Simone Braverman's Blog: IELTS-Blog.com, page 127

IELTS Report, topic: Bar graphs describing unemployment rates and average earnings by level of education

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graphs below show unemployment rates and average earnings according to level of education.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Unemployment and Average Earnings by Educational Level 2016

Answer

Two bar graphs describe the data from 2016 regarding the percentage of unemployed and average weekly income by different levels of education.

The first graph shows unemployment rates in 2016 in four different groups. Looking at people who only completed high school we can see that 5.5% were out of work. It is evident that the percentage of unemployed gradually decreased as the level of education rose. The proportion of unemployed was the lowest among those with a graduate degree, at only 1.2%

The second chart is showing the relationship between education level and weekly earnings. Those with only high school diplomas earned the least amount of money per week ($600). People who studied at college for some time earned a slightly higher amount of $675 per week, but college or graduate degrees owners overtook them by earning $1,100 and $1,500 a week, respectively.

All in all, it can be seen that people with higher level of education are more likely to have a job and higher income.

Click here to see more IELTS reports of band 7

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IELTS Sample Letters of Band 8

Here you can find IELTS Sample Letters of Band 8, written by students and graded by an IELTS teacher.

Last updated: April 16, 2020

The topic of each letter appears when you hold the mouse over the link. Every letter 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 letter.

IELTS writing – sample letter 1

IELTS writing – sample letter 2

IELTS writing – sample letter 3

IELTS writing – sample letter 4

IELTS writing – sample letter 5

IELTS writing – sample letter 6

IELTS writing – sample letter 7

IELTS writing – sample letter 8

IELTS writing – sample letter 9

IELTS writing – sample letter 10

IELTS writing – sample letter 11

IELTS writing – sample letter 12

IELTS writing – sample letter 13

IELTS writing – sample letter 14

IELTS writing – sample letter 15

IELTS writing – sample letter 16

IELTS writing – sample letter 17

IELTS writing – sample letter 18

IELTS writing – sample letter 19

IELTS writing – sample letter 20

IELTS writing – sample letter 21

IELTS writing – sample letter 22

Note: the letters 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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IELTS Letter, topic: Resigning from a part time job

You have just finished your master’s degree and need to leave your current part-time job to search for full-time employment.

Write a letter to your current employer. In your letter:

– explain why you will not be able to pursue a full-time job in his/her company

– say why you’ve enjoyed working for him/her

– tell him/her how much longer you will continue to work for him/her.

Answer

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to inform you of my resignation in order to seek a full-time position at another company.

I will be unable to continue to work at your company as I have decided to pursue a career in Marketing. Being an international student, I was working here to support myself and fund my education. However, now that I finished my master’s degree in Marketing, I would like to start working in my profession.

I greatly enjoyed my time working as a retail associate in your company. Not only did I have an opportunity to meet new people, but also it helped me polish my English speaking and listening skills.

I can continue working here for the next 2 weeks. After that, I would like to dedicate all of my time to the application process for the companies I would like to work at.

I hope that I was a valuable employee to you, and would appreciate a reference letter from you to my future employer.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Rowena Marti

This letter covers all the bullet points from the task statement. The information is organised in a logical way and cohesive devices are used appropriately. The range of vocabulary is adequate for the purpose of this letter. Sentence structures are varied and the grammar is well controlled. 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 March 2020

At times like this good news is especially important, and today we would like to congratulate 4 people and hopefully inspire many more!

As you would have guessed, we are about to announce the lucky owners of highest IELTS results in March. Let’s give a round of applause to…

Academic Module – 1st place

Po-Jen Hsieh from Taiwan, Band 8
Amir Mostashari from Iran, Band 8

Academic Module – 2nd place

Aneesh Elamthuruthy Joshy from India, Band 7.5

General Training Module – 1st place

Rency K George from India, Band 7.5

Congratulations on your wonderful IELTS scores! To make this a day to remember we are sending your certificates of achievement 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?

