In this podcast, our essay corrector Ellen puts YOU in the driver’s seat as you review a student’s essay with her, deciding what band score the essay should get. With the band descriptors as your guide, you will learn

* How the introduction makes a first impression on the examiner

* How mistakes and missteps can influence the examiner along the way

* How some strong arguments, precise vocabulary and accurate grammar can redeem your score

* How important the last impression your essay leaves is

In the end, you will see how challenging the task of the examiner is and all the elements they take into consideration. This knowledge will help you to construct stronger essays.

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

YOU CAN READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE:

Student: I had Ellen. She was reading my essays. She was highlighting like the weakest points like the errors and in terms of structure and she’s very energetic. She pushes the students and in the end, I was like oh, yes. I want to do it. I want to keep doing it; keep writing.

INTRODUCTION

Ben: Hello there, IELTS students. Welcome to IELTS podcast. You no longer have to worry, fret or panic about IELTS because we are here to guide you through this test jungle. Enjoy these IELTS tutorials and if you need more help or want to access the famous online course, you can visit us at ieltspodcast.com.

Ellen: Hi, everybody. This is Ellen and I’m back today with another podcast talking about Writing Task 2. In a couple of my recent podcasts, I’ve dealt with Task 2 and what I’ve been doing is I’ve been looking at different types of essays.

One was a sample essay that would certainly get at least an 8 if not an 8.5 or a 9. So, we looked at that. We analyzed that and what made it such an essay of a high band score. I also recently talked about a 6.5 essay and what kinds of decisions an examiner has to make and what might lead an examiner to choose to give that kind of a score for an essay.

The reason that I’m bringing that up is because the podcast today is going to deal with some of those issues that I talked about in both of those podcasts, but this time I kind of want you the audience to play the role of the examiner. I would like to hear what you would give this essay.

So, just to give you a little background about this student, this is an old student of mine who was again stuck at a 6.5. He took the test at least five or six times. I don’t even know. Sometimes he would take the test and not even tell me that he had registered for it and his scores really varied. Sometimes he got a 6.5, sometimes he got a 6. So, it wasn’t really consistent. I think he even got a 7 once, but then one of his other scores wasn’t a 7. Anyway, that’s not really the point.

The point is though that this is the person who is almost there, but isn’t consistently there, okay? So, I want today for us to look at an essay of this student and see what would we give hi...

Jaime’s English skills are excellent, he knew this, all his friends knew this too. Jaime even got Band 9 in the Reading. However his writing was stuck at 6.5.

Jaime did a language course and got zero improvement.

He wrote essay after essay after essay, sometimes writing up to 3000 words per essay!

Still NO IMPROVEMENT.

After spending almost a thousand dollars (US) on IELTS tests, he decided to invest in himself.

Jaime decided to invest in feedback to improve faster.

After investing in himself, he started writing clearer, better essays. Essays with strong structure and clear arguments.

Because of his investment, his IELTS frustration ended and he will soon be going to Canada for a new life.

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

YOU MAY READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE:

[Music]

Female Voice: You are now listening to the IELTS podcast. Learn from tutors and ex-examiners who are masters of IELTS preparation. Your host, Ben Worthington.

 [Music]

Ben: Hello there, podcast listeners. In this tutorial, we’re going to be talking with Jamie from Mexico and Jamie and I have been having a bit of trouble meeting online just because of the time zones and I recently relocated as well, so that just messed everything up, but we finally got it sorted. So, I’d like to welcome Jamie to the podcast. How are you doing, Jamie?

Jamie: Hi, Ben. I’m really fine. How are you?

Ben: Good, I’m good. I’m very happy we finally got this meeting finally.

Jamie: Me too.

Ben: We can finally talk with each other. So, Jamie, could you tell us a bit about yourself like your situation, where you’re from, why you’re taking IELTS?

Jamie: Sure. So, as you just mentioned, I’m from Mexico specifically from Monterrey which is located in northeast Mexico. I’m 31 years old and the reason I took the IELTS test is because my wife and I are looking to immigrate to Canada.

Ben: Got you, got you. How are you finding the process for Canada so far? Is it easy? Challenging? Time-consuming? Bureaucratic?

