Daily lessons with Simon,
ex-IELTS examiner
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Academic Writing Task 1: Useful phrases exercise
Here are some useful phrases to describe the table in last week’s lesson. See if you can guess the missing words.
General Writing Task 1: Holiday letter outline
Last week I asked you to write a beginning and ending for a ‘holiday’ letter task. In this lesson we move on to the first paragraph.
IELTS Speaking: If you don’t know
How do you answer a question when you don’t know anything about the topic? There are two things that you can do.
IELTS Listening: Why is the sky blue?
Listen to a talk about light waves and the sky, and fill each gap in the summary sentences with one word.
IELTS Reading: Choose the title 4
Read the passage and choose the best title.
Writing Task 2: Idea generation
This lesson contains five tips about the following problem: How can we come up with good ideas for an essay?
IELTS Grammar: Describing age groups
This lesson contains a quick exercise about the different ways to describe age groups.
Writing Task 1: Waste table
Read my model answer for a task that compares waste production in six countries. Then answer five questions to analyse my answer.
Writing Task 1: Holiday letter task
Let’s start work on an informal letter task. It’s a letter to a friend describing a holiday.
IELTS Speaking Part 3: Home life
Here are some part 3 questions with my band 9 sample answers. Make a list of the ‘less common’ vocabulary that I used.
IELTS Listening: Keywords
I often talk about the importance of looking for keywords in the reading test. The same advice applies to the listening test.
IELTS Reading: Arthur Schopenhauer
Read the passage about the daily life of a philosopher, and decide whether the four statements are true, false, or not given.
Model essay: Free nursing courses
Note: The quality of vocabulary in this essay is particularly high – above band 9.
IELTS Grammar: Punctuation
Here are some simple rules to help you with punctuation for IELTS writing.
Writing Task 1: What’s wrong with this sentence?
In this lesson we analyse a student’s sentence in terms of writing style and grammar / vocabulary mistakes.
General Writing Task 1: Minor accident letter
Here’s my band 9 answer for the ‘minor accident’ letter task. You’ll also see a list of the wide range of vocabulary that I used.
Speaking Part 2: Describe a home
This lesson contains an IELTS Speaking Part 2 task and my sample answer: Describe an interesting home.
IELTS Listening: Brain foods
Try today’s gap-fill exercise about foods that are good for brain health.
IELTS Reading: Keywords
The task in this lesson demonstrates the ‘keyword technique’ perfectly.
Writing Task 2: Making paragraphs different
A common problem in students’ essays is that the same ideas are often repeated in both main body paragraphs.
IELTS Grammar: Listing
Listing can be a great way to add detail and use a good range of vocabulary in a single sentence.
Academic Writing Task 1: Adding figures
In this lesson we practise adding figures (numbers) to sentences that compare information from different pie charts.
General Writing Task 1: Suggestion sentences
In this lesson we continue working on our ‘minor accident complaint’ letter. Your homework is to write two ‘suggestion’ sentences.
Speaking Part 1: Home
In the next three speaking lessons I’ll be sharing my answers to the ‘home topic’ questions that I listed last week.
IELTS Listening: Smoking ban
Listen to a news report about an outdoor smoking ban, and fill each gap in the transcript with one word.
IELTS Reading: Moon exploration
Try today’s IELTS Reading exercise: Match the headings with the ‘moon exploration themes’.
Writing Task 2: Nursing paragraph
Try the quick vocabulary exercise in today’s lesson. Fill the gaps to complete my paragraph about the importance of nurses.
IELTS Advice: ‘Fake’ communication
What, honestly, is your goal when you speak or write in English?
Writing Task 1: Electricity pie charts
Read my model answer for a task that shows us four pie charts. Should we compare the four charts or describe them separately?
General Writing Task 1: Minor accident sentences
In this lesson we continue working on our ‘minor accident complaint’ letter. Your homework is to write two sentences.