IELTS Essay Writing: Choosing your opinion

by 54 Comments

An IELTS opinion essay requires you to give your opinion. Is it better to choose one side or have a balanced view? Many students are not sure which opinion will give them a higher score.

The instructions can vary for an opinion essay (agree/disagree essay):

  • Do you agree or disagree?
  • What is your view?
  • To what extent do you agree?
  • To what extent do you agree or disagree?
  • Do you agree?

All these instructions are for the same essay. You can answer them in the same way. IELTS sometimes likes to paraphrase instructions but the aim of the essay is the same. There is no difference between them.

IELTS Opinion Essay Question

This question was given in the IELTS test 2 weeks ago.

It is more important for children to learn about local history than world history.

Do you agree or disagree?

Questions for You:

  1. Do you think it is better to choose one side?
  2. Will you get a higher score if you partially agree?
  3. Can you write a discussion essay instead giving both sided without an opinion?
  4. Can you use “I” or “my” in an opinion essay?

Answers

You can see the answers and tips for choosing sides in an opinion essay on this page: IELTS Opinion Essay: Choosing Sides

Filed Under: IELTS Writing Task 2

How I Increased my IELTS Score in 4 Months

by 30 Comments

An IELTS student increased her scores in each part of the IELTS test in 4 months. Her name is Priscilla. Below you can learn some of her tips for increasing your IELTS score.

Priscilla’s Results

April: L8, R7.5, W6.5, S7 (OBS 7.5)

August: L9, R8.5, W7, S7.5 (OBS 8)

Her certificate April:

Her certificate: August

Priscilla’s Experience in 2 IELTS Tests

April 20th IELTS preparation and examination evaluation
I was too excite and too confident mainly because I felt that since I spoke English from cradle, the exam should not be a big deal thus I practiced less.During the exam, I lacked understanding of the writing task 2 question. Generally I lacked structure, I just started writing and wrote too many words and even collected an extra sheet. In reading, because i lacked method, i took a lot of time for passages 1 and 2 which resulted to less time for 3. In listening, I got worried when I missed some points and i kept thinking about it. In speaking, I was nervous and i tried to impress the examiner. I was not generally natural, I used learned phrases too.
August 3rd IELTS preparation and examination evaluation  
I was calmer and took corrections. I learnt planning for writing task 2 and i wrote average words in the two tasks using only the sheets provided, no extras. I had extra time to go over my work. For reading, I found a method that worked for me and I held on to it. I solved the first two passages faster and had more time for the third passage still checked my answers. In listening, I anticipated answers, did not dwell on missed points and followed the conversation by tracing the questions with my pencil. While speaking, I spoke more naturally (no forming of intonation). I avoided impressing the examiner, i did not look for big words to use  and I answered the questions mostly sincerely as if my information would be verified; this prevented me from overthinking.

Priscilla’s Tips to Increase your Score

These are some tips that i think helped me. First, observe how calm Liz is when she teaches. Adopt that nature at least for the exam!

  • Don’t be too excited
  • Don’t try to impress the examiner
  • Read and Follow instructions
  • Understand Questions

In Listening: (9.0)
*Listen carefully and move on when u miss an answer.
*Sometime predict answers (this helped me a lot)
*Use your pencil to follow the conversions (it kept me on track)

Reading: (8.5)
My method:

  1. read questions fully
  2. read passage fully but fast
  3. then answer questions
  4. I finished passages 1 & 2 in 30 mins then 3 in 25 mins. Used 5 mins to go over questions and answers

Writing (7.0)
I practised sensibly. I learnt planning for my writing. This works like magic. I finished task 2 within 30 mins
Went over the two tasks and made error corrections.

Speaking: (7.5) I never believed I’d get this mark!
I was less excited, I spoke naturally. I wasn’t thinking of any big words to use.
I don’t know if this will work for another but I answered the questions truthfully as if I was in a non-English exam interview. I added details to short answers too.

http://www.ieltsliz.com is perfect for learning. Don’t be in a hurry. Just give yourself practice time. I now tell my friends, study everything on LIZ first, then do practice tests a lot.

