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Find all my tips on my website ieltsetc.com and join the Members Academy for all the downloads, step-by-step online courses, and support to get you a Band 7+ in the #ielts test.
Copyright: © Fiona Wattam
Are you using the right idiom in the right place with the right person and the right pronunciation?
To use an idiom correctly there are so many factors that you have to take into account, for example
In my latest blog, I talk about 3 key factors to help you use idioms correctly:
1. Accuracy
2. Appropriacy
3. Pronunciation
Find out more on my blog.
https://ieltsetc.com/2021/08/how-to-use-idioms-in-ielts/
This episode is a Part 4 Listening about an ancient philosophy called Stoicism (don't worry if you've never heard of it - the Listening will explain everything). It's a gapfill summary (one word only) and we also discuss:
Review the grammar of 'despite' and 'in spite of' on my blog.
https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/despite/
This passage 2 Academic IELTS Reading is a problem-solution structure.
This IELTS Reading is packed full of useful vocab like 'to squander energy' (= to waste) and 'it uses a FRACTION of the electricity/at a FRACTION of the energy cost' (=a small or tiny part, amount, or proportion of something).
There were also some interesting uses of nouns as adjectives (wards in hospitals = hospital wards) - see my blog about this useful IELTS topic here:
https://ieltsetc.com/2021/06/nouns-as-adjectives/
and adjectives as nouns ('the prosperous' = the people who are prosperous and 'the public').
Get all my reading tips and advice on my website:
https://ieltsetc.com/ielts-reading/
This is a Section 4 Listening. I chose this Listening in order to show you why hyphens are NOT important in Listening gap-fill summaries.
There are 3 main types of words in gapfill summaries:
1) Words ending with a suffix like '-tion' or '-sion'
2) Commodities or materials like wool, gold, tea or sugar.
3) Irregular words like plurals ending in y/ies or irregular word forms like poor/poverty.
Get the full article about hyphens on my blog:
https://ieltsetc.com/2021/06/how-to-use-hyphens-in-ielts/
Learn more about Irregular Word Forms on my blog:
https://ieltsetc.com/2020/06/word-formation/
Learn more about the types of Listening gapfill AND the Pronunciation errors that affect your listening in the Members Academy:
www.members.ieltsetc.com/academy/
I had a special request for this Academic Passage 3 because it's difficult, but honestly, it's a very early test (Book 7) and is just badly-written. I think the reading itself is very useful as an example of academic writing, with lots you can learn from it, but the questions are simply not good - you can guess 3 of them without even needing to understand what they mean (a sure sign of a bad test), and there is too much similar language (very few synonyms required). If you struggled with this one - forget it and move on (but listen for practice 😊.) Learning points: Hedging - listen to an earlier podcast about hedging: https://anchor.fm/ieltsetc/episodes/IELTS-Writing-How-to-hedge-in-Task-2-eo21n7/a-a465qt4 and read the blog: https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/hedging-in-academic-writing/
When you get IELTS Writing feedback from your teacher, you should be able to see why you are not achieving your desired score.
But this feedback is only useful if you understand exactly what the teacher is talking about when they are pointing out areas you need to work on.
Writing Feedback about LANGUAGE is usually easy to understand – most people know the language related to grammar (e.g. wrong tense, article missing, third person -s), spelling and punctuation.
But Writing feedback related to CONTENT andacademic STYLE is more difficult, especially if you are not familiar with the demands of academic writing. You need to have a good understanding of the terms that the teacher is using so that you can make the necessary changes.
Here is a ‘glossary of terms’ that I use regularly in my IELTS Writing Feedback Sessions in the Members Academy.
https://ieltsetc.com/2021/05/ielts-writing-feedback-40-words/
See also
How to make your writing more formal for Task 2:
https://ieltsetc.com/2020/11/ielts-formal-writing/
IELTS Task 2 Structures that strengthen your argument:
https://ieltsetc.com/2018/06/structure-strengthens-argument/
How to use 'hedging' in IELTS Writing Task 2
https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/hedging-in-academic-writing/
#ielts #ieltswriting #ieltsfiona
This is an Academic Part 1 text. The text and subject matter is difficult but the questions (YNNG) are NOT.
In fact, in this episode I will show you how you can mostly guess the answers without reading or understanding very much of the text.
Get more help with Yes, No, Not Given questions on my website.
If you'd like to contribute to the upkeep of my website and podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam
Many thanks
Fiona
This is a really useful Part 2 IELTS Listening (Book 15) about a community that closed their road to traffic so that the children could play safely outside.
It practises Multiple Choice and Choosing from a list.
Useful vocab:
'the idea caught on' = the idea became very popular in other places
'give it a go' = try it
Useful grammar:
Present Perfect vs Past Simple
'The scheme's been up and running for 3 years' = 'The Street Paly Scheme first took place 3 years ago'.
'Be able to' with conditionals
'We'd love to be able to close our road for longer'.
Conditionals
Past Perfect
Academic Task 1 Vocabulary
Writing Task 2: talking about benefits/outcomes
#ielts #ieltslistening #ielttutor
This is a nice and easy Academic Reading Part 1 (great for GT too).
It goes in chronological order, so it's easy to find information from dates, names and places, and there are 2 sets of questions (TFNG and gapfill).
If you're aiming for 7 and you can get 10/13 correct in less than 20 minutes, you're doing very well.
Check your band score here:
https://ieltsetc.com/ielts-band-score-calculator/
Get the conditionals review here:
https://ieltsetc.com/2021/02/conditionals-review/
Learn about 'willing to' vs 'want to' here:
https://ieltsetc.com/2021/02/willing/
Join the Conditional Bootcamp here:
www.members.ieltsetc.com/academy/
☕Buy me a coffee to say thanks here:
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