IELTS guides

Free, practical IELTS guides: Speaking Parts 1 to 3, Writing Tasks 1 and 2, True/False/Not Given, Matching Headings, Listening, scoring and a study plan.

• IELTS Speaking Test Format: Parts 1, 2 and 3 Explained: What happens in each of the three parts, how long it lasts and what the examiner is listening for.
• IELTS Speaking Part 2: How to Answer the Cue Card: A simple plan for the one-minute preparation and the two-minute talk, with a worked example.
• IELTS Writing Task 2: An Essay Structure That Works for Band 7: Paragraph-by-paragraph structure, a 40-minute plan and a model essay with notes.
• IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: How to Write an Overview: Find the key features of a chart, write the overview in two sentences and group the details.
• IELTS General Training Writing Task 1: Letter Writing Guide: Tone, openings and endings, a model formal letter and the mistakes that cost marks.
• IELTS on Computer vs Paper: What Is Different and How to Prepare: The content and scoring are the same; the experience is not. What to practise before a computer test.
• How IELTS Writing and Speaking Are Scored: The Four Criteria Explained: The four criteria for Writing and for Speaking, and how the overall band is calculated.
• IELTS Listening: 12 Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them: Twelve avoidable mistakes, from word limits to plurals, each with a fix.
• IELTS Reading: True, False, Not Given Explained: A clear way to tell False from Not Given, with a worked example and the traps to watch for.
• A 30-Day IELTS Study Plan with Practice Tests: Four weeks, about 90 minutes a day: diagnose, improve, practise under exam conditions, review.
• Can AI Mark IELTS Writing and Speaking? How Accurate Is It?: An honest look at AI marking: how it works, its limits and how to get real value from it.
• IELTS Speaking Part 1: Common Topics with Sample Answers: The usual topics, an Answer-Reason-Example formula and four sample answers with comments.
• IELTS Speaking Part 3: How to Give Longer, Better Answers: Question types, a four-step method (position, reason, example, balance) and a language bank.
• IELTS Task 1 Line Graphs and Bar Charts: How to Describe the Data: How to choose, group and compare data, with trend vocabulary, tenses and common mistakes.
• IELTS Task 1 Process Diagrams and Maps: A Clear Method: Structure, language and tenses for process diagrams and maps, with model sentences.
• IELTS Reading Matching Headings: A Step-by-Step Method: A six-step method, a worked example and the traps that cost marks.
• Linking Words for IELTS Writing: What to Use and What to Avoid: Linkers by purpose, cohesion without linkers, punctuation rules and the clichés to drop.