someone somewhere. I'm not selling anything, just trying to help. Thanks

True that that website recommendation is for longer term study but a word of warning - there is no short term way to prepare for IELTS if you don't have the level of English. I teach a variety of formats for IELTS, including 1 day and 1 month courses, and candidates without the English necessary never do well. Studying from lots of practice books will not do it. So plan ahead, give yourself lots of time, and build your English up first.

Are you using version 7.0 or higher of Adobe Reader?

The First Measured Century at http://www.pbs.org/fmc/book.htm is a collection of essays about American life in the 20th century but also has many excellent descriptions of graphs, diagrams and charts, with lots of the language that you need for the task 1 question. Very handy.

Canada’s National Statistics Agency has a very good page describing different kinds of graphs and giving examples of each type – useful for this part of the test. Have a look at http://www.statcan.ca/english/edu/power/ch9/first9.htm Hope this is useful :grad:

We've put some new IELTS speaking part 2 questions on the Active IELTS site at www.activeielts.com/speaking_downloads. Hope they are useful! Remember also you can register for our free newsletter on the homepage. We'll send you a new tip, a website recommendation and news about the Active IELTS site every week. Good luck as always Paul E

You're welcome - and thanks for the thanks (don't get too many!):(

Here's a useful site I found for this (also this week's recommended website on the Active IELTS site): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/moralmaze.shtml You can hear experts discussing issues based on news topics - useful for speaking part 3 and writing Task 2. Hope it helps someone out there! Paul E

There are new writing titles on the Active IELTS site to download free: http://www.activeielts.com/writing_downloads.html They might be useful...:grad:

Quite a lot, but it can be expensive! If you are wondering about this question, have a look here: http://www.activeielts.com/I_have_a_problem_with_my_mark.html Hope this is useful Paul

Actually this is not an exclusively British test and you will hear other accents in the listening, for example Australian. Listen to Australian news via the web to get used to it. Different accents catch people out!

You need to practice to improve your writing mark - here's some titles you could use: http://www.activeielts.com/writing_downloads.html

You could try my site for free writing titles http://www.activeielts.com/writing_downloads.html Getting a 9 is difficult, to be honest. Look at the criteria for an idea of what you need to do: http://www.activeielts.com/task_1_writing_marking.html http://www.activeielts.com/task_2_writing_marking.html Good luck!