Emuallim

2022-02-28 12:13:07 I want a higher score in IELTS: Tips & Techniques

Some students take the test again and again and do not take the time to understand what they need to do to get a better score. This page is a brief overview to help you understand your role and your responsibilities to ensure a higher score. Read this page VERY carefully.

My Level of English

If you are getting band 5.5 repeatedly and you want band score 7, the problem might be your English. If you are making frequent errors in your English and have limited accuracy, you will struggle to get a high score. It is time for you to be honest with yourself about the level of your own English. You don’t really need a teacher to tell you this. You should know for yourself if your English is accurate and flexible or not.

IELTS is a language test and your band score is based on your level of English. This means if you want a higher score, you need to improve your English. It also means that “tips and techniques” won’t guarantee a big increase in your score. If your English is not strong enough, you won’t get a high score in IELTS.

You can gain awareness of your own level of English in many ways. Here is one way:

Download the PDF which contains vocabulary and an exercise about Crime and Punishment topic. How many words do you know from the lists given? Is your pronunciation accurate? Do you know the spelling? When you do the exercise, do you get many wrong or many right? If you get some wrong, look at the reason why. If the reason is because you didn’t know enough English – that tells you a lot. Band 9 students will know about 90-100% of the words. Band 8 will probably know about 80-90% (these are rough estimates).

Mistakes are a good way of judging your level:

band 8 = most sentences are error free
band 7 = few errors
band 6 = some errors
band 5 = frequent errors

Some mistakes will be made because you didn’t know what the question wanted you to do – this is about technique (explained below). But some of your mistakes will be because you didn’t know enough English. Always review the reason you get answers wrong.

Can tips increase your score?

Tips will only help you if your English is strong enough. If your English is strong, but you are not getting a good score, you will need to review your IELTS exam techniques and your understanding of IELTS.

If your English isn’t strong enough, tips won’t make a big difference. If your English is about band 5.5, then you will probably get between band 5 and 6 in your test.

IELTS Exam Techniques

Techniques are about how to tackle different types of questions and strategies for approaching questions. The more you understand about IELTS questions, IELTS marking criteria, IELTS band score requirements and how to avoid mistakes, the better you will do. Techniques will help you reach your potential. If you have good English, but are not scoring well, techniques will help you push your score higher.

@emuallimm IELTS Liz Открыть/Комментировать

2022-02-28 12:13:07 @emuallimm Открыть/Комментировать

2022-02-27 07:18:09

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2022-02-26 06:46:38 A Very Powerful IELTS Essay

I just read this essay and I was completely blown away by the ideas shared in it. The author (IELTS Simon, probably) must be a very worldly person who knows what he is talking about.

I just couldn't stop thinking how awesome the world would be if education was free or only merit based, not money based. So many talented individuals would not end up working low paying jobs. Instead, they would have an opportunity to shine like a diamond.

Without further ado, I'll just let you read this fantabulous (fantastically fabulous) essay!

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the relationship between equality and personal achievement. Some people believe that individuals can achieve more in egalitarian societies. Others believe that high levels of personal achievement are possible only if individuals are free to succeed or fail according to their individual merits.

What is your view of the relationship between equality and personal success?

In my opinion, an egalitarian society is one in which everyone has the same rights and the same opportunities. I completely agree that people can achieve more in this kind of society.

Education is an important factor with regard to personal success in life. I believe that all children should have access to free schooling, and higher education should be either free or affordable for all those who chose to pursue a university degree. In a society without free schooling or affordable higher education, only children and young adults from wealthier families would have access to the best learning opportunities, and they would therefore be better prepared for the job market. This kind of inequality would ensure the success of some but harm the prospects of others.

I would argue that equal rights and opportunities are not in conflict with people’s freedom to succeed or fail. In other words, equality does not mean that people lose their motivation to succeed, or that they are not allowed to fail. On the contrary, I believe that most people would feel more motivated to work hard and reach their potential if they thought that they lived in a fair society. Those who did not make the same effort would know that they had wasted their opportunity. Inequality, on the other hand, would be more likely to demotivate people because they would know that the odds of success were stacked in favour of those from privileged backgrounds.

In conclusion, it seems to me that there is a positive relationship between equality and personal success.

(260 words) Band 9 @emuallimm Открыть/Комментировать

2022-02-23 07:56:33 IELTS Reading: Coca-Cola and Plastic


Level 1 - Beginner
Coca-Cola is an American company. It makes soft drinks. It makes more than 500 different drinks. Most drinks come in plastic. Cans are from aluminum. People throw bottles and cans away. Many end up on streets, beaches, and in the ocean.

Coca-Cola hurts the natural world a lot. The company officially says that it is true. It is time to change it now. The company will recycle all its plastic by 2030.

Many people and companies are happy. Some say that it is not enough. It is more important to reduce plastic and not recycle it.