Message to Priscilla: Thanks so much for sharing your experience. It truly shows students that it is possible to increase their scores with the right techniques and practice. Well done to you for your great achievement !! Liz

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Not all IELTS Examiners Smile in the Speaking Test

by 96 Comments

I think it is a good time to talk about your IELTS Speaking Examiners. In the IELTS speaking test, you will be face to face with an IELTS speaking examiner who will ask you questions. There are three parts:

  1. short answer questions – about 12 questions in under 5 mins
  2. a talk – 1 mins to prepare and 1-2 mins to talk
  3. a discussion – about 4 to 8 questions in under 5 mins

The IELTS speaking test is informal. This means you need to be open, chatty and friendly throughout your test. This way you can showcase your English to the examiner. For speaking tips and model answers, see my Main IELTS Speaking Page

IELTS Examiners: How they are in the Speaking Test

IELTS Speaking Examiners are supposed to be friendly, smiley and encouraging. They can’t be chatty with you but they should be encouraging in their body language, facial expressions and general manner. This is what they are taught to do. And that is what is best to help people relax so that they produce their natural, normal level of English under test conditions.

BUT not all IELTS Speaking Examiners are friendly. This means it can feel difficult to be chatty and friendly with an examiner if they don’t smile, if they yawn and avoid looking at you, or if they show disinterest in what you say. Unfortunately, not all examiners are good with body language.

What about a miserable examiner? Examiners are just people and some of them can be grumpy. So, not only do they lack smiles and encouragement, they can actually feel slightly top serious, possibly not so friendly. Why am I saying this? I’m not saying it to make you worried, but to prepare you for any situation and to remind you not to be affected by other people, including the examiner.

Your Preparation & Approach

You need to be prepared to face any type of examiner in the IELTS Speaking Test – encouraging or not encouraging, friendly or serious. You need to be mentally ready to be chatty and open even if the person you are talking to appears bored, unimpressed, or even frustrated.

How to prepare yourself to face the examiner?

  1. This is your test, not the examiner’s. This is your future, not theirs.
  2. Be confident and smile. It doesn’t matter if the examiner doesn’t smile back. You are not smiling for the examiner, you are smiling to help yourself relax and feel more confident. And it’s a good way to live your life anyway.
  3. Remember, it is just 11-14 mins of your life. You know your band score aim – so go into the speaking test determined that nothing will affect you.
  4. If the examiner seems bored, remember they are not bored with you, they are bored with life so ignore it.
  5. If the examiner doesn’t smile, continue to smile yourself because it’s a good thing to do.
  6. If the examiner seems unimpressed by your answers, don’t let it bother you. Keep confident. Their attitude is about themselves, not you.
  7. And remember, just because the examiner doesn’t seem impressed by your answer, doesn’t mean you won’t get a high score. Your score is based on your language, not the impression or the examiner’s feelings. So, retain your focus and confidence.
  8. Be ready for the examiner interrupting your answer occasionally, sometimes or often. Each examiner is different. See this page: Examiner Interrupts My Answer
  9. Review all tips and be fully prepared, see this page: IELTS Speaking Tips & Model Answers
  10. Remember, you have a future goal, nothing and no one should stop you achieving it.

Should you aim to be friendly, chatty and open? Yes, it is the best approach. It’ll help you relax and produce the best English. Also, the IELTS Speaking Test is informal, which means your aim is to be more relaxed and use less formal English. But remember, you take that approach regardless of how the examiner is. Examiners are just people like you and I – they have good days and bad days – be prepared for that.

Take your future into your own hands and be ready for anything.

Students’ Experiences

Most IELTS students have a good experience in their IELTS speaking test and some even enjoy it. Most students find the examiners are encouraging and friendly. This is the ideal situation. But always be prepared for a slightly surly examiner who might be having an off day.

