How to Improve IELTS | IELTS Learning Tips

The Truth about getting band 7 and 8 in IELTS

In 2012 I worked with a student from Malaysia called Sharifa. Sharifa wanted to go to Australia to do a Master’s Degree. She was a fully qualified child-psychologist and had already been offered a place on a Master’s programme and required an IELTS score at least 6.5 but had to have a minimum of band […]

7 Steps to Band 7 English

Some years ago I lived in Indonesia. While I was there it was necessary to learn the language – firstly for living and then later for my job. I was an English teacher at the university so at first my work was all conducted in English. Learning Bahasa Indonesia was not an easy thing as […]

How to improve IELTS Skills

At the beginning of August my youngest daughter Imogen performed at a Proms concert in the Albert Hall in London. She was part of the National Youth Choir. The Proms is a big deal, music concerts performed by some of the world’s greatest musicians in one of the best and most famous music venues in […]

The Perfect IELTS Preparation System

Here’s a preparation system that should deliver good results if you stick to the spirit of it and adapt it to your situation. Set aside some time regularly to practise – preferably each day but as a minimum 3 times a week. This does not have to be hours and hours (language is not like […]

Why you should throw away your IELTS test books and buy a grammar book

I know this may sound harsh but I do have a good reason for suggesting this and that is that at the end of the day getting the answer right or wrong often comes down to grammar. Many IELTS students do things upside-down; they start by practising IELTS test papers. They do hundreds of these, […]

The Ultimate Strategy for Moving your IELTS Writing from Band 6.5 to Band 7

So here is my IELTS 10-step Writing Strategy. The Ultimate Strategy for Moving your IELTS Writing from Band 6.5 to Band 7 One – make sure that you practise writing regularly. This doesn’t mean that you have to write lots of complete tasks every day. You could just begin by working on your introductions – […]

Don’t confuse quantity with quality in IELTS practice

I have a course called IELTS Writing Bootcamp which helps you to improve your writing to band 7 and it lasts for 4 weeks. People often ask me how many tasks they will have to write – the answer is 15 but that is not the point. Your writing needs to develop into a style […]

How to practise IELTS Listening to get band 8+

When you focus on things they improve – this is a fact and for anybody who needs an overall score of say band 7 or 7.5 or an overall score with a minimum of 7 in each part (which is commonly asked for from medical professionals) then the listening part is probably your best bet […]

Warning: Don’t ignore grammar errors in writing

There seem to be lots of IELTS myths going around about IELTS writing. Let me tell you that in my experience (and I’ve been teaching IELTS at bands 7 and 8 for well over 20 years) there are no short cuts, tricks or quick solutions to writing. The best way to improve your IELTS writing […]

The Facts you should know about Keywords

Fact 1 You’ll find these in the question NOT the text. Sometimes when I start to work with IELTS students I see them going through the passages and underlining lots of ‘keywords’ – ‘Why are you doing that?‘ I usually ask them, ‘You don’t even know what the questions are yet so how will that […]

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