IELTS guides
Practical, no-nonsense guides to every IELTS question type, to Writing and Speaking, and to how band scores work — written to help you aim at exactly what the test rewards.
Question types
IELTS Listening map and plan labelling: how to answer
How to answer IELTS Listening map/plan labelling questions: follow the speaker, track directions, and match each place to a letter.
IELTS Listening matching questions: how to answer
How to handle IELTS Listening matching questions, where you match items to a shared box of lettered options while they are discussed.
IELTS table completion: how to fill in the gaps
How to answer IELTS table completion questions: read the headings, predict the answer type, and respect the word limit.
IELTS True / False / Not Given: the difference explained
How to tell True, False and Not Given apart in IELTS Reading — the single most common reason candidates lose marks.
IELTS Yes / No / Not Given: how it differs from True/False
How to answer IELTS Yes/No/Not Given questions, which test the writer's opinions and claims rather than facts.
IELTS Matching Headings: how to match paragraphs to headings
A method for IELTS Matching Headings: find each paragraph's main idea and match it to the best heading, ignoring distractors.
IELTS sentence and summary completion: how to score well
How to answer IELTS sentence and summary completion: predict the answer, keep the grammar correct, and respect the word limit.
Writing
IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: how to describe data
How to write IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: select the main features, write an overview, and report the data accurately.
IELTS Writing Task 2: essay structure and how to plan
How to structure an IELTS Writing Task 2 essay, answer the exact question, and hit the band-7 requirements.
Speaking
Scores & bands
IELTS band scores explained: what each band means
What IELTS band scores mean, how the overall band is calculated, and what a 6.5 or 7 represents.
IELTS Listening and Reading: how raw scores become bands
How your number of correct answers in IELTS Listening and Reading converts to a band score out of 9.