雅思考官simon给烤鸭的建议advice for ieltsWord格式.docx

雅思考官simon给烤鸭的建议advice for ieltsWord格式.docx

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Saturday,October05,2013

IELTSAdvice:

wordsthatIwouldban

IbanmystudentsfromusingcertainwordsintheIELTStest.TheeasiestwayformetoexplainwhyIbanthesewordsisthatmostnativespeakerswouldn'

tusethemiftheyweredoingthetest.Hereareafewofmyleastfavourites:

1Moreover-Nativespeakershardlyeverusethisword,andstudentstendtouseitwrongly.Justuse'

furthermore'

or'

also'

.

2Demerits-It'

soktotalkaboutthe'

merits'

ofsomething,buttheword'

demerits'

seemsunnatural.Justuse'

disadvantages'

drawbacks'

3Hence/Thusly-Thesewordssoundtooformalandold-fashioned.Justuse'

therefore'

asaresult'

Rememberthattopicvocabularyisthekeytoahighscore,not'

words.

Sunday,September29,2013

don'

tworryabouttheexaminer'

sopinion

Somestudentsareworriedaboutexpressingtheirrealopinionsinthespeakingandwritingexams.Theythinkthattheexaminermightdisagreeandthereforegivealowerscore.

Don'

tworryaboutthis.Theexamineronlycaresaboutyourlanguage.Expressyouropinions,talkaboutyourinterests,andgiveexamplesfromyourownexperience.

Sunday,September15,2013

differentteachers,differentmethods

Differentteachers,booksandwebsiteswillgiveyoudifferentadvice,methodsandtechniques,andit'

simportanttorememberthatthereisn'

ta"

bestway"

toapproachthetest.Forexample,it'

spossibletoachieveaband9inwritingusingvariousdifferentessaywritingapproaches.

Itonlybecomesaproblemwhenyoustarttogetconfusedaboutwhichmethodis"

right"

orwhichpersonyoushouldbelieve.Ifyougetconfused,here'

sthesolution:

chooseonemethod,believeinit,andpersistwithit.

Saturday,September14,2013

noticingyourmistakes

LastweekIsuggestedthatmistakescanbesteppingstonesthathelpyoutoimproveyourEnglish.Butyouneedtonoticeyourmistakesbeforeyoucanlearnfromthem.

Herearesometipsaboutnoticingandlearningfrommistakes:

4Themostobviousstrategyistogetsomeone（e.g.ateacher）tocheckyourwrittenworkandcorrectyourmistakes.

5Beforeyourteacherchecksyourwork,didyoucheckitcarefullyyourself?

6Studyyourteacher'

scorrections,andmakesureyouunderstandwhatyoudidwrong.

7Payspecialattentiontoanyrepeatedmistakesthatyoumake.

8Ifyouhaveaone-to-oneteacher,youcouldalsoaskhimorhertolistenformistakesthatyoumakewhenspeaking.

9Tryrecordingyourself.Listentotherecording,andtranscribeit.Analysewhatyousaidcarefullyandasksomeonetocheckit.

Sunday,September08,2013

mistakesare'

steppingstones'

Everytimeyoumakeamistake,youhaveanopportunitytolearnsomething.Useyourmistakesassteppingstonestotakeyouclosertoyourgoal.

Students'

questions

1）Inthereadingtest,aretheanswersfor"

summarycompletion"

questionsinorderinthepassage?

Usually,yes.I'

veseenoneortwosummaryquestionswhereoneoftheanswersbreaksthisrule,butyoucanassumethatanswerswillalmostalwaysbeinorderinthepassage.

2）Isitoktowrite"

T,F,NG"

insteadof"

True,False,Notgiven"

?

Yes,I'

vebeentoldthat"

isfine（althoughIprefertowritethefullwords）.

3）Myteachertoldmetoavoidusing"

Firstly,Secondly,Finally"

becausetoomanyotherstudentswillusethesamewords.Whatdoyouthink?

Idisagree.Examinersarenotcomparingyouwithotherstudents,andtheycaremuchmoreaboutthecontentbetweenthelinkingwordsthanthelinkingwordsthemselves.Readthislesson.

4）Isthereamaximumnumberofwordsinthewritingtest?

No,thereisnomaximum.

5）WhatlinkerscanIusetoimprovemy"

lexicalresource"

score?

Linkersdon'

thelpyourlexicalresource（vocabulary）score!

Theyonlyhelpyoutoorganiseyouressay.Ifyouwanttoimproveyourvocabularyscore,youneedtousegoodwordsandphrasesthatrelatetothequestiontopic（e.g.'

globalwarming'

isvocabularyfortheenvironmenttopic）.

Sunday,August25,2013

what'

sthesecret?

Itrytopersuademystudentsthatthereisno"

secret"

tolanguagelearning.Ifthereisasecret,it'

sthatyouneedtoworkhard,practiseandtrytoenjoytheprocess.

Ioftencomparelearningalanguagetolearningthepiano.Nobodywouldexpecttofinda"

methodtotakethemfromintermediatetoadvancedonthepiano-whydoweexpectlanguagelearningtobedifferent?

