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com

How to improve your LEVEL and Get the IELTS SCORE you want
(without paying for expensive courses or books!)

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Contents
Translate this pdf document 3

Before we begin

Reading

Listening

11

Speaking

16

Writing

20

In conclusion

27

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Translate this document

I know as a student of English that you should take every opportunity to read things in English to help you improve. And having lived in a non-English speaking country, I also know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be searching on the Internet and struggling to read things in a foreign language, when you just want the answer NOW!

This document has been written to help you with your IELTS preparation. Id be much happier if you chose to translate this document so that you could access that information as quickly as possible. Then you can put these ideas to good use and focus on improving your level of English.

So thank God for Google translate! I know the translations arent perfect but they are a great help and timesaver. instructions below: So please feel free to follow the

Step 1: Open Zoho Viewer by clicking this link: http://viewer.zoho.com/Upload.jsp Upload this pdf file. Step 2: Zoho Viewer will then provide a URL (web address) for this document. Copy this web address and go to Google translate using this link: http://translate.google.com/# Paste the web address and select the language you want to translate to. Click the Translate button. Happy reading!

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Before we begin
Unfortunately theres no magic formula to help you improve your level of English. The only way to improve is to PRACTICE PRACTICE

PRACTICE. In the past your English teachers probably told you to do

more practice outside class. Now this advice is more important than ever if you want to get 6.5 or more in your IELTS exam.

Getting this result means you can study at university or live/work in another country. Not getting this result means you cant.

However, you dont need to spend lots of money on English courses or expensive books. All the help you need is FREE. You need to understand where to find this help, and how to use it. Before you start the most important rule is:

Little and often.

Doing a little practice everyday is far more beneficial than 2 hours once a week. You only need to spend 15 minutes every day to help you improve. If you have time, spend 30 minutes.

But, you must decide how much time you can spend EVERY DAY. And then STUDY AT THE SAME TIME EVERY DAY and make it part of your routine. For example, you can study for 15 minutes: After breakfast before you leave the house On the bus to school / work
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www.myieltsteacher.com During your lunch break On the bus home Make it the first job you do when you get home After dinner Instead of sitting in front of the TV Before you go to bed

Why is this routine more beneficial?

Because when you study for a short time every day: you remember things more easily because you are reminded every day you dont get bored you dont daydream so you achieve more during your study time little successes are motivating so you feel like you are improving

However, ONLY doing IELTS practice tests WILL your level or your overall IELTS score.

NOT improve

You need to focus on the different skills in English in order to improve your level. That means improving: Reading Listening Writing Speaking Grammar Vocabulary

If you think you have more problems with one of these skills than the others then you need to focus on that skill. For example, if reading is the most difficult part of the exam for you, then spend most of your time trying to improve that skill.

And remember, you need time to improve. With daily practice of one skill you can improve your level over 1 month. If you need to improve your level in more than one skill, you might need 6 months.

So lets get started.

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Reading
You need to develop your reading strategies so that you can read more proficiently in English. What does that mean?

Think about how you read a newspaper in your own language. Do you start at the top of the page and read everything to the bottom? Do you read every word carefully? Do you stop reading when you dont know a word in your own language?

The answer is NO. Generally your eyes move over the page looking at the story headings. When you find an interesting heading you stop. You look more carefully at the first sentence of this story. If youre interested your eyes move over the story quickly looking for the main words that tell you what the story is about. If these are uninteresting you give up and move on to another story. If these are interesting you slow down and start to read the story. If you dont understand a word it doesnt matter because you just want to know what happens in the story.

These are reading strategies. You need to transfer these strategies that you use for your own language to English.

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Tip 1
One of the most important things you need to do in the IELTS exam is to use these reading strategies to quickly look at each paragraph in the text and answer this question: What is the main topic of this paragraph?

Maybe you can underline a few words to answer this question. Or maybe you can write 1 or 2 words next to the paragraph. Heres an example:

Turkish people are renowned for their hospitality. Whatever their financial status, they welcome, and feed their guests as much as their resources allow. It may sound unbelievable but in Anatolia it is acceptable to knock on any door and ask for shelter, and it will be given, because unknown visitors are considered to be sent by God. This is, of course, too much to ask of the city dwellers who have lost trust in others after years of migration and the ensuing urban unrest.
1

Comment: Hospitality of Turkish people is the main topic

Comment: These sentences support and explain what the writer means by hospitality in Turkey Comment: In contrast to the main topic, this sentence states that in cities Turkish people are not hospitable and explains why.

