TPS - IELTS Tips
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Test Preparation Services (TPS)
Information that provides IELTS tips & links to other sites to get a higher score. It also provides a link to an IELTS blog giving strategic advice. Finally, it provides a recommended list of IELTS sites, textbooks and YouTube videos.
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This page is designed to provide you with advice and tips that are available in more reputable websites and YouTube videos, ones that I have personally gone through on many occasions. As well, I will give a couple textbooks that students trust and seem to be useful. Continue to use Google for many more sites but remember to be kind to your brain and keep the list manageable.
As well, I will post a new tip every week and archive them on my IELTS blog. You are welcome to make your own posts or just pose a question for others.
As well, I will post a new tip every week and archive them on my IELTS blog. You are welcome to make your own posts or just pose a question for others.
Free IELTS Websites and Blogs
There are five important IELTS websites that seem to give credible information and give you a lot of detail on the test itself.
The first one is the official site which may not be the most generous or even user friendly, but it is the most trustworthy in terms of information and in the practice sites you can be sure the test adheres to the protocols and instructions actually done in the real tests.
The second is a site called IELTS essentials and is by the IDP. I like it especially for its free download pack which allows you to practice offline. You can do its online practice tests as well.
The third is the DC IELTS which was put together by an ex-teacher turned tutor named Dominic Cole. His website is generously detailed and user friendly and he is a prolific writer that spends all his time on his teaching and blog. He is one of the few honest players out there and he does not try to dazzle people with "Secrets of IELTS" or phrases like "Top 10 tips" or "Get an 8". He gets in my good books when he says to the question "What's the best way to study IELTS?"
A: "I don't have an answer to this question. IELTS works differently for different people." http://www.dcielts.com/dominic-cole/
He goes onto say:
"Remember that IELTS is a test of English. Lots of people get obsessed by learning tips and tricks. These can help but the reason most people don't get the score they need is that their core English isn't good enough. Often this can mean that the best practice is not exam practice."
http://www.dcielts.com/dominic-cole/
The fourth is the extremely popular blog IELTS Blog by Simone Braverman, which was started about 10 years ago and has had close to a million and a half visits. While I'm not hugely impressed with many of her tips, practice exams or Target 7 book, her recent exam postings is extremely useful to get a sense of the style of questions and you can get them sent to you by email.
A fifth site is the British Council IELTS site. The practice test they offer is quite close to the Cambridge ones but unfortunately they only offer one
You can also look at ielts-exam.net and IELTS For Free sites. They are not brilliant but they are generous with reasonable quality practice exams.
If you are in Australia or planning to go, a new site that seems comprehensive and serious is AussieTY In it you will not only get tips but also a useful reference for taking the test throughout Australia.
If you do a google search on "Best IELTS Websites" you can see a whole lot more. The ones I give just reflect my students own experience with them but please feel free to let me know if you feel there are better ones not included.
The first one is the official site which may not be the most generous or even user friendly, but it is the most trustworthy in terms of information and in the practice sites you can be sure the test adheres to the protocols and instructions actually done in the real tests.
The second is a site called IELTS essentials and is by the IDP. I like it especially for its free download pack which allows you to practice offline. You can do its online practice tests as well.
The third is the DC IELTS which was put together by an ex-teacher turned tutor named Dominic Cole. His website is generously detailed and user friendly and he is a prolific writer that spends all his time on his teaching and blog. He is one of the few honest players out there and he does not try to dazzle people with "Secrets of IELTS" or phrases like "Top 10 tips" or "Get an 8". He gets in my good books when he says to the question "What's the best way to study IELTS?"
A: "I don't have an answer to this question. IELTS works differently for different people." http://www.dcielts.com/dominic-cole/
He goes onto say:
"Remember that IELTS is a test of English. Lots of people get obsessed by learning tips and tricks. These can help but the reason most people don't get the score they need is that their core English isn't good enough. Often this can mean that the best practice is not exam practice."
http://www.dcielts.com/dominic-cole/
The fourth is the extremely popular blog IELTS Blog by Simone Braverman, which was started about 10 years ago and has had close to a million and a half visits. While I'm not hugely impressed with many of her tips, practice exams or Target 7 book, her recent exam postings is extremely useful to get a sense of the style of questions and you can get them sent to you by email.
A fifth site is the British Council IELTS site. The practice test they offer is quite close to the Cambridge ones but unfortunately they only offer one
You can also look at ielts-exam.net and IELTS For Free sites. They are not brilliant but they are generous with reasonable quality practice exams.
If you are in Australia or planning to go, a new site that seems comprehensive and serious is AussieTY In it you will not only get tips but also a useful reference for taking the test throughout Australia.
If you do a google search on "Best IELTS Websites" you can see a whole lot more. The ones I give just reflect my students own experience with them but please feel free to let me know if you feel there are better ones not included.
IELTS YouTube Videos
YouTube is full of IELTS advice, often from overseas IELTS schools but be careful with three important areas.
