Hi Everyone,
Here is this week's mini newsletter for the IELTS group.
Welcome!
Welcome to all the new members of this group and congratulations for being here! Everybody in the group is working towards IELTS and we are all here to support each other and I will try to give you the help and advice you need to achieve your IELTS goal.
Our group has now grown to 401!! This is fantastic and I am really excited about working with you all and helping you to get IELTS SUCCESS.
One of the benefits from this group is this weekly newsletter which gives you tips and ideas for things you can do here on Gapfillers and also any events or programmes that are being organised for IELTS and which will be of value to you.
Speaking and Writing Workshops
Our Speaking and writing workshops last week and the week before went really well. Everybody involved gained a lot of confidence in their speaking and those who are sending me their writing tasks, I can see that you are really experimenting with new and exciting language! Well done by pushing your language level higher and using more exciting and interesting vocabulary your writing is much better and more like band 7 and 8! coming along really well also.
We will be running the next series of speaking workshops at the end of February - so look out for emails about these workshops if you want to work on your speaking or writing with me.
(Speaking Workshops are held on Skype and led by me. We focus just on the speaking test and walk through each part of the test in detail).
(Writing workshops are held in wiziq and we work through each task together then you get to send me your writing so I can correct it and hep you improve it)
Free Gapfillers Skype call
Have you booked this with me yet? You should have received emails to remind you. This call is offered to everyone who signs up to Gapfillers. It is an opportunity for you to speak to me for 20 minutes and tell me about your IELTS goal. I'd like to find out about any language challenges you are facing currently and which parts of the test you may be having problems with. If I can help you with this then I will.
If you haven't booked this yet and would like to do it then just email me with your Skype name berni.wall@language-tuition.co.uk
Once you give me your Skype name then I'll give you some times and you should choose a good time for you. After that is fixed, then make sure you are online at the time of your appointment.
This is a golden opportunity to get some practice so just email me! berni.wall@language-tuition.co.uk
Gapfillers word of the day
I hope that you have been paying attention to the Gapfillers word of the day for the past two weeks!
These short phrases are some of the most common idioms in the English language and you should learn one or two (make sure that you try them out first!) and then use them to improve your speaking level.
Most of the content on the Gapfillers site will help you to improve your English level and remember the better your English language level the better your chance of getting a good score in the IELTS exam!
IELTS Speaking practice via Gapfillers
I have seen that some of you are getting together and trying to make opportunities to speak on Skype.
This is great way to improve your fluency and give you extra opportunities to practice your speaking.
To find speaking 'buddies' here for your own practise. Simply send a message from Member Home to the IELTS group network (a network message) asking for people to share Skype names with you and then you can meet on Skype and practice your English!
For full members on the site we have a weekly speaking session on a Wednesday. You might want to consider upgrading your membership (you can do this in the Account section of Member Home) to take advantage of all the content on the site and also the speaking sessions.
I am also working with individual students on their IELTS so if you want more information about this or the workshops or any other aspect of IELTS programmes or support then just Contact me via the site or email me at berni.wall@language-tuition.co.uk
Here are some top tips for the reading test:
- When you start just read the title and first couple of line to get an idea of the topic then concentrate on the questions read them VERY carefully and identify the key words. These key words should include any words like most, many, all, everyone etc .. often these small words help you to decide on the correct answer.
- When you are working on the Yes, No, Not Given exercises, turn the statements into questions - now you are looking for an answer which makes it easier to decide (e.g. Sailing is not popular becomes - Is sailing popular? It should be easier to find Yes/No now and if you don't have information to answer the question, then it will be not given)
- If you have 'headings' it is a good idea to do these first as they help you to get good knowledge of the whole passage and that will help with the other questions later.
- You don't need to read the whole passage BUT your DO NEED TO read the parts where the answer is contained VERY THOROUGHLY - match the sentences in the reading passage with your questions very, very carefully!
- If you need band 7 then you should not be having problems with early questions - if you are struggling with question 6 you are looking to deeply - leave it, move on and come back later. Make sure you have enough time to do the questions thoroughly for the 3rd passage.
Don't forget to check The World of IELTS for any new updates!
That's all for this week. I hope you will find this little digest of information useful.
If you need any help with anything just send a message via Contact Us in the Gapfillers site or directly to me berni.wall@language-tuition.co.uk
Until next week!
Berni
