Showing posts with label Tips and techniques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips and techniques. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Some terms for Pie-chart

Some terms for Pie-chart

60%=  nearly a third
52%=  over a half of all respondents
2% =   a small fractions
30%= Exactly 30% of
24%= roughly a quarter of respondents
73%= around three quarters



  • about half
  • precisely a third of the
  • almost a quarter
  • a small fraction



Summary

  • In all countries observed,
  • Over the majority,
  • Overall it is clear that, the amount
  • To summarize the most marked change is
  • Overall amongst the six region,.......... makeup the largest expenses,followed by......and.....represent lowest


Tips of Pie-chart


Tips of Pie-chart

For IELTS Task 1 there are sometimes two or three pie charts that you must compare. The pie charts may represent different years and show trends over time. You need to describe the changes and similarities / differences between the pie charts.

You will increase your Writing Band Score in Academic Writing Task 1 if you:
·         Mention all the major features of the statistics or charts
·         Make sure you describe the statistics accurately
·         Paraphrase the information in the question
·         Avoid repeating the same words and phrases and try to vary the sentence structures you use

·         Give an overview of the most important trends or patterns

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Some of the structures to use in IELTS speaking

Some of the structures to use in IELTS speaking

While you are trying to talk about future use following structures:

  • I am looking forward to +V4 
  • I am intending to
  • I intend to + V1
  • I look forward to
  • I am going to + V1
  • I anticipate +V4
  • I am keen to+ v1
  • I am willing to
  • I am expecting to get
  • I want to peruse


Talking about your opinion
  • In my point of view
  • I believe
  • I strongly believe
  • As far as what I think
  • In my perspective
  • I hold a view that
  • As far as I am concerned


Terms for agreeing or disagreeing
  • I strongly agree/disagree
  • I cant agree more
  • I have a rather different view
  • I see it through different lens
  • I have mixed views on this
  • I partially agree
  • I somewhat disagree

If you don't understanding anything
  • Could you come to the question again?
  • Could you give an example?
  • I didn't quite understand


Understanding Graphs and using Vocabulary 2




Understanding Graphs and using Vocabulary 2

                                                                  General Trend

Decrements
Decreasing trend
Drastic decrements
Dropped
Plummet
Slumped
went down
Slipped
Sightly
Gradually
Minimally
Slowly
Expected
Steady
Surprisingly

Understanding Graphs and Using perfect Vocabulary

Understanding Graphs and Using perfect Vocabulary




General Trend

Increasing trend
Drastic increment
Dramatic increment
Multi fold by (for eg: 4 times)
Hiked up
Abrupt
Unexpected rise
Surged
Soared
Rise up
Rose up
Upward trend
Considerable raise
Anomaly rose up
Suprisingly rose up
Climbed up
Dramatically rose up
Rapidly
Sharply
Leapt





IELTS Tip: Writing Task 1


IELTS Tip: Writing Task 1
1) Spend a few minutes planning the organization (nearly 1-2 minutes) of your answer and the content of each paragraph.


2) If there are large amount of data, divide it into categories so that you express the main features, but not every detail only having the strong information or data.
3)First focus should be always in PPT (peak, plateau, and Trough) of the graph.
3) Leave time to check your work for mistakes.




Monday, August 3, 2015

USEFUL CONNECTIVE WORDS FOR WRITING TASK

Useful connective words

1) Consequences or result
     after all, as a consequences, as a result, at last, thus, hence,  so,  finally, consequently, therefore

2) Addition
    again, also, and, and then, besides, equally,important, furthermore, too, finally, further, additionally,       indeed, in fact, next, likewise, moreover, other, as well as, as well

3)Example
   for eg, briefly, thus, in other words, specifically, frequently, for instance, in this way, in general, in      particular, as a matter of fact

4) Comparison
   at the same time, in the same way, like wise, similarly, just like

5)contrast
    though, at the same time, conversely, but, rather, however, although, on the contrary, in contrast,         never the less, on the other hand

6)Cause and effect
    because, since, as, due to, thus, because off, therefore, consequently, so, for the reason

7)Clarification
    as the matter of fact, moreover, infact, ofcourse

8)Definition
   that is, means, indicate, represent, stand for

9) Condition
    if, unless, whether, without, for, so that, if, accept, in that case

10) Arrangement
     meanwhile, then, next, later, at the same time, afterwards, above,below, eventually, beyond,                nearly, finally, at the last, in the mean time, simultaneously

11)Altitude
     fortunately, unfortunately, naturally, by chance, luckely

12) Summary
    finally, in conclusion, lastly, in summary, in brief, in short, to sum up, to summarize, to conclude,       afterall, eventually

 



   

Daily tips

Bargraphs

Focus on the most important aspects of any data you are given. Do not quote the data mechanically. Link your ideas together naturally while referring to specific data.


Think about the most significant changes over time or the key points of comparison between different categories.

Organize your description of the data around these key points, and include any relevant secondary points.

