IELTS golden rules

[rockenwood]

Hello Everyone,

I'm an IELTS teacher in Saigon named Ken. I'd like to offer help to anyone planning on taking the IELTS exam in the near future. Obviously I cannot teach you everything you need to know in this forum, but if you have any specific questions about the four skills; speaking, listening, writing, reading, I'll be glad to help you. I specialize in the speaking and writing skills for Task 1 & 2. I can give you advice about that but please don't ask me to correct any essays or reports for you. I have plenty of those to correct for my students in my own courses. I'll check this forum each day, so please be patient if I don't answer right away. Look forward to hearing from you.....

Tha^y Ken
ym:rockenwood99

[wild4ever]

i would prefer you look quite handsome lolz.
any way, what is the purpose of this topic? like you say in the above that you offer help for IELTS, as well as the title "iELTS golden rules", so I wonder where those rules of yours have gone to.

[rockenwood]

I have lots of rules.....too many to list here. Like I said I'll give you any advice you want, you just need to ask me some specific questions. If you want to know everything about all four skills, then you need to be my student and I'll make sure you get the band score you want.

[wild4ever]

oh .. no need for me to be your student here lolz.

Sincerely, I don't understand these tests at all. I sure have heard of them alot but, well, haven't met them in my life yet.

I just interest in a foreign teacher like you in vietnam. that's all :-p

[rockenwood]

Don't make these mistakes when writing your essay!


1. Do not use (…) (etc) when writing a list. Instead, lists of examples should follow the pattern; (A and B)… (A, B, and C)… (A,B,C, and D). For example: phones, radios, televisions, and other forms of technology.
2. Do not ask the reader any questions in your essays. For example; “How do you think we can solve the problem of over-crowding in cities?”
3. Do not use exclamation points in your essays. For example; “In my opinion, it’s the best solution to over-crowding in cities!”
4. Phrases like “more and more”, “bigger and bigger” are too informal. Instead use structures such as “much more”, “a great deal larger”. Also, “big” is too informal for reports and essays. Use “large” “sizeable” “significant”.
5. Do not begin sentences with “And”, “But”, “Because”, “Or”. Instead use linking phrases such as “In addition”, “However”, “Since”, “Otherwise”.
6. The first sentence of each body paragraph should be a topic sentence. It should define the content of the paragraph in general terms.
7. “Most/almost”: “Most” is an adjective (usually) which means the greatest quantity, amount, measure, degree or number of something. It’s followed by a noun, prepositional phrase or adjective; “Most people”, the most popular” “Most of his time”.
“Almost” is an adverb which means very nearly, all but, slightly short of, not quite. Examples: “We’re almost home.”, “almost finished”, “almost every house” “almost never”.
8. Manage your time well. Task 1= 20 minutes. Task 2=40 minutes. A poorly written essay or report will receive a higher band score than an incomplete one. Task 1 = 150 words, Task 2 = 250 words. Make sure you write the minimum number of words.
9. Subject-verb agreement: He, she, it….plays, does, receives, negotiates, etc. This is a rule you learned in elementary grammar. You cannot still be making this mistake on the IELTS test. If you make this mistake in your essay, you can forget about getting a good band score.
10. Use the correct verb tense. This is another elementary mistake that will keep you from getting a good band score. Pay attention to every verb you write and consider what tense you should be using. In addition, memorize past forms of irregular verbs.
11. Articles (a, an, the, no article): The last of the three biggest elementary mistakes. Review the rules about articles and apply them to every noun you write.
12. Singular/Plural, Countable/Uncountable: When speaking in general about something, use the plural form. For example: “People use computers in their offices every day.”
13. In essays, no opinions in the body paragraphs, only in the introduction or conclusion.
14. Write your essays from a global perspective, because the questions are asked from a global perspective. Try to avoid relating the essay question only to Vietnam. It should be about the world in general.
15. Use linking words and transition phrases at the beginning of all body paragraphs and the conclusion. For example: Firstly, On the other hand, In summary……
16. No contractions. for example: “shouldn’t”= should not
17. Keep pronouns out of the essay body paragraphs. Words such as, you, we, they, should be omitted or written as people, students, society…
Active tense can be changed to passive tense to omit the pronoun.


Good Luck!

Ken

[wild4ever]

rule 2 and 3 are really ... new to me. I never thought we should not ask the readers questions in our essay >.<