So, if I was reading the whole article I would underline the words in the first sentence, OR write notes at the side of the paragraph, eg. Turkish people hospitality. I would repeat this process for every paragraph in an article.

This process should take you about 5-7 minutes for a 750 - 900 word text. At first you will find it takes you longer, especially as it can be difficult sometimes to separate the main topic from the supporting sentences. Unfortunately not every paragraph has the main idea in the first sentence! So, it is essential that you practice this technique in order to increase your speed.

Using this process in the IELTS exam will help you answer the questions more quickly because you wont spend time searching the whole text again.
1 Taken from Culture Shock! A Guide to Customs and Etiquette Turkey (p.71). Arin Bayraktaroglu. Times Books

International. 1996

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Tip 2
Another important technique is to use punctuation and symbols to help you find information quickly.

Punctuation: we always use capital letters for names John Smith, the
city of Sydney, the month of October etc. If you need to find the name of something in a long text then look for capital letters.

Symbols: percentages - %, a third 1/3 etc.

If youre looking for ratios or rates of something its a good idea to think about looking for these symbols.

Money 100, 750, $55,000

Look for currency symbols.

Numbers - 350
Youll find all these things more quickly if you move your eyes over the text instead of reading. And this saves you time in the exam. You can use the same technique for specific words finding a specific word such as table in a text, or if you need to find words related to a topic, for example finding different types of fruit such as melon, apples etc.

To improve your speed at these strategies you need to practice reading real English texts and try to find the topic in each paragraph. Then find names, numbers and symbols. Time yourself.

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Tip 3
Where do you find real English texts ? On the internet and theyre all FREE

IELTS reading texts are taken from newspapers, books, magazines and journals, and so these are the best places to practice your reading strategies. Try choosing articles from the following:

www.guardian.co.uk www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-magazine-archivepage.htm www.theaustralian.com.au www.nytimes.com www.economist.com www.newscientist.com http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/archives www.newint.org www.time.com/time www.newsweek.com

It helps to choose an article with a topic that interests you, but you should choose from a variety of cultural, environmental, business, medical, scientific, educational and political themes.

What subject are you planning to study at university? If you can visit a library with English language books you can borrow books related to this subject. You can prepare for your IELTS exam AND for university.

If youre emigrating, where are you going and what are you going to do? Search the internet for this countrys newspapers. You can prepare for your IELTS exam, read local news stories about your new home country, find your ideal home AND a job!
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Tip 4
If youre studying in an English class (or have done recently) or are taking an IELTS class, go back over your notes. Read through your notebook and your English class book you should continue to remind yourself about what you have learnt. If you dont, then you will forget everything. And that means you have wasted your money and your time.

Tip 5
The Australia Network has produced an excellent TV series on IELTS which you can download from the internet: http://australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_about.htm There are 3 series to watch and they cover all aspects of Grammar, Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading for Academic IELTS.

First of all look through the topics of the episodes for each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once you have chosen the program you would like to watch you can download worksheets and transcripts too. I would recommend looking at Series 3 as a lot of these episodes focus on reading strategies.

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Listening
Like reading, you need to develop your listening strategies so that you can listen more proficiently in English.

Think about how you listen to the news on the radio in your own language. Do you sit and listen carefully to every part of the news bulletin? Do you listen to every word carefully? Do you stop listening when you dont know a word in your own language, and focus on the meaning of that unknown word?

The answer is NO. Generally you listen to the radio while you are doing something else, like driving. So you are not concentrating on every word they say, but your ears can hear the sound. When you hear words connected to a news story that you want to know about, you concentrate on listening to the radio. But you still dont listen to individual words. You normally listen to phrases. Because you know how your language is constructed you can often hear the beginning of a phrase and guess the ending. (Think about a bad telephone connection. Imagine every 4th word is missing because the signal is weak. You can probably still understand the conversation because your brain automatically fills in the missing word from its memory bank of phrases)

So, when you listen to the news on the radio you are only half listening because your brain does all the work of predicting and filling in gaps. And if you dont know the meaning of a word you dont care because it doesnt affect your understanding.

