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July 2015

Lynette’s IELTS tips for Band 8 in just 21 days

Today’s post is dedicated to Lynette’s success in IELTS.

Band 8 in IELTSLynette is a lovely lady from Zimbabwe. She participated and won in our June IELTS Results competition thanks to her remarkable score. Here is what Lynette did to achieve Band 8 in her exam, and what she recommends to other test takers:

” 1. First thing first – get the book ‘Target Band 7’ for the Academic exam.

2. Follow the study plan at the back of this book.

3. Be honest with yourself.

Find out what is your weakest area and work on that. For me I knew that Writing Task 2 was going to be a challenge. So I broke it down into the following areas:

– I did practice without timing myself where I just worked on the number of words I wrote. I got questions from the ielts-blog.com with the answers and worked on just writing.

– Then I checked the word count. It was too much. I spent a few days working on getting the word count down.

– The next step was now working on writing the task within the time given and allowing for editing time.

– After that I worked on Writing Task 1. It was easier to do as I was now aware of the time I had for this task.

– I also read the model answers on IELTS-Blog.com and made study notes. I read them as if they were novels. I looked at the vocabulary and looked up 10 new words every day to expand my vocabulary.

For listening I listened to the practice tests’ audio recordings that come with ‘Target Band 7’.

I studied earnestly from January. I had bought other IELTS materials but I found that all that I really needed was in the IELTS book which I bought just 21 days before I took the test.

The blog and the book Target Band 7 really helped me. I could not have done it without my friends who were my mock examiners, and also the daily exam updates from IELTS-Blog really helped me.”

IELTS test in Australia – June 2015 (General Training)

Thanks to a friend who took the IELTS test in Australia we are sharing these Writing and Speaking questions today:

Writing testIELTS test in Australia

Writing task 1 (a letter)

You are going to another country for a holiday. Write a letter to your friend who lives there and say

– When are you going?
– What do you plan to do there?
– Ask for suggestions about places to visit.

Writing Task 2 (an essay)

In most developed countries shopping is not only about buying the goods you need, it is also perceived as entertainment. Is it a positive or negative development? Give your own opinion and examples based on your experience.

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name?
– Can I see your ID?
– Where are you from?
– Do you work or study?
– Do you live in a house or an apartment?
– Please describe your home.
– What kind of home would you prefer to live in, in the future?
– How do you help your neighbours?
– How often do you do it?
– What kind of help do they usually need?
– Talk about a time when someone helped you.
– Did your parents teach you to help others?
– What kind of movies do you watch?
– Do you still like the same kind of movies as in the past or has that changed?
– Would you like to make a movie in the future?

Cue Card

Talk about a situation when you were surprised to see a person you know. Please say

– Who is this person?
– When and where did you meet?
– What did you do together?

Discussion

– What is the difference between being best friends and just friends?
– Do you find it easy to make new friends?
– Can you become friends with somebody you just met in a shop?
– What is the difficulty in making friends from overseas?
– Where do you think people can meet and become friends?
– Why do you think people go online to find a friend?