IELTS KITE

My IELTS student messaged me in a panic.

"I've seen some of the IELTS Part 3 speaking questions in a 'question bank'" she said.

"I don't know the answers to many of them! I can't do this test! I'm going to fail". 😟

What I told her changed the way she looked at IELTS 'question banks'.

If you aren't aware, many websites show/sell past and current IELTS speaking questions.

IELTS students use them to practice and prepare before their tests.

However, it is important to know what these question banks are, and are not.

✅They are lists of questions past IELTS candidates could remember after their test.

👉IELTS candidates are not all asked the same questions in the speaking test.

👉Even if they have the same topic, the questions are likely to be different.

✅The IELTS speaking examiner chooses questions that are suitable for the level of the candidate.

✅So if your level is B1/B2, you will be asked certain questions.
And if your level is C1/C2, these questions are likely to be different.

✅The IELTS speaking examiner also asks follow-up questions, based on what you say.

These will be different for each candidate, because you do not all give the same answers.

My student needed to get 6.5 for her university application. She was looking at questions from IELTS candidates who needed 7.5-8.0.

When I taught her IELTS Speaking Part 3, I was using questions that were suitable for her level.

While it is fine to practice IELTS speaking on your own, don't let questions you find online scare you. They may not be the questions for you.

If you want to prepare for IELTS speaking with people who understand how the test works, so you prepare for the type of questions you will be asked, then send us a DM and let's talk about how we can help you.

Happy birthday to Kris!

Some would say the 'better' half of IELTS Kite.

Thanks for all you do to help our students get their IELTS scores.

Here's to many more.

Is someone with a PhD the best person to help you prepare for IELTS writing?

An IELTS student commented in a social media group that she was studying IELTS writing with a teacher from the UK who had a PhD. She was very proud of this fact, and was paying a lot of money for her classes.

However, she posted her IELTS task 1 text in the social media group for other group members to comment on.

What we all saw was worrying.

😟She had no idea how to write the task.

😟Her answer had no overview.

😵‍💫It was a list of descriptive language about the changes in the graph.

😟She had then written a whole paragraph about why she thought these changes had happened.

When we asked her about it, she told us that her teacher had taught her to do this. She even showed us his 'model answers'.

Unfortunately, since she didn't write an overview and she interpreted the graph, she wouldn't score more than 5.0 for Task Achievement.

💡Having a teacher with a PhD does not mean they know anything at all about IELTS.

💡They may have written an excellent PhD thesis, and lots of academic papers, but this is not the same as an IELTS task 1.

✅What you need is someone who understands the requirements of the IELTS writing tasks properly and knows how to help you understand them too.

🎓By the way, we both have PhDs. We have also been teaching IELTS since 2008 (before some of you were born!) and have worked as IELTS examiners for the British Council and IDP.

We can tell you truthfully that having a PhD is not what makes us good IELTS writing teachers. It is that we fully understand the test.

What do you think? What is important for you in an IELTS writing teacher?

"I keep getting 5.5 in my IELTS essays because I make mistakes with articles"...

...a student told me in a Facebook group this weekend.

"How can I understand them better?"🤔

My response was clear and simple.

This student was NOT getting 5.5 because they do not understand articles.

Proper use of 'a' 'an' and 'the' requires a high level of English grammatical understanding.

You can still get 7.0 in an IELTS essay if you make mistakes with articles.

When the student showed me his writing, the issue was clear.

🤓They did not understand how to write an essay properly

❌They were asking direct questions to the reader and answering them. It looked more like a conversation than an essay.

❌There was no proper flow and no proper structure

❌Two of the points were not directly connected to the question.

❌The points were not developed at all.

Yes, there were mistakes with articles, and other grammar mistakes.

However, these were NOT stopping them getting 6.5, or even 7.0.

Before you assume the reason for a low score in your IELTS essays, get proper feedback.

You may find that getting the score you need is far easier than learning all the rules for articles.