Language for describing trends

 Useful language for describing trends

to experience a(n) [increase/decrease/rise/fall/drop in/of]
to [increase/decrease/rise/fall/drop by/from … to]
to fluctuate / undergo a change / remain [stable/steady] / stagnate / dip / peak / increase [twofold/threefold] / surge
a [less/more] marked [increase/decrease], etc. (occurred / took place)
[less/more] significant / steady / especially strong growth
a parallel [rise/fall]
to expect / predict / forecast


FREE IELTS LESSON - THE ACADEMIC READING TEST

The Test Format

The IELTS Academic Reading Test has 3 sections. You have 60 minutes to complete the test. There is NO extra time at the end of the test to transfer your answers to the answer paper (you get 10 extra minutes in the listening test only); your answers must be on the answer paper at the end of the 60 minutes. The test has 40 questions based on a series of 3 texts. The total length of all the texts put together will be between 2000 and 2750 words. As in all the different parts of IELTS, the Academic Reading Test gets progressively harder through the paper. In each section of the Academic Reading Test there will be 1 text with 13 or maybe 14 questions to answer in 2 or 3 sets of differing formats. We will look at the types of question that you will meet later. The texts will come from magazines, books and journals and are written for general interest or for an academic though non-specialist reader. At least one text will contain a logical argument. One text may contain non-verbal materials such as a diagram, graph or illustration. If there are any words or terms of a specialist technical nature which candidates would not be expected to know, then a short glossary will be provided. To prepare properly for the reading test, you should read as widely as possible as many different types of "academic" style texts as possible and practice more and more.

Marking

There are 40 questions in the IELTS Academic Reading Test and 1 mark is awarded for each correct answer. There are no half marks. Your final mark out of 40 is then converted to a band from 1 - 9 using a converting table and this band is then averaged with the other 3 parts of the test to give your final IELTS band. Band scores for the reading test and the final band are given as a whole band or a half band. The converting table used to change your mark out of 40 to the band out of 9 changes with every test. However, below you can see a rough guide that you can use to assess your practice on the Ielts  that you use. There is no guarantee that you will perform the same in the real test itself as the test converters vary with each test, but it can be a guide to your progress.

IELTS Academic Reading Test Marks, Bands and Results - Rough Guide Converter

 Score Band
1
2-3
4-9
10-15
16-22
23-28
29-35
36-38
39-40
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

IELTS Academic Reading Test Question Types

Below is a list of the types of question that you could meet in the IELTS Academic Reading Test
  • Multiple choice questions
  • Short answer  questions
  • Completion questions: Completing sentences
  • Completing notes
  • Completing a summary (no word bank)
  • Completing a summary (with word bank)
  • Completing a diagram
  • Completing a flow chart
  • Completing a table
  • Matching a bank of headings to identify paragraphs or parts of text
  • Matching a bank of writers' views/claims/information with the writer 
  • Identification of information in the text: yes/no/not given questions
  • true/false/not given questions
  • Matching lists/phrases
  • Classification questions

Some Tips for the IELTS Academic Reading Test

Don't spend too long on a single question as that will lose you time for answering questions that could be easier for you. Sometimes leaving a question and coming back later can help you answer it too. Leave any questions that you have spent too long on, and come back at the end of the test if you have time. Sometimes, if the question has a yes/no/not given answer, the answer you are looking for does not exist as it could be a not given. Be aware so you don't waste time looking for something that isn't there.
Read the questions and instructions so you don't make a silly mistake. For example, people often will mix the yes/no answers with the true/false answers and write yes as an answer instead of true or vice versa. Strictly speaking you are wrong although you have understood the question and answer.
If the question asks for one answer then give one answer. Giving two is wrong as it asks for one and you will be marked wrong. The type of question where this could happen would be: Give one example of... Writing two examples, to show you really understand, is wrong.
If the question asks for no more than 3 words, use no more than 3 words. Writing 4 words or more is wrong. You won't be asked to do it in 3 words or less unless it is possible so don't worry; it can always be done.
One area that students don't like is that, in the reading test, good grammar and spelling are important. The grammar part is not as important as you can't make many grammar errors in 3 words (the maximum you use in the reading test) but, if you spell something wrong, it will be marked as wrong. People think, quite rightly in my opinion, that the reading should test whether you understand what you read and not how you spell something but these are the rules. So, be careful about your spelling!
One constant discussion I have had with students is whether to read the questions first and then read the passage or read the passage first and then the questions. From my experience with many students my conclusion is that there is no correct answer for this. It depends on a number of variables. It can depend on the types of question and how difficult the questions are. It can depend on how good and fast a reader you are. It can depend on the length of the text and how much time you have. Let's look at these variables.
If the question type is difficult and asking something which is hard to answer then reading the text first can help. Just a quick read through using a technique called skimming (see below for an analysis of skimming) can give you the knowledge of the text that will help you find the answer more easily.
If you are a good, fast reader, then you can read the text quickly, getting good knowledge of the contents without using up too much precious time. This can help you answer the questions better. If the texts are short then it doesn't take long to quickly read through them. On the other hand, if the texts are short it is easier to find the answers so you may not have to waste time reading the texts to find the answers quickly, especially if time is short.
If time is short then it doesn't matter how complex or long the texts are. You need to get some answers on the answer sheet as quickly as possible. So, you can see that there is not one answer to the problem of whether to read the texts or questions first. What I tell students is to experiment in your practice and see what suits you for the different types of question in different situations. 

