How to Use This Book
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This book will not teach you English from the beginning. It teaches you how to score in a test that has fixed, knowable rules. Almost every mark you lose in IELTS is lost for a reason that can be named, practised and removed.
How every unit is built
Each unit follows the same six steps, so you always know where you are.
- Aim. One sentence telling you what you will be able to do at the end.
- How the question works. What the examiner is testing, and how the wrong options are built.
- The method. A numbered procedure you follow for every question of that type, without exception.
- Worked example. A real question solved in front of you, with the reason for every decision.
- Practice. You do it yourself, against the clock.
- Explained key. Not just the answer, but why it is right and why students choose the wrong one.
The one study rule in this book
Never mark your answers before you have written the reason for each one. A right answer with no reason is a lucky guess, and lucky guesses do not repeat themselves on test day. Next to every answer, write one short line: where in the text or recording you found it.
A note for the teacher
The listening material in this book is printed as scripts for you to read aloud. Read each script once only, at normal speed, with no repetition. Getting used to hearing something once is half of the listening skill. All scripts are in Appendix A at the back so that students do not see them in advance.
What you need
- A pencil, an eraser and a highlighter.
- A notebook kept only for vocabulary, with three columns: word, meaning, example sentence.
- A watch or a visible clock. Every practice task in this book has a time limit, and the time limit is part of the task.