Daily lessons with Simon,
ex-IELTS examiner
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Academic Writing Task 1: Ages and age groups
It’s easy to make small mistakes when describing ages and age groups. Here are some examples that should help.
General Writing Task 1: ‘Saying no to a friend’ part 2
Can you finish the second paragraph in this letter task?
IELTS Speaking: ‘Photos’ topic (all three parts)
A good way to prepare for IELTS speaking is to take one topic area and practise possible questions for all 3 parts.
IELTS Listening: Homophones 2
Here’s another exercise to test your spelling of some common homophones.
IELTS Reading: Driverless cars (which paragraph contains?)
Read the passage about the ‘driverless car revolution’, then decide which paragraph contains the given information.
IELTS Writing Task 2: Topic sentences
Do we always need to begin paragraphs with a topic sentence? Why?
Advice: ‘Natural’ English
How can we make sure that the English phrases that we use are natural?
Academic Writing Task 1: Don’t write ‘came first’
Don’t describe items on a graph or chart in terms of coming first, second or last. This makes it seem like you’re describing a competition!
General Writing Task 1: ‘Saying no to a friend’ part 1
Can you finish the first paragraph in this letter task?
IELTS Speaking Part 1: ‘Fast food’ topic
Here are some more part 1 questions and model answers. Can you write a good answer for the last question?
IELTS Listening: Homophones
Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings and/or spelling. Try this homophone spelling test.
IELTS Reading: Practise the General test too
You might be preparing for the Academic IELTS test, but I recommend that you do some of the GT Reading practice tests too.
IELTS Writing: Private healthcare essay
Do the advantages of private healthcare outweigh the disadvantages? Read my band 9 model answer.
Writing Advice: Simplify
Can you take an idea and express it in a simpler way? This is not an easy skill, and it takes practice to do it well.
Writing Task 1: Chart and table answer
Read my model answer for a two charts task, and make a list of anything useful that you can learn from it.
General Writing Task 1: Saying no to a friend
How do you politely say no to a friend’s request? Let’s start work on a task that asks us to do this.
IELTS Speaking Part 3: ‘It depends’
“It depends” is not a full answer. You need to say what it depends on, and why.
IELTS Listening: Spelling test 7
Here’s another spelling test. See if you can write all 10 words without making a mistake.
IELTS Reading: ‘Animal migration’ gap-fill
Fill the gaps with words from the passage.
IELTS Writing Task 2: Practise writing ‘topic paragraphs’
Instead of always writing full essays, you could try writing lots of ‘topic paragraphs’. Here’s how to do it.
Advice for ‘down days’
If you’re having a ‘down day’ when you don’t feel like studying, my advice is this…
Writing Task 1: Be careful with synonyms
The use of synonyms sometimes leads to mistakes and unnatural language. Repetition of key terms is normal and necessary.
General Writing Task 1: ‘Course enrolment’ answer
Here’s my band 9 answer for the ‘course enrolment’ letter task.
IELTS Speaking Part 2: A trip by public transport
Describe a time when you travelled by public transport. Read my sample answer and useful vocabulary list.
IELTS Listening: ‘Checklists’ gap-fill
Listen to a short talk about the importance of checklists in healthcare, and fill the gaps in the summary sentences.
IELTS Reading: Locate then understand
If you find the ‘keywords’ in the passage but still get the wrong answer, does this mean that the ‘keyword technique’ doesn’t work?
IELTS Writing: Unnatural vs natural
In this lesson we compare a student’s unnatural use of English with my natural, native-speaker versions of the same sentences.
IELTS Vocabulary: Trying too hard!
Look how many mistakes people make when they try too hard to show off.
Writing Task 1: Plastic bottle recycling answer
Read my full model answer, and study three key features of process diagram descriptions.
General Writing Task 1: ‘Course enrolment’ part 4
How do you end a formal letter or email? See if you can write an appropriate sentence to finish my model answer.