IELTS and Business English Skills Training
One of the most effective ways for advanced students to develop more than one IELTS skill at the same time is to practice part 3 speaking questions in order to develop their own ideas and views to answer essay questions.
Similarly, one of the key problems facing many students in Task 2 Essay writing is a lack of ideas and opinions with which to answer the question. There are some simple steps, however, that students can take to overcome this … Read more
There are many topics in IELTS writing, and this can be confusing for some students who feel they may not have enough knowledge to write a good answer in task 2. However, if we look at the questions which were given over a longer period of time, we can see that some topics are more common than others – the actual questions are different, but the subject remains the same. This is useful for students because it will save time. … Read more
The definition of culture is “a set of ideas, beliefs, and ways of behaving“. It is a fairly common topic in the exam, especially in the speaking test and task 2 essays. Questions are often based on the impact of globalisation and technology on local traditions and cultures – so this is definitely an area worth studying.
P2S
Describe a foreign culture that you like.
You should say:
The average writing band score for all academic test-takers in 2017 was 5.5, highlighting the need to pay special attention to improving this skill. In addition, task 2 is worth double the marks of task 1 and presents specific problems to candidates which are very different to task 1. If we look in detail at the instructions and criteria (band score descriptors), we can understand the requirements of the task.
Essay ideas and reading practice: Environmental labelling
Here is an excellent article from the Guardian last month about the need to label products according to their environmental cost (water use, emissions, impact on environment, toxicity). As you know, the environment is a key topic in the IELTS exam and this article covers an area which most people do not consider – food production.
When we think of the key contributors towards environmental damage, we think of pollution in the form … Read more
Writing is a difficult process because, in any language, we can become fluent in speaking far more quickly through practice, and we do not write very often in a formal (academic) manner.
To understand how to do well in IELTS writing we must first understand what is the objective and how is the test assessed by the examiner?
The purpose of the test is to “write clearly, organise your ideas and use a varied vocabulary”. Academic writing involves describing … Read more