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Showing posts from February, 2018

IELTS General Writing Task 1 Sample Band 8 (Helping the community)

Sample: Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing this letter as a response to the post I have read in your newspaper about awarding an exceptional individual who has given a great deal of help and support to our community. With this in mind, I believe I know a person who deserves to be recognized for her work. I am talking about none other than Ms. Natalia River, the Guidance Counselor of Brookside High School. As a Guidance Counselor to the youth in our community, I strongly think she has been doing her best to be the role model for not only the youngsters in our community but also the adults. Recently, she has launched an outreach program for our out-of-school youth. This program aims for these individuals to learn a technical skill for free. One of the offered courses here is web designing. These students, after finishing the course, would be able to utilize this newly-learned skill to be able to apply to companies in need of this technical comput

IELTS General Writing Task 2 Band 8 Sample (Access to information on the internet)

Write about the following topic. The internet has greatly increased our access to information. To what extent do you think this is a good thing? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.  You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Sample: The world has never been more informed because of the internet. The ability to access almost all kinds of information has become easier and faster. However, I do believe that there are also consequences and all good things come at a price. In this essay, I will be enumerating some of the negative effects we have to consider. People from different ages use the internet for the purpose of research and learning. Free tutorials of every kind of skill can be found and studied via the internet. This allows individuals who find it hard to enroll in an institution, due to different consequences, study and improve a skill they have been wanting to develop at the comforts of their hom

IELTS General Writing Task 1 Band 7 Sample

Sample: Dear James, Thank you for looking after my house while I'm away. I can't tell you how happy I was when you said you'll do it. Anyway, I have left the house key under the rug of the rocking chair on the porch. Please be careful not to misplace this because I have no spare. The plants need not be watered too often so you don't have to worry about that. For my cat, Lucy, she must be fed at least twice a day. Her food is stored under the sink and her bowl is just under the table in the kitchen. She enjoys the company of other people so I think you don't have to be afraid of her unless you have allergies. As for the mail, leave them beside the telephone in the living room. If there are emergencies of some sort, don't hesitate to contact me thru email. I really can't thank you enough for doing me this huge favor. See you after 2 weeks. Word Count: 168

IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 Band 6.5 Sample Essay (Computers)

Sample: It has been mentioned by a number of people that computers by far, are the most essential and useful tool that was invented in the last century. This essay will focus on my complete agreement to this statement as well as some supporting examples. A world without computers is highly unimaginable. We know all too well that almost all people in the world, from different walks of life, use a computer for purposes like studying, entertainment and work. By using such device, individuals can juggle their tasks and time more effectively and productively. Students can try and get information faster on the internet than browsing each and every book they can get their hands on in a library. Plus, through the use of computers and the internet, distance learning has become one way for us to learn new things on our own time and convenience. This is especially helpful for those students and workers who both work and study at the same time. With this new platform, it is truly appropri

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 Band 6.5 Sample (Forested land)

Sample essay: The visual data presents the forested areas of six regions around the world in millions of hectares from 1990 to 2005. Overall, it can be seen that most of the woodlands have decreased in the area size and that Europe and Oceania have the widest and smallest measurement. To explain in detail, Africa, Oceania, and South America's forests have seen a noticeable decline in the total number of the area covered with trees in 2005. Surprisingly, an opposite trend can be noted in Asia and Europe. In the past years, these countries have seen a gradual increase in the size of their forests from 576 to 584 (in millions of hectares) in Asia and 989 to 1001 in Europe. It should also be mentioned that one area, North America, despite a reduction of 3 million hectares from 1990 to 2000, maintained its forested area size to 705 million hectares in 2005, respectively. Word Count: 152

How to use multimedia (videos) in teaching IELTS Listening

When studying a language, we often have a lot of practices to improve our writing and speaking skills. However, for listening, it is often overlooked and sometimes, ignored. Unfortunately, most people do not realize that Listening is the most crucial skill to develop. Without this skill, a student will not be able to comprehend well, and definitely, won't be able to identify sounds which is important when practicing pronunciation. In my years as an English as a Second language teacher, I find it hard to teach this skill mostly because there are no shortcuts for this. The key is practice. One of my challenges is to teach this skill in as much fun as possible for students of varying age range and English levels. One effective technique for me is VIDEO WATCHING . The effectivity of any activity depends on the teacher's preparation.  To do this, I often look for a video online (TED videos are the most common) that is in line with my student's interest. First, I inform m