Tagged: Thailand

IELTS Listening: Using the www.ielts.org website

3.3.14 IELTS Listening Using the www.ielts.org website to your advantage

It’s a fact that is often overlooked by many IELTS students but as well as the 9 published IELTS books there are also resources available on the http://www.ielts.org website. This one is a practice listening test: http://www.ielts.org/test_takers_information/test_sample/listening_sample.aspx

Give the test a go and let us know how you get on or where you go wrong.

IELTS Writing Task 2 and Speaking: Imply Vs. Infer

27.02.14 IELTS Writing Task 2 and Speaking Imply Vs. Infer

We regularly see students misuse infer and imply. If I imply (suggest indirectly) that Lady Gaga studies at Oxbridge English, and you believe me, you infer (come to the conclusion) that we have the one of the best pop stars in the world studying with us. Put simply, the inference follows the implication.

In Task 1 you are not asked your opinion, therefore there should be no reason to infer what the graph shows.

These are both excellent to use in speaking and writing task 2.

IELTS Speaking Part 2: Model Answer for a Commonly Asked Question

23.02.14. Part 2 Speaking - Model answer

Here is a model answer for this commonly asked IELTS Speaking Part 2 question:

Describe an intelligent person you know:

You should say:

-who this person is

-when and where you first met them

-what you usually talk about

-say why you think this person is intelligent

  • I’m going to talk about my father. I’ve known him all my life, so I can’t really say when or where we first met. In point of fact, he didn’t feature heavily in my early childhood; he worked away a lot so I rarely saw him. Now he’s approaching retirement I see him much more.
  • My father and I share a passion for computer science and football so we regularly talk about both of those things. My father is not a computer scientist exactly, but he advises the Thai government on which new technologies to develop here in Thailand and which should be imported from the US.
  • My father did his PhD in the UK and I think it was there that he developed a love of football, something he passed on to me. We regularly talk about the ups, and of late, downs of Man U.
  • In terms of why I think he’s intelligent, it’s because I see him as such a logical thinker. Whenever he faces a problem he uses his acute logic to tackle it and he always comes up with the solution. Now that I study computer science I sometimes ask him questions, which he can always answer, for my coursework.

IELTS Listening: How to use the Cambridge IELTS Books

17.2.14 IELTS Listening - How to use the Cambridge IELTS Books

Here are some important tips for the IELTS Listening test:

1. Use the Cambridge IELTS books (7, 8 and 9) efficiently. To do this it is important to remember that your score isn’t always the most important thing, the key lesson you can get from these books is learning new vocabulary, phrasing, getting used to what appear as tricky questions and then focusing on your weaknesses to improve your score.

2. Practice with timing, don’t get stressed and move on to the next question without worrying about the question before. By using this method you will be calmer and be more likely to continue with the scores from the practice test in the real test as well.

3. Improve on the small mistakes which lose you easy marks. Often students can be careless, especially with the stress and time pressures of the IELTS exam. Therefore, you need to concentrate on not making singular/plural mistakes and grammar mistakes that Thai students often make.

IELTS Speaking Part 2: Talk about a person you know

16.02.14 - A person you know - Question

One of the most commonly asked IELTS Speaking Part 2 questions is: talk about a person you know.

This could come in various forms: talk about a relative, talk about a friend, talk about a childhood friend, talk about an older person you know, talk about a person you admire.

Our advice is always the same: go into the exam with 2 possible answers: a famous person and a not famous person. Once you have these 2 covered you should be able to adapt your answer to suit any question.

Let’s work on this one:

Describe an intelligent person you know:

You should say:

-who this person is

 -when and where you first met them

 -what you usually talk about

 -say why you think this person is intelligent

We will post our sample answer next week.

IELTS Writing Task 2: Recent Question in Bangkok, Thailand – Sample Answer

15.01.14 - Credit cards - Samples

Last week we posed with recent IELTS Task 2 question: http://oxbridge-english.com/2014/02/08/ielts-writing-task-2-recent-question-in-bangkok-thailand/

Some people believe that governments should introduce laws to regulate the use of credit cards. Other people disagree with this. Outline both arguments and give your opinion.

We’ve been working on it with some of our students. Here are some extracts we wrote together.

Here are some sample introductions and body paragraphs:

Credit cards offer quick access to cheap and sometimes free money. But used unwisely, they lead to high interest rates and an inability to pay the loans back. I believe that governments should only legislate to protect people against extortionate interest rates and hidden costs, most government legislation in this field should be light touch.

For:

Credit cards permit the cardholder to pay for goods and services on the premise that they pay it back at a later date. If you need to purchase something that you can’t afford to pay there and then, a credit card is ideal. You may not have the hard cash in hand – or even on paper – but your flexible friend is there to help. Second, credit cards offer consumer protection. If something goes wrong, for example you pay for goods but the company goes bust before your purchases are delivered to you, you can claim the money back from the credit card provider. No such luck if you pay with a debit card or in cash. I see no reason for governments to intervene in these win-win situations.