Time management is an important thing to be aware of. You have a number of texts to read and 40 questions to answer in 1 hour. If you spend to long on one part, you may find that you have not enough time to finish all the questions and some of those questions could be ones that you could answer quite easily. As I said above, don't spend too long on a difficult answer but also keep an eye on the clock. It's a good idea to have your watch or a small clock on your desk so you know exactly how long you have left in the test at any given time. In addition to this, keep control on how long you spend on each section. Remember the test gets more difficult as it goes on so you will probably need more time for the questions at the end than for those at the start. Maybe a guideline could be:
17 minutes on section 1.
20 minutes on section 2.
23 minutes on section 3.
(If you can do things more quickly all the better as that will give you time to look at questions that you skipped and to check on your answers)
As I just said, if you have finished the exam with time to spare, DON'T just sit there!! Check what you have done. If you have time after the check, check again. And so on....

Reading Techniques - Skimming and Scanning

Skimming and scanning are the two main techniques that people use to read and answer IELTS reading tests. It's not a question of using one or the other but you will need both methods in doing the test. Let's have a look at the two techniques in turn.

Skimming

Skimming is reading fast to get the "gist" or the general idea of the text. There are different techniques of doing skimming. You can run your eyes over the text getting the general meaning, not stopping at words that you don't understand as this will slow you down. The important thing with skimming is speed. Another way to skim is to just read the first and last paragraphs of a text and summaries as well. You could also just read the title, subtitles and illustrations if there are any. I prefer for IELTS the first way - reading it all quickly to get the general meaning, but of course it depends on your reading speed. If you are a slow reader in English you really need to practise to improve. You don't need IELTS specific texts for this. A good English newspaper is fine. Get one every day and read the articles as quickly as you can. Do this with as many articles as possible every day and your speed will quickly improve.

Scanning

This is another very important technique for the IELTS Reading Tests. This is the technique that you use when you are reading a telephone book or a dictionary. You are not starting at the top and reading every line back and forth as you would read a novel. You are moving your eyes around the text, back and across and up and down. You are searching for some specific information: a word or name. This is an important technique in IELTS reading as you are often searching for some specific information. You read the question and then you search for key words or ideas associated with the question. This is a bit more difficult to practise than skimming. You get long texts (from newspapers, magazines, http://giveielts.blogspot.com/, or other sources) and get a friend to read it and then ask you to find key ideas or words as quickly as possible. Again, if you do this frequently, your speed will quickly improve.
If you want to improve, there's no secret. Practice. Practice. Practice. You won't get better sitting and doing nothing. Even good English users need practice for the IELTS exam. Doing plenty of challenging reading and doing http://giveielts.blogspot.com/ could make all the difference between your getting the band that you need, and getting half a band less than you need and having to do the exam again.
Finally, there are no correct answers or methods. Here I've given you some ideas to guide you and hopefully to help you but the questions can be answered well in different ways. Good luck with the IELTS Academic Listening Test! I hope that this tutorial has helped you. Below are the links to the other free Academic tutorials. We strongly recommend that you practice for the tests with good http://giveielts.blogspot.com/. Of course, we would like you to use ours as we believe ours are excellent and the cheapest on the market, but any good IELTS practice tests will do.

IELTS Writing Samples


IELTS Writing Test lasts for 60 minutes, and you will need to complete two writing tasks, each of which requires different text types (description, report, discussion, argument, opinion text).

IELTS Writing Task 1
In the first part, you are given a task based on some graphic or pictorial information. You are expected to write a descriptive report of at least 150 words on the information provided.

IELTS Writing Task 2
The second task is more demanding. You are expected to produce a written argument on a given topic and to organise your answer clearly, given some examples to support your points. You will have to write at least 250 words and, as Task 2 is longer than Task 1, you are advised to spend approximately 40 minutes on this task and 20 minutes on the first task.

IELTS General Writing
If you are planning to take the GT module, the Writing test is different. You are allowed one hour to complete two tasks, of 150 and 250 words, as in the Academic module. However, Task 1 is always a letter, while Task 2 is an essay based on a given topic.

IELTS: How to manage time?

Hi. I'm kevin. Today, I have a bit of a amazing lesson for you. We're going to look at the IELTS test.

So, more specifically, we're going to be looking at IELTS time management. Now, many people tell me... I've had many students come and tell me the biggest problem they had taking the IELTS test was that they ran out of time. They didn't know how to manage their time, and that's why they lost a lot of points.  So, today, I'm going to help you fix that a little bit. There's lots to talk about. Let's get started.