Your Experience

Please share your experience of the speaking test by posting below. Remember this is not a time to complain. It is a time to share experiences – good and bad. Please remember that the aim of this website is to prepare students for IELTS and also BUILD CONFIDENCE !!!

My Message to IELTS

It is time to get a camera in the IELTS speaking test room. Having an audio recording is not enough and certainly behind the times. Having a camera in the room means IELTS can monitor their examiners more closely to ensure that IELTS candidates who have paid money for this test are in fact being tested at the standard that IELTS have set. It should not be acceptable that IELTS have some examiners who put students off talking by appearing bored and annoyed. This entirely defeats the purpose of having a face to face speaking test rather than one done with a computer. IELTS want their speaking test to be as life like as possible – but at what time would you have a personal chat with someone for 14 minutes who wishes you weren’t in the room and shows it!

FREE SUBSCRIBE

Subscribe to get new lessons & tips by email.

Filed Under: IELTS Speaking

Where can you plan your essay for IELTS writing?

by 31 Comments

Hi guys,

A lot of students have asked me if they can get extra paper to write a plan for their IELTS writing task 1 and writing task 2. They want to know what paper they can use for planning.

Planning is an essential part of your writing. 50% of your marks is based on choosing information, deciding how to present it and planning organisation. This means all ideas need to be planned in full before you start writing. See this page about Tips for IELTS Essay Planning.  You can find the marking criteria for writing task 2 on this page: IELTS Writing Task 2 Band Score

Where can you plan your essay?

The answer is that you use your question paper to write your plan.

At the end of your test, you will hand in your question paper. BUT the examiner will not see it and it will not be marked. So, you need to use the question paper to plan your writing for task 1 and task 2.

Please share any of your tips or experience for essay planning in the comments box below:

Filed Under: IELTS Writing Task 1, IELTS Writing Task 2

How to Use Ideas for IELTS Speaking Part 2: Tips

by 52 Comments

It is important that you understand what ideas you can use for your IELTS speaking Part 2. You need to know what topics are appropriate and how a topic can be expanded.

On this page you will see:

  • a list of ideas
  • a model answer
  • examiner comments
  • a list of vocabulary
  • useful link
  • a picture

Possible Ideas

Lets look at this topics: An Activity near the Sea. Below is a list of possible topics:

Let me give you a current speaking part 2 topic: An Activity Near the Sea You have Done

Which of the following ideas can you use for this topic?

  1. Fishing
  2. Water-skiing
  3. Swimming
  4. Sunbathing
  5. Shopping
  6. Photography
  7. A lazy day near the sea
  8. A future holiday near the sea

Decide which of the above ideas is possible for the this topic.

Answer

You can use all of the above ideas for your Speaking Part 2 talk about an activity near the sea.

The examiner is not marking your ideas. It does not affect your score to go off topic. You are not marked on using relevant ideas.

Your speaking score is based 100% on your English language – nothing more. You are not even marked on understanding. You are only marked on fluency, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

How to Use Ideas for Speaking Part 2

See this model answer below to learn how to use all the above ideas:

Model Answer

I will tell you about a place I have been to near the sea and all the activities there were on offer there. Personally, I go to the sea to enjoy the sea air and see family. But there are also plenty of other things to do.

The town I go to is called Hoi An, which is both by the sea and also situated on a river. Most people take part in fishing and swimming, although the current in the sea can sometimes be a bit strong. It’s not the best place for water-skiing due to the waves, so most people just take a dip in the sea and sunbathe. Along the coast line are loads of shops selling a variety of souvenirs. I often enjoy browsing when I have the time.

The town itself is incredibly pretty. It is a UNESCO heritage site and boasts amazingly photographic scenes, particularly as daylight fades in the evening and the town has a golden glow under the street lamps. It attracts a lot of photographers from around the world and, the last time I was there, I couldn’t stop taking snap shots as I pottered around the town.

I think Hoi An is the perfect place for a lazy day near the sea. It’s not just because there are activities to do but because there is just a pleasant feel of arriving in another world that takes your breath away. I plan to have a lot more holidays there in the future. In fact, I’ve already booked my next trip.

