IELTS Articles | IELTS Learning Tips

How is your 2015 IELTS Practice Going?

I was thrilled that so many IELTS students completed questionnaire in December and January almost 400 in total! Awesome! I also got to speak to 85 of you on Skype to find out what your challenges were and how you were preparing and also what your dreams for your future were. I am also thrilled […]

I am too scared to practise my IELTS

IELTS phobia is not funny and it is a genuine fear for some people. If you find that when you start a reading or listening that you can’t concentrate or you begin to panic as soon as you sit down and you easily get lost and the more you try the worse it seems to […]

Every Word Counts in IELTS Reading

When I start working with IELTS students on their IELTS reading I often find that they spend a lot of time on the passages and only read through the questions quickly before rushing off to find the answers. This strategy is the wrong way around. Much of the content of the reading passages is irrelevant […]

How good are you at reading instructions in IELTS?

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One thing I find when working with IELTS students – especially those who want band 7 and 8, is how often marks are lost because students just don’t read the instructions carefully or focus on the questions enough. It’s quite tragic when I correct student’s listening and reading answers to find that they have lost […]

Can you get your IELTS band alone?

If you have been watching the interviews that I have done with some of my students who have now passed the IETS with the bands that they wanted you will know that they all said one of the things that changed everything for them was not trying to get their IELTS score alone. Here are […]

IELTS Reading – It’s all about Key Words?

Students often ask me how to improve their reading and although there are several techniques that I teach and help students to perfect, the one thing that always makes a difference is the use of Keywords. Key words help you to locate the place in the text where the answer lies AND to pick out […]

Some wise words from a successful IELTS student

One of my students sent me this message last Friday: “Hi Berni, I have a happy news for you. All credit goes to you. Got it finally. Listening: 7 Reading : 7.5 Writing : 7.5 Speaking : 7” I disagreed with the comment about ‘all credit goes to you’ which was very flattering but not […]

Can you guarantee my IELTS exam result?

This is the kind of message I get from students quite often: “Can you give a guarantee or refund money if I do not achieve the desired score” When students ask me if I can guarantee their result if they work with me I am always a little ‘amused’ as to how can I guarantee […]

Dealing with the IELTS Reading Test

Here is a strategy for the IELTS Reading Test. This works and is the best way to do the test quickly and accurately. It does, however, need lots of practice to get it going well and you really do need to practice just knowing about it is not enough to change your score. My reading […]

Be realistic about your IELTS Score

One of the things that IELTS students tell me when they work with me is that what our lessons tell them the most is how much they don’t know and how much they still need to learn not just for IELTS but for the life that they will have once they have passed the exam. […]