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www.myieltsteacher.com This kind of listening behaviour is very difficult to transfer into English listening because your knowledge of phrases and grammar structure is more limited. However, you have learnt grammar and vocabulary phrases so you can sometimes guess what words will follow.

Tip 1
When listening to something in English the best idea is not to focus on every word because this becomes very tiring. You also get bored and then your brain turns off, so you actually miss the most important information. You should focus on the words that you understand. This will hopefully help you in understanding the main idea. And dont panic when you hear unknown words.

The good news in the exam is that you have time read the questions before you listen. This gives you time to think about the topic you might be listening to, and to use your knowledge of English to help you guess the answer.

The topic using the information in the questions you can think about all
the words you know related to the topic. These words will probably be verbs and nouns.

Guess the answer for gap fill type questions youll need to think about
the grammar of your answer. Does the gap require a noun, adjective, verb etc? For other types of questions are you listening for a name, number, place, time etc?

Tip 2
To generally improve your listening ability you need to listen to the radio

and watch TV.

If youre living in an English speaking country you have lots of choice. You can also secretly listen to people speaking on the bus, in the street etc. And
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www.myieltsteacher.com you will obviously listen as you go about your normal life doing activities such as ordering takeaway food on the telephone, buying tickets for the bus etc.

If you dont live in an English speaking country then you have less choice. First of all check out your channels on digital or cable TV. Normally you can find news channels in English, such as BBC World News and CNN, as well as other channels showing English language programs. You can also watch your favourite series or a film in English, but make sure you turn off or cover the subtitles (reading subtitles wont improve your listening!)

Tip 3
There are sites on the internet where you can listen to news: www.uksuperweb.co.uk/radio.html This website allows access to lots of radio stations in the UK. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm This website

has short news video clips from the BBC. The benefit of recorded video is that you can listen to it several times, and this allows you to note down some interesting and useful new vocabulary. http://au.news.yahoo.com/vodcast/ For mp4 video news from Australia http://news.ninemsn.com.au/video.aspx For more recorded video news from Australia. http://edition.cnn.com/video/ For recorded news from the USA. http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/how2 pod cast. Subscribe to this weekly

Here are sites where you can listen and answer questions: http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-listening-downloadsarticles.htm http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/professionals-podcasts http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-professionalsarchive.htm http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/ielts-mock-papers
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Some students have told me of a technique they have found really useful. When they listen to something in English at home (the news, the class CD etc.) they listen again and again, and they try to write down every word they hear. Over time they say it has really helped them to improve. Its not

something Ive tried, but if students tell me it works, then Im happy to share the idea with you.

Tip 4
If youre studying in an English class (or have done recently) or are taking an IELTS class, go back over your notes. Go back over the listening activities from class. You can listen to the CD several times to work out why the correct answers are correct, or check the tape script at the back of the book. Think about which words and phrases help you to understand this is the correct answer?

And dont forget to read through your notebook and your English class book you should continue to remind yourself about what you have learnt. Just like for reading, if you dont, then you will forget everything. And that means you have wasted your money and your time.

Tip 5
The Australia Network has produced an excellent TV series on IELTS which you can download from the internet: http://australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_about.htm There are 3 series to watch and they cover all aspects of Grammar, Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading for Academic IELTS.

First of all look through the topics of the episodes for each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once you have chosen the

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www.myieltsteacher.com program you would like to watch you can download worksheets and transcripts too. I would recommend looking at Series 3 as a lot of these episodes focus on listening strategies.

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Speaking
If you have problems with fluency then you cant speak naturally and confidently, and you always stop and start because you cant find the right word. In order to improve your fluency you need to speak more.

Tip 1
In an English speaking country there are more people to practice with, but it can be a little frightening. You need to find someone who is happy to listen and speak to you. Often you can find another student in your class, but make sure they are from a different country so you have to speak English together.

Or maybe you are living with a host family. Their job is to look after you and provide you with opportunities to speak at home. Your job is to think about subjects you want to talk about and then start a conversation with them. Please dont expect them to work hard trying to make you speak you

need to think about topics if you want them to speak to you. Make
sure you are prepared to talk about different subjects you need to be able to give opinions and explain why you have these opinions. But be careful!

