Let's break essay writing into the following 3 levels: The full essay Paragraph level Sentence level Level 1 When faced with a writing task 2 question, some IELTS students / candidates are stuck at level 1. They have no idea how to organise their writing at paragraph and sentence level. They simply start writing and hope for the best. Level 2 Many IELTS students are at level 2. They know that they need an introduction, main body paragraphs, and a conclusion. They may also know about things like thesis statements and topic sentences. However, students at this level still struggle to write det ..read more

Today I'm attaching a checklist of things that I recommend doing if you're preparing for the IELTS test. I've shared this before on my 'How to Teach IELTS' course, but never here on the blog. Download IELTS preparation checklist How many of the boxes on the checklist can you tick? Feel free to comment below ..read more

We teachers sometimes spend too much time telling students about techniques, and not enough time demonstrating how to put them into practice. For example, I think that teachers should write paragraphs and even full essays in front of their students. This allows students to follow their teacher's thought process as they produce a piece of writing. It also allows the teacher to test the effectiveness of the techniques that he/she normally advises. If you're attending lessons with an IELTS teacher, ask him/her to demonstrate the exam techniques that he/she gives you ..read more

One of the tasks in my '100 IELTS Flashcards' ebook asks you to fill the gap in the sentence below. The spend too much time _____ television. Many people think the missing word is 'on' because they have learnt the phrase 'spend time on something'. However, in this case 'on' is wrong. If you say that you spend time on television, it sounds like you are a TV presenter who actually appears on television. The correct answer is this: The spend too much time watching television. .......... Here are some more phrases with 'spend time on': I spent a lot of time on this essay. We will spend an hour on ..read more

My new ebook is now available. The normal price will be £20, but you can buy it for just £3 until the 31st December using the promo code Flashcards85. .......... If you want to buy the ebook for £3, follow these instructions: Click on the 'view product' button below. On the page that opens, click on the green 'buy now' button. On the next page, the price will be shown as £20. You need to click on 'add promo code' and type this code in the box: Flashcards85 The price will then change to £3. This price will be converted to your local currency during the next step. Click where it says 'Pay using ..read more

I've almost finished creating 365 daily IELTS Challenge flashcards - one for each day of the year. Here are six examples: Next week I'm planning to publish a collection (in the form of an ebook) of 100 of these flashcards. The ebook will also contain: my sample answers for all 100 flashcard tasks a focus on 'less common' vocabulary self-study exercises that reinforce what you have learnt There will be a huge Christmas discount when I publish this collection, so look out for that next week ..read more

Is there a difference between 'topic specific' vocabulary and 'less common' vocabulary? Let's have a closer look at these terms. Topic specific vocabulary Topic specific just means 'about the topic'. For example, if the question is about climate change, the word 'pollution' is topic specific. Less common vocabulary Staying with the climate change topic, I think you'll agree that 'pollution' is a relatively common or easy word that most IELTS candidates would know. So, which words or phrases might be considered 'less common'? Here are some suggestions: burning fossil fuels greenhouse gas emiss ..read more

A student asked me to explain the difference between the writing style that we use for IELTS essays and the writing style that is expected in university assignments. Please note: There may be a big difference between the writing styles that different university departments expect (e.g. science assignments will be very different from literature assignments), so the advice below is a general summary rather than an exact list of rules. Here are four key differences: 1. Your ideas vs research When you write an IELTS essay, you are expected to use your own ideas because you have no access to any ot ..read more

I want to share some advice that I've just given to a student on my member site. Here's a conclusion that the student wrote: In conclusion, I believe it is evident to say that there is a great tendency to buy a house instead of renting one which is critically related to two valid reasons as discussed and resulting in positive outcomes both for owners and industry. And here are my comments: You're using far too many 'filler phrases' (below). These phrases contain no 'topic vocabulary' at all, so they are not going to impress the examiner. I believe it is evident to say that there is a great te ..read more

Although I haven't written anything here on the blog since April, I've been teaching IELTS lessons and creating new study resources as usual. I've been working on two things this year: My online IELTS classroom (member site) A new site for all of my IELTS resources (ebooks, videos etc.) I'm aiming to publish the new website in January, and then I'll have more time to update this blog again - not every day, but more often. I'll post more news before the end of the year ..read more