Two things we have to worry about: mind and body. First, let's talk about the body. One of the biggest mistakes people make when they go to take the test on test day is they're exhausted. They're just not mentally ready to take the test. It's a long test, it's a difficult test, and it's a test in English; not your native tongue.

So, what do you do? Very, very important. The night before the test, don't study. If you don't know it then, you won't know it the next day. So, the night before the test, go to sleep early, get a full eight hours of solid sleep, wake up early, do whatever you need to do in the morning, go to the test center relaxed. Okay? Very, very important. You need as much brain power as you can get on test day.

Speaking of waking up in the morning on test day, make sure that you eat properly. Don't go to the test hungry. Your stomach does a lot of your thinking for you when you're not prepared. If you're hungry, you're thinking about your stomach; not about the English. Eat properly. Carbohydrates, proteins. Avoid coffee and sugar. But if you have to have a coffee in the morning to wake up, like I do, have it at least an hour, an hour and a half, two hours before the test. Don't go into the test room with a cup of a coffee in your hand. Well, you can't anyway, but don't go into the test center with a cup of coffee in your hand. Get it all out of the way early. Okay. So this is still body.

During the test, when you have a few extra seconds, maybe between sections, between questions, in the listening section, etcetera, close your eyes. Breathe. Just calm yourself down, relax. Remember, at the end of the day, if you didn't do well on the test today, you take it again next week or the week after that. You can do it again. Relax. Close your eyes. If they're burning, close them, relax. Get a little bit of energy back, move on.

Same idea, if you have a chance, stretch. Don't be afraid to waste-if you want to call it that-take a minute of your time to stretch. Arms up, do whatever you have to do. Don't get up and walk around. I don't think they'll be very happy about that, but as much as you can, stretch. Legs, arms, neck, whatever you need to do. A strong, healthy body helps you do better on a test. It actually helps you save time, believe it or not. Okay, this is one thing.

Most importantly, your mind. We need to train your mind. It's not all about English.The IELTS test, the TOEFL test, etcetera, these are called standardized tests. It means they're always going to be the same structure. They're always going to be about the same time, the same set up, the same types of questions. Know them.

So, how we... Do we train your body? Practice. I cannot stress this enough. Practice, practice, practice every single day. What do you practice? Excuse me. Practice your listening and speaking as much as you can. The easiest thing to practice is your listening. TV, music videos, YouTube, internet. Like, English is everywhere. Very, very easy to practice your listening. Okay?

How to give your opinion?

Hello everyone. My name is Alex, and in today's lesson you are going to look at ways to give your opinion. So this video is very useful for anyone who will be writing the IELTS exam, the TOEFL exam, as well as anyone who wants to become a better speaker or a better writer. So in this article I willprovide you some common expressions to give our opinion, and  visualize at ways to strengthen these expressions to make them stronger and to show that we feel very strongly or not so strong about something. 

Okay, so let's begin. I have here the most common way to give your opinion: "I think..." So why do I have an "x" here? Well the problem is students overuse "I think..." "I think this, I think that, I think this, I think that." It gets very boring. And so if you're doing the TOEFL or the IELTS, the problem with using "I think..." is you're going to get a lower mark because that's considered basic English usage. So in order to get a higher mark or if you're just interested in becoming a better speaker or writer, I've listed some expressions that will really help aid you in expressing your opinion. So let's look at some other expressions you can use. And these all pretty much mean "I think..."

So the first expression: "As far as I'm concerned,". One question you often get on IELTS, on TOEFL is: "Should boys and girls go to the same school or should they go to different schools?" What I could say or I could write: "As far as I'm concerned, boys and girls should go to separate schools." One thing that's important to note: there's a comma. "As far as I'm concerned," and then you write your opinion.

Our next expression: "In my opinion,..." This is better than "I think" -- it's still a bit overused though. So I would recommend using some of these other expressions. But "In my opinion,.." is still okay to use, just don't use it too often. "In my opinion, in my opinion," -- I guess if we use the same example as before --, "boys and girls should go to separate schools."

Our next expression, again, it means the same thing as "I think...", it's just a nicer way to say it. I've given you two options. You can say: "It seems to me that..." or "It appears to me that..." These are excellent to use in writing. So if you're doing the TOEFL essay where you give your opinion on something, agree or disagree essay, or the IELTS essay this is a good one to use. One question that's often asked in the TOEFL and I think also the IELTS: "Do parents make the best teachers? Do you agree or disagree?" So I could say: "It seems to me that parents do make the best teachers.", "It seems to me that parents do not make the best teachers." Notice one other thing about this expression, whereas we have a comma here and here, "It seems to me that..." there's no comma. So any time we have "that", you don't have to worry about a comma. 

Finally, our last expression: "I would argue that..." So again, we have "that", no comma. "I would argue that the death penalty is not a good form of punishment." Often times, the TOEFL may ask you if you agree or disagree with the death penalty. You could use: "I would argue that the death penalty is the best way to deal with criminals." So it all depends on your opinion, but you can either agree or disagree with this statement.