Remember your host family is from a different culture and may have different opinions. Choose topics that wont cause problems if you have very different opinions.

If you dont live in an English speaking country it can be more difficult to find someone to practice with. You can find another student in your class, but you have to be very strict about not speaking your own language.

Nowadays many students are meeting up on Facebook and other networking sites, looking for speaking partners, and speaking for FREE online using Skype. If you have a Facebook account then search for Splendid

Speaking, Best IELTS Online and My IELTS Teacher they all

have Facebook pages. You can post a message on their discussions or wall
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www.myieltsteacher.com page looking for a speaking partner to practice with for the IELTS exam. You then need to share your Skype details with each other and organise a time to call.

Again you need to plan this carefully so you dont have lots of silence. Maybe agree a few topics that you can talk about in advance, giving your opinion, explaining why you have this opinion, and asking for your partners opinion. You could even find some IELTS speaking exams and test each other! Try these links: http://www.myieltsteacher.com/speaking_test_practice.html http://www.ielts-blog.com/ielts-preparation-tips/speaking-tips/ieltsspeaking-test-questions/

Tip 2
If you cant find a partner then speak to yourself (in English)! You can talk about: what you have done today what youre going to do tomorrow any problems you need to solve any arguments youve had and what you wish youd said the topics and situations are endless

Its best to do this privately in your room! However, if you speak silently in your head, you could do this on the bus on the way home!

To help you improve you should sometimes record yourself doing this. When you listen you can check several things: how often do you hesitate or use er...? do you use the same words all the time? you could try to use new vocabulary that you have learnt and notice which words you use

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www.myieltsteacher.com do you use different tenses to talk about different things? Again you could try to include new grammar structures that you have learnt A good idea is to record yourself the first time you do this. Then if you

continue to practice this speaking activity every day, record yourself again 10 days later. And then record yourself again after another 10 days.

When you compare the recordings can you hear an improvement? There should be some change after all this practice. If youre not happy though, think about trying to improve your vocabulary and grammar and then add these words and structures to your speaking.

With 5-10 minutes daily practice your fluency should improve over 1 month.

Tip 3
If you have problems with accuracy then you are making lots of mistakes with your grammar and vocabulary when you speak. Very often these

mistakes occur because you have misunderstood something and learnt it wrong.

If you have English lessons you can ask your teacher about the mistakes they notice with your speaking. If youre not taking any classes then you need to ask someone you trust to comment on your accuracy this could be an old student, family member or other friend. Or if you have none of these, then maybe you can ask your Skype partner.

To try and solve your problems you need to record your speaking as mentioned above. However, when you listen to the recording your job now is to notice when you make mistakes. For example, you could listen and focus on your verb tenses. Are you using the correct tense for each subject you talk about? Or you could focus on prepositions.

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www.myieltsteacher.com Check a good grammar book (eg. Murphys Essential Grammar in Use Intermediate see if you can borrow a copy from a friend or a library) or search for specific grammar topics online:

http://www.englishcorner.vacau.com/grammar/grammar.html http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/ http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar http://esl.about.com/od/intermediateenglish/u/continue.htm http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/ http://www.world-english.org/

If you know what mistakes you normally make youll be surprised how often you make them on the recording. But this tells you that you need to think and speak more carefully when using these words. Eventually you can change your mistakes.

Tip 4
The Australia Network has produced an excellent TV series on IELTS which you can download from the internet: http://australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_about.htm

I would recommend looking at Series 2 and 3 as a lot of these episodes

focus on speaking. First of all look through the topics of the episodes for
each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once you have chosen the program you would like to watch you can download worksheets and transcripts too.

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Writing
For the IELTS exam you need to write an essay, and either describe a graph/process or write a letter, depending on whether you are taking the Academic or General exam. To understand how to answer these questions you need training. I suggest you check out a few IELTS websites to find out how to brainstorm and plan essays, and develop your vocabulary for describing graphs and writing letters. Here are a few to get you started: www.myieltsteacher.com www.bestieltsonline.com www.dcielts.com

To improve your formal writing skills you need to focus on several areas.

