Daily lessons with Simon,
ex-IELTS examiner
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IELTS Advice: Examples spark ideas!
I can’t stress enough how important and how useful examples are! We can use them to support our ideas and also to spark more ideas.
Writing Task 1: ‘Airport diagrams’ task
Let’s start work on a new ‘before and after diagrams’ task.
General Writing Task 1: Informal to formal
Can you rewrite three informal sentences in a more formal way?
IELTS Speaking Part 3: For example…
In part 3 of the speaking test, you should try to give longer, more detailed answers. A great way to do this is by giving an example.
IELTS Listening: ‘Stoicism’ gap-fill
Listen to a speech to high school students on the benefits of a philosophy called ‘Stoicism’, then fill the gaps in the summary.
IELTS Reading Advice: Get to the end!
Many IELTS candidates fail to get to the end of the test. In other words, they don’t reach question 40.
Writing Task 2: ‘Advertising products’ topic
In this lesson we’ll write the introduction for a new essay task, which comes from Cambridge IELTS book 16.
Writing Advice: Good lists, bad lists
Sometimes listing is good, but sometimes it’s bad. In this lesson we look at two examples that show the difference.
Academic Writing Task 1: List sentences
One easy way to describe the information on a graph or chart is by writing a sentence that lists three related figures.
General Writing Task 1: ‘Offering help’ letter
Here’s my band 9 answer for the ‘offering help’ letter task. You’ll also see a list of the good vocabulary that I used.
IELTS Speaking Part 3: Three question types
In this lesson we look at examples of three types of question that are often used in part 3 of the speaking test.
IELTS Listening: ‘Retirement planning’ multiple choice
Listen to some advice about financial planning for retirement, and choose the best answers for the multiple choice questions.
IELTS Reading: ‘Happiness’ multiple choice
Try today’s multiple choice exercise on the topic of happiness.
Academic Writing Task 2: How to use the 40 minutes
You have 40 minutes for task 2, so try organising your time in the following way.
Back on Monday 6th November
Please click on the words above to read this message from Simon.
IELTS Vocabulary: Individual words aren’t impressive
If you want to impress the examiner with good vocabulary, you shouldn’t be worrying about individual words.
Academic Writing Task 1: How to use the 20 minutes
You have 20 minutes for task 1, so try spending 5 minutes on each paragraph.
General Writing Task 1: ‘Offering help’ part 3
Finish my model answer by writing the last two sentences.
IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a tree
Describe a plant, flower or tree that is famous or important in your country.
IELTS Listening: Answers with dates
The following situation often confuses people.
IELTS Reading: Benefits of exercise (T, F, NG)
Read the passage about the benefits of exercise, and complete the ‘true, false, not given’ exercise below it.
IELTS Writing Task 2: Balanced opinion essay (cultural differences)
Should we adapt to the cultures of other countries that we visit? Here’s my band 9 answer and a quick homework task.
IELTS Grammar: Common pronoun mistake
Do you ever make this common pronoun mistake?
Academic Writing Task 1: Don’t practise this!
You will never see a graph like this one in an IELTS test. But why?
General Writing Task 1: ‘Offering help’ part 2
Can you finish my sentence to complete the second paragraph in this letter?
IELTS Speaking Part 1: Public transport
Here are some part 1 questions and model answers on the topic of ‘public transport’.
IELTS Listening: ‘Undersea cables’ gap-fill
Here’s another gap-fill practice exercise for you to try.
Reading Advice: Stuck on the same score?
What can you do if you keep getting the same score (for example 6.5) in the reading test?
Writing Task 2: Accepting cultural differences
Read and complete my paragraph about accepting cultural differences.
Speaking Advice: If you don’t understand
What would you do if you didn’t understand a word or phrase in part 3 of the speaking test?