IELTS preparation blog

Our blog is a huge resource of IELTS news, tips and suggestions for your IELTS preparation.

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Latest posts

Ten things you could do the night before your IELTS test

Hi

For those of you who have got your IELTS test soon, here are ten things that you could do the night before your IELTS test:

  1. Have a look back at any feedback that you’ve received on your speaking or writing and make a list of your common mistakes
  2. Have a look at our blog post ‘A checklist for your IELTS test
  3. Have a look at our blog post ‘What you could be doing before your IELTS Speaking test
  4. Plan how you’re going to get to the IELTS test centre Read the full post »

Is it true, false or not given?

Hi

A common mistake in TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN questions in the IELTS Reading test is to choose answers by matching words in the questions with words in the text without reading the relevant parts of the text carefully.

To show you what I mean, here’s a TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN question from Section 3 of the General Training Reading test in the Official IELTS Practice Materials (Volume 2) and an extract from the text.

Do the following statements agree with the information in the text?

Write:

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information given

34. The average person can name thousands of smells.
35. Participants in smell tests at Hill Top Research are required to avoid using certain products.
36. Most perfumes are made from natural materials.

Extract for question 34: “The average person can detect at least 10,000 odours. Being able to identify those smells is another story. If blindfolded, most people can put a name (‘roses’, ‘fish’, ‘oak’) to fewer than a hundred scents.”

In this example, many candidates would read ‘the average person can detect at least 10,000 odours’ and choose TRUE. The correct answer, however, is FALSE because most people can ‘put a name to fewer than a hundred scents’. Read the full post »

Don’t get distracted in the IELTS Listening test (2)

Hi

Here’s the answer to the IELTS Listening question in my post ‘Don’t get distracted in the IELTS Listening test‘.

As with any IELTS Listening test practice, if you find you’ve got an answer wrong, it’s important to understand why your answer is wrong.

The newest sports facility in the hotel is

A) a swimming pool
B) a fitness centre
C) a tennis court

Transcript: “The Bridge Hotel is set in three and a half hectares of grounds with an open-air swimming pool and four tennis courts. There is also a newly opened gym with fitness suite, which is considered one of the best equipped in the area.”

In this example, many candidates may be distracted when they hear ‘swimming pool’ or ‘tennis courts’ in the recording and choose ‘A’ or ‘C’. The correct answer, however, is ‘B’ because the ‘gym with fitness suite’ is the newest sports facility.

Here’s a more challenging example from Section 3 of the same test where two students (Katy and Harry) are discussing who will answer questions in their presentation: Read the full post »

Don’t get distracted in the IELTS Listening test

Hi

A common mistake in multiple choice questions in the IELTS Listening test is to get distracted by words in the audio recording that match words in one of the possible answers.

To show you what I mean, here’s a multiple choice question from Section 2 of the Listening test in the Official IELTS Practice Materials and a transcript of the audio recording. Read the full post »

Which part of the IELTS test is the most difficult?

Hi

I often get asked which part of IELTS is the most difficult or if one part of the test is easier than others and so I’ve done some research.

According to a poll we carried out on our Facebook page, most IELTS candidates find the writing test the most difficult part of the IELTS test.

This isn’t surprising because the part of the test where candidates get the lowest band score on average is the IELTS Writing test.

Here are the statistics for 2010 (the latest figures available) from the official IELTS website:

  • the average band score for IELTS Academic Writing is 5.6 for females and 5.4 for males
  • the average band score for IELTS General Training Writing is 5.9 for females and 5.8 for males

Read the full post »