Simone Braverman's Blog: IELTS-Blog.com, page 126

IELTS essay, topic: Some parents think that children must do house chores (opinion)

This is a model response to a Writing Task 2 topic from High Scorer’s Choice IELTS Practice Tests book series (reprinted with permission). This answer is likely to score IELTS Band 9.

Set 2 General Training book, Practice Test 9

Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Many parents give jobs to their children to do around the house in order to develop their characters and self-sufficiency.

Discuss this idea and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Answer

In many modern day families, it is a common aspect of family life that parents give jobs to their children to do around the house to develop their characters and a sense of self-sufficiency. This aspect can be looked at as having both positive and negative sides.

When parents give their children jobs or chores to do around the house, they make their children understand that they are part of a community. While this community is only within the family’s house, the lessons children learn from carrying out their chores are equally fitting for the global community they live in. Children are taught that they have to integrate into the global community and that in order for this community to work effectively, everyone must carry out their chores.

Furthermore, children learn about the concept of pride, as they are taught to be proud of what they have accomplished. Chores around the house additionally prepare children for living independently later on in life, as they acquire skills that are valuable for everyday life. I, personally, see this approach as very practical; helping my mother with cooking in my childhood and teenage years served me well, and living independently now I don’t have trouble preparing meals for myself and my housemates.

Although there are many supporters of this concept, some parents argue that children should not be given jobs to do around the house. They argue that children should be allowed to be children and not have any duties. In their opinion children should enjoy their childhood and should not have to deal with any of the responsibilities adults have to deal with.

In conclusion, I believe that giving children chores to carry out is a positive aspect of family life, as I think that it helps children to become independent and makes it easier for them to live by themselves later on in life.

Go here for more IELTS Band 9 Essays

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12 Tricky English Words

Speaking from experience, there are some words in English that IELTS test takers misspell quite often. A word spelt wrong isn’t the end of the world, but here’s the thing – when you spell one of these words wrong, the autocorrect feature (your usual lifeline!) won’t save you. It won’t let you know that you made a mistake and there will be no red underline. Why? Because the second spelling also exists in its dictionary – but the word spelt that way means something completely different!

Here are the 12 tricky words that can get you in trouble – and what each spelling means.

Cause vs. Course

A cause is a reason for something that happened.

A course is a sequence of events or it could also mean a learning program at school or university.

Compliment vs. Complement

A compliment is something you say to a person to show your admiration.

A complement is an item that completes a group of other items, makes it better, for example a hat that completes an outfit.

Destruct vs. Distract

To destruct means to destroy.

To distract means to take your attention away from something you were doing.

Desert vs. Dessert

A desert is a land with no water, covered with sand.

A dessert is a sweet dish that you have at the end of your meal, such as ice cream or cake. An easy way to remember the double ‘s’ in dessert is to think that dessert is ‘So Sweet’.

Dairy vs. Diary

Dairy is a place where milk is processed.

A diary is a personal journal where you write about your experiences.

Launch vs. Lunch

To launch something is to let it fly.

Lunch is the meal that you have at midday.

Mail vs. Male

Mail means letters and parcels.

Male is the gender of a man.

Message vs. Massage

A message is a bit of information that you pass on to someone.

Giving someone a massage means rubbing a person’s muscles to help them relax.

Plain vs. Plane

Plain means simple or flat.

A plane is the same as an airplane.

Reminder vs. Remainder

A reminder helps you remember something.

A remainder is a part of something that is left after the rest was removed. An easy way to remember the difference in spelling is to think of the word ‘remain’ as part of ‘remainder’.

Stationary vs. Stationery

The word ‘stationary‘ refers to something that isn’t moving (e.g. a stationary vehicle).

Stationery means pens, pencils, paper and envelopes.

Trail vs. Trial

A trail is a cleared path through the forest.

A trial means a test of performance of a new product or service.

What other words do you find confusing or tricky? Let us know in comments, and we’ll add them to the list!

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IELTS Letter, topic: informing your manager about a presentation you were asked to prepare

Your Manager has asked you to do a presentation at the upcoming training session. Write a letter to your manager and say

– What is the topic of presentation?