Comments

You can see that this model answer does not focus on one activity near the sea. Instead, this model answer offers lots of activities as it describes a holiday.

This model answer would get band score 9. It is fine to adapt the topic and bring in lots of ideas to develop your story. The talk is informal (all IELTS speaking is informal) and you can see this in the style. It is chatty, friendly and full of interesting ideas – with great vocabulary.

Speaking part 2 has no questions, just prompts. It is your task to go beyond the prompts and add lots more information that isn’t asked for in order to develop your talk and showcase your English. Going off topic by adding more detail does not affect your score. Your ideas are not marked in IELTS speaking.

Vocabulary

  • the sea air
  • the current can be strong
  • take a dip in the sea
  • variety of souvenirs
  • enjoy browsing
  • photographic scenes
  • as daylight fades
  • golden glow
  • taking snap shots
  • potter around
  • take your breath away

You can see that the vocabulary is mostly informal or descriptive. This is prefect for IELTS speaking part 2 when you are describing a place or a memory.

See my IELTS Speaking Tips

Click here to see all my IELTS Speaking Topics, Tips and Model Answers

Hoi An, Central Vietnam

Get my free lessons by email

Subscribe for free to get my new IELTS lessons sent to your email inbox.

Filed Under: IELTS Speaking

Question about speaking part 2 topic: Water

by 130 Comments

Hi guys,

Many students ask me if their idea for topics in speaking part 2 is ok. I want to see how much you understand about choosing an idea for part 2 speaking.

Let me give you a current speaking part 2 topic: An Activity Near the Sea You have Done

Which of the following ideas can you use for this topic?

  1. Fishing
  2. Water-skiing
  3. Swimming
  4. Sunbathing
  5. Shopping
  6. Photography
  7. A lazy day near the sea
  8. A future holiday near the sea

Decide which of the above ideas is possible for the this topic.

Answers

 

Find out how to use these ideas: How to use Ideas for Speaking Part 2: Activity near the Sea

This page: Ideas, will show you how to use ideas, a model band score 9 answer and vocbaulary.

Filed Under: IELTS Speaking

How I got IELTS Band Score 9 Overall

by 73 Comments

Overall IELTS 9: A student’s Tips

Learn how Gokul, an IELTS student, got overall band score 9 in IELTS this year. He shares his useful tips and experience with you in order to help and inspire you to achieve your best in your IELTS test.

IELTS Test Results: Band 9

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka.

  • Overall Band Score 9
  • Listening: 9
  • Reading: 9
  • Writing: 8
  • Speaking 9

Gokul’s Tips for IELTS Overall Band Score 9

This was my first ever IELTS attempt. I never thought that I’d be required specifically to do IELTS, since my studies have only ever been in English. Even the university that I’d applied for my Masters seemed happy enough to accept me without an IELTS requirement. However, I was told by my destination country’s embassy that they can only issue a visa given that I show an IELTS grade of 7 overall or above.

I had barely 10 days to prepare and do the test, since the results would take roughly 2 weeks to be released.

I’m listing some of the things that I followed, and I hope that you find it useful in your own preparation.

IELTS Listening Band Score 9 Tips

I’d say that the listening test is all about practice. I did about 8 practice tests, and as I was doing them I was able to see that I was getting better at picking up the points needed for the answer the more I practiced.

In my own test, I had a woman who spoke in a Scottish accent, and I’d say that this is one of the accents that people outside of the UK seldom come across. This is why it’s imperative that you try out some practice tests by yourselves. This would enable you to get used to the formats as well as the intonation and accents used by the people that you hear in the recording. Liz has a number of excellent practice less0ns on the blog at the IELTS Listening page.

You might sometimes find that you’ve missed the answer to a given question. If this happens – don’t worry! Panicking will only reduce your concentration and might cause you to lose more answers.

I also also recommend writing the answers in capital letters so that the examiner would find it easier to read what you’ve written.