1) The quality of the listening transcript
2) The difficulty level in the reading samples
3) The authenticity of the speaking interviews
Since you are not paying anything, it is worthwhile to look at a variety of them and see what is common. Be careful, particularly in the speaking exam, not to take the advice at face value. I have seen some really poor presentations that give wrong grammar explanations (e.g. referring to gerunds as verbs) and some even advise students to do things that examiners will not allow, such as ask interviewers for the meaning of words. This advice is wrong and could even jeopardize your score in the real exam.
Just as a start, I would recommend you look through the IELTS Full interview sites, which give very good samples of speaking exams. The very popular 'Learn English with Emma' youtube videos include a decent section on IELTS Lessons. The less interesting but reliable IELTS Official channel gives quite few lessons. Finally, while I am not very big on the tips on this site, Passport to English has IELTS speaking samples that highlight nicely the kind of relaxed, natural tone of high level candidates, ones that students can use as models for voice tone and answer extensions.
1) The quality of the listening transcript
2) The difficulty level in the reading samples
3) The authenticity of the speaking interviews
Since you are not paying anything, it is worthwhile to look at a variety of them and see what is common. Be careful, particularly in the speaking exam, not to take the advice at face value. I have seen some really poor presentations that give wrong grammar explanations (e.g. referring to gerunds as verbs) and some even advise students to do things that examiners will not allow, such as ask interviewers for the meaning of words. This advice is wrong and could even jeopardize your score in the real exam.
Just as a start, I would recommend you look through the IELTS Full interview sites, which give very good samples of speaking exams. The very popular 'Learn English with Emma' youtube videos include a decent section on IELTS Lessons. The less interesting but reliable IELTS Official channel gives quite few lessons. Finally, while I am not very big on the tips on this site, Passport to English has IELTS speaking samples that highlight nicely the kind of relaxed, natural tone of high level candidates, ones that students can use as models for voice tone and answer extensions.
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IELTS Textbooks
I have never been very impressed with most of the IELTS textbooks on the market - most are either too gimmicky, boring or so general it seems anyone could have written them. It seems trite to state this, but Cambridge IELTS Self- Study books and practice exams are the standard ones and should not be ignored only because they always seem to have the most up to date topic styles. Start with the Cambridge 9 book and work your way down. They are not numerically arranged by difficulty level - only by how new they are so the 9 is the most recent. On the other hand, I find the Barron's Superpack, the hands down best one to self-study. You will likely find it in a library and although it is always nice to have the latest version, it is not that necessary. You can also order it on Amazon although you will find them free or very cheap somewhere, if you search hard enough. Two other reasonable books are a series of task 2 written essays called IELTS Writing Task 2: Model Essays and How to Write Them which gives mediocre advice but it is nevertheless still a good collection of model answers. About the only other out there that deserves some mention is the Step up to IELTS Self-study Pack, a rather boring but useful book dating back to 2004 by an author who does know the IELTS test and the skills required.
IELT Tip #9
Unfortunately, in the IELTS test, you are not given time to do a second draft but that does not mean you should not do some 'real-time' editing, meaning that you edit while you write. As you write, look back at what you have just written before you move on with the next sentence. There are 3 possible scenarios:
1) You are uncomfortable with the sentence that you have written and you do not know how to repair it. I advise not wasting time trying to repair it. If it looks uncomfortable to you, it is probably going to be uncomfortable with the examiner as well.
The best way to deal with this is to simply cross the sentence out and rewrite. Try to phrase it more simply and clearly. You may want to use a bot of word reorder to make it a 'cleaner sentence'
2) You feel comfortable with the sentence but you feel you should add or cut out words and you realize you there are mistakes.
In this case you can cross out words and add in other phrases. you may be editing just to make the sentence clearer to the reader or perhaps you are improving the tone (eg making it more formal or less colloquial) or adding a better word.
3) You feel the sentence is perfect, and you are very comfortable with it, just check it again for the often overlooked errors, sometimes referred to as 'careless errors'.
Often overlooked are
You can expect to 'catch' one error per sentence and often it is the accumulation of small errors that can destroy a good mark.
1) You are uncomfortable with the sentence that you have written and you do not know how to repair it. I advise not wasting time trying to repair it. If it looks uncomfortable to you, it is probably going to be uncomfortable with the examiner as well.
The best way to deal with this is to simply cross the sentence out and rewrite. Try to phrase it more simply and clearly. You may want to use a bot of word reorder to make it a 'cleaner sentence'
2) You feel comfortable with the sentence but you feel you should add or cut out words and you realize you there are mistakes.
In this case you can cross out words and add in other phrases. you may be editing just to make the sentence clearer to the reader or perhaps you are improving the tone (eg making it more formal or less colloquial) or adding a better word.
3) You feel the sentence is perfect, and you are very comfortable with it, just check it again for the often overlooked errors, sometimes referred to as 'careless errors'.
Often overlooked are
- Plural/singular verbs (adding an 's' or not)
- missing articles (ie 'a', 'the', 'an')
- punctuation (especially misplaced periods, commas or apostrophes
- spelling (still an issue for many)
- wrong preposition (in, at, on etc..)
You can expect to 'catch' one error per sentence and often it is the accumulation of small errors that can destroy a good mark.
(for previous tips go to the TPS IELTS Blog
............................[more on this ] ...................................... [click to keep reading - this is continued on IELTS Blog along with other tips]