What to do if you’re unfamiliar with the topic you have to write about

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Hi

An IELTS candidate recently asked us what she should do in IELTS Writing task 2 if she has to write about a topic that she isn’t familiar with.

In her previous test, the candidate said she’d got the following topic and that she didn’t know much about it.

“Some people believe that recent increases in cheap air travel have many benefits. However, others believe that this has some drawbacks for the environment. Discuss both views and give your opinion.”

If you find yourself looking at an essay writing task with no idea what to write about, one strategy you could use is to… Read the full post »

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The opinion of Professor Savulescu (2)

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Hi

Here are the answers to the reading questions in my post ‘The opinion of Professor Savulescu‘. Read the full post »

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The opinion of Professor Savulescu

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

Hi

In the IELTS reading test, you may get a question that asks you to match a list of opinions to a list of people mentioned in the text.

To give you some practice of answering this type of question, I’ve created an example for the text I recommended you read in my post ‘A challenging IELTS topic‘.

If you haven’t read the text yet, have a look at it now and then try answering the questions below. Read the full post »

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Dealing with difficult questions

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Hi

Do you think you could answer the following IELTS speaking questions within a few seconds of an IELTS examiner asking you?

  • Some people think that education should be about memorising the important ideas of the past. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
  • Should education encourage students to have their own new ideas? Why?

If you get asked a difficult question in your IELTS speaking test and you can’t answer straight away, one way to sound less hesitant is to buy yourself some thinking time.

Here are some suggestions: Read the full post »

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