Saturday,August24,2013

IELTSSpeakingAdvice:

gettothepoint

YesterdayIwrotethatyoushouldavoidusinglongphrasestobeginyouranswers.Sowhatshouldyouuseinstead?

Nativespeakerssaythingslike:

-Ithink...

-Iguess...

-Well,...

Thesewords/phrasesmightseemlessimpressive,butyouhavetorememberthatexaminersarenotimpressedbythelongphraseseither!

Theimportantthingistogettothepointofyouranswer.

Saturday,August17,2013

IELTSVocabularyAdvice

Thisisaquestionthatstudentsoftenask:

"

MillionsofstudentstaketheIELTSexaminmycountry,soshouldItrytowritedifferentlyanduseoriginalideas?

Here'

smyanswer:

No,don'

ttrytowritedifferently.Thiswillleadtomistakes.Remember,eachexamineronlyreads10to20students'

essays,soyouarenotcompetingwithmillionsofstudents.

ThekeyistowriteclearEnglish,answerthequestion,andtrytoincludesomegoodvocabularyrelatedtothetopic.Forgetcompletelyabouttheotherstudents,andforgetabouttryingtousestrangewordsorphrases.

Saturday,August10,2013

IELTSWritingAdvice:

keepcheckingthequestion

OnWednesdayIshowedyouatask2essaythatIwrotewithsomeofmystudents.Afterreadingtheessayagain,Inoticedthatwehadn'

tfullyansweredallpartsofthequestion.Paragraph3neededtosaymoreabout"

alternativesourcesoffundingforartists"

Onethingthatthisshowsyouisthatnobodyisperfect!

Amoreimportantlessontolearnisthatyoushouldkeepcheckingthequestionasyouwriteyouressay.Makesureyoucovereverythingthatthequestionasksyoutocover.

Saturday,July27,2013

whydomyscoresfluctuate?

Studentsoftenwonderwhytheirscoresfluctuate,especiallyinthewritingandspeakingtests.Onereasoncouldbethattheydon'

thaveamethod;

theyapproachtheexaminadifferentwayeverytime.

Youcanonlymeasureyourprogressifyouusethesamemethodeverytimeyoutakethetest.Ifyoualwaysapproachtheexaminthesameway,youwillknowwhenyouhavedonewellorbadly,andifyourscoresgoupordown,youwillprobablyknowwhy.

Sunday,July21,2013

understandingisonlythefirststep

It'

seasytoreadsomething（e.g.alessononthissite）andthinkthatyouunderstandit.But'

understanding'

isnotthesameas'

using'

CanyoureallyUSEeverythingthatyouhaveread?

Canyouuseitcorrectly,withoutanymistakes?

Lookagainatyesterday'

slessonabout'

leadto'

.I'

msureyouunderstandthesewords,butnotmanystudentsareabletousethemaccurately.Thisisimportantbecauseitcouldmakethedifferencebetweenaband6andaband7.

Trytothinkaboutthesestepswhenyouarestudying:

10Understandingawordisonlythefirststep（e.g.'

means'

cause'

）

11Thenextstepisseeinghowwordsareused（e.g.'

leadto+noun'

12Trytousewhatyouhavelearnt

13Askateachertocorrectyourwork

14Learnfromyourmistakes

Sunday,July14,2013

forpeoplewith6.5

Whenstudentsarestuckonband6.5inwriting,theyoftenthinkthattheyneedanewtechnique,anewbookorsomenewadvice.Thisiswrong!

Ifyouhavea6.5,itmeansthatyouarealreadygettingband7in50%ofthescoringcriteria.Forexample,youmightbegetting7fortaskresponseand7fororganisation,but6forvocabularyand6forgrammar（examinerscan'

tgivehalfmarksinthesecriteria）.Justasmallimprovementinoneareawilltakeyoutoband7overall（e.g.7,7,7,6=band7）.

Ifyouaregettingband6.5,yourmethodisfine.Don'

tchangewhatyou'

redoing;

justtrytofindasmallimprovementinonearea.

Saturday,July06,2013

bemorethanready

Ifyouareabletogetaband7scorewhenyoudoatestathome,canyoubeconfidentthatyou'

llgetaband7intherealtest?

Probablynot.

Thestressofarealexammeansthatyourperformancelevelwillprobablydrop,soyou'

llneedtobemorethanready.Inotherwords,youprobablyneedtobeachievingband7.5whenyoudopracticetestsinthecomfortofyourhome.Onlythencanyoubeconfidentofgettingaband7underexamconditions.

Sunday,June23,2013

identifytheproblem

Manystudentsaskmeforadviceabouthowtoimprovetheirscores.Ortheyaskmetoexplainwhytheydidn'

tgethigherscoresintheirexams.

Unfortunately,Ican'

tgivegoodadviceifIdon'

tknowtheperson.Togivegoodadvice,Ineedtobeabletoidentifytheproblem,andtheonlyway