Band 9 vocabulary for IELTS speaking and writing tests. These splendid words are going to help you to show the examiner that you can use vocabulary flexibly and precisely, which is precisely what you must do to get to 9! You going to learn how to avoid overusing the word good and how to use … Read more
I highlighted in an essay some words that I feel would be better left out of your essay. They serve no purpose other than to make communication more difficult. Note that they can be removed and leave an easier to read sentence. They will only be of value if they are adding precision or clarity to … Read more
Collocations in your IELTS writing and speaking test is extremely important because it’s one of the indicators of your level of vocabulary. Collocations are words that naturally fit together. Awareness of collocations is extremely important for your English to be natural and correct. You can see in the example below how the words fast and quick used. Although … Read more
Avoiding repetition is extremely important to score well for vocabulary as you want to show the examiner that you have a wide RANGE of vocabulary. Below are three ways to avoid repetition. 1.Use pronouns Pronouns are words such as: he/she/it this/that/these/those one both The way these words work is that they refer back to something already … Read more
The phrases below can be used to add coherence to your part 2 answer by guiding the listener regarding what particular aspect you are talking about. Opening: Introductory phrases to use when you start your talk: I’m going to talk about… OK, I’m going to describe… Well, I’d like to talk about… The first point: The … Read more
Vocabulary Level Check Knowing how good your vocabulary range is can be tested in many different ways, but the method we are going to use here is based on a series of vocabulary based frequency lists developed by Batia Laufer & Paul Nation. There are eighteen questions below, and you have to decide which word … Read more
Dealing with unknown words in your IELTS reading or listening test The reading test uses articles and extracts that cover a wide-range of topics and no specialist knowledge is needed to answer the questions. However, you will encounter unfamiliar words and you need to work on strategies to deal with these. You should not waste … Read more
IELTS VOCABULARY TIPS For both the IELTS speaking and writing exam your vocabulary (lexical resource) accounts for 25% of your score. Therefore, part of your preparation for the exam should be to improve your range of vocabulary. For the speaking exam, I highly recommend that you learn some idiomatic expressions as this is important to … Read more
About Mike
I’m Mike Wattie from Australia. I have been teaching IELTS for over 20 years in Asia and Australia.
I have written IELTS books and this enables me to be an effective tutor. This is because I understand the main problems that students have taking the test and also the ways to overcome them.
Maybe you would like me to teach you the necessary skills and strategies to pass your test.
IELTS is a registered trademark of University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia and they jointly manage the IELTS test. This website is for test preparation only and has nothing to do with the administration of IELTS tests This website is not affiliated, approved or endorsed by the University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia.