Finally, make good use of the extra 10 minutes that you’re allowed at the end of the test (update – 10 mins for the paper based test only – the computer test has only 2 mins checking time). This can be used for filling out any answers that you may have missed.

IELTS Reading Band Score 9 Tips

I found the reading exam the easiest of the lot. You can read the passages at your own pace as opposed to following a pre-set sequence of events as in the listening test. I finished the test in about 40 minutes and had time to go through my answers again to check them for errors.

While there are some that say reading the entire passage is not worth it, I would still suggest that you at least skim the passages to get the gist of the content before you start. I recommend this in particular to people whose reading speed is high. This way, when you encounter a question, you’d have an inkling of where in the passage you saw the answer point.

Another point that I can’t stress enough is that you should never overthink the question. This was my biggest problem in the reading practice tests. Over-analysing the statement will often lead to incorrect answers. For YES/NO/NOT GIVEN type questions, if the passage explicitly agrees with the statement, say YES, and if it explicitly contradicts the statement, say NO. In all other cases, say NOT GIVEN.

Again, Liz has a set of excellent tips as well as practice questions in the IELTS Reading page.

IELTS Writing Band Score 8 Tips

My writing test for Task 1 involved a bar chart which compared bottled water vs. soda consumption in some western countries, while for task 2 I had the following:

Most countries want to improve the standard of living through economic development, however others think social values are lost as a result. Do you think the advantages of economic development outweigh the disadvantages?

I followed Liz’s tips on writing task 1 / writing task 2 to the letter and found that having a strategy helped me immensely. If you’re just starting out answering the tasks without a plan, it would likely end up costing you more time. As Liz rightly states, time management is vitally important in the writing test. I’d also recommend that you go through the answers you’ve written as well, which will help spot any errors that you may have made. A quick once-over may help you save points that you’d have lost if you’d misspelled any word.

IELTS Speaking Band Score 9 Tips

My speaking test went very well, and I almost felt as if I’d had a pleasant chat with the examiner as opposed to being graded.

My speaking part 1 was mostly about work/life balance (probably because I’d said that I was working full-time).

Then, for part 2, I was asked to speak about an important historical event and how it had helped shape the present. I picked the Assassination of Julius Caesar and it went without a hitch.

Part 3 then followed up on history and why it’s important to learn it.

For part 2, I made some short notes on the notepad given to me, which helped me marshal my thoughts before the talk itself. You can also structure your own flow which would enable you to showcase your language skills without being held up by lack of content. This is important because pauses due to language limitations will negatively impact your score.

It’s also worth noting that what’s being tested is your language level and not the content you’re presenting. Hence, if you don’t have an answer, you can say no and take it as an opportunity to display your proficiency. For instance, I was asked whether I had any pets, and I said something along the lines of “No, I’ve never really had the chance, but my neighbour has a beautiful Labrador that I enjoy playing with..” and so on.

Be clear and confident, and you’d do fine.

Closing thoughts from Gokul

Lastly, though you’re probably here to prepare for your exams, I’d urge you to develop an interest in the English Language in general. Not only would you find that it provides you with new opportunities, it would also help you enjoy some of the finest literature ever produced.

Liz – I can’t thank you enough for your collection of resources and materials for prospective test-takers. They were invaluable to me, and doubtless to countless others as well. Keep up the good work.

Message from Liz: Thanks for sharing your tips and your experience, Gokul. You’ve done amazingly well and clearly understand IELTS. I hope this will inspire students to learn more about their test before taking it. You’re tips are great for each part of the IELTS test and I highly recommend people to learn from what you’ve shared.

Get my free lessons by email

Subscribe for free to get my new IELTS lessons sent to your email inbox.

Filed Under: Tips from Successful IELTS Candidates Tagged With:

Is Band 9 possible in IELTS?

by 141 Comments

Hi guys,

Share your thoughts…

  1. Do you think it is possible to get an overall band score of 9 in IELTS?
  2. Have you ever known someone get band 9 overall?

Post your answers in the comments box below.

Liz

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized
error: Content is protected !!