Difficult words: soft drink (a non-alcoholic drink such as lemonade or fruit juice), recycle (to use materials and old things for making new things), reduce (to make something smaller).


Level 2 - Intermediate
Coca-Cola is a company that makes soft drinks, and it is also the world’s worst plastic polluter.

Many people and companies criticized Coca-Cola that it did nothing to limit its plastic. The company officially said that it knew about the problem with plastic on streets, beaches, and in the oceans.
It finally promised to do something with it. Coca-Cola said that it would be possible to recycle all its packaging by 2030.

Also, 25% of the packaging will be reusable. It means that people will be able to use something more than once. Not everyone was happy about the news. Some people said that reducing trash was more important than recycling.

Difficult words: polluter (a person or company which puts bad things in the water, air, and so on), limit (to use less), recycle (to use things and materials to make new things).


Level 3 - Advanced
Coca-Cola said that it’ll aim for 25% of its global packaging to be reusable and to recycle all packaging by 2030.

In the past, environmental groups criticized Coca-Cola for worldwide plastic pollution, and they praised the company’s move. The company was the world’s worst plastic polluter for the fourth year in a row in 2021, and only 16% of its packaging was reusable in 2020. Coca-Cola acknowledged that food and drink companies were responsible for much of the litter on streets, beaches, and in the oceans worldwide.

The company also said that it followed the idea of a circular economy where resources such as aluminum, plastic, and glass are reused rather than thrown away. However, critics said that the company should focus on reducing instead of recycling waste.

Difficult words: praise (to express respect or approval of what someone did), acknowledge (to admit that something’s true), circular economy (a system in which raw materials, components, and products lose little value).

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2022-02-21 20:08:44 How To Speed Learn in 5 Simple Steps | Josh Kaufman | Goalcast @emuallimm Открыть/Комментировать

2022-02-20 19:43:44 In Germany, a 6 y/o boy who loved Motorcycles was diagnosed with cancer. His family posted online asking if someone can ride pass their house to cheer him up. What happened next is absolutely heart-touching! @emuallimm Открыть/Комментировать

2022-02-19 13:33:38 My English learning journey and my personal tips on how you can take your speaking to the next level can be found in the video.



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2022-02-18 12:00:18 Watch "Omar Esa - My Nabi ft. Nadeem Mohammed and Mo Khan (Official Nasheed Video)" on YouTube


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2022-02-16 19:50:40 Declare a realistic goal for each IELTS skill (L, R, W, S) and a study timeline.

For most candidates, the target band has already been established (i.e. a band 7 to apply towards Australian
immigration or a band 8 to attend the University of Warwick). If you are unsure of what band you require, find out by contacting the body that would know. Having a clear goal is a critical part of your planning process.

Establishing a realistic timeline for study requires some thought. Keep in mind that your progress will depend on several factors, mainly how much time you put towards actively preparing for the IELTS. Although the British Council discourages instructors from estimating the amount of time it takes to grow a candidate’s IELTS performance (reference), I’d nevertheless like to share a few general observations from my experience that candidates might find helpful. Please keep in mind that these broad remarks are only based on my personal experiences and may not apply to your individual case:

Observation 1

Growth speeds for individual skills tend to vary. Listening and reading abilities typically improve faster than speaking and writing. One theory for this is that speaking and writing skills are modeled after listening and reading in language development (i.e. we learn to speak by mimicking what we hear; we learn to write by mimicking what we read). (If anyone has a link to research that could respond to this theory, please share.) In addition to this, candidates do not need the input of another individual to receive feedback on their listening and reading skills. This is seen in action when a candidate carries out a mock exam and checks their performance using an answer key. Instantly, they are illuminated to any shortcomings in listening and reading ability. This sort of self-assessment is not possible when preparing independently for speaking and writing and may also be behind the lag in improvement for these skills.

Observation 2

Speaking and writing band growth tends to decelerate. In other words, a candidate often spends less time getting from band 4 to 5 than they do getting from band 7 to 8. This may in part be because of a conflict between (1) the near flawless language requirements of bands 8, 8.5 and 9 and (2) the failure of the student to correct long-term language habits that are forgivable at the band 7 level but not higher (i.e. pronunciation issues that cause mild difficulties for the listener, inaccurate grammatical patterns, misused colloquialisms, lexical awkwardness, etc). Students that reach the 7 level have typically been studying the English language for years, and thus the development of deeply engrained language weaknesses is regularly seen. As these weaknesses are often quite subtle, identifying and correcting them is a tedious and time-consuming process.

“The research revealed that around 300 hours of full-time study (18 hours or more a week) is needed to lift the
average candidate’s overall band score from 5.5 to 6.0. Surprisingly, longer than 300 hours of full-time study is needed to move from 6.0 to 6.5, or from 6.5 to 7.0.”

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