IELTS KITE

A lovely review from Rafi, whose daughter Kate helped get a band 8.0 in her IELTS exam.

Rafi's daughter, M. is a student at an international school in Qatar and needs a high score in the IELTS exam to apply for medical school.

M. already had an excellent level of English, as she was born in the UK. Kate helped her to understand the IELTS test properly, so she could maximise her score.

As usual, they started with a mock IELTS test, to identify her strengths and weaknesses. She had great listening and speaking skills, but needed help improving her performance in reading and writing.

Kate focused on:

👉techniques to do different types of reading questions
👉how to manage time during the reading test
👉the basic structure for all academic writing task 1s (introductory sentence - overview - main body)
👉analysis and language for different academic writing task 1s (line graph, dynamic bar chart, table, pie chart, static bar chart, table and pie chart, mixed graphs, processes and maps)
👉analysis, idea generation and structures for different essay question types (problem-solution, advantages and disadvantages, discussion, opinion and two-part questions)

M. was given IELTS writing tasks to complete after every class, which Kate gave her feedback on to help her improve. M. also did reading and listening tests online to improve her speed and get used to the computer-based format.

M worked very hard and was rewarded with an overall band 8.0!

If your daughter or son needs a high score in IELTS for their university entry, get in touch with us to talk about how we can help them maximise their score.

Last Thursday was A-level results day, an exciting and scary day for many people waiting to confirm their university place. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I was delighted when I got a message from a former student of mine to say he’s got what he needed to get on his first choice course!

Woop! 🥳🥳🥳

Several years of university lie ahead and he’s probably relieved and definitely excited after all that hard work.

The nice thing for me is – I helped him prepare for his IELTS exam long before he did his A-levels. Though studying for British A-levels, he isn’t originally from the UK and hadn’t grown up there and therefore had to do IELTS to get into uni.

I assessed his level, designed a course to target his problem areas and helped him get the band score he deserved.

So, in my own little way I contributed to his university entry!

Admittedly, compared to the huge amount of work he’s done, my contribution is paltry, but this is still the thing teachers get a huge amount of satisfaction from – not just the IELTS result…. But the result of the IELTS result…. Ultimately getting into university and kickstarting a career in chosen profession.

So, congratulations to everyone who confirmed they’re starting their university adventure this week….

Which university are you going to be attending?

(The pic is of the IELTS results he achieved. In our first course we focused on writing. After the test he didn't get the result he wanted in reading so did a few further lessons with me focused on this skill. He re-took the reading exam and....... mission accomplished!)

Kris

It's time for 'Ask an IELTS Examiner'!

What questions do you have about your IELTS exam?

If you are preparing for IELTS by yourself, or even if you are taking a class, I bet you have questions about it. 🤓

Write them in the comments, and an IELTS expert will answer them for you, completely free!

What do you want to ask?

Amazing IELTS results from our student, Hung Thai Nguyen

He found choosing and developing main points for task 2 essays difficult, so we spent time together analysing question types and making plans.

After he wrote the essays, we went through them together, discussing how they could be improved.

His IELTS writing task 2 scored 8.0 overall, with an 8.0 in each criterion!

If you are struggling to reach a high band in IELTS writing, and you would like 1-1 focus on your weak areas to help you improve, send us a DM.

My IELTS student messaged me in a panic.

"I've seen some of the IELTS Part 3 speaking questions in a 'question bank'" she said.

"I don't know the answers to many of them! I can't do this test! I'm going to fail". 😟

What I told her changed the way she looked at IELTS 'question banks'.

If you aren't aware, many websites show/sell past and current IELTS speaking questions.

IELTS students use them to practice and prepare before their tests.

However, it is important to know what these question banks are, and are not.

✅They are lists of questions past IELTS candidates could remember after their test.

👉IELTS candidates are not all asked the same questions in the speaking test.

👉Even if they have the same topic, the questions are likely to be different.

✅The IELTS speaking examiner chooses questions that are suitable for the level of the candidate.

✅So if your level is B1/B2, you will be asked certain questions.
And if your level is C1/C2, these questions are likely to be different.

✅The IELTS speaking examiner also asks follow-up questions, based on what you say.

These will be different for each candidate, because you do not all give the same answers.

My student needed to get 6.5 for her university application. She was looking at questions from IELTS candidates who needed 7.5-8.0.

When I taught her IELTS Speaking Part 3, I was using questions that were suitable for her level.

While it is fine to practice IELTS speaking on your own, don't let questions you find online scare you. They may not be the questions for you.

If you want to prepare for IELTS speaking with people who understand how the test works, so you prepare for the type of questions you will be asked, then send us a DM and let's talk about how we can help you.