– What is the benefit of conducting a session on that topic?

– What are your requirements for conducting this presentation?

Answer

Dear Mr. Smith,

I am writing to inform you about the details of the presentation that you asked me to prepare for our staff at the upcoming training.

I decided to make ‘Negotiation Skills and Techniques’ the main topic of this presentation because I believe that it is one of the foundation skills for any sales representative. My presentation will include many case scenarios and examples since I would like to provide our attendees with practical experience during the session. In addition, I intend to conduct a quiz at the end of the session to evaluate the knowledge our colleagues gained from the talk and their understanding of the material I delivered.

The reason why I feel our staff would benefit from this particular training is that our company, WorldMed, is one of the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the world, and has always put emphasis on improving skills of its employees. Advanced negotiation skills will help our sales representatives secure new business for the company. Consequently, the sales volumes of our products are likely to increase due to the higher number of contracts with our company’s key customers.

For the presentation to be effective, I would need to spend one hour delivering the training and another 15 to 20 minutes conducting the quiz. A sizable meeting room with a projector and a large screen will be required, as well as stickers of 3 different colours. These will be used to divide the audience into three teams to increase their interaction during the presentation.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Wood

This letter covers the entire task statement (one paragraph per bullet point). The information is presented in an organised manner and there is a clear and logical flow of ideas. As this is a business letter, the use of formal vocabulary is appropriate. The writer demonstrated good control of grammar and varied use of sentence structures. Overall this letter seems to be worthy of IELTS Band 8.

Click here to see more IELTS letters of band 8

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IELTS Results competition winners in April 2020

Napoleon Hill once said, “Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it” – and you are about to meet 4 people who did exactly that. They woke up every day and worked hard on their IELTS skills, and that is how they got these remarkable IELTS scores! Not to mention winning in our monthly IELTS results competition.

We are delighted to announce the people behind the highest IELTS results in April. Let’s put our hands together for…

Academic Module – 1st place

Mahmud Hasan from Bangladesh, Band 7
Priyanka Ray from India, Band 7

General Training Module – 1st place

Faris Karimkurayil from India, Band 8

General Training Module – 2nd place

Khushbu Piyushkumar Shah from India, Band 7.5

Congratulations on your success! To celebrate your achievements we are sending your special certificates to your emails. Winning IELTS results will be displayed in the IELTS-Blog hall of fame – so if you won, please feel free to show them off to your friends!

How did they score so well?

We would love to hear from our winners, because anything that helped them achieve success in IELTS, can help YOU, too! Their advice, as soon as we get it, will be posted on IELTS-Blog without delay, so everyone can use the same technique and get a better score in their own exam.

If IELTS exams in your country are suspended for now, don’t lose hope, don’t shelve your IELTS preparation. Remember that this situation is only temporary, and very soon testing will resume. In many countries you can take an IELTS Indicator test online and get an indicative IELTS score that lots of organisations accept (read all the details here).

The world can only stay in lockdown for a limited time, and as soon as restrictions end, you need to be ready! Many of us have wasted a lot of time already, let’s not waste any more, and get your target score! We at IELTS-Blog.com are here to support you every step of the way, so if you need help, email us any time.

P.S. IELTS results competition runs every month, and everyone is welcome to participate. Learn how to enroll here.

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IELTS essay, topic: Since obesity may be caused by fast food, should the government put a tax on fast food?

This is a model response to a Writing Task 2 topic from High Scorer’s Choice IELTS Practice Tests book series (reprinted with permission). This answer is likely to score IELTS Band 9.

Set 2 General Training book, Practice Test 8

Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

It seems clear that obesity in today’s society is to some extent due to the availability of fast food.

Should governments place a tax on fast food to reduce the amount of fast food consumed?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Answer

Obesity has become a common problem in western societies and this is partly due to the availability of fast food at low prices. To tackle this problem, it has been suggested that governments should increase the tax on fast foods in order to reduce the amount of fast food consumed. I personally believe that this is a sound idea, because especially young people, who have less money, will be discouraged from buying fast food.

