The 10 most common IELTS mistakes
We received this email from an IELTS preparation academy in India. It's nice to know we are being followed by teachers. They had this question. "What are some common mistakes students make during the IELTS test?" Some of the IELTS examiners here gave their ideas (The list was much longer but we though it would be good to focus on 10!) A few of the bigger ones They think that in the speaking test that they have to speak as much as they can. ...
Memorizing phrases in IELTS speaking
We received this question from a member of our private Facebook group (feel free to join). You can ask us any questions you like there of contact us and ask us. We are always happy to hear from you. How can I prepare for the IELTS speaking? I’ve seen the website saying memorizing answers lowers the score. Is that true? How should I refer to model answers on the web? One of the IELTS writing and speaking examiners answered this one. What you...
How to write a Task 1 in the General exam
One of the writing examiners here explains how to write a Task 1 in the General exam. You only get this advice at upmyielts.com. First, read the question and see whether it is informal or semi-formal (You will never be expected to use formal English; it is a different language!) Second, check to see whether you have been told how to start, i.e. Dear Sir/Madam etc Third, make sure you understand the purpose of the letter (apology, asking for a recommendation, etc) Fourth, read...
An Interview with an IELTS writing examiner (Part 2)
This is our second interview with an IELTS writing examiner. The first one can be found here https://upmyielts.com/an-interview-with-an-ielts-writing-examiner/ We asked members in our private Facebook group IELTS writing and speaking support (Feel free to join) for questions and these are the questions that we got. A lot of them were similar to the previous interview, but a lot were new. If you have any more questions, you can post them in the comments here and we will answer them for you. What mistakes...
Did you get 6 in speaking and writing and need 7? This is what you can do.
This is what happened to one of the members in our private Facebook group (Feel free to join!) This person got in touch and asked this question I really need IELTS help. I got 6 in speaking and writing and I need 7. What can I do? One of the IELTS examiners working here answered this one This happens a lot. At upmyielts, we can generally increase your speaking/writing score by 1 Band score. However, it depends on certain things. For some you, your...
What are the most common IELTS writing and speaking topics?
So, this question came from a member of our private Facebook group (Feel free to join) We asked the IELTS speaking and writing examiners that work at upmyielts.com and this is the list they came up with. This is not all the topics, but it is the most common 10 that they could think of. THE TOP 10 IELTS SPEAKING/WRITING TOPICS Health Environment Education Development Globalisation Public Transport Criminal Justice Youth Crime Technology Government Spending So, how can you prepare for these when...
How to do Part 2 of the IELTS speaking test
This post comes about after we received a question from a member of our private Facebook group (Feel free to join) Why are the IELTS part 2 questions difficult? An IELTS speaking examiner that works with us answered this one To be honest, they aren’t difficult. You are expected to talk about something that is very familiar to you; someone you know, a shop you go to, a book you’ve read. The reason many people find it difficult is because they don’t know...
How to write a topic sentence in IELTS writing
This was a question from a member of our private Facebook group (Feel free to join. You can talk to IELTS examiners there) First, let's look at what a topic sentence is. A topic sentence is just the main idea of your body paragraph and is generally the first sentence. You only need 2 topic sentences as you only need to write 2 body paragraphs. Let’s look at an example question like “Learning a foreign language in primary school is more beneficial than in...