What we know so far is that Po-Jen Hsieh (IELTS Band 8) used our book ‘Target Band 7’ to prepare for the exam, and he also took our interactive Speaking test. Also, Aneesh and Rency (Band 7.5) used our writing correction service.

But we really hope to get some tips from the winners; we would love to hear how they prepared and studied, and what helped them achieve success in IELTS. Anything they wish to share will be posted on IELTS-Blog without delay, so everyone can use the same technique and get a better score in their own exam.

Remember, even if IELTS exams in your country may be suspended for now, soon they will resume testing and you want to be in a great shape to take IELTS as soon as possible. Now, while you’ve got time to study at home, it is more important than ever to do your best, 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 Band 9 essay, topic: Some schools insist that students have laptops in class (advantages / disadvantages)

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 7

Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some of today’s schools insist that all students have their own laptop computer in class to assist in their education.

Do you feel that this would be an advantage to students’ education or would it be an unnecessary complication?

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

You should write at least 250 words.

Answer

Several schools around the world insist that all students should bring their own private laptop to class to assist in their education. Technology has become a significant component of educating children and is considered beneficial in many ways. Nonetheless, there are likewise many disadvantages to using private technological equipment in classrooms.

Bringing a private laptop to class offers a variety of benefits for students. Firstly, laptops can be used to take notes in classes where teachers sometimes speak at a high speed. Many children find that they can type faster than they can write by hand and therefore prefer typing their notes in class so as to not miss any important information. Teachers could furthermore make use of learning programs and websites during class, as students would have the possibility of using these websites on their private laptops. Moreover, students can use periods meant for working on assignments effectively, because they can work on their assignments digitally right away and not have to type up handmade notes later on. Information can additionally be distributed more easily to students, as for example hand-outs can simply be emailed or shared electronically and do not have to be printed.

Although bringing private laptops to class offers these various advantages, it also creates several disadvantages. Laptops firstly are fairly expensive, meaning that families with more than one child will have to spend a large amount of money to purchase laptops for all their children. Furthermore, laptops can easily be damaged during class and outside of class as well as stolen, which could create future costs for families. During class laptops can also distract students, because they can surf the Internet or look at non-class-related work during class periods. The amount of time students are exposed to technological equipment is also increased by incorporating laptops into classrooms, which can result in several health-related problems.

In conclusion, bringing a private laptop to class involves several advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, I personally believe that if used wisely, a laptop is an extremely useful tool in lessons and therefore I would support this initiative.

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Indian doctor reveals how she boosted her IELTS score to Band 8

Today we would like to share with you the success story of Dr. Ishita Dhada who improved her IELTS score to Band 8 overall, with a perfect 9 in Listening. You may remember Dr. Dhada’s name as a winner of our monthly IELTS results competition in February. When she wrote and asked to be included in the competition, her email got our entire team smiling with satisfaction:

“I am happy to share that this time I have received the required score. I have got an overall 8.0 band score ( L-9, R-8, W-7, S-7 ).

I am really grateful to you for all your help. The test papers that you have designed always kept me a step ahead to face IELTS with more confidence. Moreover, I must say that IELTS-Blog.com has also played a profound role in terms of providing me with the latest writing and speaking questions to go through.”

But Dr. Dhada is so much more than a high achiever – she is also a very kind and compassionate person, who wants others to benefit from her experience. In her winner’s interview she shared the following advice – we are convinced that some of it can be applied to anyone’s IELTS preparation, just go ahead and give it a try.

Dr. Dhada said:

“It was my third IELTS attempt and finally I received an overall 8.0 band score (L-9, R-8, W-7, S-7) which was much awaited. After appearing for IELTS multiple times,I would like to share some important takeaways from my experience.

Writing

After repetitively getting 6.5 in writing, it had become a pain in neck for me to conquer IELTS.

Writing is all about sticking to word limits and not going far beyond it. Ultimately, it helps us to make fewer mistakes. Minimizing the number of errors is the key to increase the writing score.