Another way to say "I think...": "From my point of view," or "From my perspective," Notice we have a comma for both of these. "From my point of view,", So now I'm not going to use an IELTS or TOEFL example, I'm going to use a superhero example. "From my point of view, Cyclops is a horrible superhero." So again, just for anyone who likes to argue, 
this is a good one to use. 

The last one is a very high formal way of saying your opinion. "I am inclined to believe that..." So you wouldn't use this with your friends. If you have an argument with your friends, maybe you're talking about the best place to live in the world or the best place to travel to, if you said: "I'm inclined to believe that France is a great place to visit." Your friends would find your language too formal. But you can use this in writing, in formal writing. If you're writing the TOEFL or the IELTS, you can use this expression. And again, at the end we have "that", we don't have a comma. 

Improve your Ielts speaking

 I'm going to be giving you some very valuable tips for how to make the most and how to do your very best in these tests.

So what do you need to do? You need to answer with a little bit more detail. You need to extend your answers a little bit,  Answer the question that they ask.. It doesn't matter if you prepare something and they don't -- they ask a question that your answer is no good for, drop it. You have to make an effort to answer their question.

Now, today, we're going to be looking at using some relative pronouns and some relative adverbs to lengthen out your sentences a little bit, okay? So extending your answers, answering the question. As you may be aware, IELTS speaking tests one and three, they're particularly looking for you to give information about yourself, to tell people about yourself, okay?

So I'm saying that these pronouns and adverbs are going to be particularly helpful. So these pronouns you put in the middle of sentences to continue the sentence and give a bit more. So you'd use "who" to describe people. "The person I met who is a shopkeeper" -- "The person I went to school with who is now a famous movie star" - So "who", when you're giving more information about the person, okay, who's doing something, who's the subject. You can also use "whom", but it's not so common. "Whom" would be the indirect version of this, someone who's not doing something.

Now, you'd use that when you're describing things.  "I went to Bath on Saturday. That was a fantastic place to visit."  So I'm describing the activity of going to a place.

"Which" I can throw in there when I want to also describe things in a sorted of non-defining clause sense. "The film which I saw on Saturday was really good."  You can get some more information on this on another one of our videos.

"Whose" when I'm describing a possession. So, "The car I drove whose owner was Charlie" -So I'm describing an element of possession.

Now, looking on to the relative adverbs. I can use "when" when I'm talking about times. "I went to school when I was aged 13 to 18." Yeah? I can use "where" when I'm talking about the place that something happened. So "I went to the actor's temple, where I learnt a lot about acting." So giving more information about that particular place. I can use "why" -- I mean, "why" normally results in a question. It's difficult to include "why" and then end in a full stop. So you could say, "I decided to cross the road today. Why do you think that is? Well, I went to go and buy some food."

Now, I'm going to put some examples here to show you how we can use these.

"I went to school with Charlie who" , so now the next bit gives more information about the person, okay? -- "the man who helped me pass my driving test who" -- so I'm giving even more information about this person -- "now lives in a place in the north of England."

"I enjoyed playing" -- "I played football at school, which was fun." So "which" there is talking about, you know, the activity as I mentioned here.

"The teacher whose expertise" -- so I'm talking about the skill that that teacher had. Possessive, okay? -- "the teacher whose expertise helped me pass my exam."

Now, I hope I've shed a little light. I know some of these might be unfamiliar to you. Should we just have a quick recap of this? So I'm going to use "who" when I'm describing people. "The person I went to school with, who is now doing well. The person I met at the shop, who was a very nice person."  So these are kind of small little chunks that you kind of put on to the end of the sentence. Yeah? "The place that I went today was really great." So "that I went today" is the extra bit of information.

"Which" -- "The sandwich, which I had at lunch, was really good." So "had at lunch" is that little bit more information.

"The car, whose owner I really like, was very good to drive." So if you've got a sentence, you're putting in a little bit more information here, and then finishing it here,  "The car, whose owner I really like, drives fast."  So you'd separate it with two commas.
  • Ca


Sunday, August 2, 2015

IELTS speaking Task 2

Hi, my name is Alex, and today I will give you speaking 2 tips. The IELTS is a test that a lot of ESL students have to take when they want to go to a Canadian university, an Australian university, an English university. So when they want to study overseas or often times, when they want to immigrate to one of these countries. So we're looking specifically at the speaking part of the IELTS, part two. So the IELTS speaking task is split up into three sections.
So let me first explain what happens in section two, and then we are going to look at some tips on what you should do if you want to do well on this section, and things you shouldn't do. let's get started. So, in part two of the speaking component of the IELTS, you will be speaking for about two minutes. So this part lasts for about three minutes, so you have three minutes. The first minute you will be handed a question card.

So here is an example of a question card. It will tell you, often times, to describe something. "Describe a museum that you have visited." It will tell you what you need to say. 
You should say:
* Where it is
* Why you went there
* What you particularly remember 

This is just an example. So it can be on different topics, but you will get a card that looks something like this. So you have one minute to look at the question and to make notes, and to think:  what am I going to say?" So that takes one minute, and then after that the examiner will tell you: "Okay, you can begin." 