The main reason for the high consumption of fast food is that it is a cheap alternative to healthy meals. A salad for example often is twice as expensive as a burger, resulting in more people eating the burger than the salad. As a result, people prepare fewer meals themselves and eat more junk food instead. In my opinion, it should not be possible to sell fast food at a lower price than staple food. By making fast food more expensive than vegetables and fruit, people would change their eating habits, as they would want to save money.

Another way to reduce consumption of fast food would be to prohibit its promotion. A similar approach was taken in terms of advertising cigarettes and one can say that this approach has been successful to some extent. Additionally, commercials for fast food often target young children through offering inducements, such as the toys in the happy meal at McDonalds for example. The children are persuaded to demand a happy meal, yet often do not necessarily want to eat the food contained in it. The only thing they want is the toy. If advertising fast food were forbidden, the number of children consuming junk food would be reduced and therefore the number of obese children would decrease as well.

In conclusion, governments should put a tax on fast food to reduce the amount consumed in order to decrease the number of obese people. By placing a tax on fast food and making it more expensive than healthy raw foods, people would began to eat more healthily. If additionally the advertising of fast food were banned, the number of obese people would decrease even more drastically.

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Waleed didn’t crack under pressure and scored Band 7.5 in IELTS, here is how

Some people suffer from exam anxiety more, others less, but everyone will agree that it’s not easy to keep your cool during a test. Waleed was no different – when he started his Listening test, he felt the pressure and consequently lost concentration for a moment, but he managed to recover. He scored IELTS Band 7.5 overall, with an 8.5 in Reading, and won in our IELTS results competition. In his winner’s interview Waleed shared some great tips, so have a read and hopefully do better in your own exam!

Waleed said:

“My best advice would be to not panic at all. I have taken IELTS twice, 7 years apart, and achieved the exact same score. I believe the reason to this is the standardization of this testing service. You get exactly what you deserve. So, there is no need to be afraid of this test or panic.

I actually felt a bit under pressure and that is natural, but just don’t let it overcome your confidence. Be confident, because you are not going to learn English in one day, one week or even a month. Similarly, the prowess of English language you already possess, is not going to go away in a matter of weeks or so. Don’t go for hundreds of practice tests, it will probably not be very productive. Instead, it may be better to watch an English movie and get entertained at the same time as learning.

What I did was 4 practice tests of each module. It takes roughly one hour to get through one practice test and you should be done. I spent just 2 hours a day practicing, and 8 days were more than enough for me to do well in IELTS.

However, it is important to concentrate and put all your focus into the test when the actual test has been started. If you make a couple of mistakes, forget about them and make sure your focus is there on the next questions. It happened with me when my concentration was not there for a split second, and I lost a statement in the Listening section. I wasn’t happy with myself, I wanted to make up for it. In the Reading section which followed, I believe the reason I got a score of 8.5 was because my focus was on a level which I myself had never experienced before. The result surely reflected that.

Lastly, I would like to say, concentrate when the test in on. But while preparing, enjoy yourself, stay calm, relax, watch movies, talk and think in English and do whatever you feel like. It will all help I guess, on the test day.

Wish all of you the very best of luck.”

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IELTS Letter, topic: Inviting a friend to a music concert

Write a letter to your friend inviting him/her to a music concert. Please say:

– Where and when does the concert start?

– What type of music will be played there?

– Why do you think your friend will enjoy it?

Answer

Dear Sally,

Hope this letter finds you well. I haven’t forgotten how much you helped me, my lovely friend, when you looked after my house and my puppies while I travelled to Bali last month.

To thank you I bought two tickets to a music concert that is going to be held in the city hall next Friday. The concert will start at 8 pm. I hope you will be free by then and will be able to join me.

Different bands are going to play rock-n-roll music, your favorite kind, so I am sure we are going to have fun there.

Although I was only able to purchase two tickets for us, my friends Anna and Diana, whom you met at my last birthday party also bought tickets online. We can all go together, the more, the merrier. So, let me know if you are going to be able join us. Give my love to your family.

Looking forward to seeing you at the city hall next Friday.

Love,

Patricia

This letter includes all the required items from the task statement. There is a clear logical flow of information and the use of paragraphing is appropriate. The use of informal vocabulary is suitable for this type of letter. The writer demonstrated good control of grammar. Overall this letter seems to be worthy of IELTS Band 8.