Another important point is to do planning before attempting any writing task. There is a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln, “If I had 6 hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 4 hours sharpening the axe.” Initially, I wasn’t convinced I should spend the initial 3-5 min planning. But, slowly and gradually when I started practicing it, and it turned out to be a game changer for me. Planning helps you keep the flow of ideas clear in each paragraph you are writing. For example, jot down points like Body Paragraph 1 – Idea and Example, and similarly for the rest of the body paragraphs.

Use variety of words. That doesn’t mean using complex vocabulary. Using different synonyms for a word can turn a score in our favor.

Lastly, rechecking at the end of writing is not optional, you must do it. Spending the last 5 minutes proofreading can give you an extra 0.5 Band Score.

Listening

For listening I would say, the more we practice the more we become familiar with the pattern. Gradually, it becomes a cake walk to stay tuned to the recording and identify the answers because most of the time I felt that “the tone gives it away”.

Reading

Again for reading, practice is the key. However, here we can apply some strategies to nail it in a much smarter way.

Firstly, each question has a specific keyword to look for in the paragraph. After locating the keyword, it becomes easier to find the correct answer.

Moreover, among all the different types of questions in reading, only in one or two types, answers don’t come in sequence. So, for the rest of the types, answers always follow the order of the text.

Speaking

My English is very basic as I don’t apply it much in my day-to-day life. However, daily recordings of 2-3 speaking sessions helped me to become comfortable with the language and present myself confidently in front of the examiner, not only by answering questions in a much structured way but also by using proper hand gestures and facial expressions.

Moreover, I would like to thank IELTS-blog.com for providing latest speaking and writing questions to enhance my preparations. Practice papers in the books by Simone Braverman were excellent to boost my confidence.

To conclude on a positive note, I would like to say, give it your best shot and you will get the desired score. Never give up as it is rightly said, “Fortune comes to the brave”.

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IELTS essay, topic: Some people think that it is fine for professional athletes to misbehave on or off the field, as long as they are playing well (opinion)

Some people think that it is fine for professional sportsmen and sportswomen to misbehave on or off the field, as long as they are playing well.

Do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Sample Essay

Although most professional athletes are aware of their position as role models for their fans and behave accordingly, there are sportsmen and sportswomen who behave poorly during matches and in their private life. While some people find it acceptable as long as their performance on the field is not impacted, not everyone agrees with that point of view.

Those who put athletes’ performance on the field above everything else point out that competitive environment and immense pressure the sports people are under affect their behavior. They argue that athletes are entitled to privacy and their actions before and after games should not concern the general public. I find this hard to agree with, because poor behavior in sports people is incompatible with their role in public’s life and also for the reason that their actions could negatively affect their entire sports industry.

The main reason why I believe athletes should behave well at all times is that their behavior is tremendously influential. Spectators respect players and many copy their actions and behavior; therefore, if top players misbehave or violate laws, some of the fans may feel compelled to follow their example and behave badly. For example, after an acclaimed baseball player was caught using drugs some years ago, the number of people who were arrested for the same crime significantly increased. This shows quite clearly why high profile players should consider their actions very carefully in order to promote a peaceful society.

In addition, the behavior of athletes might affect the popularity of their sports. Some companies sponsor successful athletes who boost their brand recognition and sales of their products. Players and sports industry executives are financially compensated for endorsing products and participating in commercial advertisements. If they demonstrate poor behavior, sponsors could direct their money elsewhere, and as a result sports matches could suffer due to lack of funds. To illustrate, Sumo, a traditional Japanese sport, is held every season thanks to resources donated by companies. In a year when a Sumo player was involved in a violent crime, no matches were held, resulting in a large deficit of funds.

In conclusion, I completely disagree with the opinion that top athletes are permitted to behave badly because their behavior may negatively influence the public behavior and sports industry itself.