Jamie: I think all of the above. It’s a bit time-consuming in particular because we are not hiring any legal support or anything. We have talked to a few lawyers just for a little bit of advice, but really all the information that you need is on the Canadian government website. So, it’s been time-consuming, but I think it’s totally worth it. We’re not there yet. We’re in the process.

Ben: Yes and you’ve got to move fast because your IELTS certificate only lasts for two years, doesn’t it?

Jamie: Right, yes, that’s true.

Ben: Right, I see. Getting back to IELTS then, how were you preparing before you got the grades you wanted?

Jamie: My wife and I got this in-person course actually from International House like the official course for the IELTS test.

Ben: Okay. So, you were both preparing for it and you were both going to like traditional school setting; classroom, teacher, students,

Have you ever looked at an official IELTS website and asked yourself how it can help you? Do you know how to read and analyse student essays and read examiners comments?

In this podcast I’m going to have a detailed look at some key official IELTS websites – from all over the world – and see what we can learn from them and how they can help you prepare for your exam.

As you will have discovered by now there are many, many IELTS websites out there and you will have your favourites that you use and that you trust. In this tutorial, I want to look at the ‘official’ websites and to try and assess what you can get out of them!

So, in all your IELTS preparation you are looking for three main things – INFORMATION, ADVICE and PRACTICE! These are three really important elements to getting through this exam and looking forward to IELTS exam success!

Many of you are studying on your own without teachers / need support but also need to be able to learn effectively on your own and therefore these official websites are important and can be a key to guiding you through the exam preparation and process.

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

Student: When I saw– whoever gave me the feedback, I think Daphne gave me the feedback. She gave it on a YouTube video and she highlighted, she graded it. Hey, this sentence could have been better. This could have been arranged different, that could have been arranged different and it really helped me. She used real-life examples and that was a life changer for me because that type of a service you can’t get it anywhere else.

Ben: That’s interesting.

Student: Yes, that’s interesting for me.

INTRODUCTION

Ben: Yes, Daphne is an absolute star. Hello there, IELTS students. Welcome to IELTS podcast. You no longer have to worry, fret or panic about IELTS because we are here to guide you through this test jungle. Enjoy these IELTS tutorials and if you need more help or want to access the famous online course, you can visit us at ieltspodcast.com.       

[Music]

Daphne: Hello there, IELTS students. Thank you for choosing to listen to this tutorial from ieltspodcast.com. My name is Daphne. In this podcast tutorial, I’m going to be looking at some of the official IELTS websites around the world and helping you work out which are the most useful parts of them so you can really help yourself practice and work effectively towards achieving your IELTS goals.

I’m sure many of you have done IELTS before, many of you are all over the website looking for different resources and this will hopefully guide you a little bit. So, as you will discover, there are many, many IELTS websites out there. You will have your favorites that you use and that you trust and I want to look really today at the official websites and try and assess what you can get out of them, how they can help you.

So,

In this part two of The Essentials for IELTS Grammar 2020, we will be giving you examples, explanations, and how you can use these structures in your IELTS essay.

In this tutorial, we will specifically be looking at higher-level vocabulary mainly focused around band 8.

We’ll look at the following:

Alternative complex conditional structures

Replace if with should at the beginning of the clause, particularly in very formal English (formal letters).

Should you require any further information, do not hesitate to contact me.

We can use If it was/were notfor or had not been for to say that one situation is dependent on another situation or person.

If it hadn’t been for the tour guide, they would never have seen those carvings in the caves.

If it had not been for the investigative journalist, the politicians would have never gone to jail.

Use if + was/were + to + infinitive to talk about imaginary future situations.

If the technology were to become available, we would be able to travel across the world in just a couple of hours.

Defining and non-defining relative clauses, relative pronouns

Definingrelativeclauses give essential information so that we can identify who or what is being talked about.

The relative clause follows immediately after the noun referring to the person(s) or thing(s) we are talking about.

NO commas at the beginning or end of a defining relative clause!

The woman who showed the most determination got the job.

The gorillas which/that lived nearby were completely obliterated as a result of deforestation.

Non-defining relative clauses give non-essential, extra information about something or someone.

ALWAYS use a comma before and immediately after the clause.

Her resume, which made a big impression on the interviewers, helped her get the job.