Click here to see more IELTS letters of band 8

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IELTS essay, topic: Some people think that sport in schools is a waste of time and resources, while others believe it is a vital part of education (opinion)

This is a model response to a Writing Task 2 topic from High Scorer’s Choice IELTS Practice Tests book series (reprinted with permission). This answer is likely to score IELTS Band 9.

Set 2 Academic book, Practice Test 8

Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some people believe that having sport in schools is a waste of time and resources, whilst other people believe that sport in schools is a vital part of education.

Discuss both these views and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Answer

In most education systems around the world, physical education is one of the components of the syllabus. However, this is a controversial topic, as it has been argued that sport as a school subject is unnecessary. Opposing this is the view that physical education is a vital aspect of the education.

Physical education was introduced into schools to promote a healthy lifestyle by exposing students to different types of sport and ensuring that those who are not naturally sporty are exposed to exercise and its benefits. For students who are already very active, having a sports lesson might be unnecessary, but those who are not given the opportunities or who are not from active families depend on schools for exercise. Furthermore, a school is supposed to educate on multiple levels, a key aspect of which is healthy living. It is not sufficient to discuss exercise in class; students must experience the effects that ensue. One of these benefits is that exercise enables people to concentrate more efficiently and work more efficiently, meaning that having sport as a subject is beneficial to other subjects as well.

On the other hand, exercise to some degree is a personal matter and forcing students to exercise in class can then have the opposite effect. This feeling can lead to students not pursuing any sports later due to negative experiences and memories connected to it. Another argument is that exercise is a leisure activity and therefore not school-related and should be practiced outside of school.

In conclusion, while negative results can be caused through physical education, it is vital for students to take part in it. Some students are only exposed to a healthy lifestyle in schools and therefore there is a responsibility to educate individuals in this area.

Go here for more IELTS Band 9 Essays

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IELTS Indicator: a new IELTS test to take from the safety of your home

This is great news for anyone who hasn’t been able to book an IELTS test because testing was suspended in their country.

From 22 April you can book an IELTS Indicator test – an online test that will give you an indicative IELTS score that may be accepted by universities and educational institutions. It is important to know that not all organisations will accept this score, so check with your organisation whether they accept it before booking the test.

The purpose of IELTS indicator test is to act as a temporary replacement for an in-person IELTS test in locations where tests were suspended due to COVID-19.

IELTS Indicator can be completed at home, online. You will receive a score in all the 4 sub-tests (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking), just like in a normal IELTS test. This is an official IELTS exam which can be trusted. Your answers will be marked and evaluated by real IELTS examiners (not computer/AI).

All you need to take this test is a PC or Mac (the test doesn’t work on mobile devices), a reliable internet connection, headphones for the Listening test, and a microphone for the Speaking test.

The test is only available for the Academic module at present (there is no General Training version), and it takes place once a week. The time limits are the same as for an in-person IELTS test, it can’t be paused and continued later. Listening, Reading and Writing are taken in one sitting, and the Speaking test is taken separately. The test interface is similar to that of computer-based IELTS.

You will receive the results within a week of completing the test.

Book your test here from 22 April.

Good luck with your exam!

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IELTS Sample Reports of Band 7

Here you can find IELTS Sample Reports of Band 7, written by students and graded by an IELTS teacher.

Last updated: April 17, 2020

The topic of each report appears when you hold the mouse over the link. Every report is checked, marked, has comments and suggestions. Hold the mouse over to see suggested corrections. The teacher’s summary is at the bottom of each report.

IELTS writing – sample report 1

IELTS writing – sample report 2

IELTS writing – sample report 3

IELTS writing – sample report 4

IELTS writing – sample report 5

IELTS writing – sample report 6

IELTS writing – sample report 7

IELTS writing – sample report 8

IELTS writing – sample report 9

IELTS writing – sample report 10

IELTS writing – sample report 11

IELTS writing – sample report 12

IELTS writing – sample report 13

Note: the reports are checked by an IELTS teacher, not an IELTS examiner or examiner trainer. All the bands are approximate.

suggested corrections are in the window

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