The Writing Lab

IELTS

How do I use idioms?

Idiomatic language are sometimes misunderstood. People can perceive them as being lazy or too informal, or suggest a lack of otherwise vocabulary. But this isn't true. Idioms are a great way to connect to someone who may not share the same language. Idioms show that you actually have a broad

IELTS

Essential tips for your IELTS speaking test

This post will explore the essentials of how to pass your IELTS speaking test. There are a number of things you can easily do to ensure you have an interesting, and in-depth conversation to get you to the upper tier bands. Lets go over some of the essentials first: * The

IELTS

General Reading Practice- Choosing a title

For this IELTS task, you choose the most appropriate title from a list, to match with specific parts of the text. Main skills: Identifying what the passage is about- breaking it down and knowing the main ideas throughout Differentiating between details and main ideas Tips: Look at the different titles

IELTS

IELTS Reading- Sentence completion

IELTS Reading Practice: Sentence completion The test * In the reading test, candidates are required to complete a sentence * In this type of task, you are given sentences from the reading with a gap- you may have to fill it with words taken directly from the reading * Some tasks ask you

IELTS

General Reading Practice- Short answer questions

This article provides non-fiction samples to reflect the sort of tasks you could get in your IELTS General Training Reading exam. These samples are not taken from the official IELTS websites, but individually sourced to give you an array of text types. The answers are at the very bottom, but

IELTS

General Reading Practice

T, F, NG In your IELTS exam, one of the most common questions is a true, false or not given, based on a passage you are provided with. There are ten question types in total and you could be assessed on any of them, but not necessarily all of them

IELTS

IELTS Writing- an informal letter of apology

This article is based on writing an informal letter for the GT exam, writing task 1. What makes an informal letter, informal? * Much of the level of formality or lack of, will depend on who it is addressed to. If it is your friend, this is a clear signal that

IELTS

IELTS Essay Writing Tips

Yesterday was my first live IELTS Q&A! I have spent this morning making some reflective notes about it. A concern from students was about the essay questions; understanding them, essay strategies and they key differences between them. This article revises what the essay types are, how to answer them

IELTS

IELTS Speaking Tips

Let's do a quick recap of what the speaking exam consists of before we get onto intonation. IELTS speaking exam recap * There are three sections to the speaking exam * Section 1- A brief introduction and short Q&A * Section 2- Individual speaking on a specific topic. You will have 1-2

IELTS

IELTS Writing Task 1- Academic Test

IELTS Writing Task 1 Sample I came across a post from someone on Reddit, who shared a question they found difficult. I understood why and wanted to share a post on how to tackle this. Let’s say you don’t get a graph, bar chart, pie chart, line graph,

IELTS

IELTS Speaking Practice

The list of questions below are intended to be representative of speaking part 1. However, these are questions that you can generally practice for any part of the speaking exam, as there are a mixture of easier and more difficult questions. When practising, try to extend your responses so you

IELTS

IELTS Advantages and Disadvantages Essay

This essay provides a plan and model response for an advantages and disadvantages essay in your writing paper. Essay question: Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation. Why might this be the case? What could be the disadvantages of being self-employed?

IELTS

IELTS Discussion Essay

This post will help you navigate how to write your discussion essay. 1. Essay tips 2. What does the question look like 3. What distinguishes this essay from its essay counterparts? 4. Steps to answering the question 5. Answering the question with a model response Essay tips * Consider both sides

IELTS

6 strategies for IELTS Reading

1 - Read the text first quickly read the article then read the questions 2 - Read the questions first Skim read the questions then read the article 3 - What is the vocabulary telling you Identify what vocabulary the question is using in order to identify its synonyms in

IELTS

IELTS Opinion Essay

This article is a quick run through of how you answer a task 2 opinion based question. Although more and more people read the news on the internet, newspapers will remain the most important source of news for the majority of people. Do you agree or disagree? Paraphrase the statement

IELTS

IELTS Reading Practice- Academic

Section 1 Academic Reading Practice 1. Basic information 2. Methods to achieve the correct answers 3. Exam tips Basic information * Three sections to the test * 1 hour to complete all three sections (this is a tall order so practicing until you can complete the paper with the allotted time is

IELTS

IELTS Reading Practice- General

1.1- IELTS General Reading Test (section 1) 1.2- IELTS General Reading Sample (section 1) 1.3- IELTS General Reading Tips 1.1- IELTS General Reading Test The IELTS General Reading test has three parts. Each section of the test has three different texts. With each section, the text

IELTS

How to write your detailed paragraphs in writing task 1

This article will explain how you write your paragraph 3 and 4 in writing task 1. Paragraph 3 and 4 is where you identify key features. Make sure to read the first part of how to answer task 1. [https://www.writinglab.io/ielts/] When looking at the data and

IELTS

IELTS Writing Task 1- Line Graph

Contents: * What is writing task 1? * The marking criteria * Think, then write * How to answer writing task 1 * Other resources What is writing task 1? IELTS writing task 1 consists of summarising some visual information in at least 150 words. The visual is usually a graph or chart. Your key

IELTS

Everything you need to know about IELTS essay writing

* Introduction * IELTS essay writing format * The types of essays * IELTS essay writing topics * IELTS writing task 2 example Introduction Task 2 on the ielts writing paper is definitely worth having a deeper dive into. The topics are wide-ranging and you should be applying a specific structure to your writing, regardless

IELTS Featured

The ultimate IELTS linking words guide

Using linking words in your writing exam task 2 is essential. Linking words help to connect your sentences and paragraphs. They help to build a logical flow and signal the relationship between sentences and paragraphs. In the writing exam, coherence and cohesion count for 25% of your marks, so using

IELTS

How to prepare for your IELTS at home

The best way to prepare for your IELTS at home is to create a routine that’s easy to follow. This blog post discusses the specifics of how you can prepare for your IELTS at home, with easy actions to implement. And it isn’t just about practice papers. There

IELTS

IELTS reading practice

What is the IELTS Reading Test? IELTS Reading Test * The test takes 60 minutes * There are 40 questions * You will be asked to read 3 different passages * The content of reading is different for the Academic and General test The reading paper tests you on the following (academic and general)

IELTS

IELTS listening tips

What does the IELTS listening exam consist of? * There are four sections to the IELTS exam: reading, writing, speaking, listening. * Listening, reading and writing are done on the same day. The speaking test is typically scheduled in the afternoon but it can be scheduled within seven days before or after

IELTS

IELTS score range

IELTS scores: 3 easy ways of understanding IELTS results * A brief study of the IELTS score range * IELTS score calculator * What is a good IELTS score? An overview IELTS scores are graded from a scale 1 to 9 [https://www.ielts.org/en-us/for-test-takers/how-ielts-is-scored]. With 1 being the lowest,