Against:

It’s easy to forget that credit cards are a form of borrowing. If you don’t pay off the balance, your levels of debt could start to spiral out of control. Some credit cards charge interest at such rip-off levels that they become almost impossible to pay off, particularly if you only meet the minimum payment. Such costs may not be made explicit when the credit cardholder takes on the card, and certainly not when they make the purchases. I think government should set limits to the amount of interest a credit card company can legally charge to stop people racking up unaffordable levels of debt. Most people are not financially literate enough to see the dangers of high interest rates, even if plainly and openly stated.

IELTS Task 1: Sample Sentences to Describe Numbers for a High Score

14.01.14 - Telephone calls - model sentences

Last week we posted this challenging IELTS Writing Task 1 homework: http://oxbridge-english.com/2014/02/07/ielts-task-1-how-to-describe-numbers-for-a-high-score/

We have listed our 10 quality sentences below, the correct use of these would get you a 8+ IELTS score. Post your same sentences in the comments box below and we will give you feedback.

  1. In 1995 there were far more local fixed line calls, at around 72 billion minutes, than the other type of calls, with national and international fixed line calls and mobile calls reaching around 38 billion and 3 billion minutes respectively.
  2. Local fixed line calls were the highest throughout the period, starting at 72 billion it steadily rose to 90 billion 1990. In all subsequent years the number of calls decreased and finished at 72 billion, where it started in 1995.
  3. As can be seen, the use of mobile phones increased the most dramatically throughout the period. Starting at 2 billion the number of calls rose to about 45 billion.
  4. The growth in the use of mobile phones was steady and quite modest until 2000 when it leapt from around 13 billion calls to over 23 billion calls.
  5. National and international calls grew throughout the period.
  6. It is noticeable that the growth of national and international calls slowed towards the end of the period, growing only slightly from 60 billion in 2001 to 61 billion in 2002.
  7. The gap between the three types of calls markedly narrowed by the year 2002.
  8. Mobile phones saw the biggest increases in actual and proportional terms.
  9. Although national and international calls and mobile calls increased throughout the period, it is noticeable that the use of mobile phones increased much more dramatically of the two.
  10. From 2000 this trend reversed, declining steadily each year and ending at 72 billion in 2002.

IELTS Reading: Thai Literature – BBC News Bangkok: Answers

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Here are the answers to last week’s reading questions: http://oxbridge-english.com/2014/02/04/ielts-reading-thai-literature-bbc-news-bangkok/

  1. Where would the tale have first been told? In villages
  2. From what could the lover gain no relief? Moping
  3. What do Thai children have to learn at school from the book? Excerpts
  4. What does Ms Pasuk claim the book is about? Women’s plight
  5. Who is depicted as gazing on the book’s cover? A handsome young man

Wednesday’s IELTS Vocabulary of the Week!

5.2.14 Wednesday's Vocabulary of the Week

Every Wednesday we will be giving you five key vocabulary words or common mistakes made in IELTS Writing Task 1, Writing Task 2 and Speaking:

Developing country: not second or third world. “As a developing country, Thailand is not in a financial position where it can afford the universal healthcare the west enjoys.”

Gay: a sexual preference, don’t use as an adjective, such as ‘a gay car.’ Don’t say ‘a gay’ or ‘gays’

Juvenile: a nearly synonym of youth or teenager between 15 and 18. It’s generally associated with crime as in ‘juvenile crime’

Northeast Thailand: spelled thus. Use this in preference to Isaan

Sank: useful for Task 1 Writing: “the level of crop yield then sank to 20%.”

IELTS Writing Task 2: Point, Evidence, Analysis System

THE POINT

There are lots of different ways of making your point and supporting it for IELTS Writing Task 2. The simplest one, and the one we use at oxrbidge-english.com, is PEA: Point, Evidence, Analysis.

P = Point

Each paragraph should begin with a clear topic sentence stating the point that paragraph seeks to make. Your point should be a claim, something that needs to be supported or illustrated with evidence. The point should be your idea.

E = Evidence

Once you state the point you’re going to make in the paragraph, provide evidence to support that point. That evidence can take a variety of forms: examples, descriptions, and anecdotes. Remember to include examples from Thailand whenever possible.

A = Analysis

For each piece of evidence you need to explicitly explain what you want your audience to notice about it. Help them see what you see. Fully explain one or two pieces of evidence rather than list many pieces of evidence. After you provide and explain your evidence, you need to connect it to your thesis. Explicitly show how it supports your larger claim for the paper. This is where you share your insights about the evidence you have selected.

We do not recommend the PEA system for Writing Task 1