Assessor’s comment: This response addresses both sides of the argument by exploring the reasons why some people think athletes are allowed to behave poorly as long as they play well, and the reasons why others think poor behavior has no excuse. This response deserves a high score for task achievement because of that. A good range of cohesive devices is used in this essay; that and the organisation of ideas makes it easy to follow. Sentence structures are varied and the vocabulary is quite rich, the author also showed good control of grammar and spelling. It is worth noting that this sample is longer than the recommended 260 – 285 words, however, this isn’t an issue provided the author can complete an essay of this length and quality in under 40 minutes. Overall this is a good example of a Band 8 essay.

Click here to see more IELTS essays of Band 8

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How to focus on IELTS when your mind is somewhere else

It’s an unsettling time and even the happiest and most positive people among us can’t help but feel down occasionally – especially after reading the news.

Those of you who spent some time on IELTS-Blog.com know that I often recommend reading the news online or reading newspaper articles to improve your English.

I’m afraid I have to change that advice now. In fact, I take it back!

1. Stop constantly reading the news.

Now your top priority is to keep calm and stay positive. To do that you need to limit your exposure to the news. I believe you already have the words “Coronavirus” and “COVID-19” in your vocabulary, and at the moment there isn’t much content out there about other things. Most people who panic do so because they see and hear others panic – stay away from that mood, stay withdrawn, unplug your mind from the news. You can’t control the virus, but you CAN control how you feel and react to the situation. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. I’m sure you are already protecting your physical health – so it’s time that you start taking better care of your mental health.

So, from today, promise yourself to read the news no more than once a day – allow your thoughts to spend time away from the hysteria, to recover. That includes news in your first language, too!

2. Instead of consuming, create.

Reading the news is so easy, because it’s on your phone, it’s on your laptop, it’s just so accessible. When you read the news, you passively consume content that upsets you. We need to change that, to make you active and doing things that are GOOD for you. So, whatever device you are using, put IELTS materials there, and make it your ‘go-to activity’ on that device.

Instead of reading the news, read an IELTS Reading passage and answer its questions.
Instead of Googling stories about Coronavirus online, research ideas for an IELTS essay and then write that essay.
Instead of watching a news video online, do a Listening test – that’s at least half an hour spent not thinking about the virus.

Now THAT is what I call advancing your IELTS preparation and wellbeing at the same time!

IELTS content is great for taking your mind off everyday life, because its range of topics is very wide. You get to learn interesting facts from the world of physics, chemistry, psychology, marketing, law and more that you wouldn’t discover otherwise.

3. Take a break from reality.

Some people escape stress by reading a book, others like to watch a movie, whichever works for you – do it, just make sure the book or the movie is in English. Reading a book in English will help you learn new sentence structures, linking words, vocabulary, spelling, increase your reading speed, all at the same time as transporting you into another reality. Watching a movie can improve your Listening skills, Pronunciation, Speaking in general, you can learn some new idioms and expressions, and of course it’s a really fun way to spend an hour!

4. Remember your goal.

To keep your sanity and motivation, keep your eyes on the prize – the reason WHY you are taking IELTS. Because even if you don’t feel this way now, as soon as the situation is contained in your country (and hopefully in the world too), that goal will become even more important to you. Look at Hong Kong, for example – the IELTS exams were suspended there at first, but resumed as soon as the virus was contained. Other countries will follow the same pattern, and you want to be ready.

Remember that you are strong, and you will overcome this hardship. Then start proving it to yourself by preparing to ace your IELTS test!

5. Visualise your success.

You probably heard this one before, that visualising things helps you achieve them. But what does it actually mean ‘to visualise’? Surprisingly, not many people know. It means imagining things in detail, in a POSITIVE way. If you want to take IELTS and pass, don’t imagine going to the test centre, sitting down to do the Listening test and missing half the answers. Don’t imagine yourself failing. Imagine how you calmly sit down, put your headphones on, concentrate and tune out all the distractions, and how one by one you hear the answers and write them down in their spaces. You are focused and confident, you know what you’re doing. This is visualising and it prepares you for success.

Stay healthy and spread positivity around you.

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COVID-19 update: IELTS-Blog.com is here to support you, no matter what.

