iPass IELTS Blog

Clarie, from The Philippines, is our student of the month for May! Read More →

In Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test, you often have to describe a 'personal experience' or a 'special event' from your life which means that you will also need to describe your feelings related to that occasion.

To get a high band score in IELTS, it's about to avoid only using basic adjectives such as 'happy' or 'sad' to describe your feelings, but to try to use more idiomatic uses of English and phrasal verbs are a great way to do this!

Inês, from Portugal, is our student of the month for April! Read More →

Advertising is a recurrent theme in the IELTS speaking test. You might have to describe an advert that persuaded you to buy something in Part 2 and then have to answer questions on the impact of advertising on your daily life or compare and contrast different types of adverts in Part 3.

I always think it's quite a tricky topic, so it's a good idea to have a few natural phrases related to advertising 'up your sleeve' so that you can impress the examiner with confidence and ease.

This week, our guest blogger - Gopal Venkatraman, course manager at ieltsninja - has offered to share some less conventional ways of improving your English for better results in the IELTS test.

As teachers, we are often telling our students to use a dictionary more, practise speaking with a native speaker, watch movies or TV series in English, read more newspaper articles etc, which are all great ways to improve, but when the clock is against you, it's good to have some less time-consuming methods to reach your goal.

Here are Gopal's top 10 innovating tips and tricks!

The IELTS Listening test is quite challenging, especially for people who are not accustomed to hearing English spoken in their day-to-day environment.

However, thanks to the internet it is now possible to listen to a wide variety of authentic language exchanges to help you prepare for the different types of recordings you will hear in the test.

Start by downloading things that you're really interested in, which could be anything from TV dramas to news bulletins and then start 'tuning in' to different things such as radio interviews or specialist lectures.

Your comprehension will soon start to expand along with your range of vocabulary, which will help increase your score in the speaking and writing test too!

Here are 15 more top tips to help you prepare for the IELTS Listening test:

The main difficulty that people have with the IELTS reading test (General & Academic) is timing. Reading each text carefully and answering all 40 questions within the 60-minute time limit is not an easy task.

To get a high score (band 7+), a planned strategy and precise time-management skills are required as well as a good level of vocabulary and overall comprehension.

Some of the iPass tutors have compiled this list of 15 top exam tips to help you think about the reading techniques you will need to use to crack the IELTS reading test!

Norman, from The Philippines, is our student of the month for March! Read More →

In our 12 years of helping IELTS candidates get the band scores they need, it is nearly always the Writing test that presents the most difficulty, especially when aiming for band 7 or above.

One of the most important things to do while preparing for the IELTS writing test is to understand the marking criteria which is used by IELTS examiners. Knowing what examiners are looking for in order to award a band 6 or a band 8 is essential in helping you to produce the level of writing that is required for that band.

Our expert IELTS tutors analyse your writing skills in exactly the same way as real examiners and help to point out how you can improve to meet the criteria of the band score you need. And here they also want to share with you 15 excellent tips related to all parts of the IELTS writing test.

IELTS candidates are often most nervous about the speaking test, which is understandable. You are face-to-face with the person who is assessing you, someone you have never met before, and you have no idea what topic they are going to choose to ask you questions about.

But if you can train yourself to forget that you are being examined and try to approach the test in a more positive way by seeing it as an opportunity to demonstrate how good your spoken English is and how comfortable you are chatting in English, it can be a positive experience and you might even enjoy it!

If you've got your IELTS speaking test coming up, check out our 15 top tips which will help you to stay calm and get through the test with confidence!