A river I visited

This is a Section 4 Listening. I chose this Listening in order to show you why hyphens are NOT important in Listening gap-fill summaries. There are 3 main types of words in gapfill summaries: 1) Words ending with a suffix like '-tion' or '-sion' 2) Commodities or materials like wool, gold, tea or sugar. 3) Irregular words like plurals ending in y/ies or irregular word forms like poor/poverty. Get the full article about hyphens on my blog: https://ieltsetc.com/2021/06/how-to-use-hyphens-in-ielts/ Learn more about Irregular Word Forms on my blog: https://ieltsetc.com/2020/06/word-formation/ Learn more about the types of Listening gapfill AND the Pronunciation errors that affect your listening in the Members Academy: www.members.ieltsetc.com/academy/

25 Kesä 202127min

I had a special request for this Academic Passage 3 because it's difficult, but honestly, it's a very early test (Book 7) and is just badly-written. I think the reading itself is very useful as an example of academic writing, with lots you can learn from it, but the questions are simply not good - you can guess 3 of them without even needing to understand what they mean (a sure sign of a bad test), and there is too much similar language (very few synonyms required). If you struggled with this one - forget it and move on (but listen for practice 😊.) Learning points: Hedging - listen to an earlier podcast about hedging: https://anchor.fm/ieltsetc/episodes/IELTS-Writing-How-to-hedge-in-Task-2-eo21n7/a-a465qt4 and read the blog: https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/hedging-in-academic-writing/

7 Kesä 202129min

When you get IELTS Writing feedback from your teacher, you should be able to see why you are not achieving your desired score. But this feedback is only useful if you understand exactly what the teacher is talking about when they are pointing out areas you need to work on. Writing Feedback about LANGUAGE is usually easy to understand – most people know the language related to grammar (e.g. wrong tense, article missing, third person -s), spelling and punctuation. But Writing feedback related to CONTENT and academic STYLE is more difficult, especially if you are not familiar with the demands of academic writing. You need to have a good understanding of the terms that the teacher is using so that you can make the necessary changes. Here is a ‘glossary of terms’ that I use regularly in my IELTS Writing Feedback Sessions in the Members Academy. https://ieltsetc.com/2021/05/ielts-writing-feedback-40-words/ See also How to make your writing more formal for Task 2: https://ieltsetc.com/2020/11/ielts-formal-writing/ IELTS Task 2 Structures that strengthen your argument: https://ieltsetc.com/2018/06/structure-strengthens-argument/ How to use 'hedging' in IELTS Writing Task 2 https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/hedging-in-academic-writing/ #ielts #ieltswriting #ieltsfiona

16 Touko 202129min

This is an Academic Part 1 text. The text and subject matter is difficult but the questions (YNNG) are NOT. In fact, in this episode I will show you how you can mostly guess the answers without reading or understanding very much of the text. Get more help with Yes, No, Not Given questions on my website. If you'd like to contribute to the upkeep of my website and podcast, you can buy me a coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam Many thanks Fiona

3 Touko 202125min

Cambridge Book 15 Test 1 Passage 3

11 Huhti 202131min

This is a really useful Part 2 IELTS Listening (Book 15) about a community that closed their road to traffic so that the children could play safely outside. It practises Multiple Choice and Choosing from a list. Useful vocab: 'the idea caught on' = the idea became very popular in other places 'give it a go' = try it Useful grammar: Present Perfect vs Past Simple 'The scheme's been up and running for 3 years' = 'The Street Paly Scheme first took place 3 years ago'. 'Be able to' with conditionals 'We'd love to be able to close our road for longer'. Conditionals 'People can use their cars as long as they drive at under 20kph'. 'They're happy to see children outside - even if it does get quite noisy'. 'Kids are getting fresh air, even if they're not doing anything energetic'. Past Perfect As we'd predicted, air quality was better, but what I hadn't expected was how much quieter it would be. Academic Task 1 Vocabulary 'Sales in the shops went up considerably'. Writing Task 2: talking about benefits/outcomes develop confidence get fresh air get to know people in the street air quality was significantly better/less air pollution much quieter/less noise pollution they felt safer/improved safety #ielts #ieltslistening #ielttutor

29 Maalis 202127min

This is a nice and easy Academic Reading Part 1 (great for GT too). It goes in chronological order, so it's easy to find information from dates, names and places, and there are 2 sets of questions (TFNG and gapfill). If you're aiming for 7 and you can get 10/13 correct in less than 20 minutes, you're doing very well. Check your band score here: https://ieltsetc.com/ielts-band-score-calculator/ Get the conditionals review here: https://ieltsetc.com/2021/02/conditionals-review/ Learn about 'willing to' vs 'want to' here: https://ieltsetc.com/2021/02/willing/ Join the Conditional Bootcamp here: www.members.ieltsetc.com/academy/ ☕Buy me a coffee to say thanks here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam

14 Helmi 202122min

Today's Listening is a 6/10 for difficulty. It's a Part 3 Listening with multiple choice and matching from a list. Useful vocabulary and synonyms: surprising = amazing got cut off = became isolated exact = precise contact = get in touch with make detailed notes = write down all the ideas check timing = make sure we won't overrun add personal opinions = give your own viewpoint Join the Conditionals Bootcamp here. https://members.ieltsetc.com/conditionals/ Get the Signals and Signposts lesson here. https://ieltsetc.com/2019/09/ielts-listening-how-to-recognise-signals-and-signposts/ Buy me a coffee to say thanks here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam

1 Helmi 202126min