Skip to content

IELTS Preparation tips

The best ways to study for the four IELTS sub-tests: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking

How to get ideas for an IELTS essay

You guys often ask me this question in the emails: “How do I get ideas for an IELTS essay, when I don’t understand the topic?”. And you’re right, it is extremely hard to write about something you don’t understand.

So here’s what you can do to solve this problem:

  • Work on your vocabulary and learn new words, to make sure you will be able to understand the topic or at least take a very good guess.
  • Read as many IELTS essays as you can. You can find many sample essays here. Reading other people’s essays helps with the ideas, if you don’t have any of your own – “borrow” from others.
  • Read as much IELTS essay topics, as possible. You can find essay topics in every post in the Recent exams category. Why should you do it? Simply because sometimes the topics repeat in the future exams 🙂
  • Important! Don’t try to memorize essays. IELTS examiners are trained to look for memorized essays and they will disqualify your work on the spot.

    IELTS Test Dates

    I’ve been receiving many emails with questions about the test dates and it became clear to me that many people are confused about this matter. Here is what’s going on with IELTS dates:

    Every month there are 2 dates for the General Training test and 4 dates for the Academic test. The exams are held on Thursdays and Saturdays only and the dates are already set for the rest of 2008 and 2009.

    Now, you should also know that test centre in your country may “skip” some of those dates and not hold the exam – it depends on how many students have signed up and it’s up to the IELTS centre to decide whether they will hold the exam or not.

    Here are the official IELTS test dates for the rest of 2008:

    October 2008:
    General Training test: 11th, 25th
    Academic test: 4th, 11th, 23rd, 25th

    November 2008:
    General Training test: 8th, 20th
    Academic test: 8th, 15th, 20th, 29th

    December 2008:
    General Training test: 6th, 13th
    Academic test: 4th, 6th, 13th, 20th