Recently, I have been asked whether synonyms are allowed when answering questions in the IELTS Listening test. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this. If you have been doing lots of practice using past IELTS test papers and going through the answers at the end, you may find that there are strict instructions where you […]
Read more "An Important Tip for IELTS Listening"A number of students have recently enquired about whether or not they can do the IELTS test with the level of English that they have. This idea of whether or not they qualify to do the test does not really make a difference. Anyone can do the IELTS because it is not a pass or fail […]
Read more "Is my level of English good enough for the IELTS?"Grammatical Range and Accuracy accounts for 25% of your total writing and speaking scores, and because of this, IELTS candidates need to be familiar with the types of sentences assessors are looking for when marking exam scripts or interviewing test takers. Basically, there are 4 types of English sentences: 1) Simple A simple sentence contains only […]
Read more "4 Types of Sentences in IELTS Writing and Speaking"When marking IELTS papers, I have often come across certain expressions that you can commonly find in model answers. For example, introductions that typically begin like these ones here: People have always argued on whether …. (Really? Who are these people?) Although there are some advantages to this, I believe that the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. […]
Read more "Can I use formulaic expressions in IELTS Writing and Speaking?"