Many relative clauses are introduced by a relativepronoun.

She is a scientist whose work is world famous.

She spent many years in China, where she worked in a bank.

Megan, who has been working in the IT department for two years, has been promoted.

Structures for reason, result and purpose

A number of conjunctions (FANBOYS) and adverbs show relationships between cause and effect.

He is ambitious, so he doesn’t mind staying late at work most evenings.

She decided to do an evening course in book-keeping so as to be better able to help her brother with his new business.

The following prepositions introduce cause.

Owing to the storms, all transportation has been diverted.

The students couldn’t sleep for worrying.

The following verbs introduce cause.

Her attitude stemsfrom her background.

The success of the company isbasedon the employees’ hard work and enthusiasm.

Participleclauses can also express cause and effect.

Having done extensive market research, the company was confident its new product would succeed.

The following nouns can refer to cause and effect: aim, basis, consequence, explanation, motive, outcome, purpose, reason, result.

The aim of the programme was to give students work experience.

His laziness is the reasonwhy he is not as successful as he could be.

Participle clauses

Participle clauses with a presentparticiple can be used adjectivally.

The problem beingdiscussed the most now is the newly emerged virus in Asia.

All participle clauses can be used adverbially.

Feeling exhausted after long hours of cramming, students are unable to have a job at all.

Perfect participle clauses are often adverbial clauses showing when ...

In this tutorial you will learn:

* A list of grammar points and topics that are necessary to achieve IELTS Band score 7 and higher in Writing or Speaking exam section.

This will help you in your IELTS exam because:

* You will find out how to structure your grammar study and revision while preparing for the IELTS exam.

* You will learn what these grammar points look like and will be able to understand how to use them correctly.

* You will see which grammar points are required for the highest level of language proficiency in Bands 8 and 9.

You know that grammar is an important aspect in both the Writing and the Speaking section of the IELTS exam.

Yet, it is also important to keep in mind that grammar is not only about how correctly you use tenses, sentence structures or adverbs. It is also about the range, or variety and complexity of the grammatical points you are expected to use.

If you want to avoid mistakes and keep using only simple structures and tenses, your score might not exceed 6.0, be it Speaking or Writing.

This is why we would like to present a list of some grammar points, illustrated by examples, that are desirable in your writing or speech if you aim at 7.0 or higher. But remember, you need to use them correctly and appropriately in your sentences to obtain that wonderful high score.

Each subsequent band score involves an accurate and appropriate use of the grammar elements mentioned for the previous band.

These grammar points can and should be used in your formal and informal letters, depending on the case, in your discursive essays, and, of course, in the Speaking part of the exam.

Band 7

Passive forms

Use Past Simple Passive when we don’t know who did something.

The bendable straw was made in the 1930s somewhere in the United States.

Passive forms are used in news reporting, scientific writing and other kinds of writing where we are more interested in events and processes than in the person doing the action.

A factory was set alight during the weekend and two million pounds’ worth of damage was caused.

When the situation is in the present and the sentence needs to be impersonal – the passive form of the verb plus the infinitive:

The President is believed to be in contact with the Russians.

Same situation in the past – passive plus the pastinfinitive:

He is said to have poisoned his opponents in order to gain power.

Politicians in Burkina Faso are said to use underhand tactics, such as poisoning, against their opponents in order to gain power.

Second, third, and mixed conditionals 

The second conditional is used to talk about unlikely or imaginary states or events in the present or future (form = if + past simple/continuous + would/could/should/might).

They would leave their jobs tomorrow and travel the world if they had the money.

The third conditional is used to talk about imaginary states or events in the past (form = if + past perfect + would/ could/should/might + have + past participle).

If they had studied other cultures at school, they might have been more confident about travelling.

MIXED Conditional: A third conditional cause is sometimes linked to a second conditional result to show the imaginary present result of an imaginary past event or situation.

If my parents had never met, I wouldn’t be here now!

If pollution had been brought under control earlier, activists such as Greta Thunberg would not have appeared.

MIXED Conditional: A second conditional cause is sometimes linked to a third conditional result to show how an ongoing situation produced an effect in the past.

If he knew about computers,

In this tutorial Ellen looks at cause and effect essay questions and certain aspects of the question to be on the lookout for.