You must talk for one to two minutes. A lot of students actually consider this the hardest part of the speaking component because it's not a dialogue. The examiner isn't asking you questions and you're giving responses, and you're going back and forth. In this part of the IELTS, you just talk and you talk for one to two minutes. So a lot of students find this difficult because talking for two minutes, even for some native speakers, is a little difficult. Okay so that's what's going to happen in this part.


So what are some of the topics you might be asked about in this part of the IELTS? Well, topics often covered include: you might be asked about a precious item, so you might have to describe a precious item that you own. You might have to say something about where you bought it from or: how did you get it, what does it look like, why is it so precious? You might be asked about a special day, a sporting event that you went to or a concert, a special trip or journey or vacation, people who have influenced you. For example: they might ask you to describe your favourite teacher. What was she like? Why was she so great? You might be asked about a book, music, a television program, a movie you saw or even items of clothing. Okay, so sometimes you're asked about historical buildings, you might be asked about a neighbourhood in your city. The key thing that you probably will be asked is this question is often about description, not always, but usually you have to describe something. And then they usually have three questions, they can be: who, what, when, where, why? So these are the types of questions that they ask.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Ways to improve IELTS vocab

Hey guys, I'm Ajeet. Today I am going to give you ielts vocab lesson.

So, let's begin with five verbs. The first one is: "estimate". So "to estimate" means to predict or guess, not merely guess though, to make an educated guess based on some kind of evidence. So, for example: "Police estimated that 20 people were killed." It's a little dark to say that, but if you read any newspaper article or if you are doing a reading section on a TOEFL or an IELTS, you might read something similar to this. So police estimated; they made a prediction. 

The next word is: "identify". "Identify" is just another way to say: "show" or: "to point out", if you want to use a phrasal verb. So: "Scientists have identified numerous species." They have basically shown, discovered, pointed out numerous species. And just a reminder: all of these are verbs which means you can use them in variety of tenses, all English tenses.

The next verb is: "interpret". "To interpret" means to give a personal analysis or a personal opinion on something. So you can interpret a text, you can interpret a film, you can interpret a person's words. The example we have here is: "His poems have been interpreted in many ways." So they have been analyzed, and people have developed their own opinions, many different types of opinions about his poems. 

The next verb is: "minimize". This is the opposite of: "maximize". When you think of "max", you think of the top. Right? When you think of "to minimize" something, you think to keep it at a low level. So for example: "They attempted to minimize confusion." Whether that's because they created a text and they didn't want people to be confused by the text, so they kept the language at a, you know, manageable level that everyone could understand. 

And finally: "occur", a very common verb. And you might be wondering: "Well, what does 'occur' mean?" It just means: "happen", it comes from an occurrence. "An occurrence" is an event, something which happens. So: "This strange event occurred in 1994." The strange event happened in 1994. 


 let's look at the other five verbs that I'm going to look at today. The next verb is: "obtain". Now, "to obtain" means to acquire or to get something. So for example: "Archaeologists obtained the lost artifact." They acquired it, they got it, essentially. 

The next verb is: "prohibit". This comes from "prohibition" which is the noun form. "To prohibit" is to not allow something or not give permission to do something. So, for example: "Protesters were prohibited from entering." Maybe from entering the building or something like this, so they were not allowed, they were not given permission, they were prohibited. 

The next is: "pursue". Basically, this is a very common verb which means to chase or to go after. So, for example: police pursue criminals. Or, as we have on the board: "He pursued a career in economics." So you can pursue a career, like chase after it, go after it.

The next verb is: "symbolise". "Symbolise", you might see the word: "symbol" in this. A symbol is a representation of something. So: "to symbolise" is to represent. For example: "In many cultures, the skull" - a human skull - "symbolizes death." It represents death. 

And finally, we have the verb: "transform" which just means to change into, it comes from "transformation", which is the noun form. So, for example: "Caterpillars transform into butterflies

How to face IELTS Reading?

I am going to teach you some very good tips on how to succeed on the reading module of the IELTS.


My very first tip is very important. When you're practicing doing the IELTS, when you're preparing for the IELTS, one way to prepare is to start learning synonyms. Now, what's a "synonym"? A "synonym" is a copy of another word where the meanings are the same, but the words are different. So an example: "intelligent" and "smart". These are synonyms. They have the same meaning, but they're different words.

Now, why should you learn different synonyms for the IELTS? Well, one very good reason is oftentimes, on the IELTS you will have a text or a reading passage, and then, after that you will have a bunch of questions. Now, sometimes, in the questions, you need to look for certain information in the reading passage. So you read a question, and you need to find the answer in the reading passage. Now, one way to do this is looking at keywords. You might see a keyword in the question. And you're looking for that same word in the reading passage. But they often don't use the same words in the question and the reading passage. Oftentimes, they will use synonyms. So for example, maybe in the question the keyword is "intelligent". In the reading passage, the word that you'll actually need to find is "smart". So by knowing synonyms, you'll be able to do the questions a lot faster, and you'll be able to find information faster. And on the IELTS, time is very important, so you want to be able to do things very quickly.