Tip 1
Grammar If you have problems with grammar, you need to work out what your

main problems are. How do you do this? Look back over past writing
you have produced. This may be homework or activities from an English class. When your teacher marked the writing, what mistakes did you make?

Have you written reports or emails at work? Is there someone you can ask to check over your writing and highlight your mistakes? This could be an old English teacher, a fluent English speaking friend or relative, a friends friend, or someone you meet on Facebook.

The most important thing is to find out where you are making mistakes. This could be verb tenses, passive structures, prepositions, articles etc. You

should use a good grammar book (eg. Murphys Essential Grammar in Use Intermediate see if you can borrow a copy from a friend or a library) or search for these specific topics online. grammar websites:
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Here are some useful English

www.myieltsteacher.com http://www.englishcorner.vacau.com/grammar/grammar.html http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/ http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar http://esl.about.com/od/intermediateenglish/u/continue.htm http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/ http://www.world-english.org/

Most of these websites also have practice pages so you read the rules and then test yourself.

The Australia Network has produced an excellent TV series on IELTS which you can download from the internet: http://australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_about.htm

I would recommend looking at Series 1 and 2 as a lot of these episodes focus on grammar and writing. First of all look through the topics of the episodes for each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once you have chosen the program you would like to watch you can download worksheets and transcripts too.

When you do some writing in the future, always check it when youve finished. Its amazing how many points students lose because they dont check their writing. We all make basic mistakes when we write so its essential to read through your work when youve finished. You should check those structures which you normally have problems with. If you know what your problems are youll be more careful in the future. But remember, you dont have to be perfect to get the IELTS score you want (unless you want 9!). For most students who need 6.5 or 7, you need to make sure your basic grammar is accurate (tenses, prepositions, spelling, possessive apostrophes). You also need to use some complex sentences (see Tip 5 below).

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Tip 2
Vocabulary If you have problems with vocabulary, you need to work out what your

main problems are.

you make?

How do you do this?

In the same way with

grammar, look back over past writing you have produced. What mistakes did

There are various types of vocabulary mistakes that IELTS students tend to make:

1. using the wrong grammatical forms

This means you have chosen the correct word for the topic, but you have used the noun form instead of the adjective form, or instead of the verb form. eg. verb - decide, noun decision, adjective decisive etc.

2. using the correct word but in the wrong place in the sentence
Some words must be used in a specific place in a sentence. especially true for adverbs, but there are lots of other rules too. eg. There are still many people who believe that we should do more to prevent global warming. The positioning of the word still depends on whether you use the verb be (as in this sentence) or other verbs (as in the next sentence). Eg. These people still believe we should do more. This is

3. how a word is used with other words

Some words can be used together with lots of words, but some words cannot. eg. Global warming causes the climate to change and some areas of the world suffer from extreme weather conditions such as heavy rain at unusual times of the year.
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www.myieltsteacher.com Here there are a few phrases where certain words go together, global warming not global heating, suffer from not suffer against, weather conditions not weather situations, heavy rain not strong rain. In order to know how to use a word correctly use an English-English dictionary for students, or check online: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ http://www.ldoceonline.com/

An English-English dictionary will tell you which word you need to use, how to use it correctly and how to spell it. It also gives you a variety of example sentences using the word.

Tip 3
If you think your vocabulary is too basic and you need to develop it
for the IELTS exam there is lots of advice and links to useful websites on these web pages: www.myieltsteacher.com www.bestieltsonline.com www.dcielts.com

Again, the Australia Network TV series on IELTS provides some excellent programs on IELTS vocabulary. http://australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_about.htm

I would recommend looking at Series 1 and 2 as a lot of these episodes focus on vocabulary. First of all look through the topics of the episodes for each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once you have chosen the program you would like to watch you can download worksheets and transcripts too.

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Tip 4
Finally a word on how to learn and remember vocabulary. The best way to remember words is to repeat them. Only by repeating words a sufficient number of times can your brain actually set up a system to try and remember it when you need it. (Think about how you try to remember a new phone number I often try repeating it until I finally remember it.)

The best (and most fun) way to repeat words is to write the new word on a yellow post-it note. Include other important information if you want, such as form (noun, adjective etc.), pronunciation, translation etc. And always add an example sentence that includes the word. This sentence must have some personal significance for you or be related to your life in some way. Why? Because personal information is easier for you to remember and relate to.

