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All there is to know about the IELTS test

IELTS-Blog.com celebrates its 10th birthday – and YOU get a gift!

IELTS-Blog.com is 10 years old

10 years and one week ago the very first article was published on IELTS-Blog.com. Back in 2005 there weren’t many websites on IELTS – unlike now! Times change, but one thing remains the same: our main goal, to always be your Best IELTS Study Partner. As a team, we work tirelessly to publish just the right content to support your IELTS preparation. We appreciate your trust, and feel it is our job to help you succeed and pass IELTS as soon as possible – because your future depends on it.

10 years is a very long time

A lot happened since 2005. After that very first article came 2000+ more posts, IELTS-Blog grew larger in content and richer in audience. Here’s just a tiny snapshot:

  • Around 11 Million people visited IELTS-Blog.com
  • Close to 82 Million pages were downloaded
  • Just during the last 3 years we sent our subscribers worldwide 22.5 Million emails with IELTS updates & tips
  • We lost count of all the successful test takers who used our website and passed their IELTS exams with Band 7+, there are thousands of them.

Your gift

We’d love to invite everyone to our birthday party, but the truth is – there isn’t a building in the world large enough to house all our readers. So to celebrate the day with you all, we prepared a gift: a complete set of recorded Speaking Test questions, with a transcript, that you get to download and keep. This is perfect for self-preparation: you can use this recording at home to simulate a real Speaking test – just let it play, imagine you’re sitting in front of a real examiner, listen to his questions and answer them (the recording will go quiet to allow you to talk). The pauses are approximately as long as your answers should be; if you finished talking and the recording is still quiet, try to find something else to say, or at least think of it, for the next time!
Download the audio here (12 Mb, .mp3), and its transcript is here.

Thank you all for choosing IELTS-Blog.com for your exam preparation! We wouldn’t be here today without your trust and support!

Important news about ‘Target Band 7’ and ‘Ace the IELTS’ books

Hello everyone, Simone here, and today I am excited to announce the release of new, third editions of my books ‘Target Band 7‘ (Academic) and ‘Ace the IELTS‘ (General Training)!

Ace the IELTS, Target Band 7, third editionThe new editions are now available on our website in digital (e-book) version and on Amazon.com in print, and a free trial can be downloaded here.

Anything involving new book releases often takes quite a bit of time, because we want to make sure we’ve done the best job possible, improved and added useful content. This new edition wasn’t an exception, but hopefully it was worth waiting for – because following feedback from you, our lovely readers, we made some changes you’ll like.

The biggest change is that we added a complete IELTS-like practice test, we made it part of the books. The practice test is brand new, has been prepared especially for IELTS-Blog.com, and isn’t available anywhere else. ‘Ace the IELTS‘ now includes the General Training practice test and ‘Target Band 7‘ has the Academic test (with answers of course).

The test consists of the usual 4 sub-tests (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking), there is a Listening recording and its transcript has the answers underlined in sentences. Anyone who has trouble following the recording can use the transcript to understand parts they missed, and also to see the exact location of every question’s answer.

There is also a recording of a real student taking the Speaking test, and it comes with a transcript and an examiner’s commentary explaining the reasons for the student’s band score. This is a great opportunity to “take a peek” at what happens in the real test before it’s your turn to enter the examination room. Another helpful part of the practice test is model responses for Writing Task 1 and Task 2, that will show you what high-level writing looks like.

One more important change is we added new content to ‘Target Band 7′. There is a (quite rare) type of Academic Writing Task 1 which requires you to write about a plan (such as a floor plan of a building) or a map, before and after some changes were made. We added specific tips for this type of task, a model response and a practice exercise for you to do, so you will be prepared in case this uncommon task lands on your desk in a real exam.

There were other changes to both books’ content, but let’s not overload you with information. The important thing is you are getting the most updated books for your IELTS preparation that will maximize your score.

So be there first and take advantage of our special offer, and you will get more practice tests and other free bonuses with your books.

Have a great week, and good luck with your exam preparation!