My second point has to do with a lot of the question types, especially the "not given" question types. There's a question type called "True, False, or Not Given". There's also one called "Yes, No, Not Given". This point is for those.

Oftentimes, you need to pay close attention to negative words on the IELTS. So for example "never", "rarely", "hardly", "seldom". Depending on what the question is, sometimes, if it's a true or false question, it's very important to look for these words. This is one of the tricks you might find on the IELTS -- well, it's not exactly a trick, but sometimes, you might put down "true", but the answer is actually false because of these negative words. So key point: Notice and pay attention to these types of words in both the "True, False, and Not Given", and the "Yes, No, Not Given".

Point No. 3: Similar to point No. 2, it's very important to pay attention to frequency words, especially in the same part, and the "True, False, Not Given". You might see "always", "often", "sometimes", "never". Why is this important? Well, if you see something that says, "Sometimes the Pharaoh of Egypt -- or the Pharaohs of Egypt were buried in tombs", but the actual answer is true or false, and it says, "Pharaohs were always buried in tombs", you might get confused. You might put down the wrong answer. So it's very important to pay attention to "always", "often", "sometimes", "never" in true or false questions.

Point No. 4: This is probably one of my favorite points. During tests -- this happens to all students -- they will pick on answer; and then, they'll think about it; and they'll see another answer; and they'll want to change their answer; and they don't remember -- they don't know, "Which one should I pick?" It's good to go with your first instinct. So if you're doing multiple choice, and right off the bat you think, "Okay, the answer is A"; and then you look, and you think, "Okay, well, maybe the answer is C -- if both of them seem like good possibilities, and you don't know, choose the one you thought of first. Okay? Go with your gut feeling. Go with your instinct.

3 Reading strategy


Hi again. Welcome back to giveielts.blogspot.com.. Today, I'm going to Provide Tips at the IELTS reading section. I'm going to look at three different approaches to tackling the IELTS reading section

The most important thing I want to tell you before we start: you have to know what works for you. Okay? One of these approaches will work for you; the others may not. Practice all three. If you're comfortable with one and it seems to work for you, and your score seems to be getting better, stick with that one and practice that one. Don't try to do all three each time. Figure out which one works, and just practice that one the most.

The most obvious one and the first one we're going to talk about: read the entire passage, and then tackle the questions. Now, a few things to say, good and bad, about this approach. So, you have 20 minutes, let's say, that you're going to start from the first passage, you're going to do about 17 minutes; the second passage, you're going to spend 20 minutes; the last passage, you're going to spend 23, 24, 25 minutes. So, you have to do this very fast.

So: can you read the entire passage and do the questions in that timeframe? Okay? That's the question you must ask yourself. Are you a fast reader? Can you comprehend everything you're reading? How is your vocabulary? Things like this. Some people, they must read everything, from beginning to end, and then go to the questions. But they can also keep; they can retain the information they've read, so when they go to the questions, they know where to go back and look for the answers.

Now, the good part about this is that you have all the information in your head once you've read the entire passage. The bad part is that you're going to be reading the passage twice. Okay? Or not the whole passage, but you're going to read big chunks of the passage twice. You'll have read it the first time, you'll go to the questions, and then you'll be reading again to find the answers, because you're looking for specific words now. When you get to the questions, sometimes it's only one word difference from what you read in the passage.

So, do I recommend this? Yes and no. If you're a fast reader and you can comprehend, then yes, do that. If you're not a fast reader, then no, don't do this. You'll be wasting too much time and reading more than you need to.

What I'm going to do with these two approaches is show you how to read less. So you don't need to read the entire passage; you just need to read the areas that contain the answers to the questions.

So, the second approach: go straight to the questions. You look at the question. First of all, understand the type of the question. Is it a multiple choice? Is it a fill-in-the-blank, like a summary? Are you looking for like headings for each paragraph? Are you looking for the title? Etc. Figure out what you're looking for, read the question carefully, pick out the keywords in the question or the key idea in the question, and then scan the passage. Don't read the passage. Just quickly look everywhere for where that information ought to be.

 



IELTS Reading strategies: True, False, Not Given

Today I am Givin you IELTS strategy of TRUE,FALSE and NOT GIVEN,
 So this is a specific question. It may or may not be on your test, but I think, personally, this is one of the most difficult questions on the reading section of the IELTS. So I'm going to give you some tips and strategies on how to do well on this section. 

Okay, so let's get started. In this section, what you are going to find is a reading passage. So you will have a long passage on maybe cybercrime, maybe food security, on the history of the Internet -- it can be on anything. After the passage, there will be some statements, some facts, okay? What you need to do is you need to say if the fact matches -- if it's true based on the reading, if it's false based on the reading, or if the information is not given in the reading. So I will explain "true", "false", "not given" in detail in just a minute. 

