IELTS Articles | IELTS Learning Tips

How to improve your IELTS vocabulary

I often get asked by students how they can improve their vocabulary for IELTS. Vocabulary is an area of English that can constantly be added to and the wider your vocabulary is the more you have to offer in your IELTS speaking and reading. Vocabulary is also important in listening and reading – it will […]

Managing the questions in IELTS Listening

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When trying to improve skills in listening (this is also true of the reading) see if you can pinpoint where you are making the mistakes and concentrate in these areas in order to increase your IELTS score. Here are a few ideas to help with the questions Make sure that you really read the rubric […]

How to practise your IELTS Listening

IELTS listening usually gets the highest marks in any test and is generally the easiest area to improve. You do need to expose yourself to as much listening material as possible, but watching movies is not necessarily the best way to do this (with movies, much of the information you get is visual). The IELTS […]

5 tips to help you pass your IELTS Reading test

IELTS Reading can often be an area that poses great challenges for students. On the one hand there are a lot of questions to complete and the texts themselves can be quite difficult and on the other there is a time constraint which can at best add some stress to the exam and at worst, […]

How to improve your IELTS Reading

One thing to realise about IELTS reading is that it is not simply a test of comprehension. It is more to do with study skills and extracting specific information than meaning. If you think of it in these terms then it will be easier to approach. The technique you need for the reading is the […]

5 tips for IELTS Part 2 (cue cards)

Students often tell me that they worry about Part 2 in the IELTS speaking exam because they don’t have enough to say. The key, as with everything in IELTS, is more practice. Make sure that you get good at this part – don’t worry about it. Here are some ideas for practising this part of […]

6 IELTS essay tips for writing Task 2

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Here are some things that you MUST do in order to secure a band 7 or above in your Task 2 writing. The problem that most students seem to face with task 2 and the one I get most questions about is the topic and ideas. Actually this is the least important thing about task […]

How to get Band 7 in the IELTS

Many students I teach want at least band 7 in their test and although this is not easy, it is possible with the right level of English language and the right preparation. If you are looking for band 7 and still keep getting band 6 or 6.5 then this post will show you how to […]

The 3 biggest mistakes made in IELTS speaking

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The IELTS speaking exam is the one place where you have control so make sure you are confident enough to take advantage of this and score a high band. The examiner will feed you the questions but you must take the opportunity to use this part of the test to really show what you can […]

IELTS essay tips for Task 1

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Task 1 is sometimes given less attention because students are often more concerned about Task 2. It is true that Task 1 is shorter and slightly more straightforward and that task 2 carries more marks but Task 1 is just as important and it is your first piece (normally) of writing that the examiner sees. […]