In this podcast you will learn:

* some examples of cause & effect essays

* different examples of language and phrases used in the prompt

* how not to confuse this question type with other 2 question types

* how to organize your essay

* how to develop your essay so you can create a FULLY developed task 2

* and other tips and tricks to help you succeed.

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

Luzia ends her expensive IELTS frustration by jumping to Band 7! After taking the exam 5 times, and trying other essay corrections services, she decides to work with IELTSPodcast (

When you have to prepare your students for the IELTS exam, you’re up for a task that is far from easy, especially when it comes to the Speaking section.

In this tutorial we intend to help you navigate the daunting task of teaching your exam candidates what the Speaking exam is like and how to do their best at it.

In volume 2 of teaching IELTS Speaking you will learn:

* Some useful IELTS Speaking examination: Part 1 Tips

* We’ll take a look at sample activities you could do to with your test candidates for IELTS Speaking Part 1

* Learn which aspects you need to encourage your students to do, to make sure that they’re successful with their IELTS Speaking exam!

IELTS Speaking examination: Part 1 Tips

The purpose of Part 1 questions is to hear the exam taker answer questions on a few simple topics to find out whether they can sustain conversation about themselves and everyday situations.

This part is typically perceived as the easiest one, as talking about personal topics is usually easier than talking about more abstract topics.

Prepare your test taker to hear questions on the following topics:

* Description of place of origin

* Daily routine

* Work and employment

* Background education and childhood

* Family structure

* Public transportation in your home country

* Forms of building in your home country

* Typical occupations in your home country

* Typical landscapes and weather in your home country

* Plants and animals

* Your personal likes and dislikes

* Preferences in terms of reading material/films/music/games/entertainment/art/internet/pets/shopping

* Hobbies, interests and pastimes

* Celebrations, holidays and festivals

* Languages and linguistic proficiency

* Newspapers, media and TV

* Etc., as this is not an exhaustive list

Remind your student that the questions in Section 1 of the Speaking exam will be clustered around one or two of these topics.

Thus, they may get 10-12 questions about Work and employment, and 6-8 questions about Hobbies, interests and pastimes.

Structure your activities around these topics, build vocabulary based on them, and enlarge their lexical resource as much as possible.

Remember to practise consistently and encourage building a solid vocabulary base for each of these topics.

ACTIVITIES

Here are some of the sample activities you could do to with your test candidates for IELTS Speaking Part 1.

Complete the topic boxes below by thinking of three more ideas for each box.

Types of celebration 

Chinese New Year, ________________, ________________, ________________.

Forms of transport 

car, ________________, ________________, ________________.

Types of building 

skyscraper, ________________, ________________, ________________.

Weather 

thunderstorm, ________________, ________________, ________________.

Hobbies / interests 

paper folding, ________________, ________________, ________________.

Reading material 

magazines, ________________, ________________, ________________.

Types of scenery 

rivers, ________________, ________________, ________________.

In order to improve their range of vocabulary in this section, students can make vocabulary collections like this

Birthdays an enjoyable celebration / giving presents

Mountains peaceful / range / tall / snow-covered / climb / steep

Trains fast / track / station / convenient/driver/speed

You could also encourage your students to expand their descriptive abilities for this section b...

In this tutorial you will learn:

* How to approach teaching IELTS Speaking overall and Part 1, in particular.

This will help you to teach about the IELTS Speaking exam because:

* You will learn about the main challenges and purposes of the IELTS Speaking exam.

* You will see real activities that you can practise with your IELTS exam candidate.

* You will learn how to prepare your exam taker in terms of overall attitude and mindset.

When you have to prepare your students for the IELTS exam, you’re up for a task that is far from easy, especially when it comes to the Speaking section.

In this tutorial we intend to help you navigate the daunting task of teaching your exam candidates what the Speaking exam is like and how to do their best at it.

MINDSET, ATTITUDE AND GENERAL APPROACH

Remember, a calm and relaxed student makes the best IELTS candidate!

First and foremost, one of the most important parts of the exam is your student’s mindset and their attitude towards it.

Your student will be calm when they know what to expect from the exam.

Teach them the exam format:

* How long is the exam? – 10 – 15 minutes

* How many parts are there?