Okay. What else to know about the "true, false, or not given"? Another important thing about this question is we're not talking about the question that has to do with the writer's opinion. There's a very similar question on the IELTS that asks about the writer's opinion. That's the "yes, no, not given". This is only on "true, false, not given", not "yes, no, not given". Just -- hopefully, that will clear up any confusion. 


 What do they mean by "true" in these questions? When would you write "true"? I will tell you. You can write "true" or "T". "T" is shorter. If there is a fact and it is clearly written, you write "T". If the fact is clearly written in the reading, you would write "T". You'll often see synonyms, and, again, write "T" only if you actually see this fact written. If you know the fact is true, but it's not written, don't write "true". Only write "true" if, with your eyes, you read it, and you see it in the fact. You see it in the reading; write "true". So I'll give you an example of this type of question. Here is just a part of a passage. The reading is a lot longer, but here is a short version that you might find on the IELTS. "This increase in cybercrime has alarmed many experts." So it would be a long passage. You might see something like that. And then, at the end of the reading, one of the statements you might see might say, "Cyber crime is on the rise." You need to say if this is "true", "false", or "not given". 

So how do you know if it's "true", "false", or "not given"? My advice to you is first, read the statement: "Cyber crime is on the rise"; underline any key words. "Cyber crime" -- this is a keyword. "is on the 'rise'" -- that's a keyword, okay? Then you go back to the reading passage, and you quickly scan for these words or synonyms.  "Synonyms" are words that mean the same thing but are different words. So what is a synonym of "rise"? "Increase", "go up", etc. So let's see if we can find "cyber crime" or "rise". So I would scan the passage -- oh, the word "increase", "cybercrime". So "rise", "increase", okay. So I found a synonym. Now, it's important for me to read very carefully to see if there are any contradictions. What does the sentence say? Does it really match? "This increase in cyber crime has alarmed many experts." "Cyber crime is on the rise." Both of these -- both the reading passage and the fact or the statement are saying cyber crime is increasing. It's going up. So that would mean it's true. So I could write a "T" beside this, "true". 

Okay. One thing to look out for with "true": Sometimes you will see words like "some", "all", "only", "never", "usually", "often", "sometimes". Be careful with these words, Because if it says, "Some people in Canada like to eat poutine", and you see the sentence saying, "Poutine is always eaten by Canadians", even though you see the two words -- oh, "poutine", "poutine" -- one says "always", one says "some". So this would not be a true statement. So be on the lookout for "some", "all", "only", "never", "usually". This is where they try to trick you on the IELTS...

Tips for IELTS Reading

Hi II am Kevin .I am trying to provide some ielts reading tips:

During the reading module of the IELTS, there will be three passages that you read, and for each passage, there are a bunch of questions you have to answer. The first tip I have for you is: don't spend too much time reading the passages. What happens to a lot of students is they read word-for-word everything. They see a word they don't know, they keep trying to understand the meaning. You don't have to understand everything to understand the passage. If you don't know a word, that's fine.

The better thing to do than to slowly read is to use skills such as skimming which means you quickly read for the main idea or scanning, meaning you look for key words or you look for specific detail. A lot of students, what they do for the IELTS is they will actually read the questions first, and then they will read the passage. And that way, they... They know what they're looking for. You don't have to do this; it's one technique. Some students find this a lot easier, other students like to read the passage first and then answer the questions. I recommend trying both out. First do the reading, then the questions, then try to read the questions first and read the passage and see what you like better, what you're more comfortable doing.

So the key thing here is: don't read slowly. It's a timed test, you have three parts you have to get through, 40 questions; it's very important that you read quickly. You can start practicing reading quickly also. There are a number of resources out there where you can actually start practicing. And time yourself when you practice, make sure you're not going over time.

Number two, similar to number one, my tip is: don't spend too long on each question. Some of the questions are difficult-they're possible, you can do well on them-but some of them, you might be reading and you might think: "Oh, I don't know what the answer is," and you might look at it, and think, and try, and try, and try. Well, the problem is if you spend too much time on a question, there are 40 questions and the one hour limit for the test, it goes by very quickly. So you can spend too much time on each question. So what I recommend is read a question, try to figure out the answer. If you don't know it, you can put a star beside it and come back after. Don't spend too long on any question. You can also take a guess, move on, and come back later.

My third tip: spend less time on earlier questions. For the reading module, For instance, there are three passages. The first passage is the easiest, then the second passage, and then the third question. If you spend all your time on the first passage, you're not going to have time to do the second and the third. And, like I said, the first one is easier. So a good idea is to spend less time on the first passage, maybe about 17 minutes, then the second passage maybe spend about 20 minutes, and the third passage maybe 23 minutes. You don't have to follow this exactly, but the main idea is spend less time on part one, more time on part three because part three is harder.

My fourth point is: make sure you have enough time to transfer your answers. They will have an answer sheet and you're supposed to write your answers on it. It's very important to leave yourself time to transfer your answers from your test paper to the answer sheet. A lot of students, they work through the booklet and then they realize there's no time to transfer their answers, so make sure you leave time for this.
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