Tuesday 9 December 2014

IH London has a brand new Blog

In April 2014 we refreshed, revived and moved our Blog to a new platform with a new url. You can find it by following this link: http://www.ihlondon.com/blog/



The new blog is written by teachers, trainers, students and staff from all the departments within our school.

You'll find posts on classroom advice and lesson planning, exam preparation and study techniques, preparing for CELTA and life after CELTA and much much more.

You can also keep up-to-date with everything happening in the school and language learning and teaching generally on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.

Thursday 10 April 2014

How to improve your IELTS Writing score


Martin Oetegenn teaches on IH London’s IELTS Preparation course, below he offers expert advice to help IELTS candidates get the score they need.

Students often tell me that they have no time to plan for the IELTS writing task 2, but planning can seriously improve your score. 

The ideas in your writing and how you organise them can have a significant impact on your final score.

If you’re not sure how to do it, here are some tips.

Sample IELTS Writing question

Read the question below and write down any ideas you have. Try not to spend more than 5 minutes. 

Some people believe that unpaid community service should be a compulsory part of high school programmes (for example working for a charity, improving the neighbourhood or teaching sports to younger children).
To what extent do you agree or disagree

Planning your answer 


Now look at the two plans below. Which one do you think is better?

 



You choose b) right? Here’s why b) is better… 


Although plan a) has some good ideas, they are not organised into paragraphs and there are no examples. This means the writer will have to stop and think a lot when they write.

They won’t have much time to focus on their vocabulary and grammar or to check their writing for mistakes – this is so important if you want a good score. 

Plan b) is divided into 3 main ideas. Each idea can be used as the main focus of a paragraph, which is a good way to organise your ideas. 

Because there are at least 3 examples for each paragraph it should be easy to write 250 words. 

So next time you write, make sure you spend at least 5 minutes on your plan – It really makes a difference!

More IELTS preparation guides

We have more tips and advice to help you get the IELTS score you need:


IELTS at International House London


IH London is the largest IELTS test centre in the UK, with tests taking place three Saturdays each month throughout the year.

Our language school also offers IELTS preparation courses to help candidates reach the IELTS band they need.