I would choose about 10 words for 1 week, each with their separate post-it note. (Be realistic with your learning and memory ability. Learn 10 words well in 1 week so that you can still remember them 1 month later. If you try to learn more than that youll find you have forgotten them after only a few weeks.)

Now stick these post-it notes around the house, for example on the fridge, bathroom mirror etc. Every time you see the post-it note say the word and sentence. You could see it 7 times a day, so say the word and the sentence 7 times a day. Do this every day for 1 week and you have said the word about 50 times. Thats repetition!

Save the post-it notes so that after 1 or 2 weeks you can test yourself. Over a few months you could easily learn and remember about 150 words that are useful for IELTS. Excellent!

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Tip 5
Using complex structures Some students have problems using complex grammar structures in their writing. They may be too frightened of using these structures because they arent sure how to use them correctly, or they use them but make mistakes every time.

First of all, what are complex structures? If you need to get a minimum of 6.5 in the IELTS exam you need to know and use

passive

structures,

relative

clauses

and

if-

clauses/conditional sentences. And you need to use them accurately

most of the time.

As with the grammar problems mentioned before, you should use a good grammar book (eg. Murphys Essential Grammar in Use Intermediate see if you can borrow a copy from a friend or a library) so that you can practise these structures. Or search these topics online: http://www.englishcorner.vacau.com/grammar/grammar.html http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/ http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar http://esl.about.com/od/intermediateenglish/u/continue.htm http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/ http://www.world-english.org/

If you need more help on how to use these complex structures in your writing for the IELTS exam you should check the advice and links on these web pages: www.myieltsteacher.com www.bestieltsonline.com www.dcielts.com

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www.myieltsteacher.com The Australia Network TV series on IELTS has a lot of help for grammar: http://australianetwork.com/studyenglish/se_about.htm

I would recommend looking at Series 1 and 2 as some of these episodes focus on grammar and complex structures. First of all look through the topics of the episodes for each series and decide which programs would be most useful for you. Once you have chosen the program you would like to watch you can download worksheets and transcripts too.

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In conclusion
So there is my advice on how to improve the 4 skills you are tested on in the IELTS exam. All of the advice can be found for FREE without buying

expensive books or paying for English courses. Of course, these books and courses are excellent ways to improve your English but only if you also study every day, for at least 15 minutes, to improve your level.

Spending

money does not guarantee results. Working hard does. And how long do you need to prepare for the exam?
This depends on your current level and what score you want. Have a look at the table below:

Common Cambridge Typical European ESOL Language Framework exams school levels (CEF)
A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2 KET PET FCE CAE CPE Elementary Pre Intermediate Intermediate Upper Intermediate Lower Advanced Advanced

IELTS scores

1-2 3 3.5- 4.5 5-6 6.5-7 7.5+

If you believe you are currently an Upper Intermediate student and

you need 5.5 then you are nearly ready to take the exam. First of all you
need to do a practice reading and listening test, you can find some online at: http://www.myieltsteacher.com/reading_practice_tests.html http://www.myieltsteacher.com/practice_tests.html

Count how many correct answers you get and then use the IELTS score

calculator on these web pages to find out your approximate IELTS score.

Copyright 2010. My IELTS Teacher. All rights reserved.

www.myieltsteacher.com If you get less than 5.5 you need to use the advice in this document to make some improvements for 1 or 2 months. In the meantime, you should also use the websites suggested to work on your speaking and writing, and try a practice test.

Then take another practice reading and listening test to see if you have improved. Once you have reached the right score then you are ready to try the exam.

If you are currently an Upper Intermediate student and you want 6.5, you need to work on improving your level. This could take 6
months. After that you can try a practice test and check your reading and listening scores.

Remember, if you only do IELTS practice tests you WILL NOT improve your level or your overall IELTS score.

You need to work on the different skills that are causing you problems. Once you have improved these skills, then your level will increase. And then your IELTS result will increase.

One final word. Dont give up. Dont get depressed. If you work hard you can achieve. If you really want to study at university or emigrate, and you need a specific IELTS result, then your motivation and desire is strong enough to help you. Believe in yourself.

Copyright 2010. My IELTS Teacher. All rights reserved.