雅思考官simon给烤鸭的建议advice for ielts.docx

雅思考官simon给烤鸭的建议advice for ielts.docx

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雅思考官simon给烤鸭的建议adviceforielts

IELTSVocabulary:

'difficult'words

Relatedtoyesterday'slesson,here'saquestionthatastudentsentmelastyear:

HiSimon,whenyoutalkaboutBand7+vocabulary,youalwaystalkabouttwoorthreewords（aphrasebasically）.ButIamtryingtolearnfew"heavy"wordslikecardinal,multitudinous,prodigious,prestidigitation,peregrinationetc.CanyoupleasetelluswhatismoreimportantforIELTS:

"heavywords"orgoodphrases?

Myanswertothisquestionissimple:

goodphrasesaremuchmoreimportant.Thewordslistedbythestudentabovewouldseemforcedandunnatural,whereasgoodphrasesshowyourabilitytousewordstogetherlikeanativespeakerwould.

Pleasedon'tlearnthe"heavy"wordsmentionedbythestudent.Instead,focusonlearninggoodcollocationsforIELTStopics.

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'or'drawbacks'.

3Hence/Thusly-Thesewordssoundtooformalandold-fashioned.Justuse'therefore'or'asaresult'.

Rememberthattopicvocabularyisthekeytoahighscore,not'difficult'words.

Sunday,September29,2013

IELTSAdvice:

don'tworryabouttheexaminer'sopinion

Somestudentsareworriedaboutexpressingtheirrealopinionsinthespeakingandwritingexams.Theythinkthattheexaminermightdisagreeandthereforegivealowerscore.

Don'tworryaboutthis.Theexamineronlycaresaboutyourlanguage.Expressyouropinions,talkaboutyourinterests,andgiveexamplesfromyourownexperience.

Sunday,September15,2013

IELTSAdvice:

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

IELTSAdvice:

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

IELTSAdvice:

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"T,F,NG"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

IELTSAdvice:

what'sthesecret?

Itrytopersuademystudentsthatthereisno"secret"tolanguagelearning.Ifthereisasecret,it'sthatyouneedtoworkhard,practiseandtrytoenjoytheprocess.

Ioftencomparelearningalanguagetolearningthepiano.Nobodywouldexpecttofinda"secret"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

IELTSAdvice:

whydomyscoresfluctuate?

Studentsoftenwonderwhytheirscoresfluctuate,especiallyinthewritingandspeakingtests.Onereasoncouldbethattheydon'thaveamethod;theyapproachtheexaminadifferentwayeverytime.

Youcanonlymeasureyourprogressifyouusethesamemethodeverytimeyoutakethetest.Ifyoualwaysapproachtheexaminthesameway,youwillknowwhenyouhavedonewellorbadly,andifyourscoresgoupordown,youwillprobablyknowwhy.

Sunday,July21,2013

IELTSAdvice:

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.'leadto'means'cause'）

11Thenextstepisseeinghowwordsareused（e.g.'leadto+noun'）

12Trytousewhatyouhavelearnt

13Askateachertocorrectyourwork

14Learnfromyourmistakes

Sunday,July14,2013

IELTSAdvice:

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

IELTSAdvice:

bemorethanready

Ifyouareabletogetaband7scorewhenyoudoatestathome,canyoubeconfidentthatyou'llgetaband7intherealtest?

Probablynot.

Thestressofarealexammeansthatyourperformancelevelwillprobablydrop,soyou'llneedtobemorethanready.Inotherwords,youprobablyneedtobeachievingband7.5whenyoudopracticetestsinthecomfortofyourhome.Onlythencanyoubeconfidentofgettingaband7underexamconditions.

Sunday,June23,2013

IELTSAdvice:

identifytheproblem

Manystudentsaskmeforadviceabouthowtoimprovetheirscores.Ortheyaskmetoexplainwhytheydidn'tgethigherscoresintheirexams.

Unfortunately,Ican'tgivegoodadviceifIdon'tknowtheperson.Togivegoodadvice,Ineedtobeabletoidentifytheproblem,andtheonlyway