Daily lessons with Simon,
ex-IELTS examiner
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Writing Task 1: Singular or plural?
Students often make simple mistakes with singular and plural forms, especially in Writing Task 1.
General Writing Task 1: Formal phrases
Here are some formal phrases that I’ve used in my model letter answers. See if you can use them in your own letters.
Speaking Part 2: Describe a website
My sample answer in today’s lesson is easily at band 9 level.
IELTS Listening: Cycling coach
Listen to a talk by a cycling coach, then fill each gap in the summary with one word only.
IELTS Reading: John B. Calhoun
Read the passage about animal behaviour research, then decide which paragraph contains the given information.
Essay planning: 13 Sentences method
Here’s a different way to plan an essay. Perhaps you will prefer this method over the normal note-taking or brainstorming approaches.
When should you give your opinion?
Some essay questions ask for your opinion but others don’t. Make sure you only give your opinion when the question asks fo it.
Two bar charts: Marriage and divorce rates
The task in this lesson gives you two different charts, and you can describe them separately.
Writing Task 1: Requesting time off work
Here’s another band 9 formal letter with some useful phrases.
IELTS Speaking Part 1: Emails and handwriting
Here are some speaking part 1 questions and my model answers on the topic of emails and handwriting.
IELTS Listening: Toddler routine
Try this IELTS listening exercise about advice for parents with young children.
IELTS Reading: The Thames Tunnel
Try this multiple choice exercise about a tunnel in London.
Writing task 2: ‘Self employed’ question
Let’s start work on a new essay question. This one is about self-employment and it comes from Cambridge IELTS 14.
Advice: Study vs Immersion
Are you trying to improve your English through study alone, or do you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the language?
Writing Task 1: Graph with past and future
Here’s a good example of a line graph task that requires you to describe both past and future years.
General Writing Task 1: Avoid these mistakes
Here are 6 mistakes that you should try to avoid when writing a letter.
IELTS Speaking Part 3: Rivers, lakes, seas
Here are three more speaking questions with my model answers at band 9 native-speaker level.
IELTS Listening: Blended learning
Listen to a talk about blended learning, then fill each gap in the summary with a maximum of two words.
IELTS Reading: Volcanoes
Read the passage about volcanoes and decide whether the statements are true, false or not given.
Writing task 2: model ‘problem and solution’ essay
Here’s another band 9 sample answer with my essay plan and a list of band 7-9 vocabulary.
Writing Advice: Using model sentences
Here’s a different way to practise sentence grammar.
Writing Task 1: Check these sentences
A student asked me to check 8 sentences that describe the same figures in different ways. Can you find any mistakes?
Writing Task 1: Road problem
Here’s another band 9 formal letter with some useful phrases.
IELTS Speaking: Don’t use these phrases!
Please don’t learn linking or filler phrases. They don’t impress examiners. In fact, they are likely to make your performance worse.
IELTS Listening: Video games
Listen to a talk about video games, then fill each gap in the summary with one word only.
IELTS Reading: Best cities
Try this paragraph headings exercise about the world’s best cities.
Writing task 2: Sentences have ‘jobs’
In this lesson I want to return to the idea that each sentence in your essay should do a particular job.
Teaching IELTS: Warmer exercises
A quick ‘warmer’ exercise is a good way to get students’ attention and put them in “IELTS mode”. This lesson contains four examples.
Writing Task 1: Coffee process
This lesson contains a band 9 model answer and some analysis questions.
Writing Task 1: Travel insurance
The model letter in this lesson contains some excellent formal phrases for both general and academic IELTS candidates.