Want to make the perfect Grade for your IELTS?

Your IELTS Reading Section of the exam will be a big hurdle that you will need to overcome in order to obtain your desired score in IELTS.

Here are the areas we will cover to make sure that you are adequately prepared for this step.

• The Three Circles Method in IELTS Reading
• Contextualizing content to find answers
• Time saving techniques in the IELTS reading test
• How to choose correctly when you have 2 correct answers
• Avoiding distractors in choosing the correct answer
• The differences and similarities between Academic and General
• Strategizing for the content of the 3 sections of the IELTS reading exam
• Understanding the 13 questions types and the techniques to use for each one
• Skimming, scanning and closing in on the correct answers

Homework: Practicing all of these techniques with our 3 IELTS exam simulations, which include a score, feedback and analysis of each answer. For extra practice, it is also strongly recommended to purchase and work through the Cambridge IELTS Exam Simulation Series as much as possible. By incorporating our techniques with those additional exam simulations, you will have more than enough practice.

General Task 1 Writing (For IELTS General Takers)

Next, we will dive into the most difficult part of the IELTS exam: Writing. Worldwide, people score lower in IELTS writing than they do in every other area of the exam, so this is an element we need to work through thoroughly to make sure you get as high of a score as possible.

In these lessons, we will focus on 3 areas: What to expect on the exam, how the examiners grade the exam, and strategies to implement to make sure you get as high of a score as possible.

All of the lessons include specific examples of the strategies in practice and at the end, you will do an exam simulation, which we will then analyze thoroughly to give you a score, but most importantly, specific feedback on how to improve now!

• What will the question look like for my IELTS General Training Task 1?
• How your IELTS General Training Task 1 performance is assessed in Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammar using this grid.
• The most common mistakes in General Training Task 1 (and how to avoid them!).
• A step by step guide to using the WW3CC system as a strategy!
• Your WHY sentence. Why it is important and how to implement it perfectly every single time.
• Cycling through your paraphrases: How to make sure you get a high score in your vocabulary performance.
• The 3 most common mistakes people make in Topic 1, 2, and 3. These mistakes mean a low score for even a native speaker.
• Perfect paragraphing in IELTS: An easy way to make sure you get a high score for paragraphing.
• Going off topic in your letter and the effect it has on your score.
• What to do when you have two topics that are similar in the question.
• The 3 circles method for General Training Task 1.
• Strategies to use the perfect conclusion every single time.
• 3 General Training Task 1 Writing Samples, with a score and detailed feedback.

Homework: After this lesson, you will complete one (or several) real writing exam simulations and submit them to us. Out team will thoroughly analyze your performance, give a score and detailed feedback on how to improve. You will have access to all of the video lessons, even if you are joining us live online, so you can review the portion of the strategy that you need to improve in and then try again until you are reaching the score you need!

Academic Task 1 Writing (For IELTS Academic Takers)

The second lesson deals with Academic Task 1. If you are taking the General exam, it is still a good idea to take this lesson since the techniques we learn can be used in the General version of IELTS or in the Academic.

As always, we focus on 3 areas to make sure you get the score you need, which are understanding the task, scoring system and implementing strategies to make sure you get the highest score possible!

• What will my Academic Task 1 question look like?
• What exactly is the examiner looking for in Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammar? We will analyze the scoring grid available here: https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/IELTS_task_1_Writing_band_descriptors.pdf
• Using the 3 Circles Method in Writing
• Understanding an overview vs. a description. This is the difference between a Band 5  and a Band 7.
• Understanding CLB vs. IELTS Band Scoring system.
• The #1 IELTS Academic Task 1 Secret!
• The IOD3CC technique and how to use it every single time.
• Examples and analyses of perfect ACT1 essays.

Homework: After this lesson, you will complete one (or several) real writing exam simulations and compare them to the analysis we’ve done in the videos. If you would like our team to thoroughly analyze your performance, give a score and detailed feedback on how to improve, there is a small additional fee. You will have access to all of the video lessons for 60 days, even if you’ve gone through them already, so you can review the portion of the strategy that you need to improve in and then try again until you are reaching the score you need!

Now that we have a solid foundation of understanding what the examiners are looking for and the importance of strategizing, we can move into Task 2 of Writing. The Academic and General exams are extremely different in Writing Task 1, but are very similar in Task 2. This allows us to incorporate the perfect strategy regardless of which version of the exam we are taking.

In this first lesson, we will focus on deepening our understanding of the scoring criteria the examiners are using, which will lead directly into step by step instructions on how to deliver exactly what they are looking for.

We will do this through a detailed analysis of the most common question type you will likely face in this section of the exam: an Agree/Disagree question.

After this, we will focus on the second-most common question type, which is when you are asked 2 questions within one topic.

You will become an expert in how to answer these two question types from the samples we will look at and the examples which you will write and have feedback on.

The continuation of our Task 2 Writing will focus on the most rare question type, which is also the most complex: Discuss both sides and give your opinion.

Homework: After this lesson, you will complete one (or several) real writing exam simulations and compare them to the analysis we’ve done in the videos. If you would like our team to thoroughly analyze your performance, give a score and detailed feedback on how to improve, there is a small additional fee. You will have access to all of the video lessons for 60 days, even if you’ve gone through them already, so you can review the portion of the strategy that you need to improve in and then try again until you are reaching the score you need!

This is the final lesson of the series and ties everything together. For most people, the speaking exam will be the easiest part, but what we’re here to do is make it even easier and also enjoyable!

In this lesson, we will focus again on the 3 steps we need to work through:

Step 1: Know the Speaking Exam Procedure second by second.

Step 2: Understand what the examiner is looking for an how the exam is scored.

Step 3: Strategize for each step of the exam to maximize your score!

At the end of these 3 steps, instead of thinking of these as questions you need to survive, we want you to think of the exam question as opportunities to demonstrate your language ability!

Here is what we will discuss:

• The outline part 1, the introduction and interview of the exam.
  • How to strategize for this part to demonstrate a high level of English to the examiner.
  • Common topics
• Part 2 of the exam: The long turn!
  • How to use your one minute of preparation time.
  • What to do if you run out of things to say.
• Part 3: The Conversation.
  • Making arguments and defending your position
  • How to fine-tune your language to support your arguments
  • The 3 Circles method of reaching a higher level in fluency
• Range vs. Accuracy in Lexical Resource Performance.
• 5 tricky situations that will come up during the exam and how to deal with them!
• How do the examiners assess the candidates? We will discuss this through a very thorough analysis of the IELTS Speaking Band Descriptors, which are available here: https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/IELTS_Speaking_band_descriptors.pdf 
• The use of personal vs. general language in all 3 parts of the speaking test.

Homework: You can record yourself doing an exam simulation by using the software available in your account. By using this, you will be able to see what it’s really like to take the exam, but you get to listen to your performance and find out exactly which areas you need to improve on. If you would like us to do a thorough analysis of your performance, there is a small additional charge.

The beauty of becoming an expert in the reading question types is that the question format is the same for the IELTS Listening portion of the exam.

Here is the breakdown of this lesson.

• The 4 IELTS Listening Sections and the contents within each
• Strategies regarding your OMR Answer Sheet
• Accents to expect
• The importance of synonyms
• Exactly what the instructions will say (so you don’t have to try to decipher them on exam day).

Homework: Practicing all of these techniques with our 3 IELTS exam simulations, which include a score, feedback and analysis of each answer. For extra practice, it is also strongly recommended to purchase and work through the Cambridge IELTS Exam Simulation Series as much as possible. By incorporating our techniques with those additional exam simulations, you will have more than enough practice.