There are lots of sample IELTS presentations on YouTube, but watching these might not help you get better at giving your own presentation.
First – make sure you are familiar with the criteria that you will be marked on in the IELTS speaking exam. There are some excellent videos from the British Council here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H-WeY9GSf8
Read the sample IELTS presentation and work through task.
1. There aren’t any grammar mistakes in here, so the speaker will score well on grammatical accuracy.
Use the prompts on the second sheet to practise giving presentations. Record yourself on your phone and listen back to them – I know it sounds crazy! – but this will really help you understand the areas you need to develop! Best of luck
Buy yourself a good book for IELTS. It's not a waste of money if it will help you with your exam. If you get a good quality study aid you can always sell it when you have finished with it.
Here's my list of the five best.
1. IELTS Trainer This book leads you through six practice IELTS exams step by step.
Brilliant step by step guide
Answers clearly explained
Quite difficult BUT the IELTS exam is DIFFICULT
Expensive... but worth it!
2. The IELTS series (1-10)
These books are full of exams and answers
They don’t explain HOW or WHY in the answers
A good way to start studying for IELTS exams
Some nice samples of student writing at the back of each book.
3. Cambridge Official IELTS exams The OFFICIAL guide to IELTS
Step by step instructions on each part of the exam
Lots of material and activities to do
Great listening sections
Quite DIFFICULT but that's GOOD
4. Official IELTS practice materials Great practice exams here from Cambridge
IELTS exams that are on A4 paper!
Authentic practise papers
Not much help with technique here BUT a great place to start your IELTS studies
5. Teach yourself IELTS reading – Richard L King The first book in the series explains how students can build up reading techniques. It has two sample IELTS reading exams at the back.
Simple and valuable techniques to develop reading.
Clear explanations.
Easy to follow
Great value for money!
Know any more good books for IELTS. We’d love to hear from you!
Here’s a great list of academic antonyms to help you with your IELTS speaking and writing. Lists are great, but how can you use them? Do you learn them? Do you just read them? What do you do? Read the advice below.
Read through this list and circle 10-15 antonym pairs that you don’t know and learn them. Test yourself on them.
Read through the list. Choose ten hard pairs you don’t know, print them off and stick them on your wall / toilet wall / fridge door – anywhere you will look, often
Play pelmanism. Choose ten you think are useful. Write them on small pieces of paper. Put them face down on a table. Now turn each one over and try to match the pairs.
If only I had more time…I could do better if I had more time. I need more time.
Slow down! There are no short cuts!
Academic reading tests are hard because they don’t give you much time.
You need to be able to read faster!
Here are three simple tips that will help you read more quickly.
1. Change your way of thinking.
If you want to succeed you will have to ENJOY READING.
Read something you like – do you like football? Aeroplanes? Video Games? History? What? FIND SOMETHING YOU LIKE TO READ!
2. You will only get better at reading if you READ!
Read 1 article a day for 15 minutes. Try this for a month. No excuses! You can find good, free things to read here.
Quora Quora www.quora.com – hundreds of interesting questions answered. Quora is a great website for reading things
you are interested in, and if you can, answer some of the questions!
Newspapers – all over the internet and FREE Guardian weekly – awesome free newspaper from the UK with articles on anything you are interested in. The Telegraph – another great broadsheet from the UK. The economist – for highbrow articles that mirror what you’ll find on your IELTS exam Online journals – Get to Cambridge Core and search for the subjects you are interested in – you might also learn something about your specialist field.
3. Learn to skim and scan
Reading techniques help you find information quickly. Download our worksheet here.
For more help with academic reading. Check out Richard L King’s book Teach Yourself IELTS reading.
It’s impossible to listen to your own voice when you are speaking. So, why not use your mobile phone to record yourself speaking in English? Here is a sample task for you to improve your pronunciation. You’ll need something that will record your voice. Use the ‘audio recorder’ on your mobile phone. Read the text below three or four times. Then, read it again and record yourself on your mobile phone.
“Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity Kitai. Do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice. We are all telling ourselves a story and that day mine changed.”
Now listen to it again. Are you happy with your pronunciation? What things did you say wrong? Could you have said any of the words better?
Now listen to the same speech by Will Smith here from the 2013 film 'After Earth'.
Compare your pronunciation with the ‘correct’ version. REMEMBER
You DON’T HAVE TO sound EXACTLY THE SAME as the recording!
There are many different accents and sounds in English and they are all ‘correct’.
Try this again with any other speech in English that you like!
Please let me know if there are any other speeches from films that you'd enjoy doing! Post a comment!