* Part 1 (4–5minutes) The student will need to answer short questions from the examiner about yourself and everyday situations.

* Part 2 (3–4minutes) The candidate will give a one – to two-minute talk, based on your own experience, on a simple topic provided by the examiner.

* Part 3 (4–5minutes) The student will discuss some general but more abstract topics with the examiner that are related to the Part 2 talk.

* What is the test like? –There’s only ONE examiner, who will ask them questions and record the entire exam session. THAT is very important: exam takers are often taken aback by the fact that they are recorded during the exam.

* What’s the general approach to the test? – The exam candidate should follow the examiner’s instructions and listen carefully. They should make sure they always speak clearly and answer only the questions that you are asked. No additional information! The examiner will know if they have memorised answers and candidates will certainly lose marks if it turns out that they memorized answers. So, NO MEMORISING ANSWERS!

* How is the speaking test marked? – The speaking test is marked using a 9-band scale, as the entire IELTS test. The examiner will be listening to 4 features of your language:

* fluency and coherence

* vocabulary

* grammar and accuracy

* pronunciation

* What if the exam candidate doesn’t understand the examiner? – Main rule: DON’T PANIC! Tell your student to ask the examiner: Sorry, could you repeat the question, please?

* What if your exam candidate is not sure about their answer? – Tell them that there is actually no RIGHT answer. And they could always use hesitating structures such as:

* I’m not sure what I think about…

* Let me think…

* I really can’t remember but …

* It depends on…

* I tend to think that…

* On the whole, it seems that…

* What should your test taker do if they made a mistake? – Remind them to act like a figure skater: get up and go on. Just GO ON. Errors are inevitable. Embrace them. Or correct yourself quickly and go on. But don’t make a point of correcting themselves in every single mistake.

* Should your exam candidate say less or more? – MORE is always better. That’s called EXTENT. The more extent there is to an answer, which means if an answer is reasonably long, the better! But remind the student of typical answer lengths for each Speaking section.

* Can your student make up when they don’t know?

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

|Direct Download Here | Stitcher | iTunes | Spotify | Soundcloud | Transcript |

In this tutorial, you’ll learn

* How an IELTS examiner would look at one of the more usual Task 1 questions – MAPS! I love map questions but many students are unfamiliar with them and so might panic in the exam!

* How to understand what is needed and what clues to look for before you start writing.

* Examples of good grammar and key useful vocabulary from our review of 2 students’ essays – one Band 6 and one Band 7-7.5 as our examples.

* How you can practice by looking at another kind of map question.

* Really important vocabulary needed for talking about geographical location and change.

This will help you in your IELTS because

* By understanding what makes a good Band 7.5 MAP task 1 essay you can work towards achieving a Band 7 yourself simply by listening to our corrections and suggestions.

* You will be able to show the examiner a range of useful core lexis important for your response to Task 1 Maps and also useful for Task 2 essays too.

* You will gain confidence in using the passive voice which is perfect for this type of question.

* You can show strength in ‘Task Achievement’ using quick checks to make sure you are fully answering all aspects of the instructions.

This tutorial is divided into three parts: 

* We will look at a Task 1 Map question from our online course using two students’ essays and seeing why one scored a Band 7 – 7.5 and why the other scored 6.

* We will look at another Task 1 Map question from a course book and look at how we could answer this one.

* I will give you lots of really useful and important vocabulary which is crucial – that is to say – really important for successfully answering these questions in your IELTS exam.

This tutorial will help you: 

* Choose the right information to include in your essay

* Use the right sentence structures focusing on passive voice constructions and specific vocabulary.

* Decide on the perfect tense to use

* How to best organise the information in your response

To guide you – I have colour coded each of my corrections and recommendations to make sure they correspond really easily to the British Council / IELTS band grade marking criteria (As you know there are four areas of assessment: Task Achievement red, Coherence and Cohesion blue, Lexical Resource,- green Grammatical Range and Accuracy purple ).

SO, If you haven’t yet come across a Task 1 Map question they usually consist of two maps which might be of a landscape or an island or a town, one before and one after some kind of change and the question rubric asks you to ‘Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where necessary.’ Like other Task 1’s the guide suggests 20 mins time and to write at least 150 words.