Hello everyone,

Simone here, and this is a quick update to let you know some great news (yes, I know that’s rare to hear these days!):

1. At IELTS-Blog.com we are operating as usual. Our global team works remotely from home, and COVID-19 did not affect our ability to support your exam preparation.

This means we continue to provide support for all our books and practice tests, the writing correction service is running as usual, the interactive speaking assessments are happening, online courses are working fine, and we are replying to any emails or comments we receive within 12 to 24 hours. We are taking good care of our health and wellbeing, so that we can continue helping you prepare for IELTS.

More good news: our online courses’ duration has been doubled, so it’s 90 days for a Speed course, and 180 days for a Master course. We also doubled the money back guarantee period for our books and materials to 120 days.

2. Exam updates that we send out will still be arriving in your Inbox, if you are subscribed (and if you’re not, it’s free – so you should definitely take advantage of that and sign up).

We are asking our Gmail subscribers to check their Spam folder, and if our emails accidentally land there, mark them as Not Spam. We respect your inbox space, and never abuse your trust.

3. Essay samples, speaking videos and other helpful materials will be posted on our website as usual.

4. IELTS results competitions will still be held every month, because in the majority of countries people can still take IELTS exams normally. You can check this page to see whether IELTS exams were suspended in your country and the date when testing restarts.

5. Tips and advice from IELTS high scorers will still be posted on the blog as soon as possible.

I wish you all good health, keep studying, and stay positive!

Remember that we’re all in this together, and everyone at IELTS-Blog.com is 100% committed to helping you prepare for your exams.

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IELTS and COVID-19: global update, info and advice

Nearly everyone in the world is affected by Novel Coronavirus in some way, and we know that many IELTS test takers have questions related to this situation. At the time of writing this IELTS exams are being held normally in most countries, with minimal changes if any.

There are some precautions that IELTS test centres are taking, in particular they are asking people not to attend their test if they have been in contact with anyone suspected to be exposed to COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus), or if they have cough, fever or shortness of breath. People who can’t attend their test because of COVID-19 concerns are asked to call their IELTS test centre to discuss their options of rescheduling for a later date or refunds.

As the majority of IELTS exams are going ahead, if you feel like protecting yourself by wearing a face mask to your exam, you can! The IELTS test centre staff may ask you to remove it for a short time while you are being identified / photographed, but other than that you’re allowed to wear a face mask the entire time of your exam.

In the countries where IELTS testing was temporarily put on hold for the next 2 weeks, the good news is that as soon as the testing is restarted, there will be more dates available and larger venues will be used, to accommodate more test takers. For example, in China the paper-based IELTS capacity will be doubled, and computer-delivered IELTS will be offered 3 times a day, 7 days a week.

All in all, the overall message from IELTS organisation seems to be – if your IELTS plans are affected by the Coronavirus, speak to your test centre and they will do their best to help you.

Is now the time to stop preparing for IELTS? Definitely NOT.

4 Reasons to ramp up your IELTS preparation in the face of Coronavirus:

1. If IELTS testing in your country is running normally, you should take your test while you can. We cannot control decisions made on government level, so let’s make the most of this period of normalcy.

2. If your workplace asked you to work from home, it means you save time commuting! Using that extra half an hour a day to write an essay, do a Listening or a Reading test or practice in answering Speaking questions will give you some noticeable progress. If the event you wanted to go to was cancelled, again – here’s some more time to work on your IELTS skills.

3. Even if testing is temporarily on hold in your country, that time is NOT lost if you use it to prepare for IELTS. Plus it gives you something to do and takes your mind off other things, helping you occupy yourself during the period you have to stay indoors. IELTS preparation is a very immersive activity that makes time fly!

4. Putting your IELTS preparation on hold because of Coronavirus uncertainty is a mistake, because when you stop, you don’t just stop – you actually go backwards as time passes, your level drops and it becomes harder to get it back. Scientists all over the world are working to get COVID-19 under control soon, and when that happens, you want to be READY, not behind!

Take good care of yourself and your family, and think positive thoughts.

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